CLARIFYING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IN BUSINESS

Ask yourself...If someone were to google your name, what would you want them to see? 

This gives us insight into what personal branding means. Personal branding is more than brand colors, It tells us what you want to be known for and what you want people to see if they were to google your name.

So, let’s talk about how you establish your personal brand.

Tell stories.

If your brand is about being a parent, make sure you integrate stories of life as a parent. This is a large part of my personal branding. I love being a mom and have also had struggles when it came to my corporate career and motherhood. I openly share about my experiences, and love to tell stories about my little girl too! (She’s pretty damn funny!) Take a peek here at a post I recently shared about my daughter mocking my work style (haha).

If your brand is about a certain cause you love to personally support, make sure that your followers KNOW what that cause means to you and WHY it means so much to you. 

If your brand is about your love for travels, make sure to show flashback pictures and tell stories about places you’ve been to! Take your followers on journeys with you as you travel to new places, let them in on new restaurants you try, and awesome hotels you stay at!

Whatever your personal brand is, it is important to make it known to your followers -- talk about it, post about it, tell stories about it. You may be a mom + coffee lover + diehard fan of a specific sports team...the point is that you can have more than one subject matter that pertains to your personal branding.

“People don’t do business with companies. They do business with people they like. We have relationships based on trust and mutual connections. There’s just something about a connection with a human being that creates a level of endearment and customer loyalty beyond any relationship a company could ever reach. The strong bonds people have with one another can’t be overestimated.” -Social Media Examiner

Remember that these personal branding stories can likely be told in ways that also relate back to business. You use your personal branding to differentiate yourself from other people. When done well, you can tie your personal branding in with your business.

So, back to the google question…

What would you want to see if you googled your name? In reality, if you don’t create a brand for yourself, others will create one for you. Do you want to be the one to establish what you will be known for? 

“You can either ignore your personal brand, and let it develop organically, possibly chaotically, beyond your control, or you can help massage your personal brand to depict you as the person you want to be.” -Hubspot

Let’s take a look at a few celebrity and influencer accounts to see what vibe we get from them and if we can establish some of their personal branding items...

First up is @cristincooper on Instagram.

She’s an influencer with a style and beauty blog. What other things do you notice about her Instagram feed, though? She doesn’t only post about her style and beauty blog. It’s definitely obvious that it’s her focus, but she gives her followers glimpses into her life too (this is what makes her relatable and “fun” to follow!) If you scroll through her feed you will notice a lot of posts about her daughters...so being a mom is definitely part of her personal brand. You will also notice many posts about her beautiful custom-built home. This ties back into her blog, but it’s still a big part of her personal brand! You’ll also notice posts with her dog, Charlie Bojangles. Who doesn’t love a good post about fur babies?!

The second is @jamienotis from The Bachelor and Married at First Sight.

She is an influencer, but also is featured on many podcasts and is a host for some of the Married at First Sight reunions. When scrolling through her feed, you don’t only see promotional posts for her influencer business. You also don’t only see posts about Married at First Sight. It’s obvious to her followers that Jamie is passionate about positive body image, especially postpartum. She also openly talks about her family dynamics, and her miscarriages are a big part of how she relates to so many of her followers.

Third a celebrity! Let’s look at celebrity real estate agent @joshflagg1.

Most people know Josh from the show The Million Dollar Listing, but what else does his social media feed tell us about who he is? Sure, he has listings throughout his feed but he lets his followers in on more of his life too! You’ll see posts about his VLOG, nights out on the town, restaurants he visits, and the occasional humor post.

Do you see now why establishing your personal brand is so important? 

You won’t only be known for your role in your business. It IS a big part of who you are, but it isn’t everything.

I challenge you to look at some of your favorite celebrities, business owners, and influencers. Dissect their social media accounts as we did in this blog. What do you learn about them? Can you find consistent messaging? Beyond what business ventures they are known for, do you learn more about their personal life?

Stay consistent.

One major part of personal branding is that in order to establish a subject matter as part of your branding, you need to make sure you constantly talk about it/post about it/write content about it. 

One of the ways you can make sure you’re doing this is to pick one simple item that you post about every day in your stories (on Instagram or Facebook). For example, if you’re an avid coffee drinker maybe you post a picture of your morning coffee every morning. If you’re a  mom, maybe you post your morning car drive to school. Think of something SIMPLE that you could post about every day or every other day as a consistent reminder of your personal branding to your audience.

Other larger subjects in your personal branding can just be integrated on a weekly basis.

Layout your content calendar for the month (or have someone help you do this). When you start to plug in business content, begin to fill holes also with your personal branding content. 

I follow a well-known businesswoman in the freelance world. Her main personal branding points are motherhood, iced coffee, dancing, and Britney Spears (lol). She posts about motherhood nearly every day. She posts about iced coffee frequently, and dancing and Britney Spears are subject matters she talks less about but they are still talked about on a consistent basis so her followers are reminded of her personal brand.

That’s a wrap!

Personal branding is one of my favorite subjects to talk about. It’s fun to have permission to talk about things you love in your marketing content, right? 

So, for some next steps…

Sit down with pen and paper (or your iPad if you prefer technology), and start to brainstorm. What are the things you love? Who are you? Just start by listing everything you can think of. Need some help? Here is my personal and professional guided branding exercise.

Next, we are going to narrow your list down to 5 items. What are 5 things you love and/or want to be known for? List them!

Now, next time you plan some content, also throw in some content about these 5 things. 

Know that I am here to help you. If you want help clarifying your branding, feel free to reach out by booking a 15-Minute Fit Call!

Happy branding!