Why Does Having a Personal Brand Matter?

Last week on the blog, I kicked off a series about personal brand, or personal presence as I like to refer to it. 

The concept of personal brand has escalated in the last few years and it’s something that you see a lot of people talking about in the online space, especially on LinkedIn.

As everyone is navigating how to become more digital, I 100% agree that building your personal brand is important, however, the main problem that I see is that people don’t know what it really means.

So, to help you better understand the entire concept, I wrote a blog post breaking it all down. 

Once you understand what personal brand (or presence) really is, then and only then can you understand why it matters so much and more importantly how to build your own. 

This week, we’re diving into why your personal brand matters - because it does… a lot! So, let’s get to it. ⬇️

In part 1 of this personal brand series here on the blog, I talked about how your personal brand is essentially your identity and it’s shaped by your personal values, daily actions, personal experiences and unique skills that you bring to the table. 

Your personal brand is more than just what you’ve accomplished or who you work for. It’s more about how you intentionally show up in your daily life and how you work to make an impact in your work and for those around you.

When you create content with your personal brand in mind, it will give insight to who you are, how you got to where you are and create genuine connection with like-minded people who value similar things as you. 

With that in mind, there are 4 main reasons that having a personal brand matters.

4 Reasons Building a Personal Brand Matters

• A personal brand helps you stand out.

It’s no secret that in today’s world, markets are saturated with a lot of people doing the same or very similar things to you. 

Because of this, the need to stand out is incredibly important! This goes for anyone - whether you’re a business owner, CEO, team leader or a job seeker, standing out through your personal brand can be the thing that sets you apart from your competition. 

Let’s use a job seeker for example:

You apply to what you would consider to be a dream job. You go through the interview process with flying colors. And the moment has come for the hiring manager to choose who’s going to get the position - you or another great candidate.

Both of you have the skillset. Both of you interviewed well. Both of you could do the job. 

But there has to be some sort of differentiator for someone to choose you.

Oftentimes, hiring managers will turn to LinkedIn to see what type of presence you have on the platform. If you’ve done the work to build a personal brand and they like what they see, this could potentially be the deciding factor that’s in your favor!

Now, of course not every hiring decision will be made based on your personal brand, but it can play a huge role in a scenario like above.

The same goes for someone looking to buy a product or service.

In their research, they will likely come across LOTS of options and a personal brand could be why they choose you. 

Do price, benefits and features matter when it comes to your product or service? Yes! But research has shown that 71% of consumers prefer to buy from companies that align with their values. 

This means that regardless of the price or whether or not your product is the best of the best, if someone feels connected and aligned with you, they just might choose you anyways!

• A personal brand helps you capture the attention of your audience faster.

Did you know that on average a person encounters between 6,000-10,000 ads PER DAY?!

That’s not even including the organic content that we are flooded with on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or other social media platforms out there. 

With this information, it’s clear that the world is noisy and attention spans are short. 

This is why being able to capture the attention of your audience quickly is so key. 

When you build a personal brand, your content shifts from fluffy stuff that anyone can talk about to content that is different from others on the internet and often connects much more quickly with your ideal audience. 

People are typically more drawn to content that has a sense of personal experience, specific perspective and genuine connection.

• A personal brand cultivates real connection. 

Speaking of genuine connection, that’s another huge reason that personal brand is so important.

And I know you probably hear it all the time…

“Network with people!”

“Build connections.”

“Let’s connect!”

And as generic as “connecting” with someone might sound, the saying holds true: “It’s not just about WHAT you know, it’s about WHO you know.”

The people that you have in your corner can be what makes the most impact and creates the most opportunity for you. 

Is your knowledge, education and expertise important? Absolutely! But those things alone don’t always get you in the door to where you want to be. 

In fact, some of the greatest opportunities for me personally (like speaking at Chief recently) haven’t come from me shouting my expertise about LinkedIn from the rooftops. It’s come from KNOWING and being CONNECTED with the right people!

But those connections probably wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t intentionally work to build my personal brand first. 

So, if you truly want to connect with people, building a personal brand is one of the best places to start.

When you do this, your values and what you care about become clear. Who you really are and what you stand for doesn’t have to be guessed. Which means that people can easily identify if they relate and want to connect with you… or if they don’t.

And if they don’t, that’s a good thing too! Because you don’t want to build an audience full of people who don’t fully vibe with who you are, right? 

• A personal brand builds more trust.

Lastly, a personal brand builds more trust quickly, which goes hand in hand with connection. 

There’s a saying in the business world that says “business moves at the speed of trust,” but I’d be willing to take that quote a bit further and say that real connection with someone does too!

If you think about your greatest relationships in life, there’s usually a common denominator: you trust the person. 

The relationship has grown to be great because the person is open, honest and authentic. They don’t hide things from you, they let you in on most parts of their life (including the good, bad and ugly) and you know that they have your best interest at heart. 

Some relationships take longer to get to this point, but when you finally let your wall down and let someone in, it usually speeds up the process. 

Well, the same is true for connecting with someone online in the business world.

As mentioned, your personal brand isn’t just about your achievements or all of the great things you or your company has done. It’s not about where you graduated from or what awards you’ve received.

Instead, it provides greater insight to who you really are - the person behind all of the achievements, awards and recognition.

The person behind it all is who people really want to know and that’s who they really trust.

At the end of the day, we don’t always know the person behind the computer or phone screen, so we have to use our best judgment to determine if they’re worth following along with.

The decision becomes much easier when we can clearly tell who someone is in a deeper way!

Now that you know why building your personal brand matters, it’s time to learn HOW to do it.

Check back next week for Part 3 of the Personal Brand 101 blog series!

And if you want a reminder for when it goes 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 and ultimately be a champion in your life and work!