How to build your personal brand | Building a personal brand | How to market yourself | Jade Beason

1. Crafting Your Origin Story
2. Personal Branding Essentials
3. Digital Networking Advantages
4. Maintaining Your Social Channels
5. FAQ

Crafting Your Origin Story

One of the first things that you're going to want to think about when it comes to promoting yourself, leveling up your personal brand, is basically your origin story. Right, I don't think 'origin story' is the right word for this. I just think of movies when I think of that, but I think it's a good term. So your origin story - what this story needs to consist of, is not only who you are today and the amazing things that you do now, but also where you started, and most importantly, the journey. So, what it took from you to get from where you started out all the way to where you are today. I feel like this will be really helpful if I talk you through the process of me coming up with my origin story. When I was trying to really define mine, I thought about when my journey first began. So when did my journey to becoming an entrepreneur, to becoming a content creator, when did that begin?

Personal Branding Essentials

The next tip that I have for you if you're trying to level up your personal brand and promote yourself this year or into the future is to really treat yourself like an actual brand. And by that I mean, think about your kind of core brand assets almost. So, with a normal brand, right, you need to think about what your logo is. With a normal brand, you have brand colors, brand fonts. You've got all of these things which make up the brand's aesthetic. Now, people often sleep on this when it comes to your personal brand because they think it's only for service or product-based brands. And that's not true, it's for everyone. So, having a color palette from three to five different colors that you use on a regular basis on your website, if you create graphics, on your social channels, you use those colors. Then, same with your fonts, having three fonts, you can have more or less if you want, but usually it's like three fonts that you use for your headings, for your body, for your subheadings. You use these fonts on all of your different platforms, on your channels. And what this does, and the reason why I think this is important, is because it creates brand cohesion. And when you have a brand which is cohesive, it has a huge impact on your brand recognition. This is quite literally how often or how easy it is for someone to recognize a brand without actually seeing the name. That's what brand recognition is. And studies have actually shown that brands who use a consistent color palette have an increased brand recognition by 80%. Like, think about it. Maybe go on your Instagram or something now and test it. But how often do you just see a color and already know who has shared that post? It's super important. People sometimes tell me that they know they don't have to look at my thumbnail video; they can see my thumbnail at the corner of their eye and they know that that's one of my videos because I always use the same colors. You see how impactful having the same brand colors and brand fonts can really be for your personal brand?

Digital Networking Advantages

The next thing you can do this year that's going to really help you level up your personal brand is to get really into digital networking. If you're wondering what digital networking is, it's just networking online. Sure, you could guess that, to be fair. I don't know why I needed to explain that forever, but it's essentially the process of networking with people over digital platforms. There's two reasons why digital networking is super important this year. One is because, I mean, we're not out and about as much as we used to be. At least, people in the UK aren't. But the second reason is because digital networking, in my opinion, is more powerful than your standard face-to-face networking because it actually gives you the ability to reach far more people and be a lot more efficient with your efforts.

Maintaining Your Social Channels

The final tip I'm going to give you if you're really looking to promote yourself more this year, level up your personal brand, is to take pride in your social channels. Now, before you think, 'Oh yeah, I already know to pay attention to my social channels,' what I want to kind of focus on here - and this is a mistake that I've made - is you need to take pride in all of your social channels. If you have a presence on a social networking platform, right, so you have a channel set up on a platform, you need to make sure that that channel is well-maintained. If you have no intention of maintaining that channel and it's a public channel, get rid of it because I think it's detrimental to you. I think when you start to really promote, show up, and really drive your personal brand, when people are searching for you, if they come across that LinkedIn profile that you do absolutely nothing with, it doesn't add anything to you. It doesn't help when someone searches for you, right?

FAQ

Q: What should I consider when crafting my origin story?
A: Your origin story should consist of where you started, the journey you took to get to where you are today, and the amazing things you do now.
Q: How can I treat myself like a brand and improve my personal branding?
A: Think about core brand assets like logo, brand colors, and brand fonts. Use a consistent color palette and fonts across all platforms for brand cohesion and increased brand recognition.
Q: What is digital networking and why is it important for personal branding?
A: Digital networking is networking online, allowing you to connect with more people efficiently. It's important especially now when physical networking is limited.
Q: How can I maintain my social channels to enhance my personal brand?
A: Take pride in all your social channels by ensuring they are well-maintained. If you have inactive public channels, consider removing them to avoid any negative impact on your personal brand.