Our 8 Essential Steps to Building your Personal Brand.
For any individual who is growing their career and professional development, their personal brand is the MOST important asset they need to work on.
People think that a personal brand is the number of followers on Twitter (X) or Instagram, the number of Facebook Likes, and the number of blog subscribers.
However, building a personal brand means providing so much value in one (or multiple) niche(s) for people to start associating your name with the idea of what it means to be successful in that industry; aka a subject matter expert.
It doesn’t matter if you are business professional, thought leader, influencer, sports athlete, or entrepreneur, building a personal brand takes a lot of work, time and interaction from others.
Before you start spruiking the good word about yourself, there is a bunch of tasks that MUST be considered beforehand.
I’ve created the 8 step plan for building a powerful and dynamic personal brand.
How to build your Personal Brand in 8 steps!
Step 1. Figure out what you are good at, and the value you present to others
The first step is acknowledging what you like doing, what you are good at, and what you want to be doing.
Once you know what you like doing, you need to make the commitment to being as great at that thing as you possibly can be and then build your brand image, style and communications around this (including your skills and experience).
Your best bet is to engage a mentor to help you to build this vision. They can steer you in the right direction of a skills coach also. Its also good to network with people in a similar segment and get their views and advice.
Step 2. Gain feedback from people who know you
What people think and hear about you may not be what you’re saying!
This means that in your own, you think you are already perceived at a pretty high-level; however, this may NOT be the case if you asked around.
Ask people what their impression is of you, what they think you’re good at, and the value you provide others? Make sure you choose the RIGHT people though (not your Mum). These people can provide you with an impartial baseline for you to start from.
The most successful brands in the world rely on ongoing feedback and criticism from their customers
Step 3. Define your target audience
Once you have your vision, it’s best to determine your target audience.
Your target audience is simply the people you want to know about you and the value you present to them.
You may have a different reason for each audience segment, so we suggest you break your audience into smaller segments, you may find the language or message may differ across each e.g.– Friends (what you are good at)– Industry Leaders (potential employment opportunities)– Work and Industry Colleagues (networking and referrals) etc.
Step 4. Building your social platforms
There are a number of assets that require attention when you’re building your personal brand. You’ll need to secure domain names and websites to help control your personal brand on search.
Find a platform that suits your interest, and start creating the best content you possibly can.
Chef: promote food content on Instagram.
Motivational speaker: Facebook video and live.
Digital Marketing: pretty much all of them.
Industry Leader: LinkedIn
You’ll also need to secure social media accounts to control your personal brand on social networks.
Learn how to build these assets so you can create your overall network (online and offline). Learn the 10 steps to implementing digital marketing.
Step 5: Build your website/email list.
In parallel to building your following on social media, you should also be nurturing your website.
Dedicate time and money into a quality website (not a free Squarespace or Wix) as they do not scale later. Your website is the face of your brand AND your silent salesperson.
Your website should be the ultimate value add to readers. You attract their attention on social media, and you give them all the value in the world on your website via blogs and tools. Learn how to build and market a website.
Step 6 Build your brand outreach through collaboration
When you start building your personal brand it’s difficult to get exposure. It’s necessary to get exposure in the places where your target audience is spending time.
Build as many relationships as you can with other thought leaders within your niche. This will open so many doors for you–and help grow your social following.
Find other people who create great content and collaborate with them to build your content marketing plan.
Create content together and trade audiences. Everyone wins, everyone grows, and you’ll make some awesome connections and friends in the process.
Don’t write off the power of networking via social channels like LinkedIn.
Learn how to optimise your LinkedIn Profile.
Step 7. Connect with a Mentor
Never underestimate the value of a Mentor. They will collaborate with you BUT also come with a breadth of skills and experience that can leap-frog your progress.
Mentors are a great asset for professionals looking to build a personal brand and kick-start professional development. You can learn how they became a success or how they view the world and use the strategies to build your own success.
Step 8. Monitor Your Brand
Once you’ve established what you want personal brand to be and you’re working to grow it, you’ll need to monitor the growth and the perception.
It’s important to see how your target audience associates you with your industry and how they feel about you in general.
Use the various tools that are available to you e.g. Google analytics and social media reports to monitor your followers and their engagement.
FINALLY – Be yourself, everyone else is taken!
Don’t try and be something or someone you’re not. People see through that disguise pretty quickly.
You want to take influence from others, including your mentor, but it’s important that you must be yourself. That’s how you’ll separate yourself from the competition.
Being true to yourself will by default build honesty, integrity and trust.
Need some help?
Robert Durrant provides high-performance mentoring, coaching and skill development services to help you set and achieve your personal and professional goals.
To learn more about the mentoring and coaching services available from Robert Durrant, please visit our Mentor Programs or Coaching Services page.
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Robert Durrant
High Performance Mentor & Coach
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