Our Life Changers sell two things: our products, and themselves. Life Changers market their faith in TLC, and their genuine concern for their customers’ health and wellness. Since you are the face of your business, the importance of your personal brand cannot be understated.
You Are Your Brand
What aspects of you, and your life, are you hoping to share with potential customers? Where do your business life and personal life overlap, if they do at all? Most importantly, what is the message of your brand?
Building Your Personal Brand
Like an advertising executive at a big firm, you have to decide on the main message of your own personal brand. Think of it like a slogan, or a vision statement, a guiding light around which you can build your brand.
At TLC, ours is about providing the products and community that you can feel. Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign grew from their belief that anyone with a body is an athlete. As Goldie Chan says, writing for Forbes, two of the keys to building your personal brand is to stay focused, and then be genuine.
Online Presence
Modern technology makes reaching an audience easier than ever, but it can also be overwhelming. With so many platforms to choose from, it can be challenging to know where to start. Luckily, most are easy to use and free or low-cost.
Social Media
A good place to start is LinkedIn. According to a recent study, over 80% of recruiters use LinkedIn to help them find quality employees. Even if you aren’t actively looking for work, LinkedIn can serve as one of the shingles you hang outside your business’ door and help establish your personal brand.
Look at the information you’ve supplied to LinkedIn as someone who doesn’t know you. Ask yourself how you look to that stranger. Make sure your background, skills, and goals are clearly stated and up-to-date. Keep it simple, and accurate, to start, then look into maximizing your profile’s impact and taking advantage of the art that goes into making a solid profile.
At TLC, we maintain social media sites across most of the available platforms. For people just starting out, it’s best to focus on one or two. Facebook is popular, though it has the baggage of controversies over the advertising it promotes. Though Facebook owns Instagram, that platform seems less-encumbered by its parent company’s bad press. Instagram focuses on photography and images, so make sure you’re able to generate high quality pictures regularly if you choose to use that site.
Twitter offers the ability to easily post text, images, and links. Since it limits the number of characters per post, you won’t feel the need to wax overly poetic every time you want to reach out.
Personal Website
If you’re looking for more control over your online platform, you may want to consider creating your own website to represent your personal brand. A simple website isn’t expensive, and you don’t need a lot of technical expertise to tell your story.
As we stated before, keep your personal brand focused and authentic. More and more, consumers are sensitive to marketing scams they perceive as artificial.
Your personal brand is important because it’s the most direct connection to potential partners. You control it. You choose what you want people to know about you. It’s a heavy responsibility, but when it comes to business, your personal brand is your first, and most important, investment.
Jack Fallon
