Jeet Banerjee
When I started my first business, I never understood the concept of a personal brand. I knew it was extremely important to brand my business, but I didn’t go any further to brand myself.
From that my experience, I learned a lot. Most importantly, I learned that people buy from you more than they buy from a business. From that point forward, I knew that building up a strong personal brand was crucial.
In the last few years, I’ve been able to successfully build my personal brand and continue to grow it every single day. In this article, I’ll share 7 steps to building your personal brand:
1. Get Social
The quickest way to build your personal brand is through social media. Make yourself active on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube. The larger your presence is on these sites, the more people will know about you.
Just building a profile isn’t enough as most of you may already know. You need to stay active, engage with others and build a network on these social media sites.
2. Blog About It
The fastest way I was able to build my personal brand was through my blog. I spend about 3-4 hours a week on my blog, but it brings me tremendous results.
Not only have I been able to massively grow my personal brand, but I’ve been able to land new clients and explore tons of great business opportunities because of it. Create a blog, let people know who is behind the blog and start sharing your expertise with the world!
3. Branch Out
Another great method for growing your personal brand is to branch out of your local area. You can do this by going on speaking gigs or speaking tours to share your expertise in new areas around the country/world.
I had my first speaking gig last year and my personal brand skyrocketed from there. Not only did I get to meet tons of great people at these conferences, but people saw me as an authority figure which grew my brand very well. It’s crucial to find ways to leverage your expertise and speaking gigs is a great way to go!
4. Get Personal
At the end of the day, you’re trying to grow your personal brand. You have to get personal with people and share a lot about who you are. Not only do you want to share information about who you are in a professional sense, but it’s also great to share who you are outside of the business world.
The best way to get personal is to create your own website that’s all about you. Add your blog, social media outlets, story, projects, and everything else about you. Create a hub where people can go to find out everything about who you are.
5. Leverage The Press
The press is one of the most beautiful forms of media out there. You don’t have to usually pay any money, but you can get distribution to thousands (sometimes millions) of people. The press was one of my biggest helpers when I was building up my personal brand.
You need to find something unique about yourself that nobody else has and leverage that through the press. There are many sites like HARO (HelpAReporter.com) that can connect you with journalists itching for stories. Find a creative way to get your name through the press to grow your brand really fast.
6. Network
The best way to get your name out there is to put yourself in a position where you can meet new people. You can do this rather effectively by finding networking events either locally in your area or looking for mastermind/networking groups online.
Networking can not only introduce you to meaningful connections, but you have the ability to share exactly who you are with many different people.
7. Be Yourself
No matter what your reasons for building a personal brand are, never forget to be yourself. You are authentic and exciting, so be sure that people know exactly who the real you is.
Don’t ever be someone you aren’t because people will see that and shy away from developing a genuine connection with you.
Jeet Banerjee did an interview with us two months back, which you can read here.
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