Lacey Abbacchi is a LinkedIn Coach who teaches professionals how to market their business and build their personal brand on LinkedIn.
Having a strong brand is important to any company’s success. It can be the deciding factor in why a customer goes with your product versus your competitor’s product. People will typically do business with a brand that they know and trust.
Your personal brand is no different. It can help you build your reputation, credibility and overall professional success. Whether you’re just starting a business, trying to find clients or looking for a new job, a great personal brand is key in helping you achieve your goals.
What Is A Personal Brand?
A personal brand is the combination of your skills and passion and the value that you present to the world. Your personal brand isn’t some made-up character or persona. It’s simply an extension of who you are as a person.
Here are five important steps to take as you start building a personal brand that is authentic and memorable.
1. Define Your Unique Value
The first step in building your personal brand is to define the unique value that you have to offer. Ask yourself this question: When someone mentions my name, what do I want to be known for?
You’ll need to define:
• What benefit you offer people
• Who those people are
• How you solve their problems
• What makes you better and different than others
If you find that you’re struggling to answer these questions, you might need to clarify the “why” behind your brand. From there, you’ll be able to figure out how you can make the biggest impact on the people you want to help most.
2. Create A Look And Brand Anchor
We live in a world full of people who are unique and diverse—which can make it difficult to stand out. Having a look or a brand anchor helps you to do just that. It’s important to make sure that your social media profiles and website represent you well.
You want your look to communicate and align with your brand. Use the colors, interests or video styles that speak to your brand. Research over the past few decades has shown that people form rapid first impressions, judging others’ competence, trustworthiness and likability within 100 milliseconds of meeting them.
For example, when it comes to my personal brand, I have a few main signature looks and brand anchors:
• Bright, hot pink color and style
• Pink flowers
• Classic rock band T-shirts
• Optimism, positivity and kindness
• A simplified viewpoint on complex perspectives
It could be your perspective on life or a specific style that’s your differentiator. Whatever it may be, take the time to discover what makes you unique and helps you stand out from the crowd.
3. Be Consistent With Your Brand
Consistency makes your brand feel more trustworthy and dependable. When you’re getting to know someone, you develop an impression of them based on your interactions.
Let’s use Pepsi as an example: What if one day the drink tasted like apple juice and then the next day it tasted like water? People would be confused and wouldn’t know what to expect.
However, that’s not the case. Pepsi tastes exactly like it always has. No one ever wonders what it’s going to taste like because their brand remains consistent.
This also applies to your personal brand. If you aren’t consistent with your message, you could be sending mixed signals that will confuse people and leave them feeling like they can’t trust your brand because they don’t know what to expect.
4. Know Your Industry Well
If you want to build authority and trust in your industry, then you need to position yourself as a thought leader to attract more of your ideal clients.
Think of a few people who have strong personal brands and ask yourself these questions:
• Why did you choose them?
• What are you learning from them?
• What do you find strong about their personal brand?
Most likely, you picked these people because they have strongly positioned themselves as experts or go-to people within their industry.
It’s important that you understand your industry or niche inside and out. Stay up to date on the latest trends, new features and your competition. By doing this, you can stay ahead of the curve and on top of your game.
5. Give To Receive
I believe that one of the most important steps in establishing a personal brand is to be generous with your knowledge.
Since I’m a LinkedIn coach and personal branding strategist, I create content based around LinkedIn and personal branding. I openly share my tips and strategies to help others solve their problems regarding those topics.
When it comes to your personal brand, if you freely share knowledge with your audience, you’re positioning yourself to be the go-to expert in your industry. When someone has a question in your area of expertise, they know that they can rely on you to have the answers.
Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with others. Create content that’s informative, educational and valuable. Take your customers’ pain points or commonly asked questions and create content addressing them. This will not only establish you as a credible source but also as someone who truly wants to see others win.
It takes time to build and establish a personal brand that you’re proud of. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you work at it and stay consistent with your efforts, you can build a memorable and authentic personal brand that encompasses who you are, what you stand for and how you positively impact those around you.
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