Kick off Your Personal Branding Strategy in 3 Steps

If you're online, you're already a brand. Whether it’s publishing a post, a video, a podcast or even sending an invoice to your client, you’re out there representing yourself. 

Never gave it much thought? You may be throwing opportunity out the window. 

Meaning you can't skip on creating and nurturing your personal brand. It's simply too valuable to ignore! As a business or freelancer, you probably have a target audience in mind. So why not let your personality shine and attract those people into your world?

What is Personal Branding?

Your personal branding incorporates everything that you present online. Your posts, comments, and media are all there, reflecting your personality. They also shape the first impression that people have of you. Thus, personal branding is a unique mixture of your likes, preferences, skills, and experience.

In personal branding, you can leave everything to chance and allow your brand to develop independently without conscious effort. But in this case, you're at a higher risk of chaos and things running out of control. That's why we recommend tying your personal brand with your business, whether big or small.

First, let's look at what makes up a business brand. Essentially, it's their registered name, tagline, mission statement, features, products or services. 

In the same vein, your personal brand consists of your:

• Name and the image you project,
• Personal branding statement,
• Unique selling proposition,
• Product or service offer,
• Unique personality,
• Followers.

Once you’ve got these points figured out, you’re halfway there!

Benefits of Having a Well-Rounded Personal Brand

Recognizability equals familiarity. People tend to choose people they already know, at least a little bit. So, show your true colors in your online presence. 

But a quick warning: an inspirational quote one week, a kitty video next week, and a detailed analysis of a movie in the third week won't do. 

That's where consistency comes into play. It comes in all shapes and sizes: graphics, format, and colors in your published content.

Even better: if you're more or less similar in your social media and real life, you'll appear more trustworthy to your audience. And trust = credibility, which equals more business. While it may not seem like it, people are watching. And you're too unique to go unnoticed!

3 Actionable Ways to Boost Your Personal Brand

There are numerous techniques, but we've selected three easy tips to get you started. Let's start from the top:

Lay down the fundamentals. 

The most important question is: how would you like people to see you? Come up with adjectives that describe your personality and brand. There are numerous options you can choose from: check the image below. Pick 3-4 of them and keep these words nearby as a guide for your next piece of content. And make sure that the content you produce is aligned with these words.

You can also review the 12 classic archetypes and their descriptions to see what fits your personality. 

Pick two social media platforms. 

One will act as a springboard for engagement and short-form content. The second one will be used for longer-form content to provide valuable information to your potential customers and to help retain them. Possible pairings are Twitter + YouTube, Instagram + LinkedIn; you get the idea. 

Though keep in mind that when choosing your primary platform, Twitter is booming with promo content, and Instagram suggestions have been slightly off lately. 

Despite being surrounded by controversies, Facebook remains the largest social platform among consumers and marketers, reaching over 2.91 billion active users each month. 

Yet Facebook's audience is getting older (25+ year-olds), and if you're targeting a younger crowd (say, 10-19 year-olds, which is the primary Tik Tok group), rethinking your primary platform might be a good idea.

Communicate your services clearly and briefly. 

Explain how you solve your clients' challenges to ensure that your personal brand has a clear purpose. It would help if you also had some degree of repetition. Again, this comes with the help of consistency: color palettes, graphic elements, and tone of voice. You need all of this to stick in people's minds. Also, it's crucial to ensure that your social presence is beautiful and that your service level matches it. Maintain the same quality throughout! Yes, through consistency 😇

1. Asmens duomenys renkami tik aiškiai apibrėžtais ir teisėtais tikslais.
2. Asmens duomenys tvarkomi tik teisėtai ir sąžiningai.
3. Asmens duomenys nuolat atnaujinami.
4. Asmens duomenys saugomi saugiai ir ne ilgiau nei to reikalauja nustatyti duomenų tvarkymo tikslai ar teisės aktai.
5. Asmens duomenis tvarko tik tie Bendrovės darbuotojai, kuriems suteikta tokia teisė pagal jų darbines funkcijas.

Personal Branding Is In The Details

Now that you've nailed down the basics, you're ready for business. But be wary of vanity metrics. They may seem attractive, but our piece of advice is: focus on a smaller circle of genuinely devoted followers. It always pays off more than trying to cater to everyone in the long run. 

You've got the know-how; it's time to take some action! Go through your social media feed and check for visuals and tone of voice consistency or relevance for your chosen archetype. 

Go through all the materials you share with your clients and view them as interactions with your brand touchpoints to the details of, let's say, invoices. Does it have a logo there, your brand colors, or a slogan? With Saskaita123, you can personalize each financial document you use and make invoicing and accounting as simple as 123.