Create an Unstoppable Personal Online Brand (DIGITAL MARKETING)

How to Enhance Your Online Brand:

1. Identify Your Unique Selling Point

What makes you good at what you do? It’s important to identify what makes you unique from the outset – this will help you stand out amongst the online noise and digital marketing “ninjas” (and trust us – there’s plenty of both). First get clear about your niche and your passions and then identify the value you can bring to your audience.

How to Identify Your Unique Selling Point:

What do the most successful online influencers have in common? They have managed to find a niche that aligns with both their passions and their career goals. It’s easy to put this down to luck but more often than not it’s down to focus.
The best influencers focus on their passion – if it doesn’t light a fire in your belly you won’t keep it up. Equally, if it doesn’t align with your career goals it won’t be sustainable. So ask yourself the following questions honestly before you begin building your online presence:

When Identifying Your USP Ask:

• What knowledge/skills do I have to offer and who can I offer them to?
• Does this niche/industry/topic genuinely excite me or am I jumping on a successful trend I don’t love?
• Does the work light a fire in my belly (could it get me up at 6am?)
• What do people tell me that I’m good at?
• What do I love doing (even if it never made me money)?

2. Choose Your Digital Channels Wisely

There are a whole host of digital marketing channels to choose from. But it’s important not to make yourself available on too many platforms – you’ll risk burning yourself out and spreading your time too thinly. Instead, try to choose the right channels for both you and your audience. Get selective with your platforms, get ruthless with your time and get clever with your strategy.

How to Choose Your Perfect Digital Channels:

First decide how you love communicating best – is it through words, pictures or by speaking? You could try blogging, vlogging, micro-blogging, tweeting or photo-blogging – but only you know where both your passion and your talents lie. First identify your ideal content creation platform and then assess the best digital channels to market your content through.

When Choosing Channels Ask:

• Is my audience there?
• What kind of content does this channel require (e.g. writing, video, photography, etc.) – do I enjoy creating this?
• What channels are people in my industry engaging with and succeeding with?
• Do I have enough time to dedicate to the channel’s upkeep?
• Do I have at least one channel for content creation and at least one channel for social media promotion?

3. Select Side Projects Carefully

Because there’s a severe digital skills gap if you’re good at what you do you’ll find yourself faced with an abundance of opportunities – people inviting you to write for them, contribute to their podcasts and collaborate on projects, etc. But that’s a good thing, right? Well, technically yes, but you could risk taking on too much and not getting enough in return. Just like any business when it comes to your personal brand you need to think of your ROI (Return on Investment).

How to Select The Right Side Projects:

When selecting the right projects you need to learn when to say yes and how to say no. The premise? If it benefits your brand you do it, if it reaches the right audience you do it, if you’re passionate about the project you do it. If you don’t have the time you politely say no. Ask yourself the following questions before you say yes to your next side project:

When Selecting Side Projects Ask:

• Does the brand align with my values?
• Does this project align with my goals?
• Is it a good way to tap into my potential audience?
• Is this an important relationship?
• Do I have the time to complete this to the best of my ability?
• Are my client’s goals achievable?

4. Be Authentic & Open

Your personality matters. And how you treat people does too. So be nice, be honest and be you. People can see every move you make online – and they will be able to tell if you’re faking it or being insincere. When building a personal online brand it’s important to stay true to who you are and what you believe in. The more authentic you are the more your audience will trust you.

How to Be Authentic:

• Be as honest as you can be. Always.
• Don’t endorse any products/brands/tools you don’t believe in and wouldn’t use yourself.
• Stay humble – don’t let any success you might have go to your head.
• Remember to thank every person who helps you along with the way.
• Respond to criticism politely (both online and offline).

5. Watch, Learn, Listen (& Practice)

The best way to learn? Yes, you guessed it – to watch the experts and learn from their success. You can probably do with learning from their mistakes too. Either way it is absolutely essential to conduct research and listen to those who are leading the way in your preferred industry.

How to Learn From The Best:

Identify influencers in your niche industry (Twitter is probably the best place to do this). Research their strategies, search for their success stories online and consume their content regularly. Find out how they made built a successful personal brand from scratch and how they continuously engage their audience.
Is there anything that you’ve learned that you can incorporate into your own strategy? As Jeff Bullas says, “If you want to achieve you’ve just got to look at the top people in your industry and see what they’re doing and basically copy them/emulate them.”

How to Listen Effectively for the Best Learning:

• Identify influencers in your niche area (Twitter is a good place to do some research).
• Seek out a mentor (either online or in person).
• Follow and engage with your influencer’s social media fans – they are your target audience.
• Don’t be afraid to put what you learn into practice – if it’s worked for someone else in the industry it might work for you too.
• Only take the best parts from your favourite influencers – rather than copying everything you learn (stay unique).

SOURCE: DIGITAL MARKETING INSTITUTES