Are you looking to build your personal brand?

Perhaps you want to pursue a career as an online influencer. Or you want to become a motivational speaker. Or a career coach.

Heck, you don’t need to have any business or career goals to want to build your personal brand. You could be doing it for personal satisfaction.

Regardless of your motivation, building your personal brand isn’t a walk in the pack. You need to know what you’re doing; otherwise, you could be taking two steps forward and one step backward — perpetually.

If you need some expert help, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn what it takes to establish an effective personal brand.

What Are Your Goals for Building a Personal Brand?

The first step to build a personal brand is to establish your goals.

Typically, there are two types of goals: career-related goals and business-related goals.

Are you building a personal brand so that it can help you break into a certain career or become more successful? Or is the personal brand you’re building an extension of a business you’re already running?

This is important to figure out because your personal brand should align with your long-term goals.

For example, if you own a law firm, you certainly want your personal brand to be centered on the legal profession. Your aim is to brand yourself as the best lawyer in your area of specialization. When you build you build a solid brand as a lawyer, your law firm will get a boost by virtue of association.

What Do You Represent?

If you look at some of the biggest personal brands out there, you’ll notice a trend: they’re all built around a specific value or mission.

For instance, what first comes to mind when you think of Kim Kardashian? It’s hard not to think about beauty and fashion, right?

As such, you need to find out what you represent and focus on building your personal brand around it. And, don’t just settle on a mission or value because it’s potentially lucrative or is trending.

You need to choose something that you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about climate change, build your personal brand around sustainable living.

Walk the Talk

A key part of building a personal brand is actually walking the talk. It’s easy to say that you’re passionate about the environment on your social media channels, but if your actions don’t show that you’re indeed passionate about the subject, you won’t be doing your brand-building efforts any favors.

So, act. Don’t just talk.

Leverage the Power of Digital Media

Thanks to social media, building a brand today isn’t as difficult as it was decades ago. With digital tools like social media, blogs, and websites, you have a good opportunity to build your personal brand.

If you’re already using them, focus on increasing online presence. Find new channels that align with your brand and audience and start using them actively. Create compelling content that can attract new followers or fans.

Build Your Personal Brand the Right Way

It’s important to build your personal brand, especially if you’re doing it for the sake of your career or business. It’ll take time and you need to follow the right steps, as fleshed out above. You can also enlist the services of a branding specialist.

Keep tabs on our blog for more branding tips and advice.