Why personal branding is important to your company

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is what the name would suggest, the brand personal to you. It is the process of creating the identity of a person or company. 

This is how one person or business conveys their values and expertise to the world (off and online) around them. A personal brand isn’t just about marketing, it is about building trust and connection with customers, the industry and your target audience. 

As Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos says “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. So whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand. 

So, why should a company look at personal branding and how can it be executed? Let’s explore the elements of a personal brand below. 

Why is personal branding important to your company? 

While a personal brand feels like it has benefits to one person, it is also beneficial to the company/business. 

A personal brand can help to: 

• Build trust: People trust people more than brands. Having faces to a brand helps to make a human connection and build more trust.  
  
  
• Make the business stand out: Personal branding builds credibility and makes your business be seen in various ways other than your direct promotion. 
  
  
• Increase revenue for a business: Being seen as an authority in the industry (as a personal brand) helps boost sales. When people know you and your business as an authority, they are more likely to buy.
  
  
• Helps build collaboration: Makes for an excellent opportunity to connect with others for brand deals and marketing opportunities. 

Who in your team should have a personal brand?

Where do you start with building a personal brand for your business and your team? There is no right or wrong way to do this, however, here is how you can get started: 

1. Get your Executives to begin. The people who will be in front of the business the most should have a total investment in the brand. Getting them to build a personal brand online and offline is extremely valuable. 
   
   
2. Have managers follow. All managers will deal with more of the target audience and stakeholders, making it essential for them to use their personal brand to showcase the business and build more connections in the online and offline space. 
   
   
3. Encourage team members to get on board. When you have your executives and managers putting more energy into a personal brand, you can encourage team members to do the same. 

How to get started with personal branding 

Anyone looking to build a personal brand can follow simple steps. From here, the company can continue to engage other people within the business to step up and create a brand in the online space. 

1. Create a niche: What do you want to be known for? What is your expertise? Think of 3-5 topics you want to discuss and the niche you want to build a personal brand around. 
   
   
2. Identify the audience: Who is your audience? If you create content online for your personal brand, who will the content be for? Identify who this audience is. People in your industry, competitors and other leaders. Even the customers of the business you work for. 
   
   
3. Have a plan and strategy: How will you show up for your personal brand? Create a plan on what you will do. Will you network more? Create social media content or a blog? Have a plan and set goals around building a personal brand.
   
   
4. Execute the plan: You must take action. If you are looking to create social media content, have a schedule. Have networking events to attend. You can even create your own mini website to showcase your main important contact links. Upflowy has a new social bio template that will allow you to house your links and best contact info. You can use this social bio flow in your content and even have it as part of your business card (more on this below). 
   
   
5. Measure the success: You have set goals, and what you want to achieve, it is good to measure the success and look at what is and isn’t working with your personal brand. Aim to reflect on this monthly.  

How to improve your personal brand 

There are many ways people build and improve a personal brand, here are some ways to improve and develop a personal brand. 

• Blogging/Podcast/Video content: This is a longer form piece of content that will help you express your thought leadership. It is also a great portfolio. 
  
  
• Social media: Connect with others and also curate conversation while adding thought and opinions for discussion. It is a great way to get reach for your personal brand while also humanizing yourself and the business. 
  
  
• Networking: A social way to build your personal brand. Attend events, become a speaker or panel guest, arrange meetups and collaborate with others in the industry to spread your message and name. 
  
  
• Become a thought leader: Be known for your thoughts on topics within your industry. Talk about them consistently and build a brand around your thoughts. 
  
  
• Be authentic: Humanizing yourself builds trust. So be authentic, honest and yourself. Everyone is unique, so using that to your advantage is key with personal branding. Everyone else is already taken, be yourself.
  
  
• Be consistent: Exponential growth comes with time and consistency. The more consistent you are with your personal branding efforts, the more you will be seen. Keep showing up! 

Final thoughts 

Personal branding will also benefit all team members within the business for the future. It will help them to be noticed for their expertise and in their industry. An excellent investment for all involved. 

To get started: 

• Find your niche
• Find the methods/channels you will use
• Create a plan to engage with others 

You can create content around the key topics and pain points the business solves, you can link to blog articles the company has written or promote events they are involved in. 

You can also create your own social bio page to link within your content pieces (also add to your business cards) to showcase a “mini website” housing all the links relevant to your brand and the company. 

If you want to get started with your social bio, check out our new template! You can create your page and add any link you want your audience to engage with!

Sign up to Upflowy today, and when you create your first flow choose the Social Bio & Contact flow!