Building Your Personal Brand Online

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Our next event will be at Indigo Blue on 9th November. The topic will be 'Having established demand and support for our product what else should we do to ensure commercial viability?" We hope to see you there!

According to an AVG study, 92% of children under the age of 2 already have some kind of digital footprint. We all have personal brands these days – with the advent of social media, we don’t have much of a choice if we want to stay online and connected – what do you want yours to say about you and your business?

The first step is to start thinking about yourself as a brand. Understand yourself and what you’re trying to achieve; be strategic about it. Big name brands such as Google and Coca Cola don’t just leap straight into creating their personal brand; they plan and test before implementing changes.

Think about how you want to be perceived. Are you serious and professional? Creative and quirky? Or all of the above? Focus on how you want to be seen by others and allow that to govern your decisions. What is your unique selling point? Take time to consider your target market; what will their best respond to? What will they trust? What will interest them?

The second step is to audit your current online presence. What do you post and how do you talk about it? Are you comfortable with the ways in which you respond to other people’s posts? Check out what other people say about you: do their opinions match the way you think about yourself? If not, how can you change that?

Make sure that your brand is instantly recognisable. Use the same fonts, colour schemes and images everywhere. Develop a writing style and tone that’s your own, and keep your messaging consistent. Create business cards and get professional headshots taken.

When it comes down to it, this is all about getting yourself known. Let people know who you are and what you can do but keep that image consistent and never make promises that you won’t be able to live up to. Make sure that when you do make promises, you keep your word.

Ask Yourself These Questions

- Who am I and who am I not?

- How am I unique?

- What do I want to be known for?

- What will make me and my business stand out?

- How do I communicate best with others?

Top Tips

1. Authenticity is key. Be yourself and be truthful.

2. Be nice or be quiet. It sounds harsh but it’s a good motto for life, not just social media.

3. Regular speaking engagements are a good way to develop your person to person communication skills. They offer good opportunities to be seen and to be heard.

4. Purchase your own domain name. It’s a small thing but it can make all the difference.

5. Build a narrative, tell stories and be clear about what separates you from the crowd.

6. Network.

7. Create a visual brand that represents you.

8. Join online groups and interact with others. At the end of the day, it’s how we treat other people that defines us.

9. Learn to use social media effectively.

10. Ask questions.

Please comment below with your own thoughts about building personal brands online. What has and hasn't worked for you? We always love to hear from you!

How to Generate New Business for Your Start-Up

Click here to see our membership packages or here to subscribe to our mailing list. 

Our next event will be at Indigo Blue on 9th November. The topic will be 'Having established demand and support for our product what else should we do to ensure commercial viability?" We hope to see you there!

People won’t buy something that they don’t know that they want yet. So don’t start by selling your product; start by marketing it.

Most successful brands, from Apple to Nike, aren’t selling a product, they’re selling a lifestyle. One pair of trainers doesn’t really differ that greatly from the next and yet Nike manage to convince their customers that a new pair of kicks will change their lives. The same goes for the latest iPhone. It’s not that different from the one that came before but everybody wants it, just the same.

People need to want to live the kind of lifestyle that your product offers. And when they do, you don’t need to directly sell to them anymore. Start as you mean to go on and create an effective communications campaign to drive sales without direct marketing.

Start with Your Customers

Communications is all about storytelling and there’s no point in telling stories that your audience can’t relate to. Make sure you know who your target market is. Think about age, gender, location, etc. What music are they into? Where do they socialise? What are their favourite brands? Look at on demographic at a time – never try to be something to everyone all at once.

Now You Know Who You Want to Talk to, Decide Where to Talk to Them

The next step is to decide which channels you want to use to connect with your prospective customers. Will your target demographic respond best to social media or more traditional channels? Do you want to talk to them directly or via journalists? Or is it your existing customers who will introduce new business?

There are more channels open to you than ever before so be smart about making choices. Don’t try to use as many as possible; decide which ones will be most effective when communicating with your customers and focus on those.

For example, platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories are very effective for energy drink brands, like Rockstar or Relentless, who market to young, active customers who enjoy high-energy and easy access content. However, older, more experienced customers might prefer platform such as LinkedIn or advertorials in magazines and newspapers.

Think About Your Content

With the advent of the internet and smart phones, you have all you need to create quality content in your pocket. All Macbooks have free video editing software as standard and your phone provides a decent quality video camera. There are hundreds of apps offering free photo editing software and we all have word processors coming out of our ears, on our phones, laptops and tablets.

People love to have things and knowledge that they can share and pass on. Ask yourself whether the content you’re putting out has value to others? Does it tell them something that they don’t already know? Why should they share it with their friends?

It’s also worth thinking about what makes your content unique but balancing that with making sure that you stay topical. No one wants to read about Christmas in July but equally, no one wants to read the same information over and over again in different words. Choose something relevant that no one else is talking about – what makes your product unique and why?

Don’t Be Afraid of Change

If what you’re doing isn’t working, then change it up. Another advantage of the internet age is that we all have instant access to metrics telling us exactly what works and what doesn’t. Identify what your customers engage with and interact with the most and do more of that. Then look at what they don’t like and either scrap it completely or change it. There’s no shame in being wrong about something as long as you are able to move on and find the right thing for both you and your customers.

Please comment below with your thoughts on generating custom for small business and effective communications campaigns. We always love hearing from you!