Building your tribe - the use of personal branding

Your brand matters! Yes, I have this in bold as I am referring to YOU, you as an individual, you as an entrepreneur and you as a human being.

Your personal brand is the first thing people think of when they think of you. It is what you are known for, your skills and capabilities and the work that you do. Branding is about bringing who you are to what you do and how you do it. Delivering your brand clearly and consistently will create a memorable experience in the minds of those you interact with and can open doors to new opportunities.

Why develop a personal brand?

Developing a personal brand, and then telling people about that brand, can be the difference between you attracting average clients to high paying clients. Many naysayers of personal branding would simply dismiss the effort of building up your personal brand as an awful waste of time and would even go as far as to say it can get an entrepreneur side-tracked from managing his/her core business. Personal branding is at the heart of any small business in my opinion. As an entrepreneur by now you should know that business is not conducted based solely on the products and services you provide, but by your character, integrity, and personal relationships you build with others. Remember, people don’t buy from businesses, they buy from people that they like.

People do not only buy into things for their needs and wants. They buy products that make them feel good about their purchase. Personal branding is never separate from the core business of a firm; it is part of its success. The better the owner of an online business presents himself/herself to consumers, the higher the chances are of securing loyal customers. Women though are known to not display their personal brand as much as their male counterparts. And even when they do, they do not promote themselves as much as men do. This has been echoed by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer. In her book Lean In, she states that women

“hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.”

Through the power of her own personal brand, Sandberg is shaking things up and encouraging women to ‘stand up for the promotions and compensations that they truly deserve’ (Siddiqua 2017).

Make your plan:

Planning your personal brand gives you the opportunity to learn more about yourself, so that you can identify your unique skills, strengths, and talents. It is your chance to tap into your values and passions that guide you and influence you in what you spend your time on and the work activities that you enjoy and do. These areas form the foundation of your personal brand and can help you chart a course for your career and can position you to identify and engage in new opportunities.

Building blocks of a personal brand

When building a strong foundation for your personal brand, start by taking your existing brand assets into account:

• The skills you possess as well as the training, certifications, achievements, and awards you’ve received.
• The various industries, fields, or topics you’re interested in or passionate about.
• The core values you hold dear and the things you stand for.

After you’ve figured out your existing brand assets, you can start bringing together the key elements of your personal brand. The key elements of your personal brand can be based on the following seven building blocks, and they are:

(1)   Know what’s in the toolkit - Begin by evaluating what you are already known for and which of your skills people need. For example, Richard Branson is known as an adventurer, which translates to Virgin being seen as a risk-taking exciting brand.

(2)   Show your strong points - When you know and understand your ‘special strengths’, you need to show them to people in a way they find useful and interesting. Create content that shares your knowledge, not just your views. For example, if you believe that Artificial Intelligence is going to play a big role in creating advertising content in the future, give advice to what creatives, advertisers or clients should do to prepare. Just stating a view is not enough.

(3)   Build a group of cheerleaders - Beware of being seen as a self-promoter. While building your personal brand is hugely important, be careful about self-promoting behaviour as it can turn people off and make you lose credibility. Instead, ask other people to help you establish your brand – so build your cheerleaders! For example, if you are a web design expert who has helped a friend out with their new website, ask them to make a public post about how you helped them on their social media or get a LinkedIn recommendation.

(4)   Have your finger on the pulse of your competition - Examine in detail your industry and understand what others are doing. This will result in you having a good idea of how you can stand out from the crowd and be different. Standing out can mean everything to you when you are starting out and establishing yourself in the industry. The uniqueness of your personal brand can make or break your social network presence and the positioning of your business. Don’t try to become ‘a jack of all trades and a king of none’. Don’t try to be an expert in everything but rather choose a niche and as you gain market share then broaden your offerings.

(5)   Develop a social media strategy - You must first ask this: who are the people I envision to buy into my business? The answer to this question will dictate which social media platform is suitable for you. For example, if your company is selling aesthetics (fashion, art, design services) then you need to reach out to people who are in a platform where visuals are king, so Pinterest or Instagram would be a great place to start. If you want to reach out to professionals, then it's LinkedIn and Twitter.

(6)   Decide on the content of your branding - Once you have decided on which platform you will use for communicating your personal brand, you must create a plan for your content. What kind of information do you want to broadcast on these platforms? Perhaps you want to outline the needs you want to address. What makes your business different from others like it? Having a plan for the things you want to say is the secret to communicating clearly who and what you are.

(7)   Consider other channels for communicating your brand - Although most people are online now, you still need to reach others who may not be connected online or would prefer to build offline relationships. This is especially true if you’re in a B2B based company. The more cash you’re asking for from a purchase, the more human touch points that are required. You might want to get in touch with authoritative blogs in your industry and make pitches for guest blog posts. This can show a lot of credibility on your website!

Your brand is a unique promise of value! - This is what you must deliver to those who interact with you. So, to make your personal brand stand out from others, take on board these seven building blocks, shake out those feathers and bring the peacock in you out – tell people what you have achieved and then show them what you have achieved. If you stand out from the crowd, people will take notice of you, and your personal brand.

References:

Forbes 2021, ´#15 Sheryl Sandberg’, Forbes, viewed 2 August 2021, <https://www.forbes.com/profile/sheryl-sandberg/?sh=30112e4258b6>

Siddiqua, M 2017, ‘Personal branding formula nailed by 6 top female entrepreneurs’, ZD Blog, viewed 1 August 2021, https://www.zilliondesigns.com/blog/personal-branding-female-entrepreneurs/

Associate Professor Naomi Birdthistle has entrepreneurship in her blood. She started her first business when she was in primary school and went on to work in her family business for over 20 years. She ran her own business for 10 years and she has studied in Scotland, Ireland and America (Babson College and Harvard). Her passion for entrepreneurship is evident by her research outputs, and she has published widely. Naomi’s examines entrepreneurship education and its impact, women owned and led businesses and family business issues.