Transcription
If I showed you this logo, or this logo, you'll know what is the quality of the products and probably who it's aimed at. Now, if I showed you these faces, you probably have a similar experience. That, in its very purest form, is what personal brand is. But really, it goes so much deeper and it's an incredibly powerful way to market. So let's dive in to learn more. [Applause]
Have you ever googled your name? Well, of course you did. What pop-up represent what you want to be known for? Or did an old man pop up like it did when I gave it a shot? The personal brand is your unique mixture of skills, experience, personality, and know-how. These features promote you and tell your brand's story, reflecting your conduct, behavior, spoken and unspoken words, and attitudes. It's basically a professional image: how you look in real life combined with how the media portray you and the impression that people gain from the information they find about you online. These can develop organically and potentially very, very quickly, or you can work on your brand to portray to the world the person you want to be.
But why would you want to become a personal brand? Well, a personal brand allows you to highlight your strengths and passions. It helps people to feel like they know you better, which means they trust you more, even if they've never met you. Politicians rely on this when it comes to election; it's people vote for the people they feel they know, trust. Some benefits you'll find from building a personal brand is people will buy from you without you needing to sell; they'll purchase what you provide, recommend you more to their friends, and help you build more of an audience.
So why is personal branding so important? Building a strong personal brand is the key to being considered influential. It helps you stand out from the pack, and it's what makes you memorable. Think back to the examples I showed you at the start of the video. If I showed you these faces, you'd probably have a similar experience. You probably knew who Richard Branson was and probably had an opinion of him that made him stand out. He showed you the image of it.
The reason this is more important than ever is the distrust built by Millennials to advertising. Eighty-four percent of them don't trust advertising. All the brands, the greater, yeah, they're prepared to believe people they know, even business people behind brands they don't like. This has caused a major reshuffling in the way businesses market themselves and why influencer marketing has become so successful in recent years. With Branson mentions in his book, *Losing My Virginity*, they know these people are more interested in him than they were in Virgin, which is why he attempted so many stunts to remain in the public eye. What was good for him was good company. Think of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, even Donald Trump; business has merged with celebrity culture.
Here's something to consider for building your own personal brand. To start off, you need to self-reflect. It's very hard to describe yourself; it's easier to explain how you want to be and going from there. If your main goal is to improve your business using your personal brand, you need to get a solid grip on your target audiences; they need to match. There's no point building an audience of men in their 20s if your company sells makeup brushes. Really, you want to build a reputation as someone who cares about the types of people that are potential or existing customers. The key is to come across as human and, as the name might suggest, personal. This allows you to de-emphasize selling to appear more authentic.
The best way to build a personal brand is on social media nowadays. You need to be where your target market spends their time and create open accounts for them to follow and engage with. That's the personal side. What about the brand side? Well, you need to decide on a consistent color scheme, fonts, icons, and graphics, and you should use these everywhere. So they should appear on your website, such an account, business cards, and anything printed. Carry business cards with you everywhere; it's old-school, but it still works. If you're representing a business, they should match the colors and fonts of that business. You should also consider what you wear in public situations. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg went for the same outfit every time they were in public. It eliminated a choice and saved on… I was a bit big, probably, though. So if you're a CEO of a bank, don't turn up in shorts and a tank top.
The final thing to think about is your actions; they need to match your brand. Like pretty much every area of marketing, consistency is key here. If you look the part and turn up in the right places, you need to act the part. People's expectations of a politician are different from a singer, rock star. If a politician were found taking drugs, there'd be an uproar and trust would be lost. Yeah, if a rock star got busted, nobody would bat an eyelid. Okay, so you might not be under the same spotlight, but you still need to consider this and act like the person you promote yourself to be, which will be a lot easier if you're actually who you are. Be authentic. Don't try to be a saint; if you do, it'll all come out in the wash. It is easy to spot a fake.
And if you want to check out your own personal brand's health score, then have a look at the link in the description to use our tool. Just type in your Instagram account and await the cool data. If you want to learn more about growing your own personal brand, then watch this video here to master Instagram. Don't forget to hit the link and subscribe as well. You'll have three videos a week that will help you grow your personal brand, market, and more thrust your way.