You are not wrong in thinking that the phrase “personal brands” has recently been taking over the online space. You visit LinkedIn and you see creators giving you tips on how to develop a personal brand; you visit Instagram and read about how to find out what makes you unique to begin building said personal brand. But the truth is that we all already have personal brands.
Whether you are actively creating content in your industry and publishing it on your social media profiles, sharing casual glimpses of your day-to-day life, or just using the space to keep up-to-date with colleagues and close ones, your personal brand is already in motion.
Simply put, your personal brand boils down to others’ perception of you as a result of your behaviour and actions (or lack thereof) both online and in-person. In this article, you will learn how to take control of and develop your personal brand, steadily turning it into something that can work in your favour.
How to Develop a Personal Brand: The Groundwork
Before we lay out the system that will show you how to develop a personal brand, we need to answer a very important question and that is why should you? With privacy concerns piling on from every social media network, and automation slowly taking prevalence in many online spaces, you may be thinking that dedicating efforts to building your personal brand could be futile and easily swept up in the oversaturation of content and information.
However, what many might not realise is that your personal brand can be the very thing to help you stand out against all the noise and ensure you are the one in charge of telling your own narrative, maintaining authenticity and genuineness.
What is more, a personal brand can help you:
- Earn recognition and expertise within your niche: while not immediate, the benefits of consistently developing your personal brand will gradually follow, particularly for your reputation and the way you are perceived within the niche you have chosen; the more you tailor your personal brand voice and content and expand on your knowledge nad creativity, the more other professionals will begin to see you as a thought leader within this field.
- Build trust: we mentioned how your personal brand is your one-way ticket to guarantee the most authentic and true expression of yourself, and that is very important to remember; your personality, your experience and your skills are uniquely yours, and when you find the most genuine way to express them, the authenticity of your content will shine through, earning others’ trust and recognition.
- Unlock new opportunities and connections: while this is another more long-term benefit, it is certainly an invaluable one; following your consistency, recognition and trust will come, and your personal brand will speak for itself; this will lead to new career opportunities, positive reputation, creators and professionals from different fields, as well as other brands, wishing to connect and collaborate with you, all supporting your growth and future development.
Now that we have briefly covered why, let’s take a look at how to develop a personal brand.
How to Develop a Personal Brand: The Human-first system
As a human-first marketing agency, we aim to integrate the human-first framework into all of our services and place it at the centre of our ethos. As such, Phil, our CEO, has developed a human-first approach to on how to develop a personal brand, as part of his book “Human-First Marketing: The Art of Being Seen, Trusted and Remembered“.
Consisting of 4 steps, it is a self-sustained circular system, where each step creates the foundation for the next, and after the final step, the whole process resets to ensure your growth and authenticity remain preserved.
Discover
When thinking about how to develop a personal brand, having a conversation with yourself and studying what makes you you, both professionally and personally, is your first step. From a professional standpoint, what are your strongest traits, your most valuable skills, the achievements you take the most pride in? From a personal perspective, what are your core values, your personal interests, hobbies, the goals and objectives you are working towards that would fill you with gratitude and fulfilment? These are inherently the things that make us all unique and can be the basis of a very strong personal brand strategy.
It doesn’t need to be anything strict or formal. This is the benefit of personal brands – you are in charge and they can be whatever you want them to be, depending on your aims. Whether you are looking to gain traction and recognition online or attract the attention of a potential future employer, a personal brand can help you get there. It can all happen at the pace best fit for you, without any deadlines to chase.
Define
Once you have discovered your characteristics, it is time to put your storytelling hat on and begin defining the details of the story you want to tell. This involves everything from your market positioning and personal brand identity to your personal brand voice.
It is crucial to remember that there is no one else who has lived the same experiences as you, who is building the same career, and who shares identical values to you, so use those differences to your advantage and turn them into your very own unique selling points (USPs). Through this process, you will outline what differentiates your special skills from the skills of someone else in your industry, your worldview from that of your peers, and what really defines you as a professional and an individual, ultimately building your authentic position in the market.
As part of this step, it is also key to define the platforms and channels that feel the most genuine and fitting for you to share your personal brand. Make a list of the content styles that you gravitate towards and select your social media platforms accordingly.
Engage
Once you have defined your story, it is time to strategise about how you will put it out there into the world, devising a strong personal content strategy. After all, if you don’t find ways of expressing it, your personal brand will remain just an unactioned plan. A content strategy will help you become discoverable, start gaining recognition, and gradually build a platform within your industry or professional sphere.
Your content should feel true and authentic to you, and should reflect your expertise, thoughts, values and personal characteristics in a clear and easily-accessible way. Build a content strategy that you are comfortable with and that fits your day-to-day patterns.
Once that is in motion, ensure that you allocate time and effort to building relationships with others on the platforms. Your personal brand should not feel like a one-sided conversation to your followers. It is crucial to engage in regular community management, reach out to other professionals in your field, and build meaningful connections. Once you begin growing a solid community around you, it is a good idea to expand on your value offering as a way to stimulate deeper and more active engagement.
Leverage
As part of your personal brand journey, with recognition and trust come new opportunities for collaborative work and growth. These opportunities are important to consider, and the ones that feel the most authentic to you and align with your personal brand best are the ones to go for.
Of course, your personal brand journey will be fluid and dynamic. The more your platform grows, the more opportunities will arise, and the more your community will expand. Authenticity should always remain top of mind for you, and the human-first system allows you the freedom to go back to step one and re-evaluate and re-authenticate to stay as true to yourself as possible.
TIP: If you want to dive deeper into how to develop your personal brand the human-first way, make sure to check out “Human-First Marketing: The Art of Being Seen, Trusted and Remembered”.
