Your personal brand is one of the most important things that you can ever build. I’ve stressed this idea many times previously and I’ve mentioned to you how important it is to build your personal brand, sometimes even moreso than your corporate brand.
When I started my entrepreneurial journey, it was only after two years and selling my first company that I realized how important it is to build a personal brand. All the hard work I had spent building my business brand was gone the moment I sold the company. It was as if I didn’t exist.
Fast-forward to today, it’s been 4 years and I like to think that I’ve built up a fairly good personal brand online. I started with nobody ever hearing about me to building a brand that has gotten me the following accomplishments:
– Verified on Social Media
– Featured by Top Blogs/Websites
– Interviewed In 30+ Media Outlets
– Speaking Events All Over The World
– Anyone Who Searches For Me Can Find Me Quickly
– And Many Other Things…..
In this blog post, I’m going to share some tips and strategies on how to go from nobody to somebody in the online world.
Establish Your Presence
Before you can brand yourself, you MUST establish your presence and let the world know you exist. For me, I simply created a website under my own domain name, some social media pages for my business personality and a blog where I shared tips, lessons and experiences in my entrepreneurial journey.
Whatever it is that you want to do, you must start by setting up some sort of presence using a combination of the things mentioned above for people to know you exist online. Find a unique and authentic way to position yourself in the online space. My unique pitch? I was the young entrepreneur. Find something that is unique and that people will be able to relate with you on.
Contribute Everywhere
Nowadays, I am far more selective on what publications I write articles for, who I interview for and which speaking events I attend. When I first started out, I didn’t care if the site had 10 visitors a month or 10 million, I was there for whatever they needed.
One of the biggest ways that I was able to grow my online brand was from simply being everywhere. I took every interview opportunity and did my best. I took hundreds of guest writing opportunities and contributed my content everywhere I could. Lastly, I sometimes spent money out of my pocket to travel out of the state to speak at an event where I didn’t get paid a dime. This is how you grow your presence.
Social Media Is Everything
The more active you are on social media, the better your online presence will look. Build a Twitter account up and be ready to engage. When I started my Twitter account up, I made sure to follow with everyone relevant in my industry and I made it a point to post good tweets, tweet back to people and talk to as many people as I could.
The results? I now am verified on Twitter and have 250,000+ followers that actively engage and interact with me on this social media platform. Just imagine that, from only Twitter….I’ve been able to drive 250,000 different eyeballs to my personal brand. Add Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope and others to the mix…..and you’ve got the ability to showcase your brand to millions.
Provide Value
The quickest way to success online is to provide value. The more free and easily accessible this value is, the better the benefits will be. For example, I blog and take hours of my time on a weekly basis to share free content, tips and advice with the world. What do I get out of it? Looking at it from a black and white standpoint, I don’t get anything. I share this information for free and spend time as a result.
Many people might look at that and say, what a waste of time! However, the truth is that I get more eyes on my brand, I get more opportunities as a result of it and I’m able to expand my horizons farther than I would if I charged for this content. If you provide value, people and eyes will automatically gravitate towards you.
Be Real
Many people think that they can ‘outsource’ building their personal brand. However, that’s fake and eventually people will catch on to it. You need to be real and honest when building your online presence. If you’re going to start a blog, write your own posts otherwise you’re just lying to everyone.
If you keep it real with your audience, they’ll be real with you. They’ll provide you with value back in return and your online presence will thrive since people will have nothing but good things to say about you.
Conclusion
In conclusion, building your personal brand from nothing to reputable doesn’t take a long time. If you are willing to put the time and effort in, you can be recognized online within just a few short months. In this post, I shared my tips on how to go from nobody to somebody in the online world.
