How to Build Your Personal Brand on the Social Web

Personal branding is something that each of us should do on a consistent basis, in both our professional and personal lives. It is not difficult, but rather a consistent process that requires considerable time and effort.

Table of Contents

Tell Your Unique Story

Before starting to write your mission statement, ask yourself: What feelings do you want to evoke in your audience? What do you want people to think – and feel – about your business? What do you want to hear them talk about you? When you build a strong enough brand, you basically have no competition.

Your story – your mission statement – communicates what is important to you. Write down your own statement before going public. This will help you find the right words and easily connect with like-minded people and businesses.

What to consider:

Goals – Ambition in life (short-term and long-term)
Key values – Who you are and what your beliefs are
Accomplishments – Professional and personal
Contribution – How can you make a difference in the world, including your family, friends and workplace?

Since people are driven by emotion, your story – and the emotions it evokes – plays a critical part in the success of your personal branding. The core essence of your brand isn’t so much what you do, but WHY you do it. Communicating your purpose, your reasons for doing what you’re doing will give people a strong reason to connect with you and your brand.

Leverage Social Media

Here is how you can use social media channels to augment your identity and allow people to easily see what you stand for:

LinkedIn– Use it to make your own personal ad agency, to search for jobs, connect and share your experience in a professional setting.

Twitter– Use the same photo or avatar from your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Update your profile and include a link to your website / blog or LinkedIn profile.

Facebook– From over one billion users, very few people actually brand themselves professionally on Facebook. De-clutter your profile from unnecessary personal photos and input your work experience, while disabling the ability for others to tag you in pictures and videos.

YouTube– Create a brief video of you talking about your unique talents and why you are the best at what you do. Also, take quick videos of you and share an interesting topic – it allows others to see the Real you in action.

Blogging– This is yet another channel for you to convey your interests and expertise. Blogs are also powerful assets because they rank high in the search engines and refer more to your interests and expertise over time.

I’m definitely not introducing new tools to anyone, but rather trying to tell you how to best utilize each of these channels to further build and expand your personal brand.

Personal branding isn’t easy, but assessing your unique strengths, your life and business goals and how you want to be perceived, can have amazingly positive results. It is about sharing who you are, putting yourself out there in an imperfect, exciting and unique way that resonates with lots of other like-minded individuals.