Nowadays, so many people are working on perfecting their personal branding strategies. There are so many moving parts to this effort. Unfortunately, many individuals make the mistake of assuming that personal branding is synonymous with pretty colors and eye-catching photo shoots. In fact, it goes a lot deeper than that. Consider these elements as you prepare a branding strategy.
1. Your Branding Needs a Clear Writing Voice
Develop your voice as a brand and remain consistent with it. Don’t try to sound like anyone else. In this saturated market, people want to connect with other people. The best way to do that is to make sure that your voice is reflective of who you are as a brand. If your brand is comprised of multiple individuals, you can take two routes. First, you can just assign one person to be in charge of the communications operations. In this case, this is the person who takes care of writing the blog posts, photo captions and email newsletters that go out to your customers. This way, it’ll be cohesive. If you have multiple people handling the communications efforts, make sure they understand key phrases and words that you all use within the company. This will help you create a brand that is recognizable and distinct.
2. Ensure Your Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation are Right
If you want to ruin your credibility, avoid the art of proofreading. As a brand, it is so important to make sure that your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct on all documents that come from your business. If your brand is known for misspelling words, people will tend to dismiss you in their minds. It’s not an intentional act. However, it does discredit your ability to execute with excellence. To keep yourself mistake-free, always make sure that you edit everything from a caption to a response that’s going to a specific customer in a tweet. You don’t want the slightest mistake to keep people from engaging with your brand.
3. Pay Attention to Your Competition
While you do want to make sure that you make your own mark, it’s still wise to pay attention to what your competitors are doing. If you’ve noticed that one of your competitors is doing a live broadcast on a consistent basis, check to see if that has increased their number of followers. If it seems to be working for them, consider adding this task to your social media to-do list. When Rihanna produced her cosmetics line, she stood out in the marketplace because she offered tons of options for women who were typically ignored in the marketplace. Once other companies saw the success she was experiencing, they decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the same thing. If you want to remain competitive, take a look at what your competitors are doing. Don’t be afraid to implement similar strategies. At the same time, you still want to make sure that you remain innovative and creative. Don’t copy the competition’s strategies verbatim.
4. Listen and Engage in Conversation With Your Customers
Make it a habit of paying attention to what people are talking about. Start by looking at the trending topics of each day. This will help you get a pulse on what people care about at the present moment. You never want to appear tone-deaf as a brand. If a tragedy has just happened in the country, acknowledge it by putting out a statement. It’s also good to start a conversation. You can do that through different posts that you place online. You could also ask questions under the posts of other people in the niche community. As you listen and engage with others, your community will grow. People like to feel like they are heard and understood. When your brand is committed to doing that, you’ll win. Do your best to comment and acknowledge every single person who comments under your post. Even if it’s the effort of leaving a heart emoji as a response to a compliment from a follower, it shows that you’re paying attention and that’s important.
5. Remain Consistent With Your Brand
Consistency is so important for brands to develop. When you’re consistent, this means you’re reliable. When you’re reliable, more people will want to do business with you. This doesn’t just apply to customer service. Make sure that your posts are consistent. If you say that you’re going to post one YouTube video each week, make sure you are on time with that promise. When you announce that the video will go live on Tuesday mornings at 11 a.m. you will now develop a group of people who will be looking for your post on Tuesday mornings at 11 a.m. More than anything, people respect consistency and they want to do business with people they respect. This is also a great way to build your credibility as a brand.
6. Invest in Professional Photography
If you take a look at pictures on social media, you’ll see that most professional brands put out really polished photography. If you don’t have access to professional photography at first, it’s okay to use stock photography. Just make sure to do it legally. Download a good photo editing program or a graphic design app. Take the stock photography and change it up in the editing programs (if you’re allowed to do so with the image license). This will help you get a customized look. If you can take your own pictures, this is always best. If you only have a smartphone camera, you can still create beauty. Make sure that you clean the lens of your camera. Do your best to shoot photos in natural light and use the same filters for your pictures. Branding can be found in the details of your photography.
7. Share The Exclusives
Decide what the stand-out quality will be when you introduce your brand to the public. It could be that each week you share personal stories of the people you’ve impacted in your company. You could share success stories that the company has experienced. You might even decide to share behind-the-scenes footage of what goes on in the company on a day-to-day basis. Find your “it” factor and share it relentlessly. This can happen on different platforms. For example, share success stories at the end of the week in an e-mail newsletter. Share behind-the-scenes footage through your stories on Instagram. Write a blog that documents the success stories of the company and gives advice that readers can benefit from. As a brand, you want to make your followers feel like they have the inside scoop and that there’s a benefit to following your brand. This is one way to do it.
If this effort seems like a load that’s too heavy to carry, consider reaching out for help. We’re happy to help you cultivate a branding strategy that works seamlessly with the goals of your company. Contact Us today to find out more.
