Personal branding is supposed and expected to take a much more prominent position from now on. Not just for entrepreneurs, but also for professionals who want to consolidate their careers and for the companies that have strongly linked the figures of their leaders to their product. It is a tool that can increase your results, sales and the presence of your brand in the market. However do you know what branding is and what is its value to your business?

Well, branding is the visual and marketing strategy you build based on the values, objectives and causes of your company. Maybe you don’t know, but there is a strong bond between branding and your brain. It touches 3 parts of our brains that are connected straight to the experiences we live: intellectual, instinctive and intuitive. In other words, it’s main goal is to make people remember your brand and even relate your brand with something good.

Increasingly, consumers care not only about products offered by companies, but also about the company’s image. If you release a positive image and make the public identify with your brand, the company is able to retain more customers.

So, personal branding happens by assigning a face and / or personality to represent everything that your brand stands for. Because in the end, if the public identifies with your brand, they will prefer to buy your product than your competitor’s.

Since this matter of personal branding is such a mystery for starters, I asked for four actual branding experts to give their tips for you. And they sent gold contributions – not that I was expecting less from these geniuses. So if you are an entrepreneur, a professional or freelancer pay attention to these wise words. You will learn how to begin and grow using personal branding.

First of all, we will have the educative and generous words of Ryan Foland. Who is manager partner at Influence Tree and named Top Digital Youth Marketer by Inc. & Top Personal Branding Expert by Entrepreneur. 

1) Find your vision

“Before you build your personal brand, you need to create a very clear vision. There are a number of different definitions that fall under the topic of expertise, and you have to be an expert in one thing. There’s no good or bad; every definition is just different, and you need to establish the definition of focus for yourself to better create the type of leader you aspire to be.

Here are five easy ways to gain the knowledge you need to become an expert:

1) Attend conferences on the subject matter that is your expertise;
2) Attend local university lecturers open to the public on matters in your fields;
3) Go to the library and read;
4) Scour the Internet for information about best practices;
5) Gather facts from business owners, regulators, politicians, anyone who can give valuable insight on the latest trends and how they can help or hurt your field of expertise.

Whatever your vision may be, figuring it out should be your first step in building your personal brand within your community. You must focus focus focus focus, and focus.”

2) Find your voice

“It is well-known that public speaking is one of the most feared and lamented tasks among human beings. If you want to brand yourself as a great leader in your field, you must have a voice in the community. Therefore, you must be able to speak at both small, medium, and large functions comfortably and enthusiastically. Every town has multiple opportunities for individuals to have their voice heard, but only a handful of individuals take advantage of such opportunities, and those individuals are the ones who are not afraid to publicly speak.

Here are a some options that can fast track your ability to feel confident while speaking in front of a crowd.

1) Join a local Toastmasters. It will help give you an opportunity to speak on a regular basis in a safe environment until you get comfortable with branching out and speaking other public venues;
2) Set up a profile on SpeakerHub to showcase your talent and popular topics;
3) Give speeches to local nonprofits and community groups;
4) Visit and talk with local businesses or business leaders in your field and determine the topics that mean the most to them. Form talks around these topics.”

Another great tip comes from Nicolas Cole. He was named by Forbes one of the top marketing influencers to watch in 2017. He is an author, speaker, Inc Columnist and recognized Digital Marketer. 

3) Be consistent

“I think when it comes to branding, specifically personal branding, what is most important is that you keep your materials consistent. Even if you don’t have a big budget or a fancy logo, a lot can be said for a brand that is consistent with their font choices, colors, styles, etc. That consistency is what creates uniformity, and makes a viewer, a follower, a reader, whomever feel like they’ve stumbled across a ‘brand’ and not just a conglomerate of unorganized content.”

Then you have Carlo B. Cisco messages and inspirations. He is an entrepreneur, investor, founder & CEO at MeetSelect.com and want to engage you.

4) It’s never too late

“It’s never too early to start. Network, meet people, get out there. The more people that know you, the more people will know your company. This helps not only in the early stages but also as your business begins to become successful. It helps turn people into advocates for you and your company and you never know how valuable an advocate may be.”

5) Be passionate about what you do

“As an entrepreneur passion and energy is key. You need to show potential hires, investors, co-founders etc. that you’re passionate about the potential, know the market, and are ready to pursue your vision full force.”

And last but not least – at all – we have the knowledge from Dennis Yu, Chief Technology Officer at BlitzMetrics.

6) Planning is key

“Make sure to have your plumbing in place before beginning your branding efforts. Not just having all of your social profiles in order like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but includes tracking pixels, analytics, advertising platforms, etc. You won’t believe how many headaches this saves in the future. We cover this in our digital plumbing guide.”

7) Learn and practice your knowledge

“As you learn and grow, challenge yourself to apply your knowledge, which opens yourself to teach others. Maintain your progress through your blog and make as much content around your focus as possible. No one is born an expert or a thought leader, and by doing so you show that there are real people working and learning about things. This is one of the nine ‘triangles’ we hold at the core of BlitzMetrics.”

As a result of such great ideas and inspiration, what about to get in action? You could start by analyzing your current strategies. Then establish a goal and plan your steps towards success. Also let us know on the comments below if you have any doubt or extra tip to share.