A personal brand is vital for a successful entrepreneurial career. Curating your personal branding enables you to showcase your value in this highly-competitive job market—especially as a new entrepreneur. It allows clients to see what you have to offer and convinces them that they should work with you. Personal branding builds your reputation, attracts promotions, and gets you closer to your goals. Here are a few ways to build your personal brand:
Establish an online presence
The first step is to establish your online identity. A survey found that 76% of consumers look at online presence before visiting a business and purchasing their products. Consumers find online information highly accessible and valuable, which is why they check these out before making an investment or purchase. Following this trend, potential clients will want to know your skills, your experience, and what you can offer before reaching out. An online presence will allow them to gauge if you’re the right fit for their professional needs. To get started, you can create a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Make sure to use professional images on these platforms and complete the information asked of you, such as your name, skill set, and background. These will serve as the basis for potential partnerships, so make every first impression count.
Upgrade your content
Personal branding doesn’t stop at establishing an online presence. Your content must stand out and be of a high quality if you want to keep potential clients interested. This is why upgrading your content to raise your profile is crucial in building your professional online brand. Provide valuable information about projects and highlight what skills you want to be associated with. For example, when posting about a project, emphasize your contributions (such as facilitating teamwork and communication) and share specific achievements (like solving a particular problem). This gives people a deeper insight into your potential—especially as a beginner in the field. By posting quality content from the get-go, you establish credibility and professionalism. In the long run, you can attract more potential clients.
Stay consistent
In line with posting quality content is your consistency. Irregular posting habits will make it harder for people to remember you. For instance, coming across your posts only once a month won’t make much of an impression on them. Consistent posting also helps them build trust in the fact that you’re an inexperienced entrepreneur. It displays your ability to stick to a schedule and your effort in creating quality content. Thus, ensure you often appear on people’s feeds. Post regularly, like every week or on certain days of each week. This will allow you to etch your name into potential clients’ minds. It may even result in successful referrals since others will get to know your skills and expertise through your posts.
Network online and offline
It’s one thing to make yourself known, but it’s an entirely different matter to form genuine connections. Reach out to others through networking to start building professional relationships. In an online setting, congratulate others on their achievements, reply to people’s messages, and start a few conversations to introduce yourself and get to know fellow professionals. Offline, make it a point to attend networking events and offer or volunteer to speak at a few. While most things are done digitally today, traditional networking allows you to show your personal branding with a more hands-on approach.
Building a personal brand as a fledgling entrepreneur is vital to your success. You can get started by creating an online presence, posting regularly, making quality content, and networking both online and offline.
