5 steps to a stand out personal brand - Women's Agenda

5 steps to a stand out personal brand

Your personal brand is a hard won commodity and in business it is your most valuable asset. It is critical if you want to be seen as a leader in your field.

Your personal brand is the measure of your credibility, trust and influence. Building it isn’t easy and there is no instruction manual for the best way to go about it. However, the power of a good personal brand far outweighs the hard work that goes into building it.

We all know that it’s no longer enough to simply be great at what you do… you now need to be great at telling people what you do. So along my path to becoming a recognised expert, I developed a 5 Star System.

By following these five steps, you will be equipped with the tools to build a strong personal brand, boost your profile, become a recognised expert and start opening doors to new opportunities.

1. Figure out the Why

First things first; you need to ask yourself why you want to build a personal brand. If it’s purely promotional, you will struggle to develop emotional connections with people.

The key is to be transparent and genuine, and really believe in yourself. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs stand in your way. People will only consider you as an expert if you believe in yourself.

2. Set the Stage

Setting the stage is where you define your personal brand. Have a think about what you want the heart and soul of your brand to be – you’re one thing. This is the essence of your communication and voice of your strategy across every platform.

It’s also important to think about your area of expertise. What is your niche? It’s critical you pick your niche and stick to it. Don’t be wishy-washy as it will confuse your audience and dilute your brand.

3. Turn on the Spotlight

This is when you are starting to shine. You’ve done your planning and it’s now time to illuminate your personal brand.

The first step is to create a personal website that will not only increase your exposure online, but you will also gain more control over your online identity.

Blogging is another great tool to increase your profile and allow you to connect with your audience in an engaging way. Blogging takes time and effort, so be sure to do your research and consider your audience before taking to the keyboard. The key is to write often, and write well.

Another step to becoming a recognised expert is to network and build relationships with your audiences. Attend functions, connect with local businesses and make yourself known to anyone who’s interested.

4. Use the Media to Shine the Light

By stage 4, your role as an expert will start to take shape; you will start to use the media to share your expertise and reach the people that will influence your success.

Approaching journalists can be a daunting task, but the best way to get your story out there is to shape it in a way that’s attractive to the media. Journalists only pick up stories which they consider to be newsworthy, so it’s worth taking the time to create a great angle. Creating strong relationships with journalists, knowing the publications you’re pitching to, and sending it to the right inbox is also worthwhile.

5. Own The Light

The final stage of building your personal brand is to step into the social media spotlight. Social media is a critical step and it’s an essential tool that allows you to communicate directly with your audience, unfiltered by anyone else, including media.

Social media is all about relationships. You are developing credible relationships with large numbers of people directly. Often they feel that this relationship is one-on-one as you are providing valuable information and engaging them in conversations. 

Congratulations! However, it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. In fact, it never ends because success is a continuous cycle. Your personal brand, including bios, media releases and speaking topics change over time and take a different shape as you evolve as an expert.

 

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