‘What Is Google Saying About You?’ Here’s how to get your personal brand right, according to the professionals
LET me start with a question for you. Do you take your personal brand seriously enough?
I didn’t. Or at least I didn’t until recently.
Even as someone who has worked in PR for the last eight years, it wasn’t something that I had given much thought to until I joined the highly-talented team at Hallam in March.
Sure, I was active on social media. Twitter was, and still is, my go-to, I have Facebook mainly to watch funny videos of dogs and weird pranks, I had never posted on LinkedIn until earlier this year, and my Instagram also hasn’t had much love in the past either.
In short, I wasn’t making the most of these tools from a professional point of view.
Even a week before I had sat down for my first day at Hallam, though, the importance of personal brand was being preached to me.
It was expected — not just merely encouraged — that as a professional in our field, we were actively identifying new opportunities, whether that be external blogging, writing an eBook, posting on social media, hosting or attending webinars, networking or even speaking at industry events.
Six months on, I have worked more on my personal brand than I have ever done before, and in my working week it’s importance is only second behind the work I do for the agency’s clients.
That’s a significant contrast to what I have experienced before.
In previous roles, taking time to work on your personal brand was very much frowned upon — if you’re working on yourself, you’re not doing your job. It was very much that kind of attitude. Looking back, it was a very backward way of thinking and more businesses and brands are now realising that.
I’m sure most of you will have seen the news earlier this month about Gymshark, the UK’s fastest-growing brand, breaking new ground to become a £1 billion business. The news spread like wildfire (kudos to the PR and social media team behind it by the way), but at the heart of everything was the company’s founder, Ben Francis.
After doing some digging, it’s clear that personal branding is something that he also takes seriously, and that’s a wholly unique thing to see for a multinational brand. He’s active on social media. He produces in-depth and insightful YouTube videos. He writes blog posts. He is a comfortable interviewee. Ben doesn’t shy away from any opportunity and in turn, Gymshark has thrived and grown.
So, how important is a personal brand? Not just in agency, business or professional life but in, well, life in general. I asked a bunch of professionals the question and the response was overwhelming.
If you’re starting to think about your own personal branding and want to know how to get it right, read on.
1) Be authentic. Be human.
It’s an old cliché, but people buy people and no matter how much digital starts to influence our lives, our choices will still often be influenced by the people we interact with, even if they happen to be behind an avatar.
On social media, the person behind the avatar is still a human, a human that is imperfect. After all, there’s nothing that people buy into more than someone who can show their imperfections.
Alex Hickson, Senior Digital PR Executive at Rise at Seven, explains: “Social media is a reflection of people’s personality, the beauty is that you can make it a reflection of the BEST parts of your personality — but don’t forget that people aren’t perfect. Sharing your failures is incredibly important, and just making yourself appear human.”
Linking back to Ben Francis for a moment, transparency is clearly also a key cog in the personal brand wheel.
Richard Brenkley, Founder of Better Agency, added: “Creating a successful personal brand relies on several things, but perhaps most importantly, it relies on transparency and human connection. In all my years, we have found that clients, both prospective and current, appreciate a genuine, well-communicated relationship.
“Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy. Creating a personal brand that is sustained, appropriately positioned or all-knowing will never be easy — however, we have one tip to swear by. Use your voice.
“There is nothing more authentic than your own thoughts or opinions, so shape your content around this. People will read, watch or listen to your ideas when they differ from surrounding content — so put your spin on things.”
2) Use platforms that are going to set you apart
I mentioned a few channels earlier. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the obvious choices to turn to when it comes to social media, but there are other options out there.
One of the best bits of advice is to go down the niche route and talk directly to your audience.
Ashley Friedlein, Founder and CEO of Guild, said: “Being active in niche communities is a far better way of building a personal brand because it puts you in front of people who already have a shared interest — there is a level of personalisation and intimacy that isn’t replicable on larger social media channels. Sharing knowledge and advice, demonstrating expertise and showing you have a passion for what you do will help you become far more memorable than a LinkedIn profile ever will.”
Aside from those niche communities, social is still obviously a big player here and I was interested to hear what Alex Hickson said about this. After all, it was the time and effort he put into his personal brand that led to him getting his job at Rise at Seven.
He added: “I think Twitter and LinkedIn are essential, but other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are vital too. Love it or hate it, those in the industry that are using platforms, such as TikTok, have spotted a communications platform that people hadn’t harnessed properly yet and therefore have become the trailblazer in doing it in this industry.
“I think the key to good personal branding is finding a channel or a way of communicating that others haven’t done yet, or will set you apart from other people.”
3) Make your personal brand your differentiator
COVID-19 has royally rocked the boat and the world is feeling the after effects of it.
Here, in the UK, we’re at the beginning of the worst recession for 100 years. Each day on the news there is another story of redundancies, and the fight to get back into employment is as competitive as it has been for a long time.
How do you stand out among the crowd, though? It turns out, according to the professionals I spoke with, your personal brand has a big part to play in that.
Ashley Friedlein added: “Those with a strong personal brand online will have a huge advantage over those who don’t. This doesn’t just mean making sure there are no embarrassing photos on your social media channels. To build a personal brand, you must not only be visible online, but be seen in the right places.
“Whether it’s becoming a contributor to publications in your industry, answering questions on sites like Reddit and Quora, or connecting with influencers, it all helps to create your brand. If someone were to Google your name now, would they be intrigued to find out more about you based on the results?”
This is something Louise Vaughan, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Definition, agreed with. She said: “Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon, is famously quoted as saying, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” In a post-COVID world, that room’s now Google.
“So when you Google yourself, what results come up? And how do they reflect you? Your expertise? Your personality? Your passion? In short, your personal brand? Is the information you are sharing across LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media sites consistent?”
Speaking of consistency…
4) Plan ahead and be, well, consistent
It’s the same with anything — the more you work at something, the better you get at it, and personal branding is no different.
Posting once, not being seen for a while, and posting again won’t cut it. You won’t be current and your voice won’t carry as much weight as someone who is posting on a regular basis.
Rachel Besenyei, Head of Growth and Social at brandContent, summed this up: “You can’t build a personal brand overnight, and it won’t work to put lots of effort into brand building on one day and not the next. With social media platforms in particular, where each post is date and time-stamped, it’s very obvious when a brand has stopped putting effort into posting. And you need to keep posting to keep appearing on people’s feeds and remain top of mind.”
Speaking of keeping top of mind, maybe you’re thinking about how your personal brand can keep your business’ profile top of mind, too.
5) ‘For the strength of the pack is the wolf and the wolf is the strength of the pack’
Newsflash… personal branding IS an important modern-day business tool
Something each one of my interviewees pointed out is that they believe personal branding is something we should all be thinking about, whether we’re someone running a £1 billion multinational business, a small business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, an employee or even someone looking to get back into work.
Let’s rewind slightly to a point I made in the introduction.
Prior to Hallam, I had never been actively encouraged to work on my personal brand, while there are also businesses and companies out there that stifle colleagues by implementing social media bans during working hours.
The experts I spoke with, however, believe that taking such an approach not only has a negative impact on an individual’s voice, but also does for the actual brand they’re representing. The beautiful big picture as I described it.
Charlotte Nichols, Owner of Harvey & Hugo, said: “Personal brands are underpinned by personal values and it’s important that these are aligned to the business.
“I encourage my team to promote their own brands because it’s important to our clients that they know they’re working with a trusted, credible and respected person. We call our team ‘The Pack’ and use the famous quote from The Jungle Book… ‘for the strength of the pack is the wolf and the wolf is the strength of the pack.’
“We’re stronger if we work together as a team. It’s also important that clients get to know the personalities of the team so they can choose what suits their brand.”
Ashley Friedlein sums this section up perfectly: “Colleagues and employees should be able to promote their own brand, as doing so is good for morale and recruitment. It can also result in increased awareness of the business if an employee becomes an influencer through successfully marketing themselves.
“The side-hustle economy is booming and just because an employee is developing a personal brand that doesn’t relate to their main employment, it doesn’t mean they are going to leave your organisation. People have dreams and aspirations outside of the traditional career path — and this should be supported.”
So, one final question… What do you want Google to be saying about you? Thankfully, you have got a large part to play in that.
A big thank you to all the contributors who took part in this article.
