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A Comprehensive Guide To Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs

Kumar Gauraw

Personal Branding is not a term most probably you are unaware of anymore. Chances are, you are already working hard to build your brand identity in the marketplace.

I thought of writing about this again today because I see a lot of people doing too many things going in all directions in an effort to build a personal brand probably because they still don’t understand what it really means.

So, let’s talk about it!

What Is A Personal Brand?

When you think of Steve Jobs, what comes to your mind? Most probably, the logo of Apple? Probably iPhone, iPad and Mac?

When you hear the word “Starbucks” what comes to your mind? Undoubtedly, coffee?

When you hear Warren Buffet’s name anywhere, what comes to your mind? I would think the thought of Stock Market, investment etc.?

Now, that is what a personal branding’s goal is. These brand names have associated themselves strongly with one particular thing of value, right?

So, what is the one thing you want to be known for? What is the goal of your branding efforts? Have you identified that for yourself and your business? What do people think of when they hear your brand name?

Why Build A Personal Brand Online?

Everybody wants to be remembered for something and that is a good reason for personal branding.  But why do we talk about brand building online?

Well, the reasons are pretty straight forward.

Most of us spend most of our time online these days. We do shopping online, banking online, customer service online, talking to friends, blogging, relationship building, finding jobs and the list goes on.

We review products, check people’s background, reputation of a company and research to find answers for all our problems online often.

If so much is going on online, doesn’t it make sense for you and me as entrepreneurs to be out there and build our brand identity? Doesn’t it make sense to build your personal brand in such a way that when I come across your name anywhere on the web, I can immediately associate you with something that you are good at and known for?

You Need To Know Your Strengths

A strong personal brand is a result of your reputation, trustworthiness, and your ability to execute precisely what you promise.

For example, imagine some of the areas where you might want to build your personal brand around:

…and so on.

These are just a few tips to get your creative juices flowing. You may want to evaluate if you really have identified what you want to be known for, and that begins with you knowing your strengths.

Once you know your strengths, the personal branding efforts you put will be in the direction of making your brand name stand out from other similar products and services. The goal of personal branding is to make you stand out, isn’t it?

Important Things About Personal Branding

First of all you need to know that you can’t fake your personal brand. Your brand needs to be genuine and that means you need to be yourself.

If you try to be someone you are really not, it will quickly  become apparent and then it will hurt you more than it will benefit you. You want to be careful. People who have built big brand names such as Robert Kiyosaki, Neil Patel, Derek Halpern, Robin Sharma or Michael Hyatt are same people offline as they are online. They have integrity in their brand name and so their brand identities flourish day after day.

If you choose to create a brand identity or an entity rather than your own name, it’s okay. Just make sure that you know why you are doing that and what are your long term plans behind such a strategy.

Many people choose to build a big brand image online as a company name while keeping themselves hidden underneath. And there is nothing wrong with that approach because they have their reasons for doing it that way. You make your decision based on your strategy.

How To Go About Personal Branding

There is not one thing that you can do to build a strong personal brand for yourself and your enterprise. It is a mix of various simple things along with an excellent delivery of what you promise to deliver as a brand name.

To give you an idea on some of the simple things you can do consistently to start strengthening your brand identity, here are a list of activities I am going to suggest you should pay close attention to:

Are You Actively Listening?

How Impressive Is Your Home On The Internet?

Have Strong Presence On Social Media

I touched on this a bit in the section above already. People need a way to get to know you, to connect with you in a less informal environment. Social media networks are a great way to facilitate that.

As an entrepreneur, it is almost a need that you have accounts on social networks and other social media platforms. If you think it’s only for college kids, you are missing out big time. In fact, if you don’t have a presence on some of these social networks, you almost give the impression that you don’t know how to market your business.

Here are a few handful of social networks and other social media platforms where I recommend that you create accounts and stay active at a few that you find the most appealing for you and your business:

Use Every Opportunity To Promote Your Blog

I already suggested that you link your social profiles with your blog. But it is equally critical that all your social media profiles also point back to your blog/website.

Your blog/website is your home on the internet and no matter where else you go on the internet, people who meet you there, should know where your home is. For that, here is what I recommend:

Participate In Online Conversations

Branding is also an aspect where third party credibility goes a long way. That means, you need to have other bloggers, other entrepreneurs engaging with you on social media and on your websites and wherever appropriate. For that to happen, you need to put some efforts in that direction and here are a few tips:

Build A Strong Community

When you are in business for yourself, you are obviously looking for customers and you want to be in the marketplace for that purpose.

However, the purpose of your personal brand is to build third-party credibility for yourself and that happens when you build a strong community which helps you market yourself in the marketplace.

Where I am going with this is, your community is not the marketplace (although you may get a few community members who love to become your customers  and when that happens, you should count it a blessing.) The goal of your community is to create buzz around your brand name.

So, how do you establish a strong and buzzing community? Here are a few tips:

Master The Art Of Active Promotion

Promotion of your own website/blog on social media is important. You need to create awareness about your brand name consistently. That is why blogging is such a great way to gracefully promote your brand identity regularly.

But then, bragging isn’t promotion and bragging is not healthy. Self-promotion all the time is not healthy either. You need to take your promotion as creating awareness in a sensible manner while getting your community to help promote your brand even in a more effective manner.

So, here are a few tips on promotion online:

Consistency Is A Big Deal

When you are serious about building your brand identity, it is important to understand that consistency is more important than anything else.

I have seen people getting all fired up about blogging, social media, online marketing and then fizzle out after a while because they didn’t see quick results or they didn’t find it worth continuing for their own personal reasons.

But consistency is the name of the game. If you can stay consistent and stay the course, you will eventually see your brand name making some amazing impact. So, I would highly encourage you to make a commitment to stay committed to your branding goals.

Over To You – Share Your Thoughts/Experiences

What are some of your favorite activities to increase your brand awareness? What techniques of personal branding have you found to be the most effective?

Please share any additional tips or success stories you might have that will help people looking to increase their brand awareness will help.

You can share your thoughts in the comments by clicking here. Thank you kindly!

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