I consider building a personal brand to be one of the most important trend of our time, and I want to share some insights on the optimal way to build a personal brand. Let’s start with a trend.
#1. We Want to See Real People
The trend of reality is obvious. We are moving away from glossy staged photo sets to real life here and now. The person who builds his brand will be all the more successful and closer to his or her audience. He will be able to demonstrate not only his professional aspects in his niche but also his individuality through hobbies, family, interests, philosophy, trips, thoughts aloud. His audience is asking, “Yes, you are building a career, doing business. What else?”
This trend explains the popularity of such a format on social networks, like storytelling. This is an opportunity to spy, feel, join the alien reality in real time. Stories are gaining tens and hundreds of thousands of views. They can already be considered a separate social network. A lot of popular bloggers today even adhere to a special strategy for posting content:
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in ordinary photographic tape – official information in a certain style and on the case;
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in history – real life, friends, hobbies.
And it is precisely on these living moments that we, observers, take a seat.
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Why? Because the hero is alive, real, such as he is, close to us. Want to engage your audience? Be an affordable hero. Make a result that is interesting to your audience.
#2. I’m Not Perfect and Make Mistakes
In continuation of the trend about reality, today it is considered a good manners rule to show your imperfections and irregularities, which are perceived as highlights.
We all make mistakes. People brands today talk about them and thus remove the mask of idealism, bringing themselves closer to their audience.
At the peak of popularity, stories about their failures, losses, misconceptions, divorces, betrayals, misunderstandings. By naming names and not naming. As a life lesson or as a request for support.
What for? Firstly, it is a part of our life. It is normal that in life there is a place for different colors.
Secondly, it causes social participation in you, because it is characteristic of everyone, which means that in your story someone recognizes himself, and the connection is established “he is like me”, which means he’s close, special. He is with me the same blood.
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#3 Delegate
The third trend is to delegate to assistants a number of tasks on working on their brand. This year, many entrepreneurs ceased to conduct their packaging and content activities themselves. Super posts today are slandered to assistants, and they, in turn, recruit them and post them on behalf of a person brand. Photos are not taken from the moment, but from pre-made thematic photosets. And photosets are made exclusively as in real life, but a little more beautiful. Nature, cafe, coffee. It’s as if we are spying on a hero who is thinking aloud about something important for his audience.
Moreover, assistants respond even to comments or to direct messages and very often this is not even hidden.
The same trend of delegation of personal content resonates with the trend of auto-shops, which are now so popular among information businessmen. This is when a person conducts a training webinar as if in a live format, but in reality it is a correctly made recording with the effect of presence and live comments that is broadcast at a set time.
Based on this trend and the request of our same graduate entrepreneurs, whom we teach the activation of a personal brand, we even launched a separate training for brand assistants. These people for piecework take care that your personal brand book has been implemented in an optimal way. They help to conduct content, collaborate with other entrepreneurs, participate in thematic marathons, organize photo shoots, publish in the media, and attract contractors for more local or narrow tasks.
In fact, this is the right hand of a person-brand, who is responsible for the stages of packaging and promotion of your personal brand. Having such an employee, you will free up your day for other tasks, because regular posting on a social network take a lot of time. Well, the promised trend, which we consider negative strategically, but positive locally.
The deep-rooted belief is that if you want a personal brand, you need to use Instagram. And that’s all. It’s enough.
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Yes, Instagram is a really powerful tool, because it allows you to show different aspects of the brand, get feedback from subscribers, participate in interesting ways of promotion and popularity growth. But this is just one of the points of contact where the world meets you. Live performances, offline networking, media publications, creating long-playing video content are useful in their own way.
Next Steps
What do we recommend? Use different points of contact and not be limited to one, because this way your brand will be more stable and there will be contacts with different audiences. Again, real-life events are great content for an SMM strategy. Therefore, activate the brand at least 5 different points of contact.
Ready to activate your personal brand?
Be yourself, do not hide non-critical errors, share your real experience, delegate repetitive tasks to an assistant and do not limit yourself to Instagram.
And you are on trend!
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