Personal Branding Online that I create for my clients has 3 components – Brand Creation, Brand Expression & Brand Innovation.

What’s the most important one?

All 3, but let me pick one for you.

Brand Creation is the process of selecting the important & credible elements of your professional & personal life to create the best version of you online.

Brand Innovation is creating a purpose for your Brand & chalking out the perfect strategy to achieve them.

Brand Expression is the process of choosing the right medium & mode of communication for you to consistently express your ideas to help your target audience.

No doubt, all three of them are important, but which one of them stands out?

Until a few months ago, I was pushing hard for Brand Creation as it is a one-time activity that will have a significant impact on your positioning among your peers & competitors.

However, today, I have a different perspective.

Expressing your ideas consistently on social media is far more important & valuable than creating your best version online & doing nothing about it.

So, if you have to choose one, it has to be Brand Expression.

It is the core reason for starting my 7 Day Power Writer Challenge – to get you to express yourself confidently.

Now I will say why do you need to build a personal brand?

Well, let me correct you! You already have one.

Your professional side represents your personal brand in the real world and any of the social media accounts represent it on the web.

Now the question is this – does your personal brand online gives the best, most empowering version of you?

Let’s say you are on FB, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Your LinkedIn profile represents you fairly well. However, it is not what your prospects will see when they search for you online.

Google picks the most relevant and most active social profile as the first search result.

So, your prospect may find your FB account where you have been sharing your strong political views every day.

Result?

It could lose you that dream opportunity.

Now, what could you do?

Identify & take charge of your “Digital Home” – The place where every prospect gets to meet & know about you first.

Your Digital Home should showcase the most powerful, confident version of you within minutes to inspire the prospect to engage with your brand & connect with you.

Hence, social media is not perfect for #PersonalBranding. However, LinkedIn is a great starting point.

Act, take charge of your personal brand online, today. Right now, everyone is talking about Personal Branding and big influencers advocate building brands on the platform of their choice – Insta, FB, LinkedIn & so on.

But, platforms are NOT the best place to build your brand. Yes, including LinkedIn.

Why? 3 reasons.

1. Platform are pro-competition. Each platform aims to get everyone on the planet on it so that they can sell our attention to ad buyers. But, more people mean more competition, not less.

2. Platforms are Anti-branding. Every platform limits the way you showcase yourself. You cannot design your profile the way you want as platform sets the rule. Branding is all about differentiation & how can you brand yourself when every profile looks the same?

3. #PersonalBranding is all about building your trust & tribe. Your 50,000 followers on a platform don’t mean you have a tribe of 50,000. Why? because your access to their attention is controlled by the platform.

Today, your posts may be reaching 30% of your followers, but with a simple tweak, the platform can make it next to nothing tomorrow.

So, for you to build your brand online,
you need to have your “own” platform,
your own community
& your own email list.

I have started building mine. Have you?
Yesterday, I gave 3 reasons why LinkedIn and other social media platforms are not designed to build your Personal Brand but are good tools merely for marketing.

I recommended building your own platform.

But, wait.

What’s the difference between #Branding & #Marketing?

Branding is about increasing your differentiation
while marketing is about increasing your reach.

Social media is the best way to increase your reach as there are so many active, engaging folks on it.

However, as social media amplifies competition, creates boring sameness, & it totally controls your connect with your tribe.

Hence, your best bet today is to take charge of your personal brand by creating your own platform.

In short, you must get a website in your name.

But, it is like asking you to get “a dog” when what you need is a well-trained golden retriever ready to go.

Today, every website looks like a corporate website meant for a company and not for an individual. So, as there was nothing good for a personal brand, I created a product called the “Prosite”.

A Prosite is a customized website which is build using the best tech stack enabling an individual to build & support their #personalbrand with no outside help.

Join the #PowerWriterClub to know how you can win a Prosite for FREE.

PS. Click Here to join the Power Writer’s Club for Free to know Power Writing from me and from those participating in the Weekly Writing Challenge.