Whether you’re searching for a better job, looking for a promotion, considering changing careers or growing your network, building a personal brand can help you reach your goals. As marketers, we often market services and products but forget that we also need to market ourselves! Follow these seven steps to get started.

1. 6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Essay
2. 6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Statement
3. 6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Theft

Step One: Determine & Prioritize Your Values and Passions

1. Developing a professional identity is an ongoing process that requires a consistent commitment to excellence. Your reputation is fluid and easily damaged. Losing your cool on social media can damage your reputation. So can linking your professional profile to personal contacts, fudging metrics and not owning up to your faults.
2. Apr 13, 2011 Belvoir Federal Credit Union gave every employee a culture book when they launched a new brand identity. It explained the brand and set expectations for how every member of the team could live up to that brand promise – ultimately impacting any current or potential customer the staff comes in contact with.

Values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. They are at the core of who you are as a person and determine your priorities. Some examples of values include friends, family, honesty, community, ambition, etc. When faced with difficult decisions, you typically rely on your deepest-held values.

Values are important for business, especially during a job search. If a candidate’s values match that of a company’s, they are more likely to be hired. Prioritizing your values will help you begin to determine the vision of your personal brand.

Lack of Updating Your Marketing Materials. Don't forget to do a marketing material refresh and make sure that your materials are all on message, throw out the old so that your brand is front and center. You don't have to redo all of your marketing materials, but it's vital that you create updated materials that share your core services. Your brand definition serves as your measuring stick when evaluating any, and all, marketing materials, from your logo to the color of your business cards. A solid brand identity can be the critical groundwork for developing customer loyalty, customer retention, and a competitive advantage. It reflects your brand identity. A strong logo gives people a sense of what you do and who you do it for. Obviously, a single image can’t say it all. But in subtle and even subconscious ways, it can say a lot. Think of Nike’s swoosh as an example. The swoosh logo creates the impression of motion and speed.

Passions are the ways you enjoy spending your time. Generally, these are different from your values, though they may sometimes overlap. To build your personal brand, you must first identify your passions - both personal and professional. Professional passions might include technology, automation and design, while personal passions might include kayaking, family, and golfing.

Values and passions help you determine where you want to be in two, five or even twenty-five years, including your ideal career path. If the passions and values above were attributed to a person, he would most likely perform well in an email marketing role involving design and automation, though he would need to live in an area that provided him plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities.

Step Two: Define Your Key Traits

What helps you stand out from the crowd? These elements are your unique traits, and they help shape your personal identity. The Big Five Personality Traits are identified as :

1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Each of these traits is assessed on a scale, and where you fall on the scale defines your unique personality. You can take a free test to determine yours. This test should give you some insights about how agreeable, extroverted, open-minded, etc. you are and help you cultivate your personal brand. Of course, these traits don’t have to be permanent; if you don’t like your results, you can take steps you can take to move along the scale in one direction or another. or example, if you’re closed-minded, you could try new things at work and in your personal life. Conversely, you aren’t likely to have much luck changing key traits such as extrovert and introvert characteristics.

Need more insights on determining who you are today? Ask your friends and family for their honest opinions. Start by asking them to give you three adjectives they’d use to describe you.

Once you have your key traits, you can create your our personal brand statement: Envision your best self when crafting this.

To help you get started writing your statement, use this fill-in-the-blanks template from Dummies.com. Note: Use this as a starting point, but feel free to edit it to meet your needs.

I use my ___________ and ___________ for ___________.

Known for ___________, I ___________.

Using ___________ (key trait), I ___________, by providing ___________.

Through my ___________, I ___________, when I serve ___________.

Step Three: Develop Your Personal Image

Once you know your values, passions and personality traits, it’s time to start showcasing them! Here are some ways that you can get started:

1. Have professional headshots taken and use them on Linkedin, in your company profile, etc.
2. Cultivate an email signature that’s unique to you. (Use your personal email if you can’t edit the email signature you use for your company). Include all of your contact information, your signature, your social media icons, your company and your website.
3. Build credibility with content. Use your personal blog, Linkedin profile or publishing tools like Medium to get your message out on topics you are knowledgeable about.
4. Dress the part! Stay prepared for networking events and big meetings by keeping a fresh blazer and pants or skirt pressed and ready to go.

Step Four: Define Your Target Audience

It’s impossible to make everyone like you, so why would you try to appeal to everyone when building your personal brand? Defining a target audience is important for organizations, and it’s also important for individuals. Think about when you were younger and you made sure to get requests approved from your parents when they were in a good mood. This basic example teaches an important lesson; it’s best to invest your time and energy into an audience that is more likely to give you your desired outcome.

Your Target Audience Includes:

1. The Person Who Will Pay You: This person is typically a boss, investor or client. This person is in charge of the next step of your career. Create a description of this person (whether real or fabricated) and include as many details about them as you can. Then identify this person’s personal and professional motivations. When you understand his/her motivations, it can help you better understand how she can help you meet your own goals and even how you can help her meet hers!

Perhaps your boss would like to be Chief Marketing Officer and spend more time with her family. You can help free up some of her time by taking on additional projects or streamlining processes. Then she’ll be happy to help you in return! Set up a meeting to outline your goals and talk about specific timelines and to-do items to achieve them.

2. The Person Who Influences the Person Who Pays You: Make it easy for your boss/client, etc. to put in a good word for you with her superior or direct influencer. Outline your current achievements and clearly outline your goals in a presentable format. Showcase how you’ve gone above and beyond in your current position.

3. Your Supporters: Who are your messages meant for? Who will benefit most from consuming them and provide you what you're asking for? That’s your target audience of supporters. If you’re aiming to achieve a new job or promotion, your supporters could also be your peers that will help you get where you want to go by providing excellent recommendations.

Step Five: Build Your Online Presence

From Twitter to podcasts, blogs to Facebook, to establish your personal brand, you must get your voice out there. First, you must secure URLs, social usernames, etc. that are the best fit for your brand before someone else does! This includes both your personal website and any social networks you choose to join.

Tools like knowem and NameChk can help you check availability across hundreds of social communities. If your preferred name has already been chosen, try using dashes, underscores or numbers to find one that best fits your brand.

Linkedin is one of the best places to start getting socially if you’re interested in improving your job standing or looking for clients then LinkedIn is the best place to start. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are the other major networks you’ll want to take a look at. Secure your username here and start building your profiles on the network(s) that will best fit and help further your personal brand.

In addition, ensure your personal website showcases your best attributes and/or work. If you’re a writer or designer, establish a portfolio. If you’re a speaker, start a podcast or film yourself speaking at a conference.

Step Six: Start Blogging!

Many marketers consider blogging to be the best way to build a business, but they can also be influential when building a personal brand. Once you have your website, Use The Complete Guide To Building Your Blog Audience to get started with blogging. Once you have followers, you’re well on your way to establishing a lasting personal brand.

Some of the best strategies for gaining followers include:

• Writing about influencers and getting them to share your posts
• Using social sharing buttons on your blog
• Joining the right online communities
• Syndicating your content
• Repurposing your content

Once you’ve established an audience, make sure to post on a regular basis, follow SEO best practices and continue to cater to your audience for best results.

Step Seven: Follow in the Footsteps of an Expert

Who do you admire inside or outside of the marketing industry? Here are some examples of great personal branding from which you can borrow straight from the experts. Take note of how these individuals present themselves and their work.

Darren Hardy:

Neil Patel:

Ready to build your personal brand? Start by getting the skills you need to succeed in digital marketing with a Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing. Download your free brochure today.

A social media page that lacks content and lies dormant might as well not exist at all. But if you’ve let your social pages lapse into a state of disrepair, it’s not too late for them!

It is totally possible to revitalize and refresh your social media presence and bring your engagement back from the dead. Here’s how you do it.

Do a Basic Profile Audit

Before you turn to creating content, you want to make sure the bones of your page are up to snuff. All of your social media pages should feature your business’s name, location, contact information, and hours. If any of these are missing or wrong, now’s the time to update.

Additionally, make sure your pages are branded. Your logo should be included in the profile photos for each of your social pages. A tool like Canva makes it very easy to format your logo and relevant images to fit any social profile across platforms.

Post Regularly

Once your pages are looking fresh, it’s time to think about content creation. Establishing a regular posting schedule is truly the golden rule of all social media. Regular posting creates a sense of familiarity with your brand. Plus, the more content you share, the more your followers come to know and like your brand’s voice and identity. Your business begins to feel like an old friend, and that’s when people feel comfortable interacting with your content.

When you come and go from people’s social media feeds, that can actually make people feel distrustful of your brand. Why is there a flurry of activity one week followed by silence for the next two? It makes your brand seem scattered, and that’s not the way to generate positive attention online.

Don’t Just Sell, Provide Advice

Of course, it’s not just about the regularity of your posts, it’s also about their content and quality. The beauty of social media is that it allows you to establish authentic connections with your followers, so the last thing you want to do is create a series of salesy posts.

Instead, provide advice and useful information. Establish yourself as an expert in your field, and followers will find themselves turning to your content when they need a question answered. Sharing tips and knowledge also gives your followers something more substantive to comment on. People are far more likely to leave words of thanks or additional questions on an informative post than they are to say anything in response to content that is purely about selling a product or service.

Talk with Your Biggest Fans

When someone does take the time to engage with your brand, you want to reciprocate! Leave no comment left unrecognized, no question unanswered. When fans take the time to post a shout-out to your brand on social media, re-share the post and thank them for the kind words!

Again, social media is all about creating dialogues with your real customers, and giving them a sense that there are real, kind, knowledgeable people behind your brand.

Share Visually Exciting Content

Another way to catch the eye of those scrolling past your content in their feeds is to make it visually appealing. Rather than relying on text alone, always include an attention-grabbing graphic. Video is an increasingly popular method for reaching consumers, and live video in particular is very engaging. Viewers are excited to catch the content right as it’s being created, and it gives you the opportunity to answer questions and speak in real time with your followers.

Use Hashtags Wisely

It’s great to engage with those who already follow you on social media, but if you want to expand your reach, using hashtags is a great way to do so. Whenever you post content, include a handful of relevant hashtags on the post.

Viveka von Rosen shared her hashtag best practices for LinkedIn, but they’re really relevant anywhere. Select three to four hashtags that are relevant to the community you’re trying to reach and add one that is unique to your business. Using those community-specific hashtags will put your content in front of those who are interested in your industry or field of expertise. That’s the best way to get discovered by a new, relevant audience on social media.

Create Friendly Competition

Social media contests are yet another creative way to engage with your existing followers and broaden your reach. Create a contest that encourages followers to share content about your brand. If you run an ice cream shop, maybe it’s asking fans to take a selfie with a bowl or cone of their favorite flavor. If you run a dog grooming business, run a pet costume contest leading up to Halloween. Whatever it is, make it a fun, exciting challenge that followers will want to be a part of.

Establishing a hashtag for the competition not only allows you to track entries, it also helps to create buzz around the contest and generate broader attention.

Once it’s all over, be sure to post about the winner and share a photo or video of them with their fabulous prize on your social channels.

6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Essay

Get Involved in Pertinent Groups

Another way to reach beyond your existing audience is to become a member of groups that are aligned with your business’s solutions. Let’s say you’re opening up a nail salon in Akron, Ohio. You can join groups about nail art design or groups for nail technicians. Additionally, you can target community groups that attract those in the Akron area.

Once you’ve joined the groups, get involved in the conversations that are happening there! If someone asks for advice on what type of acrylic nails are best, share your opinion. If someone in the Akron group asks for recommendations for low-key bachelorette party ideas, humbly suggest that they might stop by your salon for a little bit of pampering.

It’s hard to keep up with social media. But even if you’ve let your once-great social presence go flat, it’s never too late to revive it! Taking a few simple steps to keep your page updated and stay on top of engaging with your followers can make a world of difference in generating meaningful conversations and connections with leads and customers alike.

6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Statement

If you liked this post, check out our Small Business Guide to Social Media.

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