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What makes you the salesperson to remember? What makes you the architect everyone calls when they’re planning a new house? Why should a business get you to consult on their social media strategy?
Don’t get me wrong – self-branding isn’t all about just being an external contractor or consultant. It’s about establishing yourself as the go to person for marketing in your company or when looking for a job convincing your potential employer that you can manage a team better than all the other applicants.
Creating a visualization of this information is a great exercise to help you decide what it is that sets you apart. Grab a pen and paper and in the center write the topic that you want to be known for. From this core topic, branch out into the different sub-topics that make up this core one. Rank yourself on a scale of poor, average, good and excellent for each.
This is a great way to become self aware of what may be holding you back from building a personal brand. Here’s an example of one you could create if the topic you’re focusing on was marketing.
Naturally you can’t be excellent at everything, that’s just not realistic. The goal is to turn anything that’s poor or average to good and good to excellent. Write out a plan to help you develop each section and stick to it. This can be applied to any field or area of expertise, so give it a try.
Once you know what sets you apart and you’ve started executing on it, then it’s time to start letting people know about it.
Whether you’re a consultant, employee or on the job hunt, you’re going to be Googled by your potential client, boss or recruiter. Let’s face it, in this day and age they’re also likely to check your social media channels. You need to make sure that they find your professional portfolio rather than the Facebook page you created with all the cute pug pictures.
One of the best things that I did for building a personal brand was set up a blog relevant to the industry I’m in. This gives you credibility, articles to share and makes you discoverable online. When someone Googles your name this is what you want them to find.
Aside from creating a blog or website, you need to make sure that you’re filling your social media channels with relevant, impactful content. When someone looks you up on Twitter, they should see insightful questions, on Linkedin find impressive articles and displays of your work and not find anything damaging on Facebook. You can use a Facebook analytics tool to see what’s working for you.
If you’re a designer for instance, you want to make sure that when someone Googles your name or looks you up on Linkedin what they find is your updated portfolio and previous work rather than photos from when you were 16. And let’s face it, most of us are due a clean up of our Facebook profiles. At the very least, you should review your privacy settings to prevent those pictures from your cousin’s BBQ when you had a few too many from appearing. (You know the ones!)
As an exercise, Google yourself from an incognito window so you can see how your digital presence appears to someone who may be looking you up.
Most likely the first thing you’ll find is your LinkedIn page but make sure that there’s nothing else damaging that appears. Check Google images, and it goes without saying – check your Facebook. If the information that you find doesn’t represent your personal brand image well, I would highly recommend starting a blog. If you have a blog already, treat your name like a keyword and optimize your content for your name so it can be found when people research you online.
You may dread the thought of it, but networking is as important today as it ever was and doesn’t have to be scary. Ask any consultant or agency and they’ll tell you the referrals that they get from past clients are the most qualified leads they come their way. The same is true when you’re talking about establishing yourself as a thought leader or looking for a job.
It’s all about the little things. Most people now know that they should have a website, a logo, all the trimmings. But there are some extra personal branding tips that can make your brand stand out and give your online presence that professional polish. For example, you can use branded links to create and share links featuring your own domain name. These links can lead to your LinkedIn page, your portfolio, website, blog or other.
You can make your personal brand stand out by creating a video CV. You don’t need fancy equipment, an iphone and imovie is enough to do some recording and editing. You can also use a really cool tool called Loom to create screen recordings with your head in the bottom corner as you speak over what the viewer is seeing. This tool is perfect for showcasing your portfolio or anything you’ve written while you describe what the viewer is seeing in shot.
Whether it’s running a blog or posting to social media, when you’re building an online brand make sure to keep on top of things. Large gaps between posts can make you look inconsistent.
Create an authentic bio that you use across your social media pages and make sure information like your email address and current position are updated.
Remember that you improve your craft as time goes on so don’t forget to review the content that you’ve written in the past. As new trends emerge, you don’t want it to appear like you’re not up to date. While you can re-use articles on social media again and again, don’t let irrelevant content from a few years ago slip onto your feed.
Branding isn’t just for businesses, it’s for you too. Remember – it’s not enough to make claims when creating your personal brand – you have to be able to back them up too. Choose how you’re positioning yourself, make use of a free social media posting tool, nail it and then let people know. That’s the magic formula
Adapted article by Ian Matthews - www.socialpilot.co
