10 Common Mistakes When Building Your Personal Brand
Personal branding has become less and less of a competitive advantage and more of a requirement. In this online world, everyone is a personal brand. Whether you are an employee, an entrepreneur, or a student looking for an internship … if you are active online, you build an online brand. So avoid the mistakes below when building your personal brand.
We learned hilarious branding lessons from Louise Delage and watched Trump and Clinton fought out fitties on social media while their fans rallied behind them. As soon as you are active online, personal branding is just a reality. A personal brand matters because you leave footprints on the internet.
Table of Content
Mistakes in building your personal brand
Your online brand is one of your most important tools for your online marketing. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors and sets the tone for everything you do online. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make the same mistakes that affect their authority, credibility, and like factor. So avoid these mistakes when building your personal brand!
Since we all benefit from the online world, I encourage you to think about your personal brand. Check out these common personal branding mistakes to avoid making the same blunders.
1. Think it doesn’t apply to you
Whether you are a successful entrepreneur, director, student, personal branding can take your career to the next level. Personal branding is about marketing and differentiating yourself… and showing it online. You have control over your online store to achieve your goals.
You want to show your expertise and skills to find an internship or make a career move. Or you want to grow your business and attract more customers. Whatever your goal, your online presence can help or hurt you. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that personal branding doesn’t apply to you.
2. Not standing out from the crowd
Many entrepreneurs look at what their competitors or successful entrepreneurs are doing and then just try to do the same. They think “if they do that successfully, then I do it to be successful”. But do you prefer a real “Van Gogh” or a copy that is almost indistinguishable from a real one?
This makes you blend in with the crowd and you don’t stand out at all. You just become one of the many providers and then the choice becomes difficult. Why would people choose you? Do you want to stand out in this world of distraction… think about what you can do differently so that you stand out? Choose a unique positioning.
3. Impersonating yourself as someone else
On a first date, we often try to show ourselves from our best side. Your house is a bit more tidy than usual, your job is just a bit more interesting. Doing this a little bit can grab someone’s attention and build a beautiful relationship. But if you exaggerate this enormously and the other finds out about this, not many dates will follow …
The same applies to personal branding. If you selectively choose to show your best side online, you have a good chance that you will attract the attention of colleagues, companies, and new customers.
But if you overdo it, it turns against you. No one wants to date, work, or hire a fraudster. Authenticity is important, both for relationships and for your personal brand. So don’t pretend to be someone else.
4. Wait for something bad to happen
Dentists recommend brushing your teeth at least twice a day. What if you don’t brush at all and you get dental disease? Then you can not brush very fanatically, but you probably will not get the damage done completely or it is a lot of work. Brushing your teeth regularly preventively is much more effective.
This is also how it works with personal branding. It’s harder to control your online store when something bad happens that you need to deal with and fix.
Many people don’t realize how important their online presence is until a problem arises. But that’s a classic mistake. It is better to work preventively on your personal branding. A little work now will make things a lot easier in the future.
5. Not being consistent enough
Successful brands are recognizable and distinctive. As Walter Landor said: “Products are built in the factory; brands are created in the mind. ” Consistency is important. People should recognize you immediately by your colors and your tone.
If your online branding is inconsistent, you confuse people. They can even start to distrust you. Because what if you sometimes react very personally to a Facebook message and the other times very businesslike and distant, then your fans cannot identify with the real you.
That is why your brand values and brand guidelines are important, also for solo entrepreneurs who do everything themselves. Think of all the elements you use online: your tone, colors, images, photos, style, etc.
6. Your branding does not match your brand values
What if your branding elements are consistent… but do they also match the values that you stand for as a company or personal brand? If you want to come across as fun and informal, you can also adjust your colors, font, images, and message.
Deliver your message in a personal way and also dare to give your opinion clearly. Get people to click and like you because of the content you share.
7. Not knowing yourself well enough
Would you bother promoting your business if you didn’t even know what you’re going to sell? Probably not. The same goes for personal branding. You should really think about this before posting blogs and social media. Self-reflection may not always be an easy process, but you should know: what makes you unique. If necessary, ask others for help so that you have more distance.
This is important for yourself, but also for others to identify with. And if you just come up with a nice packaging or branding that does not suit you at all, you will not keep it up. And people also feel that it is not real. That does not inspire confidence.
Personal branding takes time. It applies to your website, content marketing, social media activities. With all the online activities it is worth determining what your unique brand values are and who your ideal customers are… otherwise you are just wasting time on your online activities.
8. Underestimating the time to build a brand
Building and maintaining an effective personal brand is much more than just having a website and a few social media channels. It’s about providing people with valuable content over and over again.
It’s about differentiating yourself from your competitors and making yourself memorable for the people you want to impress and interact with. And that is not easy in a noisy digital world. So you will have to put a lot of work into that.
9. Want to please everyone
No matter how hard you try… you will never be everything to everyone. As an entrepreneur, you have to make choices. And if you don’t dare to choose, your personal brand will only weaken. If you have a strong opinion, share it (with respect, of course).
Just be yourself, then you will be 100% original and inimitable. People choose you because they can identify with you and want to do business with you.
10. Not being visible enough
You can overdo your social media activity and get spammy. But usually, you don’t post enough content and you don’t have enough interaction. You are active on social media to be visible online. If you post a video per day, you will be more attentive than if you post one per month.
Remember consistency is important. The chances of people seeing your content in this noisy digital world are slim. The last thing you want is to reduce that chance even further. So be active and make yourself visible online!
Reading Tips: 5 Pillars for Fastest Growing Companies
