Using a Content-Based Framework for Constructing Your Personal Brand

Introduction

Your reputation and business relationships are not tangible resources. Yet, by nurturing your personal brand with them, you can create elements that can develop into a physical audience and profits. These elements consist of your brand's regarded value, dependability, honesty, and authenticity. However, to distinguish yourself and make your brand stand out, you need a consistent, compelling voice.

Here are some guidelines for creating a personal brand, increasing an audience, and broadening your web presence.

Use Content to Demonstrate Authoritative Expertise in Your Niche

To place yourself as an authority, highlight the skills that make you stand out. Avoid repeating what other authoritative voices are saying, or your audience may not view you as authentic. In addition, it will hinder your attempts to make you and your brand unique or to convince your audience why your brand voice is better than competitors.

Ask yourself what you can offer your audience and why they would find value in your message. Realize that the more material you read on your niche, the more information your message will contain. Absorb as much as possible in your trade's trends, keep current on industry news, and learn from industry-themed literature not as prevalent to the public. You can be inspired through any of these channels, and as you learn more, your ideas will become more engaging and exclusive.

Properly done, producing and sharing subject matter allows you to move into a position of authority and worth noticing within your niche.

Develop Compelling Thought Leadership Social Media Posts

The most popular platform for B2B marketers of content is LinkedIn, with 96% of these marketers using this network. The next most popular platform is Twitter, at 82%. It's no wonder, as both platforms will let you create a social media following through shared skills and leadership building.

Test out the wide variety of social media options and find what combinations work best for you. Don't forget that creating a thriving brand presence is a long-term undertaking.

LinkedIn

An optimal LinkedIn post that will yield the best views and interaction is long-form posts, between 1,900 to 2,000 words. Another well-performing post is one that is skimmable, having several headlines.

Adding images with your LinkedIn posts will result in twice the amount of interaction versus no images. A variety of layouts helps to maintain the freshness of your posts. You can conduct your own research to find what post styles your readers give the most interaction.

As head of your business, you can also connect to your employees' followers by sharing consistent, engaging material on the company's LinkedIn page. Employees of a business have a 14 times likelihood of sharing business page content compared with other types of content. Besides helping employees to create their personal brand, their sharing will increase your brand's territory at the same time.

Twitter

Hootsuite advises putting a rule of thirds in place when preparing your content plan. Meaning one-third of your tweets should endorse your brand. Another one-third should relate personal narratives. The final one-third should be dedicated to enlightening information from professionals or shapers. Test out various Twitter formats as well, as a mixture can prevent your page from seeming one-sided and self-centered.

Video clips are another captivating medium you can use on Twitter. For an optimal marketing effect, keep your videos at or under 15 seconds.

The popularity of "Topics" is also expanding, with the ability to choose from thousands of topics to follow. Establish your brand's reputation through consistent tweets concerning the topics that pertain most to your Twitter followers.

Create a Blog

To increase your circle of influence, develop in-depth content on at least a weekly basis. Brands having a blog can experience a 55% increase in visitors versus sites without blogs.

Experiment with various formats. Create thought leadership as you discuss industry trends. Compose guides that let you teach your audience innovative subjects, or allow them to consider things from a different perspective.

Creating posts that examine recent or developing trends is an effective approach to further increase dialogue. Besides contemporary posts, evergreen material is equally beneficial, so alternate between these two types.

Besides blogging for your brand's site, tap into the power of being a guest blogger. Offer to guest post for established, relevant blogs. Through your contributions, you can reinforce your own brand while exposing yourself and your thoughts to different audiences. As a guest blog writer, invite your audience to read more of your articles at your own blog, adding your blog link, which will drive more traffic to your site. To optimize SEO and boost traffic from search engines, add internal links, too. Guest blogging will help you establish authority with new audiences and convert them into new followers.

Send Email Newsletters

Email newsletters can bring the intimacy and attentiveness that are difficult to attain by other marketing methods. With a tremendous ROI, email marketing is a clear, direct path to your subscribers. For this reason, most marketers would prefer dropping social media rather than email marketing from their campaigns.

As with other channels, establishing a newsletter subscriber base involves giving your subscribers continuous, quality insights.

Conclusion

A campaign for personal branding allows you to establish yourself to your audience as a true expert and reliable resource for information. Present yourself before as many audiences as possible. By consistently sharing beneficial knowledge and building relationships, you will boost your scope and interaction. Which, before long, will result in audience growth.