By Justin Mark
There was a time when branding was perceived only for large corporations in specific sectors. The ways the branding was carried out was pretty straight forward too.
Since the creation of the printing press branding has come a long way.
Soon people realized that branding was not only for big companies also for small businesses in order for them to create a name for themselves. This name would inevitably bring in more business and profits.
Small businesses started branding themselves through many ways including by way of Newspaper and then TV and finally internet.
The power of branding is much more than you can perceive. The most notable instance that shook the world was when upon the request of Pepsi CO their beverage was strategically placed in the hands of Soviet Leaders in a literally and figuratively heated meeting.
This one simple but genius move of Pepsi CO earned them 17 Soviet submarines in return for their Pepsi supply to the Soviets.
There are a million more instances both famous and mundane that had the same effect for their branding as Pepsi CO.
Now, when it comes to personal branding, things get even more important. When you realized that companies are run by people and so it’s not companies dealing with companies, it’s actually people dealing with people. In such environment personal branding gets you where you want to be.
We’ve talked a lot about why and how branding and personal branding is important, now let’s get to the secrets that can get you the personal branding you desire and require to grow.
Secret # 1 Choose the Right Platform
With a number of social media platforms available, you have to make a choice whether you want to go with a single platform, or all of them, or any number in between. For some people, LinkedIn serves as the perfect platform for branding themselves while for others Twitter gives them the best results.
Secret # 2 Don’t Underestimate Visual Branding
Having a specially designed logo and choosing a color palette for all your stationery products, promotional banners, website and social media pages is of extreme importance.
If I say a red and white logo, what is the logo that comes to your mind? Just the fact that a logo instantly appears in your mind is reason enough for you to seriously consider visual branding.
Secret # 3 Give A Direction to Your Voice
Don’t make a post or talk about unrelated stuff. If you’re the best block chain programmer out there then all your content must be related to blockchain.
Don’t start talking about Anime in the middle of the post where you are explaining how mining bitcoins work.
Secret # 4 Fact Check You Claims
Always check and recheck anything and everything you write or say online that is serving as your branding effort.
Check your facts and give credible sources with your claims.
Secret # 5 Be Consistent
Be consistent with your branding. Don’t change your logo often. Don’t change your color pallet often. Be consistent with your branding image. Be consistent with your slogan.
Secret # 6 Give Regular Updates
Keep your audience and viewers regularly updates with your posts, tweets, or whatever it is that you prefer.
Don’t leave large intervals between your updates. If you make a post once a week, make your next post exactly 7 days apart. Not in a manner that you post on Saturday and then you post on Monday and after that, you make the next post after 10 days.
Secret # 7 Connect With Likeminded Folks
Connecting with likeminded folks on the same platforms on which you are branding yourself is a good idea and has the potential to bring in a lot of business and free branding.
Secret # 8 Don’t Shy Away From Self-Promotion
Don’t miss a chance to promote yourself. If someone asks “I need the world’s greatest Photoshop expert” be the first one to respond with “I am the one you are looking for”, or something to the same effect.
Secret # 9 Engage With People Who Follow You
Never leave your audience hanging. If someone asks a question answer them. If you can’t answer them tell them you can’t. Don’t let their queries go unanswered.
Secret # 10 Reserve and Preserve Your Brand
If you are a website owner make sure you reserve your brand name on all possible servers like .com, .net or any other that is possible.
You don’t go seeing addresses like www.facebook.net and that is because such giants have bought off all the possible addresses that might serve as their copy in the wrong hands
Secret # 11 Know Your Audience
Get to know the demographics, age group, ethnic group, career level in short know everything that there is to know about your audience.
Secret # 12 Know Your Value
It is very easy to underestimate yourself when you are trying to create a brand for yourself in the online world where there are people who are trying to do the same and have more experience and more resources.
If you’re a musician don’t ever underestimate yourself. Give yourself the value you deserve. The confidence that you have in yourself is shown in the content that you create online for branding or otherwise.
Secret # 13 Don’t Indulge Yourself in Petty Discussions
It is very easy to get off track online, especially when the topic under discussion is important to you. Remember you have been consistent and precise with your content. Don’t go talking about the current affair if all your content is dedicated to promoting the use of your handcrafted knives.
Secret # 14 Keep Your Persona
If you have a strong opinion about the electric car and how they are good for the environment than stand by it, even if you’ve learned sometime later that the production process of an electric car is so harmful to the environment that things in the long run even out for Electrical and Petrol cars.
Secret # 15 Proofread All Your Content
Don’t leave any grammatical or spelling mistakes in your content. Use helping tools like software to check for errors if needed.
Secret # 16 Keep Up to Date with What’s Trending
Always try to incorporate the latest trending items in your content. By doing so you exponentially increase the chance of your content being dragged to the top with the trend.
Secret # 17 Avoid Controversial Topics
Depending on the nature of your branding you might want to avoid getting into controversial discussions.
Take a look at this small example. Flushable wipes aren’t flushable at all. The companies the make these wipes are off the hook from false advertisement because of a little technicality that the wipes do get flushed from the toilet to the drain. But then they stay in the drains without degrading or moving forward. They often collect into large blocking mass called the “Fatberg”.
You would never find such companies commenting on any of the debates that are against them. Their silence is much more effective.
Secret # 18 Give You Opinion on Controversial Topics
Just like the situation above, depending on the situation you can go gung-ho into the controversial topics if you need quick publicity. As the advertisers say “No publicity is bad publicity”.
Secret # 19 Don’t Shy Away From Podcasts
Doing podcast can turn out to be the most important thing you ever did to grow your brands. Don’t underestimate the power of podcasts.
Secrets # 20 Make Yourself Heard Loud And Clear.
Don’t be vague and unclear on your ideas and goals. If your aim is to be the top hairstylist in the county then say it out loud. Make the message clear in your branding. Every part of your branding campaign should scream your goal, ideals and beliefs.
Justin Mark has been writing professionally on digital marketing for many years.
Social media stock photo by sondem/Shutterstock
