Personal branding is good for some businesses, but it’s also bad for a lot of businesses. Becoming the face of a business is a powerful marketing tool, but what if you want to sell the business in the future? It’s more difficult to sell a business when you’re the face of the company.
But for a dentist or a law firm, personal branding can be beneficial. In this case, you want to be the face of a business.
Personal branding in today’s world goes beyond billboards that have a professional’s face splattered all over them. Businesses have a lot of assets that need to utilize personal branding to build a strong, personal brand.
If you want to improve your personal brand, you’ll want to start by:
Becoming a Credible, Professional Resource
If you’re going to leverage your personal brand, you have to be a resource and face that people trust. Credibility is the difference between a professional charging $50 an hour for their service or $300 an hour for their service.
You want to be the resource that people trust, and this can be done in a variety of ways:
- Guest posts
- Social media
- Blog posts
- Speaking at conferences
- Connect with other organizations
You want your face to be in as many places as possible.
Use the Same Photo on All Assets
People need to know your name and face. If you’re using bad photographs or a variety of photographs across multiple channels, this will do more to confuse people than to actually help your personal branding.
A good example of personal branding in action can be seen with the personal injury attorney at Sigurdson Law .
You’ll notice a few things immediately:
- Header featuring the firm’s owner
- Pictures of all team members for further branding
- Twitter profile with a similar picture
I did notice that the attorney didn’t have a picture on their LinkedIn profile – a big mistake. There needs to be consistency across all channels.
The goal is to use the same picture on author accounts and marketing, too. When people see the picture, they’ll correlate it to the firm and the sound advice it gives to clients.
Start Helping Others in the Industry and Potential Clients
You need to be able to expand your reach, and this is best done by helping others. If you’re not helping others, you’re failing. The goal is to genuinely help others, and this will be able to grow your brand.
Go on social media, and try and find others in your area asking questions.
Using the example of an injury lawyer from earlier, you can search for others in your area that may have questions about their personal injury case.
Respond to these individuals and provide valuable information, such as:
- Linking to a resource you have on the topic
- Linking to the answer somewhere else
- Answering the question directly
If you start helping others, it will reflect good on your brand and also help you start building your brand as an informative, influential person in the industry.
Photos courtesy of gettyimages.com
