The New Year is right around the corner, and it’s a good reminder to take a look at your personal brand. Your personal brand is important for the job search, for building a business, or for continuing your career growth. Your personal brand consists of all of the different elements that tell your story, from your website to social media posts, search results to real life persona.
Today, we’re sharing a checklist with five key things you must do in order to build a strong personal brand in 2020. It’s best to get started on these things now so you can hit the ground running in the New Year!
Revisit Your Personal Brand Statement
Your personal branding statement, or elevator pitch, is a quick blurb that tells the world who you are, what you do, and why they might consider working or connecting with you. We wrote a post with some tips for creating one earlier this year, but even if you’ve already followed that advice, it might be time for a refresh.
Reflect on both your goals and accomplishments as we enter the New Year, and make changes to your personal branding statement as needed. You may want to include a brief success story that you had recently, or maybe you are switching up your business offerings next year. It’s also important to make sure that some variation of this personal branding statement is up to date on all of your social media platforms and your personal branding website.
Take a New Profile Photo
Taking a new profile photo can seem a bit daunting if you’re camera shy, but try to have fun with this! Changing up your photo on LinkedIn and other social media platforms is a good way of keeping your personal brand refreshed and representative of your current personal branding efforts.
For example, maybe you left a corporate career in 2019 and are now focusing on working as a freelancer with fun startups. Your stuffy office headshot can definitely be replaced with something a little more exciting and unique. Or, maybe you moved to a new city and want your profile photo to have a bit of its skyline behind you. Whatever you do, just remember to smile! It’s universal across all languages, all industries, and all personal branding goals.
Add Multimedia Content to Your Site
Nowadays, people are used to consuming content in a variety of ways. One of the more popular types of content is video. Adding videos to your website can really help your ideal audience get to know you better, and develop the know, like, trust factor that is essential in any business relationship.
An easy way to start with this is by creating short videos addressing some of your most frequently asked questions. Or, consider pitching yourself to some podcasts in your industry and joining as a guest. Podcasts are a growing medium and can help take your personal brand to new heights.
Restock Your Business Cards
If anyone’s ever told you that business cards are a thing of the past, don’t believe them! Listen, we talk a lot about digital marketing on this blog and on our YouTube channel because it is a great way to spread your personal branding message. However, that doesn’t mean that paper marketing and in-person communication is dead.
The most effective personal brands use some combination of digital and in-person marketing. Attending business conferences, networking events, or even having a card on hand to give to people you interact with in your community is never a bad idea. Just make sure they’re up to date with a working email, phone number, and social handles.
Update Your Content Strategy
Struggling with what to post on social media in 2020? Look to the past to determine your go-forward plan! Using social media and website analytics to determine which posts were the most successful can help you determine how to scale and replicate that success.
It’s tempting to want to be everywhere at all times, but choosing the marketing channels that make the most sense for you and your personal brand is crucial if you want to avoid burnout. So if your audience seems to really love your video content, consider focusing on your YouTube channel in 2020 and using the other social networks to repurpose that content.
Lastly, we can’t forget about search.
Building a strong personal brand can’t be done without it. Paying attention to the search results that pop up about you is important, because most hiring managers, engaged shoppers, and curious people use Google to get more information about people before engaging in any type of relationship.
Our app allows you to monitor search results about your personal brand by notifying you each time we find a new one. You can keep track of your name, your business name, email address, or any phrase of your choosing. Then, you can mark search results positive, negative, or even report them for removal.
It’s an easy way to take control of your personal reputation and monitor your personal brand. Can you afford not to know what’s being said about you online?
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