5 Quick Ways to Use Content to Create a Compelling Personal Brand

In our digital age, where people spend hours on social media and are inundated with offers and ads, it’s become essential to create your own personal brand if you want to stand out from your competition.

I’m not talking about the brand that represents your business, such as your company name, logo, mission, and unique value proposition. This is about you, personally.

With a clear and compelling personal brand, you will:

• Attract the right clients, employers, employees, partners, and others you want to work with
• Increase your reputation as an influencer and go-to resource in your field
• Build the type of personal relationships with your audience that result in more business
• Know exactly what message you want to communicate – both to your target market and to individuals you meet

You’ll also increase the visibility of your business, whether or not you’re the face of that business (such as many solo entrepreneurs, coaches, and service providers are). When people get to know who you are as an individual, they’ll then want to learn more about the work you do.

Sounds great doesn’t it? But how do you create and communicate a personal brand without spending hours on it every day?

Start by defining your personal brand

Before you can build your personal brand’s reputation, you need to identify your ideal target audience and the define the details of your personal brand. You can do that by answering these questions:

• Who do you want to serve and why?
• What are you passionate about?
• What are you great at (your areas of expertise)?
• How are you different from others in your field?
• What unique value do you offer (related to your business)?

Consider your answers and then craft a concise description of your personal brand. You can use this formula to help write that statement:

“I help [your target audience] who want [their desired outcome] by [how you help/your expertise]. My [clients, customers, etc] love that I [your uniqueness]. In my free time, I [something personal].”

Here’s one example that describes me:

“I help business coaches who want to create their own courses by giving them the materials they need to get started. They love the personal support and practical tips I share from my 25+ years as a course creator and as someone who’s been in their shoes. I’m all about saving time and automating tasks so that I can continue to travel and work from anywhere in the world while still growing my business.”

And here’s another approach:

“I’m a former corporate learning consultant turned done-for-you content provider. I help business coaches quickly launch their own courses without having to create anything from scratch. At the same time, I travel the world and run my business from wherever I am at that moment.”

Once you know who your ideal audience is and the personal brand image (and message) you want to convey, you’ll be able to create interesting and relevant content for them.

Now, how do you spread the word about your brand?

The primary vehicle to building your personal brand is your content. Through your content you are going to be able to communicate your values, personal brand message, and uniqueness. You’ll spread awareness of your expertise and build those essential relationships you need to grow your business.

And while there are certainly times when you’ll need to develop larger pieces of content, there are some quick things you can do on a regular basis.

The 5 quickest ways to use content to create your personal brand

You can share things like:

• Your thoughts on latest news in your industry
• Activities you’re engaged in (including personal ones, like running your first half-marathon)
• Events you’ll be attending or speaking at
• Testimonials you just received (that talk about you personally)
• Stories that show why you do what you do
• Causes you support and why

By having your own website or blog and publishing consistently, you’ll ensure that searchers find the right information, message, and image you want to communicate about yourself.

But social media can also drain your time budget if you’re not careful.

The key to using social media to build your personal brand is to have a focused strategy, set time limits, and do a little every day.

Follow these tactics for maximum impact in the least time:

• Focus on a few platforms where your audience hangs out. You don’t have to be everywhere, but you may need to tailor your content based on the platform you’re using – such as images on Instagram, video on YouTube, articles on LinkedIn, and a combination of media on Facebook
• Engage with your audience by asking questions, posting discussions, setting up polls, making comments, and replying to comments to keep the dialogue going
• Start a private community with your target audience where you can offer help and advice
• Join groups relevant to your area of expertise and interact with the members there.
• Consistently share your personal brand content by maintaining a social media content calendar.

Another huge benefit of building your personal brand on social media is that you can get support from peers and build a professional network that’s separate to any business you own or are employed by.

3 – Answer Questions Everywhere

Then check in with those on a regular basis to see if there are questions you can answer or comments you can reply to.

Don’t forget to spend time on platforms that your fellow influencers run. By engaging on those, you’ll increase your visibility with people who can have a valuable effect on your success.

And with a clear personal brand, you’ll be able to show them exactly how you can help them and they can help you.

4 – Record Bite-Size Videos

What types of videos can you quickly create and share? Try any of these to start with:

• Get on camera and tell a story about how you got into your current field
• Share a tip about something that’s helped you be successful
• Invite a customer or client to do a joint live video with you
• Get a friend to hold the video camera and show you working ‘behind the scenes’ in your business
• Share a video clip from a presentation or seminar you conducted
• Ask a team member create a little video talking about what it’s like to work with you.
• Ask some of your best customers to give their testimonial via video instead of just text

You can create your own YouTube channel as the home for your videos. But also be sure to share them in other places, such as your other social media platforms and your blog.

Sharing short videos doesn’t take long once you’ve done a few. And it reinforces the personal connection your audience craves, building trust and spreading your personal brand message along the way.

You can start by collaborating with others and sharing your content in the form of articles, interviews, and guest blog posts on other people’s platforms. That will help you reach a whole new audience and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.

For example, being a guest on someone else’s podcast gives your personal brand more visibility and all you have to do is show up!

Then, build up to creating more complex pieces of content such as webinars, podcasts, or even writing a book. Obviously, those are more time-intensive content projects, but you can start making a plan for those now and work them into your schedule.

Key Takeaways

As you start creating content for your personal brand, keep the following in mind:

Be Yourself – You will need to share a little information about your personal life such as family, friends and hobbies, but you don’t have to overshare. Find the perfect balance that you’re comfortable with.

Focus on Your Audience – While your personal brand is, by definition, about you, your focus should still be on your audience. Once you’re defined your audience and brand message, create your content based on what they would want to see. What information would help your ideal customer? Also consider their preferred method of communication and try to incorporate more than one format. For example, offer a text script with your video, or insert a short video into a written blog post.

Stay Relevant to Your Personal Brand – It can be tempting to talk about everything you’re interested in or good at. But always keep your content relevant to your brand. If you haphazardly create content without considering your audience or go outside of the brand guidelines you’ve established, it will confuse people and water down your brand.

Finally, keep this thought in mind:

Want a handy worksheet for defining and using content to communicate your personal brand?

Download our Personal Brand Building Worksheet here:

Want to learn more and teach others how to build a unique personal brand?

When you purchase a license to any of our ready-to-go course kits, you get the rights to edit it any way you want (or leave as-is) and add your own name and branding.

Then use your new course to:

• Attract new clients and customers (such as with a free training, webinar, or eCourse)
• Add a new stream of income (such as with a paid course or workshop)
• Keep your current customers successful and coming back for more (such as with bonus webinars, videos, and other learning resources).