It’s been nearly 5 years since I started Persona Cognita, a personal branding and employee advocacy company that transforms employees into ambassadors and helps founders, entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders achieve their goals through the power of personal branding, both online and offline.
Over these years, I have learned with and from my clients and collected a wealth of insights that are essential when building strong personal brands. In recent weeks, I’ve been sharing these insights through posts, and today, on the last day of 2023, I am pleased to compile them in one space – a LinkedIn article.
#1 Start with setting personal branding goals
Personal branding is fun, but it’s even more enjoyable when it brings results. For it to be effective, we must be clear about what we want to achieve by dedicating efforts to our personal brands. Ideally, your GOALS should be specific, measurable, and time-based (applying the good old S.M.A.R.T. principle). However, in reality, it might not be the easiest task to do. Start with the basics and try to identify how personal branding can bring value to you personally and for your organization.
For example, let’s say you are in the field of HR:
➡️ On a personal level, you may want to increase your recognition as an expert in the area, and you would see the result of it by getting more requests from the media to speak about an HR topic.
➡️On an organizational level, you may want to use the strength of your personal brand to help the company build an image of a unique and friendly workplace. It may be more difficult to measure, but you could gauge whether it’s paying off by hearing how candidates describe the organization during interviews.
Remember:
🟣 It’s okay to have several goals.
🟣 It’s okay if your goals on a personal and organizational level are different.
🟣 Your personal brand can help the organizational brand, and vice versa.
#2 Identify who is your target audience
In Latin, Persona Cognita means a known person.
The trick here though is that “know” doesn’t mean “famous”, inclining that we don’t need everybody to be aware of who we are. What we need is to understand what is the AUDIENCE that should know us (and trust us).
If you are getting clear on your personal branding goals, you must be getting clearer on your audience, too.
If it’s still challenging, try to ask yourself the following:
🟣 Who are the people who help me reach my personal branding goals?
🟣 Who are the people that are searching for me or accidentally finding me?
🟣 Who are the people that I want to read my content?
When you know who your audience is, it will be easier to choose the right keywords to describe yourself and it will be more strategic when it comes to creating content.
#3 Get clear on your keywords
What are the KEYWORDS you want other people to associate with you?
When building your personal brand, it’s vital to identify those keywords and strategically use them when introducing yourself both offline and online.
It’s possible that those keywords are not necessarily related, but they should be the ones that you would like other people to mention once you leave the room after a conversation.
For instance, the keywords I would like other people to mention about me in a professional sense are the following: hashtag#PersonalBranding, hashtag#EmployeeAdvocacy, hashtag#Marketing, and hashtag#Education. These are the areas or industries I am working in, and I see myself as an expert in them. Therefore, when I put effort into my personal branding, I make sure these keywords are reflected in my social media profiles and content. They are the keywords I use when introducing myself.
So, if you intend to build a strong personal brand in 2024, after identifying your goal and audience, get clear on the keywords.
#4 Think of affiliations you want to be related to
While keywords are essential for helping the audience understand the topics that they can discuss with you, it is also worthwhile to consider the AFFILIATIONS (workplace, associations, or other) you want others to relate you with.
People often hesitate to strengthen their personal brands when they have a full-time job with a certain company because they believe it may not be appropriate. However, this is a misconception. A robust organizational brand can enhance your personal brand, and vice versa. Employee advocacy is beneficial not only for the organization, but also for employees.
If you are part of several organizations and/or belong to other associations, or if, in addition to your job, you have your own brand, consider how you can weave a story that aligns them all for the benefit of your personal brand.
#5 Find out how you are different
One aspect to consider when positioning your personal brand is differentiation.
🟣 How are you different from other professionals in the same field?
🟣 Are there specific projects you are proud of, extensive work experience, a niche, a specific work style, or a location where you provide your services?
Even though it may seem difficult to think about at first, I am sure everybody can find unique characteristics that set them apart from others.
For example, if I were asked how I am different from other professionals in the field of personal branding, it would be my background in academia and the fact that I conduct scientific research in this area.
Once you understand where your differentiation lies, it’s worth mentioning that in your descriptions and content, whether directly or indirectly.
#6 Don’t underestimate offline channels
Online channels and social media are excellent platforms for building personal branding, but we should not overlook the power of OFFLINE channels.
To name a few, the following can be considered for building your personal brand:
🟣 Your own organization
🟣 Meetings with clients, suppliers, partners
🟣 Networking events
🟣 Conferences
🟣 Traditional media: newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio
Do you need to focus on all of them? No, you don’t, but think about which of these channels are most closely related to your goals and target audience.
Offline channels may be great places for authentic connections beyond the digital empire.
#7 Acknowledge the power of CONSTANT
The reason I picked the word CONSTANT for the day before Christmas, knowing that the majority of people are not on LinkedIn today, is the fact that personal branding efforts have to be constant in order to bring results.
When building our personal brands, we should decide on the plan – what, how, and how consistent are we going to be with it. It will help us not to lose track.
#8 Celebrate small wins
Personal branding is a journey and not a set destination. Personal branding is a process, and results can be achieved through consistently putting efforts into it.
It is important to celebrate SMALL WINS of personal branding that might be dependent on your goals. Whether it’s landing a job interview, getting a call from potential clients, being invited to speak at a top industry conference, or meeting a long-lost friend who praises your content on social media.
Little things matter, and they do in personal branding too.
#9 Remember that you cannot please everyone
Once you start putting effort into personal branding, it is not certain that everybody around is going to like it.
Some might not understand it, some might doubt the way you are doing it, and others might simply be a little jealous.
The main idea here is that, just as in life not everybody likes everybody, not everybody is going to like the way you are branding yourself.
My advice here is to focus on your goals, and if you see that your efforts are starting to pay off, keep going. You and your efforts don’t have to be liked by everybody.
#10 Make your content strategic
When it comes to personal branding on social media, CONTENT becomes an inseparable part of it.
However, content alone won’t take you far. What will propel your personal branding is strategically putting out your content.
Here are some things to consider:
🟣 Choose topics that align with your positioning. For instance, mine are personal branding/employee advocacy, marketing, and education.
🟣 Identify the content formats you prefer the most (short posts, long reads, videos, etc.).
🟣 Consider incorporating details that make your content cohesive, such as using the same font and color in visuals, template graphics, or applying the same filter to photos. It’s a great area to unleash your creativity.
Content has the power to work magic. Start sharing yours!
#11 Think bigger than a “like”
A known person should not care too much about the followers, likes, comments, or shares.
It’s a nice thing to get, but do you really want to brand yourself for that?
What’s a bigger goal you want to focus on?
Depending on the niche you are in, sometimes it’s enough to be known in the eyes of five people in order to make a sale, establish a partnership, or hire that dream candidate for the position.
Think bigger than a “like”.
#12 Personal branding takes time
Creating a strong personal brand and securing a top-of-mind position in others’ thoughts might take time.
Sometimes you can get lucky because of the novelty of your topic, interesting angle or other unique features in your communication, but typically you will have to wait before your personal branding efforts start paying off.
As you step into 2024 ready to work on your personal branding, prepare to be patient.
#13 Discover opportunities to brand yourself
There are interesting opportunities to brand yourself that you don’t even think about.
Whether it’s through voluntary activities, mentorships, networking events, professional development courses, or community involvement, each of these experiences can contribute to shaping and enhancing your personal brand.
And, of course, online presence building can make a significant difference if you stay consistent.
In 2024, I highly suggest trying different channels and ways to brand yourself, both traditional and digital. The only condition is that those ways have to be in line with who you truly are.
While these are only a few aspects of branding yourself, I am confident that they will help you on the way to becoming known in 2024. Dedicate time, reflect, and enter the New Year ready to rock your personal brand.