Personal Branding: The Key to Success in the Digital Age
Determine who you are and what your brand is and what you are not. The rest of it is just a lot of noise.
-Geoffrey Zakarian
In this digital age, as a company or person, you ought to review your presence online to see what would come up when prospects seek your title. Maximizing your digital presence is essential for your company or personal brand as online sales, resources, education, and sales have all skyrocketed. It doesn't matter whether you're an entrepreneur, expert, thought leader, executive, or a business owner. Maximizing your digital presence has proven to bring more connections, customers, and revenue.
Since the pandemic, the majority of executive meetings, sales demos, and business transactions are conducted online. Consumers are heavily researching online, looking for the right connection or right representative that they can trust and build with.
With an uncertain year coming to a close, personal branding is crucial.
Why Personal Branding is important?
To pull higher-paying clients.
Once you have got built up your brand authority in your industry, your demand increases and you can thereby charge a premium for your services. The key here is becoming the kind of customer or client you would want to attract.
Competitive advantage.
The online market is intensely soaked by billions of individuals and the trust factor in the marketplace is at an all-time low. Consumers and clients want to know who they are doing business with, no matter the niche or industry. They need somebody who they can trust and value. "By separating yourself and positioning yourself as the specialist or master in your industry, you construct much more validity along with your target market.''
Connect with experts and create deeper relationships.
Connection is money. Covid-19 has impacted the way we connect and interact online. The economy has taken a major digital shift, the dependence on online branding for business people has become crucial. All of our communication, sales demos, and business meetings have become virtual. You have to be alluring to your prospects.
How to Build a Personal Brand?
Building trust.
If people plan to talk to you, work with you, or purchase from you, they're reaching to check you out online. Having a personal brand means they can easily find you online, get you to know you before they meet you, and learn what differentiates you from the competition.
Making better connections.
People don't connect with companies; they interface with the individuals behind the companies, so showing your human side with a personal brand will result in better business. People want to know your values before they commit to becoming customers or partners.
Increasing content visibility.
The stronger your brand, the more people will see, share and respond to your content. The truth is, even if you're not paying attention, you already have a personal brand. Since you're going to be found online anyway, you might as well take control.
We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in."
-Craig Davis
Here's how to start creating your personal brand the right way.
Vanity Search.
Although it's called a vanity search, I see it as a sound business practice to know what's showing up about you in search results. Google your name, both with and without quotes, in an incognito or private browser window, and you'll see what everyone who finds you online can see.
If you're happy with the results, then at least part of your branding job is already done. If not, then you have some remedial work to do to make sure what shows up does you credit.
Start a blog.
A blog helps to attract an audience. Search engines love blog content. That's one reason why a blog is at the heart of your brand, giving life to all your other online outposts.
You want to be proud of the content you publish because it's a reflection of you. Put your best content foot forward whenever you post. Mix your thoughts, your achievements, and trending stories with helpful topics for a well-rounded content plan that will enhance your online reputation and will give people a reason to pay attention to you. People love blogs that are entertaining as well as informative.