10 Tips to Improve and Power Your Personal Brand

Now you know! We are all a brand… You are a brand! A brand waiting to be promoted and marketed to third parties with the aim of achieving challenges, objectives and the greatest possible success.

You already have a point in your favor that others do not have: you know that you are a brand and you know the importance of creating it and making it grow. With this simple fact, you already have a key and differentiating element to develop a strategy capable of placing yourself ahead of the competition.

In this article we want to help you and facilitate the correct construction of your personal brand with some basic tips capable of optimally developing and promoting your personal brand.

1. Make Yourself Visible and Accessible

One of the first tips to develop your personal brand is related to the ability to be active. With this we are saying that you have to show yourself visible and accessible.

The growth of a personal brand is closely linked to its ability to be visible and interact with others. A static profile is doomed to die and what is worse to add negative consequences for personal identity.

One of the common characteristics of successful brands is determined by the active profile of the person represented. The professional or company moves actively in all possible scenarios.

In a real close-up, attending meetings, conferences, establishing contacts and creating new opportunities. On the other hand, in the virtual world, we find a context that multiplies the options to become visible and accessible: social networks, videos, forums, etc…

It is useless to have some excellent qualities in the personal brand if it is not promoted and made known or is seen to be recognized.

2. Look for Inspiration in an Icon

To progress in any facet it is necessary to learn from the best, from those who have had and are having some success in what they do.

It is not about copying and/or “shooting” their methods and actions, but rather being aware of the key points that have made them stand out from the rest.

Those personal brands that stand out from the rest and achieve objectives and successes are carriers of a certain dose of credibility and inspiration. Of these last qualities we can take note to improve our own personal brand.

There are many personalities and professionals from different sectors who have been able to take their personal brand to levels of success that are difficult to overcome, in addition to achieving a clear differentiation between their own personal brand and that of the business or company.

3. Create Synergies with Other Professionals

Synergy? What’s that? In today’s globalized world, growing professionally individually can be a very rocky road. The more contact and learning, experiences or collaborations you get from other professionals, the more it will make you grow and become a better professional.

At the personal brand level, the concept of synergy refers to the fact of working together with other people, developing actions linked to third parties to achieve the best results and taking advantage of the learning and experience obtained.

4. Pay Attention to The Image

You may agree or not, but the saying “a picture is worth more than 1000 words” is a reality if we want to enhance our personal brand plan.

There is no successful personal brand that is not associated with an image and this image must respond to the qualities and characteristics that characterize said personal brand.

In other words, personal image and brand must be linked: one must speak of the other and vice versa.

Photos are the basic instrument to show your image to others. This must be taken care of in detail and be as professional as possible. No homemade, dark, blurry editions and, in general, quality photos suitable for what you want to represent.

These are not only professional photos; let’s remember that social networks also show a more personal side. All this context must be well managed, the image has an important weight and must run parallel to the rest of the qualities of the personal brand.

5. Build a Community around Your Brand

When we develop a personal brand, we promote it on different platforms in order to reach the widest possible audience. Both in blogs, social networks, etc… The message has to reach people so that they can comment, generate interaction… and talk about us.

Creating a community around the brand is essential as it produces the so-called valuable feedback. Good feedback is capable of attracting more people and with it more opportunities.

6. Find Your Niche

Working and developing a professional brand focused on a wrong business niche is a real waste of time.

The personal brand must support a personal and professional identity capable of being able to differentiate itself from the competition.

The search for a niche requires a complete act of reflection and study of oneself. Some tips to be as accurate as possible in this search are the following:

Identify the talents and skills that you are truly good at. It is about recognizing in which activities you have a better aptitude and being able to differentiate between those activities in which you are good and those in which you would like to be good.

7. Good Design is Essential

At this point, you will already know that a branding is founded on a coherent and homogeneous message in all its facets. From the niche to the promotion, message and image platforms… and all this under an appropriate design that enhances the development of the brand.

The design is image and as such it must be carried out in a professional, logical and rational manner. Any misstep in this regard can lead the public away from your brand.

In this sense, minimalist sites and nothing overloaded are recommended. The design must be homogeneous for all your dissemination platforms: web, blog, social networks…

Font, colors, logos are some elements that will integrate an important part in a professional design of your personal brand.

Some interesting facts about color and its meaning:

• White: Transparency and honesty.
• Red: Energy and strength.
• Blue: Calm, confidence and serenity.
• Green: Balance and tranquility.

8. Differentiate Yourself from Your Competitors

You are not alone! This is so, both in your niche or sector there are hundreds or thousands of people who offer your services, qualities or develop their personal brand similar to yours. There is no other than knowing how to differentiate yourself from the rest to rise above them.

How do you do this? There is no direct formula to know how to find the difference over the rest. What is clear is that the answer will come from the knowledge and study of the competition. From its qualities and information you will be able to know that differentiating element that makes you different.

9. Use Social Media to Boost Your Brand

We are not going to continue insisting on the importance of social networks to create, build and enhance your personal brand. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and Facebook are the main options that you have to know and know how to use,

Each social network has its own characteristics and marketing strategies, hence the importance of its optimal use to strengthen the personal brand.

For example, Facebook is the social network with the most users and is focused on communication between users and followers. It is ideal to use it to retain the audience. On the other hand, on Twitter the message is smaller and is more designed to offer information.

10. Patience and Quality, The Keys to Success

It will not be the first time that you have heard that the key to success is at work. For the development of a successful personal brand, there is no other option than to work on it every day.

Patience, perseverance and the quality of the contents are basic ingredients to be able to reap fruits at the end of the road.

The personal brand lives from the audience and they must be given information, data, interaction… reasons for them to stay with your brand.

In addition to good content, you must have a routine of interaction on social networks and different platforms in order to give your brand more visibility. All these types of actions must be organized and well programmed in order to provide a coherent and meaningful balance. (CWT)