Do you know, your curriculum vitae(CV), LinkedIn profile, Instagram feed, Twitter handle or a Blog page, are all the potential channels to obtain a brand for your own self.
Days have gone when only celebrities had to have a team to portray themselves as a Brand to create a public image. Today, from a billionaire CEO to a budding teenage influencer, all are focusing on Self Branding.
But what is Self-Branding? Why is it important & what are the benefits?
It’s nothing but a uniform & strong reputation you publish about yourself to influence a specific audience to sell your products or services.
Simply, you yourself or your venture can be a product, and your opinions & sets of skills can be your services, which your audience wants to acquire. Here your audience can be industry leaders, your customers, or just the number of followers you want to scale up on your social media.
It is important because it’s human nature to connect with an individual more than any product or a company. When you’re building a business around your area of expertise the concept of building a personal branding probably comes naturally to you.
If you are an entrepreneur or a freelancer while building your company’s brand, it’s good to simultaneously work on your personal branding as well.
If we talk about benefits of Personal Branding, there are many and some of them are:
1. It builds trust with your audience, and positions you as an authority & a thought leader in your industry.
2. You are pitched & found by media (online publications, magazines, television, radio, podcasts, etc.) easily.
3. It creates a base to network with the industry leader as they see a value in you.
4. Attracts more clients & customers to you and to your company as well.
5. A strong personal brand helps justify charging premium prices for your products and services you wish to launch in future.
6. Your personal brand stays with you even if you evolve with time, moving from one venture to the next.
How to create a profitable Personal Branding?
First, build an authentic persona of yourself.
To fix a true persona, highlight your existing assets as it’s important to showcase your
a) Skills & Achievements b) Passions & interests c) Core values & beliefs.
Once you pen down all of your existing assets, now mention the brand’s vision, mission, tone & characteristics.Â
Secondly, select your target audience (client, customers, followers) because you cannot be everything to everyone. Your persona should resonate with a specific audience who believe in your beliefs and show interest in your content. While developing your client’s profile keep in mind their demographics (age, gender, education, Income etc), desires (dreams, goals, need, aspiration, etc.) and Challenges or gaps (they are facing in their lives, and that’s where your mission & vision takes place).Â
As a final step, build & optimise your online Platforms
Consider all of the essentials & creative side of your brand while building a brand page ie. logo, your professional photograph, testimonials (because it’s good to let your industry expert talk about your story & achievements), and value proposition to help your audience understand who you are before knowing what you offer.
As per marketing funnel now you are on the edge where your audience is aware and interested in you but to create a desire it’s time to give them a considerable offer ie. a freemium subscription or an interesting content to consume .Â
Being consistent, you will gradually convert your personal audience into consumers as by now your personal brand audience trust you enough to agree with what you say or what you SELL!
Hope this article creates a little buzz inside you to think from the brand perspective because whatever you convey is what others perceive about you.Â
