“Personal brand” is, basically, a modern word for “reputation.” Want it or not, it exists and is formed from the opinions of other people about you. However, you can influence public perception and build the desired image in the eyes of others.

Creating a personal brand is useful both for those who own a business and for professionals who want to stand out from the crowd and gain the trust of the audience. Personal branding is a great way to capture the attention of potential clients, employers, or employees. It allows you to network and discover some new opportunities.

Why Have a Personal Brand?

In business, a personal brand increases the number of opportunities significantly. It allows you to build efficient relationships with partners much faster. Before starting a collaboration, people prefer to study the personality of the other party and their reputation in particular.

The greatest advantage of personal branding is the ability to make people feel that you are close and familiar to them. You can convert it into social power to achieve your business goals.

If you don’t create a personal brand from scratch, you will not be able to control it. Others will develop their own opinion about you and your activity, and you don’t want to spend your efforts on changing their minds.

Where to Start?

Like any marketing process, personal branding requires careful thought and planning. You will probably require a specialist who can develop a professional strategy and ensure its effective implementation. It’s possible to succeed on your own, but it requires much more resources. If you want to give it a shot, follow these steps:

Preparations

To begin with, you should think carefully about what kind of reputation you want to have and how it will affect your business or career. This is the foundation for further work, so give it due diligence. To keep things simple, here’s a list of questions to answer:

• How should people perceive me?
• What qualities will dominate?
• What parts of my personal life will I expose to the audience?
• What area of expertise do I want to be known for?
• How will I demonstrate my experience?
• What channels will I use?

Content

The main building block of a personal brand is content. First, you need to determine how you will share the information with the public. Ideally, you should combine different types of content – publications, videos, webinars.

Secondly, you need to decide how you will interact with your audience.  If your personal brand is closely related to a business or professional activity, you should definitely consider LinkedIn. Otherwise, you can safely choose between Facebook and Instagram.

Thirdly, decide on the direction of your content. Build on the target audience and its interests. Are they other opinion leaders? Recruiters? Ordinary consumers? Also, immediately decide what you are not ready to share with your readers. Many avoid disclosing their personal lives and protect their family from unwanted attention. Some are very open about their daily stuff and convert it into popularity – the choice is yours.

Presence

The audience absolutely must see that you are a real person with real interests and hobbies. Show what you do in your free time. It will work wonders for your personal brand.

Be sure to match your online persona in real life. If you behave differently online and offline, it will alienate people. Remember that you’re always in the public eye’s focus.

Make sure you don’t go off the radar for too long and stay relevant – publish content on a regular basis and avoid messages that are of no value to your subscribers. Share unique knowledge that will help others change their lives for the better.

Bottom Line

Remember, personal branding is not about selling yourself. This is the best way to make sure others perceive you as the person you want to be and a great opportunity to take control of your reputation.

If you struggle to find ideas for your brand, analyze the success stories of famous personalities. It would be appropriate to mention Oprah Winfrey, who made herself into a household name. Not only has she won the trust of the American audience over the years of her TV career, but she also excels as a businesswoman. Everything she does is invariably accompanied by the trail of popularity.

Michelle Obama is another great example of successful branding. She attracted the public when she was the first lady of America but then re-established herself as an influencer. She communicated with leaders of different industries and conquered society with clear, concise, and relevant public speeches.

We could mention hundreds of other opinion leaders with amazing backstories, but is it not high time we heard yours?