Ok, let’s dig in to how your personal brand can help you in your business. I’m not going to lie. This was a speech I prepared for one of my Toastmaster meetings last week, but I thought it was good enough to recycle into a blog post. This may be an obvious review for some of you, but others may be new to this whole personal branding idea, so here we go.
What is personal branding exactly? We’ve all heard the term time and time again, but how well can we actually define it and more importantly, how can we use it to our advantage?
Basically, personal branding is how you choose to promote yourself. It’s how you wish the world to perceive you by expressing your unique combination of skills, experience and personality.
You use your personal brand to differentiate yourself from others and if you do it well, you can tie your brand in with your business in a special way that cannot be replicated by more traditional ways of commercial marketing.
Let me give you an example:
In the old days before social media, your brand was more or less your business card and your logo unless you were a large corporation or had some sort of higher social standing or celebrity.
Today, our digital footprint is everywhere. People can find you, research you, google you and your business and find out all kinds of things about you on social media, websites and more.
What you need to recognize is that all things lead back to your personal brand and you have the control over what people see and hear about you.
There are many benefits to growing your own personal brand. You want to be seen as influential so that you are able to share your knowledge and skill about your area of expertise to your ideal clients.
Take Millennials for example, they tend to , have a distrust of advertising.
“84% of millennials trust neither the advertisements nor the brands that create them. Yet, they are prepared to believe people they feel they “know”– even the business people behind the brands they dislike. It’s part of the reason influencers have been so successful.” – www.influencermarketinghub.com
There has been a movement towards personalizing the main owner or people in a business. Obviously this comes easier to small businesses and sole proprietors which many of you reading this likely are, rather than large corporations consisting of many people.
When you can figure out who you are – which isn’t as easy as you may think because many people have trouble describing themselves and their personality, you will be able to attract people who resonate with you. When you can attract people that understand your message, enjoy your personality and you can help them solve a problem, this is how you harness the benefit of successfully deploying your personal brand. It will take a lot of time, a little experimentation and consistency to get this just right.
When I started Star Brand Photography last year, I decided the best way to get my brand out there was to push my personal brand as a fun, easy going, authority on showing you how to use engaging imagery to help attract your ideal clients.
What I discovered was a lot about myself. I learned that using images of myself working with clients, chillin’ at home, and things I liked in my life, worked far better to engage people than showing just photos of my clients or my work. While it is necessary to show photos of my work because that is my product, people are more intrigued about who I am. And, if you are a bit modest, like me, it can feel a little overwhelming and crazy that people want to know these things about you. But they do!
A crucial part of your personal branding is to make sure you come across as being human, with the same issues and problems as your target market. The only difference is that you can show that you have found a solution to some of these problems, which you are willing to share with others.
This endears your ideal client to you. The whole purpose of personal branding is to step back and de-emphasize selling. Oddly enough, once they get to know and trust you, if you do have something to sell or promote, these loyal fans of yours are more likely to purchase from you rather than a competitor they do not know.
Remember, your personal brand needs to be genuine. People will soon sniff out if you are not the person you make yourself out to be.
Your personal brand needs to follow you everywhere. If you are going to a networking event, try to stay on brand with your colours, style and personality.
Could you imagine meeting Donald Trump for example? As much as I personally despise the man, give him props for crafting a strong brand. You wouldn’t catch him out in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. (Well maybe if he’s golfing) It’s that ridiculous blue suit, red tie, bad fake tan plus the “I’m better than everyone else attitude”, it doesn’t waiver. You either love him or hate him and that’s exactly what he wants. To divide and conquer.
My final thought.
To make your personal brand work for you and your business, be genuine, stay consistent, deliver your message with authority and do not waiver from your values. You will find that eventually you will have established a personal brand for yourself and you will attract your ideal clients to your business.
