5 Simple Ways to Level Up Your Personal Brand in 2024
Use the New Year to take a new look at your personal brand potential
Do you have levelling up your personal brand on your radar for 2024? In branding, consistency is critical. Consistency builds trust and trust builds loyalty. But there’s a catch. Brands, including personal brands, that don’t evolve, risk feeling stale, boring or even worse, get left behind altogether.
Don’t just head into the new work year determined to get on top of your emails, perfect your filing, leave work on time, get that promotion or have a clearer desk. Remember, the potential of ‘New Year, New You’. How are you demonstrating your personal brand’s evolution over time? There’s no time quite like the new year to take a fresh perspective on easily overlooked opportunities for your personal brand.
In this blog, I’ll share my top five recommendations for levelling up your personal brand in 2024. But first, let’s revisit what personal branding is:
What is personal branding?
25 years ago, Tom Peters revolutionised the business world. He first coined the term ‘personal brand’ in his Fast Company article titled, A Brand Called You. In it, Peters affirmed what has always been true. You’re already the CEO or Head of Marketing of your own brand.
It’s generally agreed that your personal brand is:
What people think about you
How do you make them feel
What they say about you (especially when you’re not in the room)
And how they remember you
So really, you already have a personal brand. Personal branding is simply choosing to be intentional about what it represents.
Why your personal brand matters?
When it comes to your personal brand, you can leave it up to Fate. But, as branding expert Donald Miller says:
“Fate is a horrible writer.”
Branding is Storytelling. In a noisy marketplace, personal branding asks what your authentic story is saying.
This isn’t new. Humans have used storytelling for tens of thousands of years. We have been evolutionarily hardwired to make sense of our experiences through storytelling. Research shows when a fact is shared with a story it’s over 20 times more likely to be remembered than when a fact is shared on its own.
While you may think no one cares about your personal story or what you have to say, research shows otherwise. A Nielsen study showed that 33% of people trust brand messages. While 90% of people trust recommendations from someone they know.
Personal branding for you and your teams is the outward expression of your values. And it’s our values that unite us. Business is personal. People connect with people. People buy from other people. Personal connections build brand trust.
Building a personal brand is a long game, but in this blog, we’ll explore what strategies can have an immediate impact.
1. Define your personal brand core values
As Simon Sinek famously said in his runway best-seller and Ted Talk, Start with Why:
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Most companies tend to know what they do and how they do it. But, are less clear on the why. And they communicate in this order. But, like the best companies know, start with your Why. Take Apple for example, they say:
“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.
The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
And we happen to make great computers.
Wanna buy one?”
While personal branding is often misunderstood as an act of self-promotion or vanity, this is only the case if you’re not doing it right. It begins with your values. And how your values are communicated in everything you do. Everything from your interests to your verbal and visual communication defines what you’re remembered for.
2. Sharpen your verbal personal brand
When it comes to your personal brand, your tone speaks louder than words.
In the 1970’s, Professor Albert Mehrabian established the 7-38-55 rule, which breaks down the following on how impressions are formed:
Non-verbal communication: 55%
Tone: 38%
Words: 7%
Amid all the noise, embrace the tone that’s unique to your personal brand personality.
Define (and write down) up to five key personality traits that reflect your personal brand core values. Others may share your experience and expertise. But, your unique personality can help differentiate you and attract your people. For each trait, consider what this sounds like and also what it doesn’t sound like. It will help you identify when you’re communicating on-brand or off-brand.
3. Elevate your personal brand visual identity
In 2006, Princeton Psychologists, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, published some compelling conclusions about the speed of first impressions. They concluded they form in just a tenth of a second.
Your first impression:
Sends an immediate cue that creates an instant impression of your brand.
Causes an assumption about what you represent.
Causes experiences with you to be filtered through that assumption.
So, make 2024 your year to ‘glow up’ your visual identity.
As shared in my previous blog on your professional wardrobe, just like any good brand would do, establish a recognisable look and feel in the marketplace. One that communicates for you.
You might consider:
Wearing a signature colour
Adopting a signature element
Refreshing your wardrobe (which doesn’t need to mean buying more).
Tip: When considering a signature style, consider accentuating an existing natural preference. Something others already seem to know you for. For example, many tell me how much black I wear. I used to take it as a suggestion to wear more colour. Now, I embrace wearing black even more than I already did.
Don’t forget your online visual identity. Use the ‘New Year, New You’ sentiment to upgrade your online presence with new headshots. You can take these yourself or with the help of a friend. And update any profile banners. While brand consistency is critical, no brand wants to feel stale heading into a new year. Use the fresh start to refresh.
4. Push your content creation comfort zone with clear goals
I have several blogs that discuss content creation. Including how to define your key messages and marketing like a magnet. But, to level up your personal brand in 2024, I’ll keep my initial recommendations as simple as possible:
Pick one platform to focus on. For example, make ‘2024 The Year of…’ (you fill in the blank).
This might be a short-form platform e.g:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Tik Tok
Pinterest
YouTube shorts
A brief weekly email
Or a long-form platform e.g:
YouTube (more specifically on this in my blog post here)
Podcast (more specifically on this in my blog post here)
Video/podcast
Blog
Remember, short-form content can be created for naturally longer-form platforms. Which is how you might like to begin. Podcast or YouTube episodes can be as short or long as you (and your audience of course) like them.
2. Set yourself a goal
Focus on what you can control. Don’t focus on lag indicators like engagement, subscribers or followers. Focus on lead indicators, such as:
Aim to publish a piece of content on the same platform daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly (if that’s your only sustainable option).
Aim to post on the same day/time every time.
5. Co-brand your personal brand
As they say, you are who you spend your time with.
Contrary to popular belief, your personal brand is not all about you. The right relationships are what most help your personal brand grow.
When it comes to your personal brand, you have to look outward. Whether it’s another personal brand or organisation, partners help add their strengths to yours. And partners may expose you to new audiences. They also help your personal brand build trust in the marketplace.
If there was one organisation or even another personal brand you’d like to align your own personal brand with in 2024, who would it be?
Now consider doing at least one of the following:
Collaborating for a project/s
Collaborating for content
Collaborating for a campaign
Co-hosting an event
Volunteering for them
Engaging their services
Buying their products
Attending their events
Joining their community groups
While consistency is the golden rule of marketing, don’t forget all good brands evolve. People enjoy seeing other people grow. It tells a transformation story. How are you sharing the story of your subtle evolution over time? Don’t let the fresh new year slip by without refreshing your personal brand.
So, how are you levelling up your personal brand in 2024?
