Personal Branding 101: How to Build Your Brand Online Organically

Growing up modeling, I learned early the importance of being my own brand manager, project manager, salesperson, and advocate for my creative work. As I grew into my professional career, I learned how translate these skills into my overall career, my own business, and my blog. It was only in recent years that I learned that what I have been doing all along is creating and managing my personal brand.

So today, we’re going to take a deep dive into this thing called personal branding, primarily in the digital space: what it is, why it is important, and some tips and tricks to help you establish and grow your unique personal brand online organically.

So, why should you care about personal branding?

If you have a desire to connect with others, share your story, grow yourself personally and professionally, and help others in their journey, then creating a personal brand is for you. Your personal brand ties directly into your professional reputation which can ultimately affect your overall career trajectory.

If you are a business owner, personal branding is the reason why people work with you.
If you are an employee, personal branding is the reason why you were hired for your position.
If you are ______, personal branding is the reason that people connect with you.

You may be thinking, "No, I was hired because of my product or service that I offer."

Or you may be thinking, "No, I was hired because of my resume."

Yes, this may be true, but these results didn’t just happen overnight. If you own a product or service, your personal fingerprint is on it, everywhere. If you are an employee, your resume is your personal brand. How you interviewed is your personal brand and how you show up to work and advocate for your company every day is your personal brand.

The reality is, if you want to grow your business or your career, you have to grow you. It’s not just about how you just show up online; it’s about how you show up in person too. You can’t always control what jobs or opportunities you get, but you can choose how you influence and how you show up in the world through your personal brand. Your personal brand is what keeps you atop of mind when an opportunity arises. Just as you care about the brands you support, so does the organization that is going to work with you. Growing your personal brand specifically online, allows you to essentially grow your network and share your story while you’re awake and while you’re sleeping.

When you do the work for your personal brand, your personal brand will then do the work for you.

Your online brand is essentially your digital first impression, so the image you are portraying needs to be defined and authentic to you. Here are some questions to to ask yourself when identifying and building your authentic personal brand and creating organic content to go alongside it:
- What are my core values? Mine are creativity, authenticity, consistency, and growth. These values are important to me in my work and life.
- What words do I want associated with me/my brand? Not sure the words to describe yourself? Try taking personality assessments like Meyers Briggs, Enneagram, etc - they’ll list out keywords for you!
- What emotion do I want to evoke when people see my content? What do you want them to think/feel when they read your content?
- What do I want to be known for?
- What makes me unique?
- How can I motivate people with what I know?
- How do I tell my story beyond my degree, beyond my job title?
- What do I contribute to my work, life, etc and what is that impact?
- Think like a marketer: Who is my target audience? What am I trying to sell them?
- What was an experience that was most significant in my personal/professional life and how does that fuel my everyday?

"In today's digital world, your personal brand is how you are seen, understood, and evaluated based on the image you project, the content you create, and the messages you convey." - Daniel Threllfall, Upcity

Interested in learning more about the topic of personal branding? Book a 1:1 mentoring session or speaking engagement with me!

Personal branding can do so much when done effectively. I loved these points shared from a digital conference I attended a few years ago. This presentation was by Amanda Healy, Head of Marketing at CISCO.

”Why personal branding is important:
1. Building trust/credibility
2. increase perceived value
3. gain confidence
4. Differentiate from the competition
5. Give yourself permission to be authentic
6. Become the go-to resource in your field
7. attract opportunities

How to define your personal brand:
1. What type of content will you be posting? (articles, video, text)
2. What are your values and how do you want to get them across?
3. Who is your audience? Who would you like to attract?
4. What do you want to achieve with your brand?
5. What are you most knowledgeable about?
6. What tone of voice would you like to use?
7. How will you communicate your message?
8. Who are you and what is your position in the industry?”

Consistency is the biggest key in managing your personal brand online. Without a consistency, there is no consistent message and your brand won’t stick with your community. Here are some ways that you can be consistent in showcasing your brand digitally.

BE CONSISTENT: STREAMLINE YOUR CONTENT
- Profile picture/Logo - Whether the face of your brand is your logo or your actual face, make sure to use the same profile picture/logo for all of your online accounts. This makes you easy to find and maximizes your credibility on the various platforms.
- Online Username - make sure your username is consistent across all platforms. This, again, makes you easier to find and verifies your credibility.
- Professional Email - make sure your email address aligns with your brand; whether it’s your name or your company, make sure this is consistent and easy to remember.
- Social Media Platforms: Figure out which platforms you want to maximize for your audience. You don’t need to be on every platform to make an impact. Pick 1 or 2 and manage those really well. (Where is your audience?LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc.?)
- Website/Email List: Take it a step further. Remember you don’t own social media and it could go away at any moment. So make sure you aren’t building on rented land. Build your own house on your own property by creating a website/landing page to direct your consumers to and while you’re at it start building an email list so you can directly keep in touch with your community!
- Post Your Passions, and Connect with Others, Consistently: This doesn’t have to take a ton of time. Every day, dedicate 15 minutes to building your personal brand. Whether it’s following up with connections from a recent event, making sure your contacts are up to date or advocating for your hobbies/events you go to, sharing your work, talking about the recent things you’ve learned, there are numerous ways to add value to your brand.
- Audit Your Online Brand Regularly: Google yourself. What do you see? Make sure your content and about info is still up to date. Your personal brand is a mix of how you see yourself and how others see you. If you don't know, ask leaders, coworkers, family, and friends what words describe you and what your biggest strengths and weaknesses are.

I hope this helped you get your start in building your personal brand. Remember, your brand is a promise of who you are and what people can expect from you, and no one is going to build your brand for you. Ultimately, you need to own your brand, understand your own story, and learn how to tell it an authentic way to your unique community. That is what is going to make an impact and help grow your in your career, and grow others in their journeys as well.