Properly Building and Utilizing Personal Branding Strategies

1. What is meant by personal branding or personal brand?
2. Why personal branding is so important for businesses and freelancers and what specific goals are pursued
3. What makes a good personal branding strategy?
4. Which channels can be used for a personal branding strategy?
5. 4 Steps to develop a personal branding strategy
6. Which tools support the creation of a personal branding strategy?
7. 2 Examples of successful personal branding strategies
8. Conclusion

In this article, our guest author Tamara Köppel gives you everything you need to know about personal branding, how to build a successful personal brand, and how you can use it for yourself and your business.

Personal branding is currently on everyone's lips. Not only among the stars and starlets, but also among the managing directors of the company next door.

The desire for a strong brand perception and visibility through personal branding becomes even more important in times of strong comparability.

But despite this, or perhaps because of it, there are many different perceptions, definitions and also myths circulating about this.

We will clear up the ignorance and give you absolute clarity about the goals pursued by personal branding and how you can step-by-step create your own personal brand.

What is meant by personal branding or personal brand?

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made a very apt statement here:

"Personal branding is what others say about you when you're not in the room."

Each person already automatically has their very own personal brand. You consciously or unconsciously actively shape this brand with your words, deeds, and actions.

So simply ask yourself how you appear to the outside world. Next, ask your colleagues or your customers how they perceive you.

How big is the discrepancy?

The same applies to social media and the internet. All the information deposited there contributes to how you are seen by others. This is an important factor in personal branding. Checking your own perception against the external perception and consciously controlling this perception.

After all, if everyone automatically has an individual reputation anyway, why not control it consciously?

Personal Branding

At the heart of personal branding is that you make yourself visible to your Personality, your Strengths and your Expertise in front of the Public. The Placement for selected Core themes are essential cornerstones here and pave the way for you to build a strong personal brand.

But not only professional expertise is crucial here, but also the Human component. It's about making yourselves approachable as a person, sharing experiences, and conveying an authentic overall picture.

Why personal branding is so important for businesses and freelancers and what specific goals are pursued

So now you know that with your personal brand you are able to market yourself to other people and contribute your expertise.

However, how can this be transferred to the working world?

In principle, the personal brand bears some resemblance to the corporate brand. The company brand communicates its values, advantages and visions to customers in order to stand out from the competition and secure market shares.

The same can be applied to individuals, such as freelancers, who want to convince potential clients of themselves with the establishment of their brand.

Anonymous corporations and large brands are finding it increasingly difficult to build trust with their target audience. A strong brand presence alone is no longer sufficient. To quote Marina Zayats: "The image of a company is primarily shaped by the company leaders and employees who become visible in public."

Therefore, as a branding strategy, more and more companies are increasingly relying on brand ambassadors from their own ranks who report on current topics and news in order to support the company's goals. These can be individual employees as well as the CEOs themselves. They have a stronger and more trustworthy effect than classic company logos, as we can identify with them more easily. So companies can use different brand ambassadors for different corporate areas (e.g. Sales, Recruiting, Marketing etc.).

To quantify the power of personal brands, let's look at the example of Elon Musk on social media. While he has a grand 105.9 million followers on Twitter, Tesla only has 16.9 million. The advantage: the companies also benefit from this reach. Plus, the corporation doesn't hardly invest in marketing campaigns. Why is that? Quite simply: the personal brand of Elon Musk is their marketing.

The goals of personal branding

Employees who go public for their employers and communicate company-relevant content are in direct exchange with the target group. This enables them to better understand it and clarify individual concerns. They pick up on current topics, provide assistance and thus build the bridge between man and company.

What are the benefits for freelancers or employees if you actively engage in personal branding:

• Be perceived as an expert in the industry
• Building trust with the target audience, hence appointments with potential customers can be made
• Create a recognition value and therefore be easier to find for potential customers
• Easing sales activities, as potential customers approach you on their own (= pull marketing)
• Asserting oneself against other providers on the market
• Expanding a highly relevant network
• higher prices can be called for, as you position yourselves for a certain expertise and therefore clients prefer to work with you
• Due to increased visibility, invitations to speaker appearances, keynotes and seminars, podcast invitations etc.

In the digital age, it is no longer enough to just do a good job. Talent as well as visibility are essential points here. This is exactly where personal branding comes in.

What makes a good personal branding strategy?

Five words: Trust, added value, understanding of target group, continuity & authenticity.

Whether it's in a private environment or in a professional context.Trust is the basis of all successful (business) relationships. You build this trust most effectively by providing your target group regularly Added value and thereby conveying competence. This of course requires that you know your Target group and their needs like the back of your hand. In the article about Brand marketing you will get helpful tips on how to analyze your target group. If you know for which topic areas your personal brand should become known, you need to deal with these determined topics over and over again.

If, for example, you are employed by a company that produces sustainable cosmetic products and is committed to the environment, one of your topics could be "sustainability".

Share your knowledge and experiences with your network. Make yourselves indispensable and, above all, prove one thing: Continuity. It doesn't help to post something about your topic on social media every day for a month and then take a five month break.

Building a personal brand doesn't happen overnight. It requires time and regularity.

Last but not least: Authenticity. Show personality - not a smooth facade, but also rough edges. This means that you should also report about mistakes and learnings. The art is to communicate those aspects of personality that are both authentic and reflect the message of your company. Ultimately, it's important that you present a consistent overall picture.

Which channels can be used for a personal branding strategy?

To make your personal brand visible, you can become active both online (e.g. podcasts, social media posts, blogs) and offline (e.g. networking events, stage appearances). What used to be newspaper articles and television appearances are now posts or videos on social media. The possibilities to make oneself digitally visible are almost limitless. However, the right choice of channels is crucial. Especially well-known social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Xing are perfect for drawing a picture of you and your brand. Publishing your own Blog can also be very effective.

Which communication channel you choose for your personal branding strategy should primarily depend on the presence of your target audience. It doesn't help to publish videos on YouTube if your target person mainly gets information on LinkedIn. If you are active in business-to-business (B2B), in the long run you can't get around LinkedIn. With this business platform, you are able to target your target group very accurately and to get in touch with them via messages or posts. In the same way, the video platform YouTube is gaining in relevance here.

In the business-to-consumer (B2C) area, Instagram has proven particularly successful.

Especially in the beginning, it is important not to focus on several channels at the same time. Focus your attention on one channel and play it regularly. How often you let yourselves be heard depends on you and your time. Choose a rhythm that you can maintain in the long term (e.g. 3x per week).

4 Steps to develop a personal branding strategy

Now it's time to work out your personal branding concept.

Step 1: Identity

The first step is the foundation for a successful brand. So before you think about further procedures, it is important to clarify your current status.

Typical questions you should ask yourself at this point are:

• What is your goal in building your personal brand?
• What values do you stand for?
• What are your strengths?
• What makes you unique?
• How do you want to be perceived?
• What drives you?

Step 2: Message

Next, choose the messages and relevant topics that contribute to your positioning.

• For what do you want to be visible as a personal brand?
• Who is your target audience and what problems can you solve for them? (e.g. employee recruitment for tech companies)
• About which core topics do you want to talk (usually no more than 3-4)
• What advantages do you offer compared to your competitors?

Step 3: Method & Channels

After you have developed a unique message, it's time to select communication tools and suitable channels to become visible.

• How does communication with the target group take place? (online, offline or hybrid?)
• What is your target group's communication behavior? (visual or auditory)
• How should the messages be packaged? (e.g. in the form of social media posts or videos)
• How does your target group get their information? (e.g. via blog articles)
• Which channels does your target group use?

Step 4: Content

Once you have answered all the questions carefully, it is now time to generate relevant content for your target group.

• What topics concern your target group?
• Are there any best practice examples that you can report on?
• Are there any current trends or changes within your industry that you can inform about?
• What are your personal milestones?
• What are your biggest learnings?
• How often do you want to post? (e.g. 3x per week)

Which tools support the creation of a personal branding strategy?

Miro: is a collaboration tool that you can use to set up your personal branding strategy. The tool offers plenty of space to put your thoughts on "paper" and is perfect for brainstorming or strategic planning. You can also use it for your content planning and tracking, as it can also be linked to Excel, for example.

Miro Board: Personal Branding Strategy

Canva Pro: is a web-based design program that offers you a variety of options for designing your content. Whether you want to use the tool for social media posts, graphics or even advertising, the various templates provide something for every case. It is very easy to handle and with the free basic version, many different designs can already be implemented.

Shield: is a tracking tool with which you can evaluate the performance of your organic content on LinkedIn. In addition to individual parameters such as followers, views, comments, likes, and shares, you can also have the engagement rate displayed. You can take a look at individual postings as well as compare the development over several weeks. This way, you have all the relevant developments in the form of tables and graphics at a glance and can see what is relevant for your target group and what is not.

Content tracking on LinkedIn with Shield

More Social Media SuitesTools that can support you in creating a personal branding strategy can be found on OMR Reviews.

2 Examples of successful personal branding strategies

Example No. 1: Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla)

When we mention the name Elon Musk, what comes to your mind?

Visionary? Tesla? E-mobility? Travelling to outer space?

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and now the richest man in the world, particularly stands for progress. In addition to Tesla, he is also involved in various other companies such as SpaceX or Neuralink who make a decisive contribution to technological progress with their projects.

But how did he manage to make us all associate at least one of the above words with him? Answer: through his strong online presence.

Elon Musk has been using his main channel Twitter for years to share his thoughts and developments with the world. But not only does he show business content, he also communicates with customers, uses memes, and occasionally shows himself very privately with his son. He thus becomes human and achieves increased identification with him and the Tesla brand. His strong presence in public contributes to a major part in Tesla's economic success. Because in the end, people always buy from people. That's the power of a successful personal brand. For us, Tesla is Elon Musk.

Elon Musk and his son

Example No. 2: Tim Höttges (CEO Deutsche Telekom AG)

Tim Höttges has been CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG since 2014 and primarily uses LinkedIn as his main communication channel. He is a leading figure in the field of telecommunications and lets his approximately 120,000 followers participate in his knowledge and experiences almost daily. Alongside text posts with images, his feed also frequently features short videos.

Example of a business-relevant video by Tim Höttges on LinkedIn

He informs his network about topics such as digitalization, fibre optic technology or 5G and incorporates his own personal opinion. He addresses societal questions and openly discusses political topics. It is particularly these personal statements that make Tim Höttges authentic. With tasteful storytelling, he manages to evoke emotions in his target audience and take them along on his journey.

This makes him a prime example of personal branding at the C-level.

Example of a personal post by Tim Höttges on LinkedIn

Conclusion

In the end, personal branding always puts the individual with his or her individual competencies, experiences, and values in the foreground.

Your individual personal brand will accompany you throughout your entire life. Therefore, use the food for thought from this article to actively shape your personal brand.

It's not about showing yourselves exclusively from your best side, but above all about making yourselves approachable as a human being and building trust through competence. Share your knowledge with others. Be helpful and make yourself indispensable. Because in the end, B2B business is also a person-to-person business.