Today ‘YOU’ are the biggest brand in the world. Digital footprints trace you back to your past and keep a tab on your present and everyone always knows ‘YOU’. Though you cannot control the extent of how much they know, you can control what they actually know about ‘YOU’. Building a strong personal brand online was a choice before but, a necessity today. Your online image is accessible to all, your friends, boss, family etc and if you want to sustain an image about yourself it should extend into the virtual world.
Here are some tips to build a strong personal brand online:
Begin with understanding the status quo of your brand. How many people follow you? What do they like or dislike about your posts? What kind of posts or images have people liked the most? What comes up on Google first when you type your name? This basic audit will help channelise your subsequent branding strategy accordingly. Ask your friends & family about how they would describe you.
How do you perceive yourself? What perception of yourself do you want people to have? Most importantly focus on what you think about yourself. You should be authentic & have a strong conviction about what you think about yourself, then only will that translate into your posts online.
Be ‘YOU’ online and offline. Build an authentic brand persona, people should know they are following you as you and not anybody else. Always walk the talk- that will always retain followers and will only help in building a positive brand image.
Use social media networks to flaunt your skills. Be it writing, art or ideas -your skills define you and always give more dimensions to your personality and make you distinct from others, which will always get people to explore you more each time.Even the posts you share suggest your keenness in understanding or supporting a cause or idea, which speaks volumes about you.
Join or start groups which you can keep tracking and updating when you are offline.
Building an online brand takes time but it is definitely worth it! Not only the world, but you too learn a lot about yourself. With the digital world ever evolving there will always be more enriching platforms to tell your story better than before.
