If you are using social media to build relationships, then you already know the importance of having a personal brand that is in harmony with the authentic version of yourself.
Many people within organizations understand that they are all working towards a common goal; it doesn’t matter if you are a cleaner, a security guard, an intern, or the CEO. The business benefits when everyone within it builds their personal brand and use it to communicate authentically and build relationships.
“During a visit to NASA in 1962, President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man, and said, ‘Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?’
‘Well, Mr. President,’ the janitor responded, ‘I’m helping put a man on the moon.’
To most people, this janitor was just cleaning the building. But in the more mythic, larger story unfolding around him, he was helping to make history.
Here’s the point: No matter how large or small your role, you are contributing to the larger story unfolding within your life, your business, and your organization.
When your entire team embraces that type of attitude and belief system, incredible things happen.”
But isn’t personal branding the responsibility of the marketing department?
“Results from personal branding can be transformational for businesses and individuals. 561% more reach is obtained from employees sharing business messaging. Content is shared 24X more frequently from employees VS brand accounts. 8X more engagement from employees vs. business social media accounts.”
Before we go deeper into personal branding, it is important to understand more about relationships. A key part of relationship management is understanding your cognitive capability as a human.
According to Dunbar’s number, we have a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom we can maintain stable social relationships.
Dunbar’s number stems from his research all the way back to our ape ancestors. He concluded that we have the ability to maintain approximately 150 relationships. This depends, of course, on the specific individual and can be as low as 100 and as high as 250.
A lack of management of your relationships could be causing you to miss out, which is just why I wrote this post. Many reading this will, of course, have great personal brands already, and of course, understand how valuable it is to build one.
The question is: are you forgetting to remind people you are still alive and asking genuine questions about them?
“When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves.”
There are many reasons to build your personal brand. Of course, there are the obvious ones directly related to income levels and standard of living. There is also the less obvious self-esteem boosting reason; more fulfillment at work can mean more happiness at home too.
Building your brand with micro-blogging on social media also means that you may become someone who can build their authority and gravitas in the eyes of your peers. You have a chance to share your perceptions, knowledge, insights, and experience with any reader of your opinion and perhaps help them to do likewise. Passing on all this for the benefit of others is very rewarding.
Communicating valuable information to your community via your social media channels is a key part of building your brand and sharing your opinion is key to this.
Next steps after a relationship is established
So– on the basis that we think about ourselves 95% of the time, what are we going to do to nurture our relationships?
I’ll tell you what!
- Delve deep into their interests
- Share content that they like
- Post their content on social media
- Comment on their posts on social media
- Remember their birthdays, set reminder for next year
- Send them articles via direct message they may like
- Introduce them to people that may help them out, or need what they have
- Reach out and take them for lunch or invite them to a call on video chat
If you are worried about how to manage all these relationships the easy way, try Nimble free for 14 days.
Once you have signed up to Nimble, follow the instructions and add all your networks, then begin by building the relationships you need to move ahead with your goals.
Remember, networking is a bit like trying to eat with really long chopsticks; if you try to feed yourself, you will drop lots of food. If you feed other people then you will manage to get fed by them too.
Jon Ferrara CEO of Nimble shared this with the Build Business Acumen Podcast Listeners:
“Nobody in their right mind would use a CRM if they weren’t beat on to do it. And that’s the reason why there’s 225 million global businesses and less than 1%, use any CRM because you work for it. You have to go to it to use it.
My belief is that you shouldn’t have to work for your CRM. It should work for you by building itself, and then work with you wherever you work. Because if you’re not in the trenches, in the river, having conversations, building relationships, and staying top of mind with your customers, then they’re not going to pick up the phone and call you when they need their products and services.
And if they don’t, your dead and like a famous actress said:
‘Out of sight is out of mind and out of mind is out of money, honey!'”
If you aren’t yet convinced
Here are the 11 reasons to build your personal brand:
1) To open new professional opportunities, whether that means a new job in a new company, a promotion. It may mean starting your own business or even forming a partnership.
2) Building stronger relationships with your clients and your network, so they will also assist you in any way possible as they know you have a certain weight behind your “persona.”
3) Adding depth to current existing relationships and adding value to them.
4) To build up an audience where you could potentially launch a product and service offering designed specifically with them in mind.
5) Building the brand of you is key to finding the right mentors; they can see who you are without wasting time.
6) Crafting your brand allows people to understand what synergies you may have, what makes you “tick,” and leads to more productive relationships.
7) Building your brand is a proven way to craft a differentiation and staying ahead of industry developments as a thought–leader in your field.
8) Building recognition within your industry for the hard work that you have put in can build your credibility amongst your peers and industry influencers.
9) Your cutting edge knowledge and expertise command a premium and you will be able to leverage this value in your fees and negotiate better payment terms and perks of the job.
10) Creates a revenue generator rather than a direct cost to the businesses you work with, considering how many new business leads your articles, videos and social media accounts generate.
11) Expanding your knowledge and credibility into other areas of your niche.
Sharing your unique voice and not being afraid to stand up and be yourself is one of the best things I have ever done in my professional career and it certainly also helps to build your personal brand.
Don’t forget that your personality and opinions may not suit everyone’s taste. Take the time to consider who you are and who you would like to work with. Then you make sure that you show this off in your blog and whatever content you create or co-create with your employers.
Closing Thoughts
Do not become just another carbon copy of someone else you have seen online. Be yourself and don’t be afraid to move forward and grow into the person that you would like to be — and in many cases already are.
I recommend you start by crafting some statements explaining what you do first. You can use this slide deck to get some inspiration.
This article was adapted from 11 reasons to build your personal brand.
