You are a brand.
The fact that you have an internet presence (instagram, linkedin, X, tiktok, etc!) means that you are (un)consciously building up on your own story. By sharing personal content, things you have learned, stories you find meaningful you construct this personal narrative.
Now it is time to get comfortable marketing it. Why do you have to be a marketer you ask?
Because nowadays your online presence is your business card. Think about LinkedIn, where potential employees scout for new talent. You basically have a chance here to demonstrate your authenticity and uniqueness. Welcome to personal branding!
Here is a quick start to develop your personal brand
- Offer value
If you take away only one thing from this article it is this: create value. And it should be very clear what kind of value you are offering.
The idea is to make it very easy to understand how you can help people within a second long peak to your profile. Don’t hide your talents somewhere in a secondary text.
A few examples for inspiration:
- Laura Lewandowski writes a successful newsletter (german only). Her first sentence in the personal description on LinkedIn reads: I write a weekly newsletter to empower 7,000+ individuals to work smart, not hard. The highlight here is not that she writes a newsletter. There are so many newsletters to subscribe to that her value proposition comes from what is next: empower individuals to work smart.
- Ashley Ruba writes: I help PhDs launch fulfilling non-academic careers. How does she do that? Well you need to read further to gain that information. But importantly, what we first read is the value she offers to the PhD community.
- Lieke van der Veen – Danenberg personal branding goes like this: Helping 1 million women to become financially independent. How does she do that? She Co-founded a company called Elfin. But by now I hope you have seen a pattern: its nice to have a title, to be successful, yes I understand that you worked hard for where you might be now in your journey. But what is unique? The value you are offering, how you are helping. Your title says little to what you are actually trying to tackle. What your personal mission is.
- Embrace you. You are unique.
What you write will attract the people that it resonates with. And will repel the people that are not your target audience. And that is the goal: by showing your uniqueness you will not be likeable to everyone. And this is the most important message to step out of your fear to speak up and be authentic in the online world.
Standing out from the rest because of your unique point of view? You will not be everybody’s cup of tea. And that is beautiful. Because why would you want to be? Your personality is one of your most important assets.
It can often feel like your field of interest is saturated with information already. How could you contribute in a unique way and stand out? One way to express your uniqueness is to combine two interests together. For example, I am a scientist by training but I am passionate about personal development. From this specific combination, personal development for scientists, I can connect better with my target group (scientists) by sharing how soft skills made me a better scientist.
Be confident, but always respectful.
- Be consistent
Publish regularly.
The challenge most of us face when starting to define our personal brand. Because, it is hard to define our niche, find great content ideas and stay on track with your self-imposed publishing deadlines.
However you decide to plan for consistency: never sacrifice quality on the way. Because great content always wins over half-assed chatGPT created text.
Be consistent, but give yourself permission to maybe miss out on one day, one week, one post. In the aftermath, consistency will reward you over the long run, not the short sprint.
Ready to level up your online game? Your digital presence is basically your business card, so let’s dive into personal branding, no fluff. Serve up clear value, shout out your uniqueness (haters gonna hate), and keep it real with consistent, quality content. It’s not about fitting in; it’s about standing out in your own awesome way.
