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Personal Branding: How to Make An Impact and Build Authority Online

Personal Branding: How to Make An Impact and Build Authority Online

Last Updated:  
March 18, 2024

If you are a founder, freelancer, or working professional: the return on investment of a memorable personal brand is unmatched. ****Personal Branding is the new wave for attaining inbound leads and making an impact online. By using your human edge, you add relatability - offering a unique opportunity to make money online by marketing yourself and your brand.

This has to be said… I don’t have time for excuses. If you lack self awareness, take things personally, and/or have a fragile ego this how-to guide isn't for you. If you can handle the heat; follow along and you will fill your inbox with leads and put yourself in the right position to make a lot of money. It’s on you to take action.

Still down? Let’s dive into the issues (excuses) many face:

What is personal branding?

Personal Branding Content

Personal Brands are more than just social followers. Data shows that 67% of all Americans are willing to spend more money on products and services from the companies of founders whose personal brand aligns with their own personal values. In addition, 74% of all Americans “are more likely to trust someone who has an established personal brand.” 82% of all Americans agree that “companies are more influential if their executives have a personal brand that they know and follow.”

The numbers speak for themselves, don’t get left behind.

Personal Branding Content

Get Over Personal Brands being “Cringe”

Personal branding gets a bad rap, and it’s understandable. There’s so much fluff across LinkedIn and Twitter with templated garbage that passes as “consistent posting.”

Be different. Good content stands out.

Some people pushing PeRsOnaL BrAnD SeRviCeS want you to sign up for their ghostwriting, buy their templates, and sound just like them. So often, the results are boring templated posts that are merely hacks and not ideal for long-term community growth. Don’t get me wrong… there are some fantastic ghost writers out there, just be mindful of who you choose.

Don’t be like these people.

With your personal brand, you have the ability to tell stories, build trust and authority within your industry, and gain exposure without spending a dollar. If you create unique, resourceful content you’ll gain respect, followers, and what everyone is after at the end of the day… $$$

Why You Struggle With Your Personal Brand

Chances are you’ve either found some way to talk yourself out of building an impactful personal brand or haven’t started yet. Don’t worry, I got you.

Here’s where most people get it wrong: They look to others for templates, hacks, and ways to save time. A good personal brand is one-of-a-kind and isn’t built overnight. These are some common struggles founders, freelancers, and working professionals face:

  1. It’s corny to write on LinkedIn and Twitter: What a lame excuse. People complain about the line spacing on LinkedIn then go film a reel on IG because it gets them more engagement. If getting leads, career opportunities, and building authority in your industry is corny…I don’t know what to tell you.
  2. I don’t know what to write about: You are either too lazy to sit down and attempt writing content or are too scared of what people think. Everyone has something to share and value to provide - you aren’t tapping into it (yet).
  3. I’m all out of ideas: We all have stories and experiences unique to us. Share them in a way that delivers actionable steps or advice to your target audience and you’ll see results.

Being yourself online wins long-term.

There’s so many upsides to growing a following online yet you are scared of what a few people think. Organic reach is the best way to grow influence and make an impact without spending a dollar. Let's dig deeper into how you can make strides in your branding today.

The Steps to Build Your Personal Brand Today:

  1. Establish your why
  2. Choose your platform
  3. What to say and how often
  4. Value-based Storytelling
  5. Experiment with content
  6. Just Start
  7. Next Steps

1. Time is Money and So is Your Why

Before you do anything, figure out why you want to grow a personal brand. Finding this out early on will save time in the long run. It doesn’t matter your reason for posting, you just have to have a reason. You can post for follower growth, inbound leads, etc. Choose who you want to have conversations with, then address their pain points in your content.

Be intentional with your content and you’ll get results if you stay consistent.

Personal Branding Content

2. Go Where Your Dream Customer Is

Choosing your platform is more important than you think. So many neglect the fact that although they love Twitter, their dream clients and potential customers are on LinkedIn. Your focus should be on the platform where your target audience spends the most time. Have one platform that you absolutely crush on, and one you can recycle content for to pull in new audiences from multiple sources.

Example: Your dream customer is on Twitter.

Create content natural to Twitter. You can do threads, value-based tweets, and insights. Then, once you’re consistently posting and have the bandwidth, take your Twitter content and shape it into LinkedIn content. This will attract new customers from that platform using the same stories. You can easily turn Twitter threads into Carousel posts on LinkedIn using Canva (free to use).

Why waste time creating new content for every platform, when time is money? Think smarter.

3. Knowing When and How to Post

Knowing when to post boils down to knowing your target audience and how well you can help solve their problems. Finding their pain points is easy when you are a great listener. The better you can understand how your dream customer thinks, the more leads you’ll have sitting in your inbox.

Your main engine to growing a powerful personal brand is posting consistently. You can’t post once a month and expect people to trust you, it seems like you don’t even trust yourself. Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. It doesn’t have to be everyday, but to be top of mind, you need to outwork the average creator.

Knowing how to post is all dependent on the type of storyteller you are. Can you tell stories with meaning? Generating impact on your dream customer will help build a relationship that you can nurture into a potential client, sale, connection.

Think of it like this:

You went to Bali and rode a scooter? Sick dude no one cares.

You went to Bali and learned about how different people think in different countries, letting you open your mind to how you will be marketing a product.

Much better. And yeah, still add the fun stuff like riding scooters and taking selfies with monkeys - that’s the personal touch.

Remember that this isn’t about you, it’s about helping your audience grow and learn.

The more you do this consistently, the more trust you gain with them.

The more they trust you, the closer you become with them.

This is your community. The best personal brands nurture the F U C K out of them.

Listen, Respond, Repeat.

Personal Branding Content

4. Help your Audience Take Action

I went from 1000 to 13,000 followers on LinkedIn in just 4 months.

The secret: Value-based Storytelling

Just because YOU think your stories are boring… Doesn’t mean others do.

The goal of posting is to propel your followers forward. Use unique life experiences you’ve had to provide them value. If you can offer value-based storytelling consistently you’ll gain the most valuable commodity in organic social: trust

Trust is currency in organic social.

If you understand your target audience well enough, you can use storytelling and previous experiences to push your brand forward and save your audience time.

5. Experiment with Content

Admit it, you’ve posted something that didn’t perform as well as you thought it would. You got in your head about it and doubted the whole process. Guess what? NO ONE CARES. We’re all too busy thinking about ourselves to worry about your one little piece of content that didn’t perform.

If your post sucked you’re that much closer to a good one.

If your post sucked you aren’t providing enough value.

If your post sucked it wasn’t seen by as many people.

If your post sucked it’s a lesson learned.

If your post sucked it’s on you to fix it.

Tears and excuses don’t keep the lights on.

Stop worrying.

Keep posting.

6. How to Write on Social Media

A big component of great writing on social media is your tone of voice. Write how you speak. It sounds simple, yet many are conditioned to act smarter and use long boring words. What people crave is authenticity. Pair this with the fact that the average person reads at the 7th grade level and anything too big brained will be skimmed over within seconds.

The ideal content strategy in 2022 is a mix of both value-based content and storytelling. It should mainly be skimmable, while mixing in personal stories for your community to better understand who you are. The closer you can get to how you speak in real life, the better your content will be received. Go for around 60% value based content, and 40% storytelling.

Let me say it one more time for the skimmers that don’t read everything: Your stories should still hold value to your audience… it’s about them not you. Do this well and you’ll bring your target audience A LOT closer to you.

Additional Tip: Sprinkle in longer format content with personal stories for your community that already knows you. This will establish a deeper connection with your reader.

7. Stop Wasting Time

Once you’ve grown a community on a platform it’s time to rinse and repeat on other platforms. Remember to SAVE ALL YOUR CONTENT. Stay organized and save your work with programs like Notion. You do this with all your content so you can spread it amongst other platforms.

Yes, repurposed content works well but here’s where many struggle: They post the same exact thing across every platform.

A simple line drawing animation of a factory conveyor belt making identical objects over and over.

DON'T DO THIS.

Each platform is different. The same person speaks and engages with content differently on every platform. They go there for different reasons. Learn how to tweak your posts for each platform and you’ll truly understand how to dominate social media.

Bonus Tip (for Business Owners)

Save time & gain clarity by accessing all your brand’s financial data in a single dashboard using Triple Whale’s FinHub. It’s one simple dashboard for all the tools and accounts you’re already using. If you’re a DTC brand and want to build smarter, use Triple Whale.

TLDR: How To Start Today

Look, I get that growing a personal brand can seem like a lot, but it works wonders once you get the hang of it. It doesn’t matter if you have 5 followers of 50,000 these same principles ring true.

  1. Start now - Stop making excuses and get posting. The leads and followers will come.
  2. Know your audience - Understand what value you bring and overdeliver.
  3. Be consistent - Find a pace that works for you and don’t forget to show up.

Need more inspiration?

Learn from these 3 powerful personal brands:

  1. Cat Philip - Searching for a female agency owner that can get it done? Look no further. Cat knows how to pull leads and create impactful content online.
  2. Kevin Graham yeah yeah yeah the self plug - but you don’t get to 13K on LinkedIn in 4 months without knowing a thing or two… let me show you how it’s done
  3. Tommy Clark (Triple Whale) He has the shitpost ratio mastered with the perfect balance of meme’s and insightful content. He knows his target audience well and can generate daily content that entertains and educates.

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