Moving up in the personal brand building process is quite challenging – given the vast amount of cut-throat competition with your personal branding counterparts. Everyone wants to join the branding bandwagon and fan themselves for their credentials and thought leadership in their industry. And to those who feel one can quickly climb up the personal brand building ladder – i.e. at an advanced level – is bound to fall on their face; for reasons being very concrete and painfully obvious: self-marketing is a process and not a destination, where you have one linear path to follow and get accolades for your brand.
It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee – yes, that brewed cuppa definitely can jolt you to perform while being a realistic optimist, instead of embracing the occasional irrational exuberance: of becoming an overnight branding rockstar in your realm. `
To pivot to the next level of your self-marketing endeavor, here are a few thinkable ways to reach the next point.
Write a book.
It’s not a nice to have; it’s a must to have now. Writing a book can bring you much credibility and branding for your ‘say’ or ‘speak’ about the industry. Getting a badge of ‘author’ to your career/ business profile will not only attract consulting opportunities but also establish you as a thought leader. Writing, however, can be a feat for people who have never tried their hand at writing something fairly long, perhaps long blog posts. But authoring a book gives you the confidence boost – especially in your writing – that no other significant personal branding feat can. Just in case you have been blogging for a while now, you can definitely compile all your blog posts and publish it as an e-book on Amazon.
Speak for others (and yourself).
It’s can be a bit difficult to get paid speaking assignments early while establishing your personal brand. So the best way would be to first start speaking at immediate speaking opportunities that come to you or when you think you explore some mutually winning opportunities – perhaps volunteering to host a mini-workshop at your company on topics that are trending and need more deliberation. And the best would be to record those workshops and put it on your Web site. That way, even though they may not be paid gigs, you can quickly convey to your potential clients and event organizers on how well you articulate a key message or that you are competent enough to give a keynote or a workshop or a seminar to a given audience.
Take social media seriously.
Social media has emerged as a go-to platform to connect with your target audience, but more so, it is the fastest way to connect with someone internationally, make a conversation via recognizing someone’s tweet or a Facebook status update or by commenting on someone’s blog on LinkedIn – the possibility of making new connections, and the ones that are also long-term is humungous – and exhilarating. So treat every connection – existing and new – with utmost importance and relevance to mutually grow each other’s business.
Cross-enhance and promote.
As a blogger, it’s best to connect with other sets of bloggers that write about your field and guest post to promote your blog on their blogging platform – this is an absolute given. But, sometimes you can also approach media publications or mini- media bloggers that may not be publishing content categorically in your field but can do a winning deal of promoting your content on their Web site and in return you can write about their brand on your blog/ Web site. Cross-enhancing each other’s brand is a win-win simply because when your content parameters and thinking have a commonality in its purpose you can cross promote anything after evaluating how it will pan out as a success for the both of you. There are many examples of cross promotions – in content marketing and social media – and one of the best examples to cite here is Google and Android’s cross promotion: 50 million KitKat bars in 19 countries will have prominent Android branding and offer buyers the chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet and Google Play gift cards. No money involved; just a strong cross-promotional element and excellent co-branding.
With a laser-like focus on the above-mentioned steps, you will definitely reach the next level of the personal brand building.
What are you doing to amp up your brand?
