Personal branding is one of the most effective strategies available for modern businesses in Nigeria. Because consumers generally distrust corporate brands, personal brands offer a unique way to build trust, facilitate customer loyalty and ultimately increase revenue. In addition to being a novel marketing strategy, it can also help your business with recruiting and put you in a better position for a career change down the road.
While
the fundamental principles of personal branding are relatively easy to
understand (it's basically corporate branding applied to
an individual), successfully implementing the strategy isn’t always
straightforward -- and it isn’t always pretty.
Here
are six secrets nobody tells you about personal branding:
1. It isn’t for everyone
It’s true that personal branding can be an effective
strategy for almost any industry, but it isn’t exactly suited to any
individual. To be successful, you’re going to have to interact with people on a
daily basis, make new connections, and venture into new territories. Because of
this, extroverts tend to execute personal branding strategies more efficiently
and more successfully than introverts. That isn’t to say that introverts can’t
be successful, but if you struggle to make new personal connections or you’re
just not a social person, personal branding may not be right for you -- or can
be extremely challenging.
2. There is no formula
There
are some marketing strategies with an “if this, then that” model that allow you
to reap some predictable rewards after putting in a calculated amount of effort
and/or resources. Personal branding is not one of these strategies.
Unfortunately, even though there are some bona fide best practices that can
help you be successful, there’s no guarantee that certain actions will lead to
certain results. This is due to the fact that personal branding comes down to
your interactions with other individuals -- and people are unpredictable.
You’ll have to learn the ropes and make adjustments as you go along to find the
best approach for your situation.
3. There are no shortcuts
There
are plenty of marketers out there who would like to believe that there are
“hacks” or “shortcuts” that allow your personal branding campaign to suddenly
take off. Among these are organic tricks like one-time implementations of
content and more questionable tricks like paying for additional
social-media followers. None of these tricks are going to work for your
personal brand in the long run. There are no shortcuts to building a
reputation; it takes time to see the kind of results you’re hoping for.
4. It isn’t exclusively online
Personal
branding evolved in part thanks to the popularity of social media. Social media
is, of course, an integral part of any personal branding campaign, but you
cannot rely on it exclusively to grow your reputation from the ground up.
You’ll also need to have some face time with other professionals at networking
events, speaking events and even face-to-face meetings with some of the
influencers you’ve met online. While forging new connections and following up
with them online is fast and easy to do, networking in person tends to form
stronger, more familiar bonds. Both are necessary for long-term success.
5. It doesn’t have to be tied to another strategy
When
working in conjunction with a content-marketing strategy or an SEO campaign,
personal branding can be a powerful tool. However, personal branding doesn’t
necessarily have to be tied to another strategy. It’s enough to implement your
personal branding strategy on its own. Of course, you’ll still need to direct
your followers and contacts somewhere if conversions are your ultimate
goal but simply waiting for leads to come your way and directing them
accordingly is enough to monetize your otherwise independent campaign.
6. You get out what you put in
We’ve
already established there are no shortcuts for personal branding. It all comes
down to hard work. If you spend hours a day managing your personal brand and
making new connections, you’re undoubtedly going to find success pretty
quickly. On the other hand, if you set up your social accounts and try to let
the rest take care of itself, you’re going to run into problems. Understand
whether your personal branding campaign is a must-have pillar for your business
or a side note, and prioritize your degree of effort accordingly.
Through personal branding, you should be able to
increase your company’s influence, improve your reputation and win out on
both a personal and professional level. Just keep in mind that personal
branding is a long-term strategy that takes a serious commitment before you can
start to see results. Only after several months of ongoing work will you be
able to see meaningful improvements in your audience. The benefit to all that
upfront work is that those benefits are exponential.