Personal branding is the process of creating a public persona for a target audience. It entails accurate and careful communication about your purpose, beliefs, goals and values.
Think about Nike as the largest brand’s public image. The company has formed a brand around supporting those living active lifestyles, building high-performance products and celebrating athletes.
You will probably come across those branding factors and anything else about that Nike on TVs, social media and magazine ads.
This approach by Nike is the one you should undertake when building your personal brand.
It doesn’t necessarily mean creating TV commercials or publishing ads, but you can think of how you can represent your personal brand whenever you communicate with your online audience. So, why is personal branding so important though?
How can personal branding benefit your business?
Personal branding exists whether you create it or not. For instance, publishing a blog post reveals some traits about your personality to the audience.
As a result, your personal brand forms based on the content posted in webinars, blog posts, search and social advertising. Therefore, you should be the driver of your personal brand.
This means taking control of the narrative and showing readers the content that you would like them to view.
In personal branding, you should ALWAYS show your true self. Remember you are not acting in a movie. This is a real stuff. The goal here is for people to know you besides your company. As a result, your business will benefit in:
1. Becoming highly visible online
Personal branding will increase your online visibility with a simple search. When your clients find you, they can in return have a conversation with you. Many entrepreneurs are scared of online visibility. They worry more about being exposed and forget the information they would share with clients about their businesses.
2. Flourishes your online relationships
Maintaining online relations with customers and peers is difficult. However, having a strong personal brand will encourage your audiences to revisit your marketing channels and website.
Since you will be more visible online and approachable, the same audience will find it easy to reach you. In the end, you will not necessarily have to reach out to them for new leads, partnerships or investments.
3. Personal branding grows your network
As your visibility increases, your network also does the same. In the end, your network of existing clients, potential ones and industry customers will grow. You should not under-estimate this network because it could become a large asset for your business to expand. The same people will share your businesses’ vision with more people than you ever imagined.
4. Increases your personal identity
Besides increasing online visibility and network, personal branding can also increase your personal identity. Many successful entrepreneurs have always attended events in person. Why not do the same? Plus, people would not swallow you if you met!
When clients recognize you in person, the events might turn into great conversion machines. Also, you can attend regional or local conventions, shows and conferences. Either way, getting recognized in-person will help build your business brand further and increase your profits.
5. Strengthens your business
Some business owners have a misconception of treating their personal lives and business as entities. Even if the two are different, a combination of both can naturally intersect.
6. Builds your confidence
Naturally, personal branding is scary. At first, you will feel vulnerable(like me, when I started to vlog!) especially knowing that you will be exposing your personal details online.
However, this anxiety is beneficial to your business. It means you are going out of the box and trying out things.
As time goes by, you will become comfortable and in the end, you will increase your confidence. Sharing personal stuff will be a breeze. Soon you will find it easy to get in front of cameras to talk about your company. You can stretch that confidence to other areas of the business.
7. Grows your credibility
Credibility is essential in business, and personal branding will sort you out on that note. People prefer to invest in highly credible businesses. Sharing, information-rich, valuable content with your clients is a way of building credibility.
Use personal branding as a vehicle to educate any audience who might be interested in your business and the information you have to share with them.
The bottom line
In as much as you want to reap all these benefits, you need to also recognize that personal branding doesn’t just happen in one night. The process takes time, but eventually, it is worth.
You should be in control of your personal narrative. Also, be aware of your personal information that you are willing to share.
