Failure to retain potential customers attracted through advertising is because you haven’t established a trustworthy personal brand image. But do you know what a personal brand is? This article will elaborate on the four major steps to building a personal brand, from creating an appealing personal brand concept to managing it effectively. It will also discuss the key to ongoing personal brand management and share two successful case studies for reference.
What is a Personal Brand? How does it differ from a corporate brand?
A personal brand is when an individual establishes an image and reputation in a specific field. Simply put, it’s when a person uses their distinctive personality traits or professional expertise to attract attention and become a representative figure in a particular domain, making people easily associate them when relevant topics are mentioned.
Although personal branding and corporate branding are conceptually similar, they differ in their operating models, core aspects, and forms. Corporate branding is primarily managed by companies or organizations, establishing brand image and consumer perception through products or services. It can manifest as products, services, logos, etc. For example, Starbucks is a well-known coffee brand that builds its brand image through selecting quality coffee beans and providing excellent service. On the other hand, personal branding can be managed by organizations or individuals, leveraging personal professional knowledge, skills, and personality to build reputation. Its manifestations can be seen through personal behavior, social media presence, etc.
What are the key elements of a personal brand?
The key elements of a personal brand are the personal brand concept and image. Rather than merely having a website or account, most people prefer to follow those with compelling brand stories. A personal brand concept should resonate with followers, fostering deeper connections and making it easier for people to identify and remember the personal brand. Additionally, establishing a unique and professional personal brand image helps individuals stand out among similar industries.
Personal Brand Concept
The personal brand concept expresses an individual’s attitude, stance on matters, and goals, serving as the first step in introducing the personal brand. Most people prefer to follow personal brands aligned with their values, which enhances follower loyalty and serves as a reminder to the individual of their initial brand-building intentions. Below are some common questions to brainstorm personal brand concepts:
- What are my personal brand’s core values?
- Why did I establish my personal brand?
- What beliefs do I want to convey?
- Thoughts and values on specific domains
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Personal Brand Image
Creating a consistent personal brand image is crucial for enhancing credibility. For instance, if the personal brand concept revolves around promoting AI, would you choose to follow someone who consistently shares AI-related news and introduces AI tools or someone who occasionally discusses politics, recommends food, and sporadically shares AI-related knowledge? I believe the audience interested in delving into the AI field would opt for the former.
A personal brand image encompasses both external and internal aspects. External aspects include behavior, appearance, attire, etc., while internal aspects consist of personality traits, skills, etc. Both should align with the personal brand concept to maintain professionalism and avoid giving off insincere or low credibility impressions.
What are the advantages of personal brand management?
The advantages of personal brand management include:
Increased Visibility
The greatest advantage of personal brand management is its ability to enhance visibility. By consistently producing content showcasing your professional expertise, you can gain authority in a specific field. As more people discover your wealth of knowledge and experience in a particular domain, they will pay attention to you or share your content with friends and family. Therefore, potential followers are more likely to be reached, allowing you to garner more support.
Influence Building
Establishing a personal brand aims to draw attention to your values or information related to specific fields. Through brand management and the accumulation of visibility, you can exert influence on the general public. When you promote your brand philosophy, besides gaining support from like-minded individuals, you may also attract the attention of those previously disinterested in the field, sparking their interest.
Increased Sources of Funding
Personal brand management not only garners support from sponsors but also opens opportunities to participate in commercial activities. By engaging in various events, speeches, interviews, etc., you not only increase your visibility but also acquire additional funding. This enables you to allocate sufficient resources to create higher-quality content, attracting more attention.
Self-Improvement
Self-Improvement Personal brand management requires continuously producing relevant content. To provide audiences with accurate and up-to-date knowledge, you must continuously study specific fields. Additionally, sharing information allows you to interact with like-minded individuals or professionals in the same field, enhancing self-improvement and professional expertise.
What channels are available for personal brand management?
There are diverse channels for personal brand management. You can establish a website to introduce your personal brand and relevant articles, while optimizing it with SEO to increase exposure. Another commonly used channel is social media, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Many Instagram accounts focus on personal brand management, sharing content related to their profiles, such as food sharing, practical tool introductions, or pet videos. They publish posts and short videos related to their profiles on their social media accounts.
Steps to Establishing a Personal Brand
Establishing a personal brand is not difficult, as the internet allows individuals to gain exposure. Display your professional knowledge, interests, and experiences on social media platforms to attract interested users. Additionally, various tools are available to create content more effectively and manage your brand. The following steps detail how to establish a personal brand:
Self-awareness and Analysis
In the process of building a personal brand, the first step is to deeply understand yourself. This includes exploring your interests, expertise, and areas you excel in or are interested in. Analyze your unique and attractive characteristics, which could be personality traits, personal style, or values. The purpose of this step is to find the core of your personal brand.
Brand Positioning and Goal Setting
Once you have identified the areas you can develop, the next step is to position your brand and set goals. You can use SWOT analysis to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, potential competitors, and future development opportunities to determine your personal brand positioning and set target audiences. This facilitates the formulation of development strategies. During this step, you need to build your personal brand concept, image, etc., having a complete personal brand story can attract people and increase persuasiveness.
Creating Personal Brand Content
Establishing a personal brand requires not only a brand concept and image but also the creation of content that aligns with your personal brand positioning. You can showcase how you use professional skills, share your views on current events, or share ideas you identify with, allowing your personal brand to have relevant professional content. This helps establish authority in specific fields.
Continuous Personal Brand Management
Establishing a personal brand is not difficult, but how to manage it is the key to successful development. Continuously updating content can enhance the value of your personal brand and gradually complete your brand story. In addition to continuously publishing relevant knowledge content and ideas, increasing interaction can not only bring you closer to your followers but also attract the attention of other audiences. The following are several methods to increase interaction:
- Responding to followers’ comments and questions
- Holding prize draw activities
- Public speaking
- Participating in relevant industry events and seminars
- Active presence on social media
Introduction to Successful Personal Brand Cases
Below are two successful personal brand cases, demonstrating how individuals can gain public attention and support through social media.
Huber: The Special Effects Editing Influencer Who Can Change Lives
Huber is a creator skilled in special effects editing, sharing content related to technology and special effects editing on his YouTube channel. His videos include AI rendering, editing tutorials, and demonstrations of special effects. Both on YouTube and Instagram, he emphasizes the personal brand concept of “Unlocking Your Imagination for Technology.” Especially on Instagram, he edits videos of failed challenges into successful results, showcasing his professional special effects editing skills. The flawless video results not only attract continued viewership but also spark interest in special effects editing among others.
Image Source:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ia-A8gma8qcdC6GDcjwsQ
Huber has been creating since high school, progressing from ordinary editing videos to self-learning special effects editing. To promote knowledge in this area to the public, he started managing a Facebook group, providing a platform for those interested in special effects editing to communicate. His consistent personal brand concept and image have been the key to his successful personal brand management. Additionally, his video plans often involve interaction with the audience, such as fulfilling viewers’ requests in the comments section. His Instagram videos also attract attention from many foreigners, often seeing comments like “please edit my life, bro” in the comments section.
Jeffree Star: The Unapologetic Male Beauty YouTuber
Jeffree Star is a well-known beauty YouTuber, sharing reviews of cosmetics and makeup techniques on his YouTube channel. Apart from his superb makeup skills, he gained popularity for his direct and fearless personality, never afraid to offend manufacturers. In his makeup review videos, he always presents the most honest evaluations. If a product is good, he praises its merits; if not, he directly points out its flaws. This allows viewers to refer to Jeffree Star’s videos as a basis for selecting cosmetics.
Jeffree Star demonstrates his professional knowledge of beauty and attracts a large number of fans with his consistent straightforward and bold style, enabling him to successfully manage his personal brand. When he founded Jeffree Star Cosmetics, the products sold out immediately because he had already established an interested audience in beauty through YouTube and gained trust from fans with his straightforward reviews of cosmetic products. This also demonstrates Jeffree Star’s authority and influence in the beauty industry.
Personal Brand Management Assistant
Personal brand management requires the continuous production of high-quality content such as posts, articles, or videos. However, sometimes even with great effort, creating ideal personal brand content is challenging. In such cases, you can use AI text generation tools to assist you. Here, we recommend using GenApe, which provides AI tools for generating advertising posts, Instagram captions, YouTube video topic ideas, YouTube video script generation, etc. This allows you to continuously produce high-quality content for your personal brand without spending too much time, greatly increasing your brand’s exposure and support.
