WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING? People want to have a reason to buy; one reason is the quality of engagement between the individual behind the business and the people who buy the products/services. Personal branding gives the company a soul, and if this soul is communicated clearly, you get admiration and sustainable business growth. Like branding for products or services, personal branding is all about controlling how others perceive you. It's important to note that personal branding is more than simply marketing or selling yourself. You have to present yourself in the most authentic way possible and fully embody your genuine self, inside and out. Do you find yourself chasing clients? Or, after your initial meeting with a client, they seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth? Yep, it's happened to us all. Solid personal branding is like a magnet for business. A well-built personal brand will attract more business than you know what to do with, but it won't happen overnight. BENEFITS OF BUILDING YOUR BRAND. As a personal brand, you'll develop your own unique brand identity. People will come to know you for what you're about and get to see the whole package. The best part about all of this is that it comes with many benefits for you: Become more relatable. Build trust by showing and embracing your flaws! Become more 'human' and less of a product by revealing more about yourself. Establish brand identity. Personal branding will ensure that the right people come to you for specific things to help them. Get more opportunities. With a solid personal brand, you will most likely be exposed to more interviews, job offers, promotions, contacts, clients, event hosting gigs and more. Differentiate yourself. Find what makes you unique and build your brand around that. Enhance your expertise: Brand yourself as an expert by helping others solve their weak points. Let people reach out to you for your opinion and expertise, which further supports your brand. Leave a lasting impression: Create a brand that sticks out in people's minds, so when it’s time to give referrals or recommendations, they'll think of you first. HOW TO START Figure out what you stand for. Figure out who you are and what you stand for. Why did you become an entrepreneur? What motivates you? These are all elements in building your brand and telling your story. Leverage social media. The number of followers you have is not wholly indicative of whether you're doing social media right. But it is a good idea to partner with other leaders in your industry and tag each other in posts; this helps more people find your content. If your business’ social media manager’s page has more followers than you, ask your social media manager to tag your page in posts, too. Most importantly, you want strong content on your platform of choice without spreading yourself too thin. If you're in an industry that writes white papers or is heavily statistics-based, LinkedIn and Twitter are solid platforms for sharing thought-provoking articles. Add in some extra personal commentary with your posts so people know your stance. If you're in a more creative or visual field, stick to Instagram with pictures and videos. Add your commentary in the captions or videos. Work on your media relations. Doing your outreach to media outlets can pay off in building your brand. People want to read about people. Having a magazine or online outlet write a feature about you as an entrepreneur helps increase your visibility and brand. Ultimately, it can also help your business. Get out there. Interacting with people is the old-fashioned way of spreading the word about yourself and is still just as important. How you interact with people daily reinforces your brand! Hire marketing and PR experts A personal brand does not flourish without marketing, but neither does marketing without a clearly defined personal brand. Make sure you put aside a budget to consult a marketing expert or hire someone to help you define your goals and create a roadmap.