Every single one of us has gone through the process of creating a personal brand whether it has been a conscious effort or not. Your personal brand is what defines you, it is how people recognize you so to speak. Think about this when people talk about you in your absence, what do they say? Do they bring up your clothing style, those old worn out vintage shirts you don’t leave the house without? That is part of your personal brand, your brand follows you wherever you go and is often times left behind long after you are gone. The question is how do you get your personal brand to arrive ahead of time? How do you create a buzz that encourages people to talk about you before ever coming in contact, and why is it beneficial to your success as an “entrepreneur”.
Why?
Creating a buzz around your personal brand is beneficial to you in much the same way that creating buzz around any product is beneficial, ultimately it increases sales. Drawing from my own experience… I have a nice client base with several repeat customers, I am not hurting for work nor do I dump a whole lot of money into marketing each month. I am happy with my clients in most cases and wouldn’t want to replace them. However, I work a lot more than I would like to be working on a daily or weekly basis moving on into the future. Don’t get me wrong I would never hope to get rid of my current clients, but I think to myself. Wouldn’t it be nice to work a tad less as well as increase my income by landing some of the “big fish” in the pond? Enter personal branding. For the most part there are not a whole lot of “big fish” out there that make a habit out of working with the small fish (even though they are often times more talented, qualified and offer a better product.) No, the big fish are usually attracted to the other big fish, the ones who have created a name for themselves, positioned themselves as the expert in the pond. All made possible by strong personal branding.
That is not to say that thoose whom have created a strong personal brand do not have the skill to back it up. I would say that often times the two go hand in hand and are ultimately essential to the continued success of the personal brand. I mean you could spend millions marketing a product and sure your initial sales might more than make up for the money spent but if the product sucks it will eventually fail. So lets not forget that it is important to enforce your personal brand, you don’t necessarily need to be the best you just need to act like it and at least have the skill to back up the product.
Ok, How?
First you will need to make a plan, chances are if you are exploring the creation of a personal brand you already have some thoughts on the corresponding skill or product that your brand will market. Now focus. Figure out what is going to set you apart from the crowd and make you more desirable then the next guy/gal and then focus on every last detail. Now get to work.
You can probably guess that my focus will be on the online form of personal branding but, before I get into a few of the million ways available to you via the web, I want to first share an example of personal branding in the “offline” world.
Several months ago I joined a local networking group. In that group there were members of all different business backgrounds, shapes, sizes and personality. Over time I learned about each one and started to recognize specific traits for each, but one in particular stood out far above the rest. He was an older gentleman that was involved in the travel industry and from what I could tell very knowledgable and certainly experienced and apparently also very good at personal branding. Each day he showed up to the meeting ready to speak wearing his captains hat and going by the name Capt Dave. He made himself to stand out from the crowd and thus will forever stick in my mind as Capt Dave the Travel Consultant. He had created a very recognizable personal brand and had me wanting to book a ticket simply because he was Capt Dave!
Now on to creating your personal brand online…
What avenue to choose? To me it make sense to approach this in much the same way that you would approach the marketing of any other product, choose the avenue that best suits your target market. Find out where your “customers” are hiding and make your presence known! Clearly one of the best approaches would be to start with a weblog or even a simple website and begin positioning yourself as an expert straight away. You may very well be in the learning process yourself but if in doing so you decide to share what you are learning (i.e. your journey or path to success) people will start to look up to you for your knowledge. Find your skill develop it and pursue it with a passion, you will create an expert afterall.
Attack social media full force. Again, where is your target market and what social media outlets are they using? For starters you can find a small group from just about every niche out there using twitter, dive in and get involved. Simply joining the discussion puts you one step ahead of those you choose to sit by idley.
Make it personal. Add that personal touch to everything you do, let people know who you are, where you came from, what you have achieved and where you are headed.
Openly display your credentials and give yourself credit where credit is due. Don’t get boastful but don’t be afraid to toot your own horn once and awhile. People want to know why you should have a say in it all.
Don’t be afraid to entice them a bit, give them more than your run of the mill incentive, give them something dirt cheap or better yet give them something for free! (Why do you think so many of these online gurus start you out with a free eBook)
Most importantly carry your “captains hat” with you wherever you go, brand everything from your business card to your email signiture. Showcase your uniqueness wherever you go.
Let me get started, I have work to do if I want to catch up with a lot of you out there!
This article was inspired by the most excellent eBook “Rockstar Personal Branding” which can be obtained via Rockable Press. I suggest you get your copy now!
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Starting is the first hurdle I encounter with most people when I have engaged in conversation about personal brand. They say they just don’t know how or understand how the tools work or what the implications will be. To my mind, it is important to recognize that you don’t have to know how it ALL works to get started. Thsis is about prototyping right now. Further, this space is so new that the rules are not really there to be broken, yet.
I was excited to see you speak about sharing. I think it is a key component to all of this. As I moved toward personal brand online I realized the influence and impact on my analogue life and vice versa. I meet and share with people all over the place now. I have made it a habit and an attitude. Great rewards.
I dig the notion of being user oriented and affirm your direction for doing this by finding where the people you want to talk to are hanging out and going there to be with them. It just makes good sense.
For me the strong notion in the cultural mindset that says “its about who you know” can be leveraged here. Yet, I think the real value is when you dig under the surface of the phrase. The insight as it seems to me is that it’s really about who knows you. If that is the case, we should all make it easier to be known. I dig the concepts you presented regarding cards and signatures. I would add that we can manage the links in the many user profiles available that link to our individual pages too.
So, google is going to find us. When people ask google about us we have the opportunity to let google know what we’d like it to say. In that way it is important that we make sure it’s easy for google to know you.
Cheers.
Joseph - Thank you, that is an excellent addition to this post packed full of insightful information. I always love to read through the comments to pick out little gems like this.
I have to focus on your fourth paragraph here, “it’s really about who knows you”. I love that, you are absolutely correct it comes down to who knows you and I think that is the summary of what it means to create a strong personal brand.
(So I’ll admit, I had to see where you are coming from and I’ll bite. I want to learn more about .extendr.com. Would you be interested in shooting me a description via email, I would love to post something here. Hit me up jeremy[at]papertreedesign[dot]com.)
Jeremy - Awesome post. I think that personal branding is SO important. Even for businesses that aren’t just run by one individual its important for that companies individuals to use personal branding!
Personal branding is essentially two things: CREDIBILITY and the ability to COMMUNICATE that credibility. As mentioned it is totally legit to “claim” to be an expert in the process of becoming one. If you are passionate about your area and diligent to become a true expert your are more valuable than the claimed expert who is not continually learning. Plus, if you’re in a position where you are continuing to learn you relate better with “normal people”, thus making yourself even more of a value and a stronger personal brand!
Good work my friend!
@Ryan Graves - Nice, excellent addition. Not to make light of your comment in it’s entirety but your first point is so important. Personal banding should be taught at the company level. It is especially important for a company exploring the uses of social media in their marketing program, that personal touch is so important to the success of your efforts in this arena. Wow I think you may have just given me reason to write a follow up article “Personal Branding for your Employees”. Thanks again for your sharing your thoughts!
Awesome continuation to Ryan’s comment above follow the trackback above to read the rest of his thoughts. “Building the Most Important Brand : You”
Jeremy, thanks for the kind words. I was simply looking to enhance the thoughts… make the idea travel. Enjoy.