The importance of Personal Branding

Image by Joseph Mucira from Pixabay

Personal Branding focuses on an individual, whereas corporate branding focuses on a product or a service. When looking at personal branding, we need to think about individuals as businesses and look at how individuals can market themselves. “The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them.” (Stelzner 2019)

Personal branding is crucial if you want to make a name for yourself or allow your expertise to be known. Personal Branding gives way to job offers, networking and also gains trust from your followers. It’s also important to be able to earn an income or make profit on your expertise as Gary Henderson explains “One of the biggest reasons for creating a personal brand is to warm up this powerful group of people who are waiting to take action on anything you have to offer. Once you find your ideal followers, that’s when you can really start making a profit and reaching your goals.” (Henderson 2019)

“The first step in creating a powerful personal brand is to determine who you are.” (Ziogas 2019)

When building a personal brand, think about:

• Who you are.
• What your core values are.
• What you can offer that nobody else does.

Next, determine your target audience. This means turning down some people as Tyler Basu from Thinkific explains “In order to attract your perfect clients, you must be willing to repel those who you do not want to work with.” (Basu 2018)

Finally, it’s all about making your brand visually appealing, developing a content strategy and building up followers. Being consistent across your brand is vital, thinking about the consistency of your social media profiles in terms of imagery, colours and bios. “Repetition is key” (Erin On Demand, 2019).

Examples of Personal Branding

Here are some great examples of personal branding. Each of these examples show consistency across all social media platforms by using the same profile photo, biography, website links and banner image. Content is also consistent and posted regularly with hashtags and/or mentions and media attached.

Michelle Obama

Figure 1: Former First Lady Michelle Obama is very active on social media. Her Twitter page appears mature with a nice header photo and profile photo. Her bio is short but informative and includes her personal hashtag #IAmBecoming (Twitter 2020)

Figure 2: Michelle’s tweets are informative and include multiple hashtags. There is also a link within the tweet making it engaging for her followers. It’s complete with a nice infographic photo containing key information. (Twitter 2020)

Figure 3: Michelle’s Facebook contains the same bio as her Twitter keeping it consistent. Keeping with the mature tone, Michelle’s photo header contains an empowering photo and her profile photo is consistent with that on her Twitter profile (Facebook 2020)

Figure 4: Michelle’s Facebook posts are consistent with that on her Twitter profile. Her posts also contain the same copy and infographic photo with those key bits of info within the post. There is a link for followers to click and references to other Facebook pages that followers can click through (Facebook 2020)

Figure 5: Michelle’s Instagram keeps the consistency with the same profile photo as that on Facebook and Twitter as well as the same bio. Her Instagram posts are a reflection of the work she is doing with others but also includes more personal photos as we see with her husband and former President Barack Obama. There is also a good use of highlight tiles which includes Podcast, Q&As and Community posts (Instagram 2020)

Taylor Swift

Figure 6: Taylor Swift is a world class singer songwriter recently changing her style to a more mature singer. This shows throughout her social media. Her Twitter contains a photo header promoting her latest album ‘Folklore’. There is also a link to her website (Twitter 2020)

Figure 7: This Taylor Swift Twitter post includes lyrics to her song and a hashtag for her music video. There is a link to the video and a screenshot included for the main photo (Twitter 2020)

Figure 8: Taylor Swift’s Facebook page includes the same bio as Twitter and the same photo header promoting her latest album. This is consistent with her other social media platforms. There is a ‘Shop Now’ button on her Facebook page allowing followers to click through to her online store (Facebook 2020)

Figure 9: This Facebook post from Taylor Swift is short and avoids lengthy sentences. There is a hashtag and a link to the music video. The photo used is a screenshot from the music video. This is exactly the same post used on her Twitter keeping it consistent (Facebook 2020)

Figure 10: Taylor Swifts Instagram profile reflects her latest album photography. The black and white photography gives the profile an artistic feel. There is a link to her website and a short bio which is the same copy used on her Facebook and Twitter profiles, giving her branding consistency (Instagram 2020)

Neil Patel

Figure 11: Neil Patel is a specialist and consultant in Digital Marketing and this clear from the photo header he is using on his Twitter profile. He has distinct orange branding which makes his profiles instantly recognisable. There is a short bio which includes some of his accolades and a link to his website (Twitter 2020)

Figure 12: Neil’s posts include minimal copy in order to grab the attention of his followers. He links the article he is referring to in his posts and makes sure there is a description and a photo on the URL preview (Twitter 2020)

Figure 13: Neil’s Facebook includes a photo header and although it’s not the same as on Twitter it still has that recognisable orange font. The photo sums up what he is offering as well as a link to his website. His bio is consistent to that on Twitter and his posts use eye-catching photos with titles to draw people in (Facebook 2020)

Figure 14: Neil’s distinct orange theming runs throughout his instagram profile. His profile photo is the same as that on Twitter and Facebook keeping it consistent. His Instagram posts include infographics with text and eye-catching graphics to make the posts standout and look more appealing (Instagram 2020)

References

Stelzner, M. (2019) ‘Personal Branding: How to successfully build your brand’ Social Media Examiner [online]. Available at: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/personal-branding-how-to-successfully-build-brand-rory-vaden/ [accessed 5 Oct 2020]

Henderson, G. (2019) ‘What is Personal Branding?’ DigitalMarketing.Org [online]. Available at: https://www.digitalmarketing.org/blog/what-is-personal-branding [accessed 5 Oct 2020]

Ziogas, G. (2019) ‘The Complete Guide to Building a personal Brand in 2020’ Better Marketing [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/better-marketing/the-complete-guide-to-building-a-personal-brand-in-2020-725c9530bc49 [accessed 5 Oct 2020]

Basu, T. (2018) ‘How to Build a Personal Brand (Complete Guide to Personal Branding)’ Thinkific [online]. Available at: https://www.thinkific.com/blog/personal-branding-guide/[accessed 5 Oct 2020]

Erin On Demand (2019) 6 Steps to Build a STRONG Personal Brand in 2020 (On AND OFF Social Media). Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUzHYqmtf8 [accessed 5 Oct 2020]

Figure 1 — Michelle Obama Twitter (2020). Michelle Obama Twitter Profile [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/MichelleObama [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 2 — Michelle Obama Twitter (2020). Michelle Obama Twitter Profile/Post [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/MichelleObama [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 3 — Michelle Obama Facebook (2020) Michelle Obama Facebook Profile [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/michelleobama/ [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 4 — Michelle Obama Facebook (2020) Michelle Obama Facebook Profile/Post [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/michelleobama/ [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 5 — Michelle Obama Instagram (2020) Michelle Obama Instagram Profile [online]. Available at https://www.instagram.com/michelleobama [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 6 — Taylor Swift Twitter (2020) Taylor Swift Twitter Profile [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/taylorswift13 [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 7 — Taylor Swift Twitter (2020) Taylor Swift Twitter Profile/Post [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/taylorswift13 [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 8 — Taylor Swift Facebook (2020) Taylor Swift Facebook Profile [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/TaylorSwift [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 9 — Taylor Swift Facebook (2020) Taylor Swift Facebook ProfilePost [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/TaylorSwift [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 10 — Taylor Swift Instagram (2020) Taylor Swift Instagram Profile [online]. Available at https://www.instagram.com/taylorswift [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 11 — Neil Patel Twitter (2020) Neil Patel Twitter Profile [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/neilpatel [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 12 — Neil Patel Twitter (2020) Neil Patel Twitter Profile/Post [online]. Available at https://twitter.com/neilpatel [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 13 — Neil Patel Facebook (2020) Neil Patel Facebook Profile [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/neilkpatel [accessed 6 Oct 2020]

Figure 14 — Neil Patel Instagram (2020) Neil Patel Instagram Profile [online]. Available at https://www.instagram.com/neilpatel [accessed 6 Oct 2020]