There is a difference between building your company brand and your personal one, but sometimes it’s difficult to know where one begins and the other ends.
Keeping them separate is a challenge, yet it is essential. If you are the ‘face’ of your business you want to make sure there is a clear difference between the thoughts and opinions you hold to that of your business. Particularly if you are the head of a well-known or famous enterprise.
Take Elon Musk as an example. His personal life is hitting the news a lot at the moment, from affairs through to fathering children left, right and centre, to purchasing Twitter and then seemingly not going through with it… it’s not a surprise that the antics of Musk are impacting the Tesla stock price and shares.
It’s perfectly possible to have a successful personal brand whilst keeping your company brand healthy, and intact. A good example of a strong high-profile personal brand includes Richard Branson, Mo Farah and Bill Gates… their names are as well-known as the companies/initiatives that they head up yet the two go hand-in-hand for the benefit of the work they do.
Personal branding isn’t limited to those in the public sphere. Regardless of who you are, you can showcase your talents whilst building your own brand that will in turn favour the company you run or work for.
Below we outline some tips when cultivating a personal brand:
1. Have a focus.
Decide what your key message is and stick to it. The best personal brands are very specific so it’s a good idea to choose your niche and really hone into what that niche is and how it will appeal to your target audience. Keep your message and content consistent with one niche topic to become memorable within a targeted community, a much better way than keeping your messaging and narrative too broad.
2. Be authentic
There’s an easy way to have an original personal brand, and that is to be genuine and authentic. We’ve seen it time and time again with influencer marketing as an example, where promoting sales and having no clear loyalties to brands or markets can lose trust. Being consistent is so integral to building a personal brand because you want to make sure your audience feels as though they can relate to you and your views.
3. Be transparent
We’re fallible, and it is important to reflect this in our personal brands. Putting your hands up when making a mistake or changing a view is integral to keeping your audience on board. It’s okay to be wrong, but it’s more important to take your audience on that journey with you. Transparency makes your personal brand stronger, more authentic and relatable.
In summary, it’s critical to craft your personal brand strategically and build one that helps advance your career and the company you work for. When done effectively, a strong personal brand leads to new opportunities and connections that can change your life.