Every entrepreneur needs to be fully committed to building a personal brand online, as its ability to be leveraged is very powerful. When you do it right, it can lead to increased exposure and instant business, which can help you bootstrap growth without taking on investors or taking on debt.
Building a strong personal brand helps to establish yourself as the top authority and thought leader within your niche; something that is very powerful in terms of marketing and exposure. While it may sound like a difficult task, there are actually several things you can do that can all contribute to a solid personal brand foundation. Here are six very easy ways to get started.
- Launch a personal website.
You need a home base online, and when your focus is on personal branding, it’s a great idea to create a personal website. This needs to be separate from your company website and only relate to you and your accomplishments, etc. You can link out to your company or business ventures from the site, with the goal of establishing a personal relationship and then pushing them to your companies.
This allows you to blog about more personal or specific issues — ones that wouldn’t be a good fit for a company blog. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Make sure to have a nice “About” page and then a blog and contact options.
- Start a podcast.
Podcasts are quickly becoming one of the most popular content formats because of their convenience. Listeners can tune in when they want and from almost any devices. It’s just a new way to reach your target audience and attract a following. You can then leverage your podcast downloads to grow your email list and social media following.
You can get started with very basic recording equipment, and upgrade as your podcast grows. The initial investment is mainly just your time. Consistency is key here, so try to push out as much podcast content as you can on a regular basis.
- Run a $5/day personal ad campaign on Facebook.
Facebook ads are a great way to promote a business — everyone knows this. But, not many people use them to enhance their personal brands. You can take advantage of the targeting options and deliver your ads directly in front of the people you want to connect with.
In your ads, you can promote your email list, podcast, social media accounts, or an opt-in offer. There are so many effective ways to do this, and if you just spend $5 a day you can attract an audience every day, resulting in exponential personal brand growth.
- Create an email newsletter.
Email marketing is still very highly effective, and when you build one around your name and not a company, you will be able to deliver much more personal messages. If you connect with your audience they are going to be more likely to take action coming from a personal list than a company one, where they know it’s more promotional.
This is also an asset that you can take with you, no matter what future business ventures you embark on. Your following will always be with you.
- Use Outbrain and Taboola to promote your content.
When you create a new blog post on your personal blog, use content distribution services like Outbrain and Taboola to get more people to see, read, and engage with your content. Through them, you are able to distribute your content across similar websites to target your ideal audience. You only pay each time someone clicks-through to read your content, so when optimized correctly it can deliver a nice return in terms of personal brand exposure.
- Use LinkedIn as a blogging platform.
LinkedIn has been making some major changes to its platform recently, and they seem to really want people to use LinkedIn as a content blogging platform, and when mastered, the reach you can receive via LinkedIn can be powerful.
They key is to build a large following and get them to like, share and comment on your posts. When the algorithm hits and you satisfy it, you can see a post go viral, resulting in exposure to thousands of new contacts.
