How Entrepreneurs Can Build a Stronger Personal Brand

A strong personal brand will become essential in the years to come. Competition is exponentially increasing in most industries, and businesses need to make more of an effort to be memorable. In this article, we discuss How Entrepreneurs Can Build a Stronger Personal Brand.

As an entrepreneur, having a personal brand will open new doors for your business. A strong personal brand will give your business personality. Successful entrepreneurs use their unique brands to promote their businesses.

Here are some ways that entrepreneurs can build a stronger personal brand:

Table of Contents

Be Authentic

Being authentic is critical to your personal brand.

“Who you are online is who you are as a business,” says Digital Marketing guru, Neil Patel.

Authentic brands that have a unique style and personality have loyal followers. These followers will support you and your business. Being authentic allows you to form deeper connections with your audience.

There are so many generic people online trying to stand out. These people use the same language, tone, camera positions, and even similar content because it’s used by someone famous. With so many people trying to brand themselves online, competition is fierce. Trying to be the same as everyone else will not be of any benefit to either you or your business.

Have a Stunning Presence on Social Media

Having a substantial presence on different social media platforms is a necessity for your personal brand.

People are spending more and more time online. The chances are that your target audience being online is also increasing. People want to know more about you as a person. This is an excellent opportunity that you can capitalize on and become memorable for your target audience.

Your activity on social media platforms allows you to promote your thoughts on different issues. By taking a stance on a particular topic, you’ll stay in the headlines, which means that you’ll stay in front of your audience.

You can also promote news or stuff related to your business, like a new product launch or a recent success. This doesn’t mean that you should spam people with constant updates about your business. Try to maintain a balance between posts about your business and yourself. Share a funny cat video (always encourages positive engagement) or a quote you found particularly inspiring.

Social media also allows your audience to engage with you in a way that is convenient for them. Lead generation also becomes a tad simpler thanks to social media. You don’t need to run after leads. Your audience will see you online and (hopefully) engage with you. You’ll be able to generate more leads and sales thanks to social media.

Building a presence on social media takes time. If you’re going for the organic route and trying to increase your following organically, you might need extra help. Since platforms like Facebook are slowly reducing their organic reach, content producers like yourself need to consider purchasing advertisements on social media.

Posts by accessible pages don’t have the reach they used to, and you need to admit it. You need to stay up to date on all the latest development about social media. You’ll be able to strengthen your personal brand effectively if you make relevant changes as soon as possible.

Below you’ll find steps on how you can have an impressive presence on social media:

Personalize your social media profiles. Show your audience that you are a real human being with a unique personality.
Make a schedule for your social media posts and stick to it.
Your followers will stick around longer if you keep providing them with value.
Engage with people who interact with you on social media. Liking their comments and giving a well-thought reply will go a long way.
Use hashtags, but don’t use 18 hashtags in a single post. Use the most relevant hashtags that would complement your business.
Use competitions or giveaways to get more engagement from your audience.
Use automated scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to save your time.

Have a Personal Website

You can’t control how different social media platforms evolve, but the one thing that you can have full control of is your personal website. Having a personal website portrays that you are a professional who is serious about his goals and business.

Having a personal website would let you own a small piece of the online landscape. You’ll be able to share your views without having to conform to anyone else’s standards. A personal website makes it easier for other people to connect with you.

One thing that should be front and center on your website is your personal story. Everyone has a unique story to share with the world. What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? By sharing your personal account online, your website visitors will realize that there is an actual person behind the brand. Humanizing your brand is necessary; otherwise, people might think that you’re a fictional persona or something.

You don’t even need to have a blog on your personal website. Some people prefer to use their personal website as a landing page for their ventures.

What you choose to do with your personal website depends on how you plan to use it to build your personal brand. There is no one strategy fits all, so it’s a good idea to try out different things and keep the ones that bring you the most benefit.

Remember to link your social media profiles from your website. If visitors like your personality, they might want to see more from you on your social media.

Publish as Much Content as You Can

A mistake that some entrepreneurs make is that they publish content once a day for a week and stop after they don’t see the results they envisioned.

Successful entrepreneurs put out as much content as they can to increase their personal brand.

Gary Vaynerchuck produces an extraordinary amount of content. What’s even more amazing is that his material is tailored for different social media platforms and other mediums and then published to all of them. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, his website and god knows where else.

Gary Vaynerchuck put out a content model in 2018. In the content model (based on a reversed triangle), he emphasized on making a pillar piece of content. The pillar content would then be divided into several smaller and more platform-appropriate pieces of content.

By publishing such large quantities of content daily, Gary Vaynerchuck can be in front of an audience that is spending more and more time on these platforms.

Not everyone is Gary Vaynerchuck. You need to realize your limitations and produce content in a way that you won’t burn out in four days.

Identify the platforms where your target audience resides and concentrate on making content for these platforms. Gradually increase your content production and publishing pace. If you notice substantial growth thanks to your content, consider hiring someone to take care of editing and other time-consuming tasks so you can focus on the things that bring the most value to your business.

Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors

The best way to build your individual brand is to show your audience what your competitors don’t have.

Have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that only you have. Present your USP in a way that’ll intrigue your audience and make them want to know more about you.

Incorporating your USP into your personal slogan will allow your customers to know what your brand is about without much effort.

One way to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to specialize in one particular field. By being an expert in a specific field, you’ll be able to attract more customers. If you have specialized skills in a particular area, you’ll be able to market yourself more effectively.

One recently popular strategy to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to produce content that helps your audience above and beyond the call of duty. Provide as much value as you can. You can also include live chat software in your website for providing real time support. 42% people prefer live chat over other contacting mediums such as social media or emails.

Caring for your audience and website visitors is important. It can easily distinguish you from your competitors. A greater level of customer service and satisfaction is necessary these days.

Facilitating your customers by making sure that they are catered to is important. If you can only be reached via email, you’re losing customers. You’ll need to keep up with the trends and embrace technology if you want to be remembered. Having a live chat app on your website will give your customers better service while also conserving the energies of your support staff.

Your audience will realize that you know what you are talking about and take you more seriously. After helping your potential customers as much as you can, then make a sales pitch. If your audience wants an expert to help them out with their problems, they’ll ask you first. Even if your audience doesn’t enlist the help of your startup, you would have created a positive brand image. The ROI (Return on Investment) on your positive brand image is worth more than a couple of sales.

Network With Different People

As an entrepreneur, you should always be on the lookout to make more connections. Networking with people from different industries will allow you to gain different perspectives on an issue.

Collaborating with other influencers will be mutually beneficial for both parties. By forming partnerships with other people, you’ll be able to leverage both audiences for your advantage.

Networking with strangers might not be easy for some people. Interacting with a younger demographic online is alright, but if you want to have meaningful relationships with older people, meeting them in person is the easiest way.

Start building your network by attending events in your area that are related to your industry. You’ll be able to meet new people and slowly grow your network. Get to know people from outside your industry, as well. They might become a vital asset if you decide to branch out from your niche later on in your career.

YouTubers have been using collaboration as a way to increase their views and popularity. It also allows them to make better content. Advertisements incorporated with a creator’s content does better than some other ads on social media.

Have a Detailed Content Strategy

Without a detailed content strategy, you’re not going to be able to grow your personal brand.

73% of B2B companies say that having a content marketing strategy increases their focus on pre-determined content goals.

A detailed content marketing strategy includes but is not limited to your business model, goals and objectives, and multiple buyer personas for your offerings, among other things.

Having a detailed content marketing strategy allows you to plan. Successful entrepreneurs are often experts at planning. Your plan should include who your target audience is and how you’re going to persuade them to join your following.

Most entrepreneurs come up with a content strategy once or twice. These entrepreneurs forget that the business landscape is continually changing. A content strategy that is not updated for a while will not be able to provide the results that you need to grow your personal brand and your business.

Make a habit of updating your content strategy once every two months. An update becomes necessary when there is a new change to a search engine algorithm or other updates to a social media platform.

Aim To Be One of The Most Famous People in a Niche

Some niches are more crowded than others. Digital marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have many famous faces. Trying to wiggle your way into this industry is going to take a lot of time and is going to be hard work. Having said that, it’s not impossible to become a leader in an industry if you’re a little late to the party.

Providing helpful and relevant content to your target audience will always increase your popularity. Even with so many influencers, there are still topics that can be explained more straightforwardly. Identify missed opportunities like these and jump on them before one of your competitors.

Conclusion:

Having a personal brand has become a necessity for modern entrepreneurs. People want to be associated with businesses that share the same ideals and values as them.

Successful entrepreneurs are leveraging their online following for their businesses. Examples include Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuck, Marie Forleo, among others. Developing a loyal audience takes a while, but the rewards are undoubtedly worth it.

Personal branding will play a vital role in the future when there is even more competition between businesses in the same niche. If you still want to have a loyal audience in the near future, you might want to start taking personal branding seriously and make a consistent effort to increase it.

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Author Bio
Hamzah Adil is a young content writer passionate about startup life. Building businesses and developing personal brands is a special topic of interest. Other topics of interest include business, social media, viral trends, and technology. He is currently working at a startup that has developed a live chat application called SwiftChat. This live chat software allows its users to cater to visitors on their website in real-time.