So, you’ve decided that you want to invest in your personal brand but you’re not quite sure where to start? You’re in the right place.
A huge part of building a personal brand is having the ability to connect with your audience. Anybody can post online, however, to create a true impact is to gain the engagement, conversation, and trust of others. Whether it’s through posting on LinkedIn, starting a conversation on Discord, or speaking at a virtual event - this all links back to personal branding and compelling a great story that people can connect with.
Let’s recap on what personal branding is…
A personal brand is bringing your personality and the professional value that you have online, the perfect marriage of technical skill as well as showing how likeable (or not…) you may be.
There’s also no “perfect way” to build a personal brand. Everybody’s journey is different. However, the point of having a personal brand is to continuously build a network around you through sharing your knowledge, expertise, and personal life, too.
So, how can you start to build a brand story that people can connect with?
Identify what you want to talk about and why
The first step in crafting a personal brand story is identifying what you want to talk about and why. Let’s say you aim to talk about leadership. Why is that important to you and what perspective can you bring to talking about leadership that hasn’t been done before?
If you’re only picking a topic because you think it sounds good, then it’s going to be hard for you to build credibility as well as have an authentic online presence. It’s essential to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but don’t pick something that is so far removed from who you are as an individual.
Equally, you don’t need to pick topics that are considered groundbreaking or difficult to digest. Something that you’re passionate about is key.
Do the topics that come up match with what your audience wants to talk about?
Once you’ve picked the topics that you want to talk about, you then need to identify whether these topics will resonate with your audience. You want to ensure that there is a connection with the people that you’re trying to impact. Ensuring connection is all about generating an emotional link between the person and the topic.
If we look at the psychology of how adverts work - for example - the products we resonate with (whether that’s due to what they do or the message they convey). These are the products that we’re most likely to buy into or purchase. The same goes for personal branding. People need to feel connected to the person who is delivering the message - and striking this balance will form the building blocks of your personal brand.
What else can you branch out to?
The formula that we try to look at is ensuring that you have the following:
- A topic that you’re passionate about
- A topic that resonates with your audience
- Something new that you can develop a voice and opinion on
As long as the topic generates a connection with your audience, this will give you a great foundation to start building your personal brand.
