3 Ways To Effectively Build Your Personal Brand (or Presence)

Welcome to part 3 of the Personal Brand 101 Series here on the blog! The past 3 weeks on the blog I’ve been diving into what personal brand (or presence) really means, why it matters and now we’re getting into HOW you can build yours effectively. 

Before you can really dive into the how, it’s important that you understand the what and why, so if you haven't already read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I encourage you to do that first before continuing!

When you learn what personal brand really means, you’ll see that it’s ultimately a way to cultivate a deeper connection with your audience and build real relationships.

This deep connection will increase trust that people have with you, which can create raving fans and loyal followers.

And what that translates to is a qualified pipeline of candidates, more interested customers, opportunities to build trust with current team members and more brand awareness to your company.

If raving fans and loyal followers are what your business dreams are made of, keep reading to see how you can make that a reality!

How To Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn

• Define your personal core values and let everything you do flow from those

One of the most common questions (or hesitations you could say) that I get from people about using LinkedIn is that they don’t know what to post. 

And I really do understand this because if you scroll on LinkedIn, you’ll quickly notice that the type of content people are posting on the platform isn’t the type of content you might be used to seeing everywhere else.

It’s not content that’s trying to directly sell you something. 

It’s not update style content about a new product or service they’re offering. 

And it’s not the typical “how-to” content that people typically post on Instagram or other social platforms. 

Instead, most of the content that you see on LinkedIn is coming from people who are mastering the personal brand concept and most of their content stems from that. 

So when people come to me and say they don’t know what to post, I think what they mean is they don’t know how to post like THAT. 

Which is a totally valid thought because you of course want to succeed and spend your time wisely on the platform. 

I would say that the first key to really creating your personal brand and sharing content in this new way would be to define your personal core values.

Just like a business or your company has core values, YOU as a human being, have core values too! You likely already have them and most of your actions in life flow from these core values without you realizing it.

But in order to really create your personal brand, you want to identify your core values and make sure they’re extremely clear so that you can create and share content that is aligned with what you value in life. 

When you do this, you will start to attract people who value similar things as you which allows you to build more of the right connections.

• Proudly stand for something and be willing to create conversation about it 

When you define your personal core values, you’ll have a very clear picture of what you stand for… and what you don’t. 

As the saying goes, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” which is why I truly believe that defining your core values is the first step in effectively building your personal brand.

Without knowing what you stand for, you have nothing to filter your decisions or actions through. Instead, you can find yourself in a trap of saying “yes” to anything that comes your way or sharing any type of content without putting any extra thought into it. 

When you’re clear on what you stand for, you can proudly talk about it and, more importantly, create real conversation around it.

There’s nothing wrong with controlled controversy in your content, especially when the goal isn’t just to cause an uproar for the sake of more engagement.

Sharing your stance on something (when appropriate and aligned with your brand, goals or mission) is welcomed on LinkedIn and allows you to connect with more people regardless if they agree with your stance or not.

Here’s a very simple example from Sahil Bloom - someone who has effectively built their personal brand on LinkedIn and is one of my favorite follows!

• Connect personal stories to life and business lessons that people can relate to

Many times, people mistake personal brand and presence as sharing every single part of their personal life. And while telling personal stories CAN work and is a big piece of building your personal brand, this doesn’t mean that you have to air all parts of your life to the world.

It’s true that in life we all have struggles and go through things, but not every single thing that happens to you has to become content.

Sure, there is a time and place where it makes sense to be a bit more personal and let people in on the behind the scenes of what’s going on in your life (sort of like I did in this LinkedIn post a few months ago), but you want to make sure you’re doing it in a way that gives people an encouraging takeaway. 

Is a personal brand, well… personal? YES! But not in the “tell me your deepest darkest secrets” and “I need to know every single detail” kind of way. 

There is a way that you can share personal stories and life experiences and connect them to life and business lessons that people can relate to WITHOUT bringing a negative tone, complaining demeanor or having a “woe is me” attitude.

In order to do this well, I encourage you to follow two rules:

1. Share from a scab, not a bleeding wound.

I once heard this advice and essentially what that means is that you aren’t sharing when you’re in the thick of something, especially if it’s a situation that’s hard and emotions are high.

Instead, share from a place of resolve, meaning you’re “healed” from the situation and have learned the lessons that are worth sharing with others. 

2. Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said.

When you’re creating personal content, yes you want the stories and things you’re sharing to be true. Without that, it would be extremely hard to actually build trust with the people you’re talking to. 

But many times people confuse that with feeling like they have to share EVERYTHINGGGGG. And that is simply not true.

Having a personal brand or presence does not mean you have to sacrifice your personal life. You’re allowed to (and you should!) have boundaries around what you share with people. Remember that!

And that’s a wrap on Personal Brand 101. My hope is that this blog series has helped you have a better understanding of what a personal brand really means, why it’s important and finally, HOW to build your own.
As a reminder, if you want to be the first to know when new blog posts go live, CLICK HERE to join The Weekly Huddle Newsletter – you’ll get a message from me in your inbox every Wednesday morning with ways you can show up on LinkedIn more confidently and efficiently build your audience to create the impact you envision in your life and work!