It’s true – you can’t have a personal brand if you don’t have credibility. But what do you do if your credibility is zero? How can you build it when there are others who are already well-known in the industry? How should one go about launching their personal brand to make a name for themselves, especially when they’re competing with people who’ve been around much longer than them and seem to enjoy more respect from clients and colleagues alike?
This post will give some tips on how to jump into the world of branding yourself as an expert in your field without any credentials other than being willing to work hard.
What is personal branding?
Personal branding describes the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal, according to Personal Branding Wiki.
Brand building is about creating an identity and then managing it. Your personal brand can be made up of what you do, the values you hold dear, your image on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram; all contribute to how people perceive who they are dealing with when interacting with them in person or online.
The end goal for many is a unique value proposition built upon their lifetime experiences that will win over potential clients and customers due to its uniqueness in comparison to competitors’. Building trust through rapport takes time but once established becomes invaluable as establishing credibility both personally and professionally.
Developing a personal value proposition
A strong personal value proposition is the foundation for any type of branding. Without knowing who you are, what you’re passionate about and your strengths, it can be difficult to really get started with developing a brand that will have maximum appeal.
Building a presence
Achieving a successful brand is no easy feat, and the first stages of building it can be difficult.
The most challenging thing about starting out in this field is finding people who are already established to help you get your name out there. But just because things seem bleak now doesn’t mean they’ll always feel that way- if anything, getting through these tough times will make everything else so much easier!
What’s more important than anything else at this point? Starting small and working towards bigger goals as time goes on like crawling before walking or taking baby steps (sorry) for instance with three essential online ventures:
- Create your own professional website. You’ll need to decide on a domain name, set up hosting, and choose a site builder like WordPress which will give you the ability to create pages for individual subjects or topics.
- Start a blog on your website and keep it going! This is one of the best ways to develop your voice, find out who you are as an author. Don’t be afraid to create something different than everyone else does!
- Social media is the best way to expand your personal brand, but it’s important not to go too far. Choose one or two platforms that work for you and make sure they are effectively updated.
It can be tricky navigating social media as an aspiring entrepreneur in this day and age due to how many networks there are out there now; however, if done right a savvy individual will find themselves with thousands of new connections without even trying hard! Don’t let all these options overwhelm you either though because picking just three (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter) may do more than enough good when combined correctly while still giving them time to focus on other marketing efforts like blogging.
Exploring other content mediums
One of the best ways to strengthen your brand and continually build momentum is by creating high caliber content. One way you can do this is through podcasting where “listening grew 23% between 2015-2016.” Another great medium for building yourself up as an authority on a given topic or industry are infographics which has more than 1.3 billion users! Other forms of media that I think have potential are webinars (with over 5 million monthly viewers) ebooks, whitepapers all with their own unique benefits when it comes to strengthening your personal branding efforts.
Guest-blogging
Guest blogging is pound-for-pound the most effective way to build a personal brand. Guest posting on another blog can offer you an instant boost in popularity and credibility, but it’s important that your content not be spammy with SEO as its only goal.
Get press coverage
You might be able to get your story covered in newspapers and news outlets with a little bit of effort. These days, people tend not do these things because they have grown accustomed to private media like Facebook or Twitter – but there are still advantages you can gain from getting press coverage!
The power that traditional outlets such as the newspaper industry has is just starting to dwindle away. In today’s world where it seems all the control lies within social media apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, we forget about other ways of gaining visibility through conventional sources such as tv channels or magazines (even though their numbers may seem low). However, this doesn’t mean those platforms don’t offer plenty of opportunities for reaching out to your target audience; you just need an idea.
Bottom Line
If you’ve never been in the spotlight, launching your personal branding can be an overwhelming task. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different steps that need taken when it comes down to this process because there are tons of areas where a person might not know what they should do first. But taking on one thing at a time and checking off each item as soon as it has been completed will make things easier for yourself.
Launching your own personal brand if you have absolutely zero credibility could either seem like something that would be very difficult or just plain impossible depending on how much experience someone may already have under their belt before starting such journey; but once broken down into manageable tasks, making this happen becomes less daunting than anticipated.
