This ain’t your mama’s branding
As you may know, internet marketing is mostly about having a brand and selling products or services through that brand.
If that sounds boring, to me it’s not and it’s why I love what I do! Just remember that your brand doesn’t have to be a dull corporate one. You don’t need a fancy logo (although those can be cool) or to have some senseless and trendy name.
Why not create a personal brand? Personal branding is an excellent opportunity for someone who wants to market or sell a product or service online and that doesn’t mind putting themselves out there and telling their story.
With options like Social Media Stories, this is way easier than ever before.
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is about putting yourself out there for the masses to see. You become the face of your business. You live the brand. You could be the business and use your own name (You have probably heard of Elon Musk or Martha Stewart). It could also be that you are featured predominately on your website and social profiles and pages (think Steve Jobs and Apple). These are some great examples of a strong personal brand.
You also see this a lot with athletes – When you think of Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ campaign who do you think of? Is it Michael Jordan? That is an example of creating a personal brand that is well defined. He is the GOAT (both from a branding perspective and as a basketball player), but I digress.
Another example would be Papa John’s founder – You probably know his face but do you remember his name? It is John Schnatter. Anyway, his is probably an example of how being the face of your brand can go wrong, so we’ll make sure to not go there.
With these examples, as influencers, the brand is the business. And the person is inseparable from that. They live their personal brands.
This isn’t just for the ‘big guys’ though. Traditional businesses like yours can also have a personal brand.
Social Media Stories
If you have a social media account, you’ve at least seen Stories and maybe even used/enjoy them. They’re short-form posts on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat (and some other networks). Stories are unique since they disappear after 24 hours. “What’s the point?” you ask. It creates a seemingly more real-time interaction between the user and their followers and fans.
When building a personal brand, this works perfectly. You bring your followers into your routine, to see the behind-the-scenes of your product or your service. Talk about building trust and impacting sales!
– Zig Ziglar
Advantages of personal branding
One advantage of personal branding is that it adds personality, some ‘pizzazz’ to your brand. When interacting with your social networks, to your followers it will seem like they are talking to you. This builds trust around you and your product or service.
Another advantage of a personal brand is that it can make you famous. If you like the spotlight, this will definitely be an advantage but for some others, not so much.
So how do you make this work for your brand?
If you are considering putting yourself out there in your marketing a little more, look at what the big names are doing right now to market themselves. If they can do it, so can you (within reason of course).
Not ready to do that yet? You can still find ways to add that human touch to your marketing. Using stories is just one example. We talk about how to use Instagram Stories in this post.
Looking for more ideas? Make sure you follow us on our socials as we’ll continue to put out lots of ideas for you.
Looking for some personal 1:1 help? Schedule a virtual-coffee and we’ll help you work up a plan.
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