How To Build A Strong Personal Brand Online

When any business launches, one of the first things company leaders need to work on to ensure success is creating a strong online presence for it. The same goes for entrepreneurs and business leaders seeking to advance professionally; a big key to building their careers lies in how they craft their personal brand and show up online.

There are so many potential elements involved in personal branding that trying to figure out where to begin can feel overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some practical steps you can take to effectively build your personal brand online.

What Is Your Story And How Do You Share It?

Building your personal brand involves sharing your story in a consistent and repeatable way. It begins with clarity: Focus on key themes in your expertise. Once you determine one to three topics of choice, take time to respond to content that is posted on those themes on social media, or create your own posts around those themes. Keep a narrow focus and stay current and active, and you’ll begin to create the connections you need for brand success.

Are You Clear About What You Stand For?

First, be clear about what you and your brand stand for: What can your clients expect in terms of service, quality, value, innovation, thought leadership, process and whatever else is important for you? Then, consistently deliver it! Every service, every communication, every presence on every platform or channel must be consistent, authentic and true to your promise.

How Long Are Your Messages And What Is Their Timing?

Building your online presence on platforms such as LinkedIn will require you to optimize your message’s quality, timing and length. The long and the short of it is that you need to keep updates short and sweet while ensuring your long-form articles get close to 2,000 words. According to Hootsuites’ research, your organic/paid updates should ideally be less than 140 characters in length, while your original articles should be 1,900 to 2,000 words.

Have You Ever Considered Publishing And Be A Guest-Contributor?

The first way people form an impression is by putting your name into a search engine. Having some authoritative websites with accurate information appear when people search for your name is your goal. Obviously, a personal website with up-to-date metadata is a start, but even better, writing articles for third-party media is more impressive. Find out which publications take articles from contributors.

How Often Do You Post And Speak?

Speak as often as possible on as many platforms as possible. Test your content out by getting on strategic podcasts. A powerful strategy that I call “The Ambassador Method” can help you get out in front of influencer networks to grow your platform and reach.

Do You Share What Are The 3 Interesting Things About You?

Be authentic. Get real by building relationships. How? What are the three things that you can share with someone from outside of work that are interesting subjects people want to know about and are great topics for starting a conversation? Maybe you love going to theme parks, vacationing in Europe or following a sports team. List out the three most interesting things you do personally and let people know about them.

What Makes You Unique and How Do You Share It?

Knowing what makes you unique will help you develop the solution you offer or the gap you fill. You need to articulate who you serve as a market segment based on your uniqueness. What is it that you offer or do that your competition doesn’t? Your uniqueness will make your brand stand out, and it will usually come from your own story and your “why.” Showcasing your uniqueness will highlight the value and benefits you offer.

How Do You Build Trust?

Document instead of creating. A lot of entrepreneurs focus on creating a professional image by posting over-the-top images and mission statements. The reality is that people cannot trust an image; they can only trust you as a person. Who are you on a personal and professional level? Is there a disconnect? Do your words match your actions? Congruence is the foundation for building a personal brand.

Is Your Content Genuine, Relevant And Valuable?

First and foremost, start by ensuring that you post content that is genuine, aligned with and authentic to you, relevant to your product and valuable to your audience. If it’s even a hint “off,” potential customers can’t connect with you or gain a sense of trust in you and what you are selling. To expand your reach, create partnerships with others and cross-promote each other so that you both expand your reach. Everyone wins.

Do You Engage With The Content Others Put Out There?

Creating your own content is definitely a way to start creating your personal brand online, but for some, this may be a step too soon. Therefore, engaging with content that others have put out there by leaving thoughtful comments, providing points for further discussion and possibly disagreeing with the status quo will get you noticed and help to start building your brand.