Basics of Personal Branding
Did you know, if you have an online presence, you have a personal brand? Your habits, personality, personal style and how people experience you both online and in real life make up your personal brand. That can be both exciting and daunting when you think about it!
Whether you have a traditional business, a blog or strong social media following as an influencer, how you share information and images online automatically establishes your personal brand.
The good news is, you can have more control over your brand through a solid personal branding strategy!
What is personal branding?
It’s how you’re perceived as a business. It’s more than headshots, a logo and a pretty website. Your personal brand tells your story, attracts your ideal clients and establishes you as an authority in your industry.
How do you figure out what your personal brand is?
Think about what inspires you to do what you do. Why do you love what you do? How does it help others? What makes you stand out from others who do something similar? Who or what inspires you? What is your story? What is your personality like? Are you more calm and reserved or bold and sassy? Use these elements to shape up your personal brand.
What is your brand messaging?
Your brand message is self-explanatory, but it’s the messages you communicate to your audience about your brand, product or service. Are you all about female empowerment? Maybe you want to promote protecting the environment or a healthy lifestyle. Cater your brand messaging to your ideal client, and you will attract them!
Establish your voice in your brand messaging. Do you like to use humor, share real life stories or inspirational quotes? Use what feels natural to you and your personality to connect with your audience.
What are your brand colors?
While creating your personal brand, it’s important to establish brand recognition. How do you want your clients to feel when they see your brand? It’s time to choose those brand colors! What colors are you drawn to? Which colors describe your personality? Choose at least one main color and a couple of accent colors to complement. For example, my main color is soft pink and accent colors are taupe, white and nature green.
When you choose these colors, you’ll want to incorporate them in the imagery you share on your website and social media profiles.
Who is your ideal client?
You must take the time to determine who your ideal client is! How will you know if your personal brand messaging connects, if you don’t know who you’re speaking to? Get super specific with this. And feel free to create more than one persona if necessary.
Use these prompts to get started:
What does she do for a living?
How old is she?
Where does she shop?
Does she have children?
What are her pain points?
What gets her excited?
What does she like to do with her free time?
What does she like to eat?
Where does she hang out?
Who does she follow on social media?
Also, use these as props in your personal branding imagery. Share products and things that are personal to you, to relate to your ideal customer.
What are your branding goals?
Establish both long term goals and short term goals for your personal brand. Maybe you want to:
Connect better with your target audience
Grow your following on social media
Create consistent imagery across your website and social media platforms
Connect your personality with your digital brand
Create a cohesive Instagram feed to attract brands
Earn more money in your small business
Launch a new product or service
Create more high quality content to strengthen your brand
Use some or all of these goals to help establish and strengthen your personal brand!
If you’re considering booking your very first personal branding shoot, drop me a line to book!
