What is personal branding, why is it important, and what does it mean to me?

Personal branding is vitally important for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

A brand is:

1. Why we exist
2. Who we are
3. What we stand for
4. Who we want to connect with
5. What we promise to deliver
Congruency in action and words create long-term success.

Authenticity in personal branding is mandatory.

Customers and clients want to connect with and buy from real people.
Build that trust.
Cut through the noise (don’t simply add to the noise)
Get the message of the brand out there.
The message matters.
Attract the audience.

Twitter is a crucial part of personal branding.

Organically create an audience for your brand.

  • It takes time and energy.
  • Patience is key.

Get out there & make genuine connections.

  • Be helpful.
  • Be honest.
  • Be there consistently.
  • Be a giver.
  • Be a resource.

Opportunities will come.

Tips for creating strong personal branding:

  • Focus on quality over quantity (video, audio, articles, etc)
  • Speak to an audience, not an algorithm
  • Solve problems/pain points
  • Entertain/Use humor where appropriate
  • Have a consistent tone/style/vernacular
  • Brand alignment with partners

Social media is the priority for personal branding.

It’s the best way to reach a global audience.
It’s mandatory for growing awareness of a #brand.
It helps make progress along the “know, like, trust” continuum.
The order matters.
A brand is about forming a real relationship.

Personal Branding success tips:
1. Use social media to be social
2. Join conversations that are relevant to your brand
3. Twitter makes this really simple with hashtags and advanced search feature.
4. Create strong relationships by sharing your knowledge and experience.
5. Win

Social listening is a crucial component of personal branding
-helps to find your tribe/customers/clients
-shows questions they are asking/topics they are talking about.
-gives an easy segue for demonstrating knowledge & sharing solutions
-monitor hidden (no @) brand mentions

What does branding mean to me?

You could ask this question another way:

What do I want to be known for?

If you are in marketing in any way, you may have heard about Mark Schaefer’s book “Known”.
I encourage you to read it, if you have not.
But back to the question.
This is a fundamental question if you are going to be creating a brand in this internet economy.
Let’s set aside all the other things that go into branding for a moment (colors, logos, fonts, etc.). These are all minor details in comparison to the big principles upon which your brand stands (or falls).

Let’s instead talk about first principles.

When someone hears your name or the name of your brand, what principles do you want people to think of?
This is so important and I recommend any brand do it before anything else. This is where you find the real magic. Even if your brand or business changes, pivots, succeeds, or fails (and there is a high chance it will do all those); the brand can live on. That’s because it had a solid foundation.

I want people to connect these ideas to my brand:


When you make that connection with people over high ideals; you make meaningful and significant connections. The kind that stirs people to action. That creates trust and loyalty.
That is what I am striving for each day.

To live a life of meaning and high purpose.

Then to connect with others who want to do the same
That goes back to this wonderful idea of community

So, if I were to ask you:

What does branding mean to you?

How would you respond?

servant based leadership ldrbrnd gene

I’ve been helping leaders become better marketers for over 21 years and would love to help you take the next step in your spiritual leadership journey.

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