How to build your personal brand

Are you a savvy sommelier, recipe creator or maybe a Personal Trainer? No matter what your niche is your business can really benefit from you building your personal brand. To follow one's dream and make it a reality requires courage, planning and strategy. It is important to be seen, heard and stand out from the crowd with what you do. To help you get started, here are some tips from us at Story Relations on how to build your personal brand - who knows, maybe you’re the next expert seen on the news?

Find your niche and what makes you unique

Before you go out with marketing and your knowledge - be sure to find what sets you apart from others in the same business. What do you want people to think about when your name pops up? When you decide what your thing should be, make it CLEAR. The clearer it is what you do, the bigger the chance that your name will be top of mind when people are discussing your industry.

Research – What kind of content fits in which forum?

When you have decided what you want to communicate and what exactly your focus is you should start thinking about where you want to be seen. Write down a list of a couple of media you would have liked to been published or seen in. When you have them in front of you, it's time for research! What topics do they often bring up and what’s the general tonality? After a while you will find a couple of common points that often recur in each media. Use these as a basis when you then contact the media and present yourself and what you do. It's all about bending and

Research 2.0 - Think headlines!

After your research above, you hopefully have an idea about what works in the various media. You’ve probably also picked up on what kind of headlines that are often used. Try to put a headline on yourself and what you want to communicate. You might not get it right on the first try but hopefully you’ll find a headline that feels like you.

Be approachable, but don't be anyone else!

When you decide what you and your brand stands for - don't take it too far! If you are yourself, your passion and knowledge will lift both you and your business. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, people will notice this after a while. Be your best self – it’ll get you where you need to be!

You are you 24/7!

Being your own brand is not something you do working 9-5. You may turn off your lights and close the office, but EVERYTHING you do affects the overall picture of you. If you put your heart and soul into communicating and working in a certain way when interviewed in newspapers or TV, then make sure you do the exact same thing in contact with customers and on your social media for example. If you are the recipe creator invited on shows to share vegetarian recipes you shouldn’t be posting pictures of steaks and ribs on your Instagram.

Are you curious about building your personal brand? Send us an e-mail to info@storyrelations.com and we’ll schedule a coffee where we can tell you more!