5 Subtle Ways You're Hurting Your Personal Brand’s Credibility

Most people don’t hurt their personal brand by making a big mistake; it’s the everyday impressions that make or break the strength of your personal brand.

Your personal brand’s credibility is built in every communication and every touchpoint. The way you view these impressions either weakens the trust you gain with others or strengthens it.  Here are 5 subtle ways your brand may be losing credibility, without you realising it, and what to do instead: 

1. Mistaking credentials for credibility  

In some industries, your credentials are critical; in others, they are less important. Either way, the credentials you attribute to your personal brand can’t be used as a substitute for trust. 

Don’t assume listing degrees and certifications speaks for themselves. They aren’t persuasive on their own. They show what you earned, not how you conceptualise and operate. If overused, they can create a sense of distance. They describe past validation, not present authority. This isn’t an argument against not having credentials, but rather not hiding behind them. 

Instead of over-emphasising your credentials:

Write achievement-oriented professional branding

Position your resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, personal brand website and other bios to emphasise your real-world actions and outcomes. For more on writing high quality reumes and cover letters to strongly position your professional brand, see my earlier blogs:

• 10 Tiny Tips for a High-Calibre Cover Letter that Lands You an Interview

• Why your resume sounds weak & is selling your personal brand short

• How to sell your skills in your resume: Pitching a persuasive personal brand

• 10 tiny ways your resume isn’t working for you (and what to do instead)

Document the process behind your personal brand

Share behind-the-scenes content on social media, blogs, LinkedIn articles, podcasts or YouTube videos. This takes your community behind the scenes of your personal brand. It showcases up-to-date capabilities, how you conceptualise and an understanding of timely trends, not just dusty degrees, demonstrating your knowledge, skills, judgement and values. 

2. Inconsistent communication 

Call it the Scorpio in me, but for me, inconsistent communication hurts your credibility. I get it. We are overwhelmed by an always-on culture of communication. I am guilty of this myself. But when you think like a brand, you quickly raise the stakes for failing to communicate well. To meet promises. While thinking about your personal brand might feel too corporate, it dramatically increases your service standards. You realise you are the CEO and Brand Director of your own reputation.

When you say you’ll return an email at a certain time and don’t, you break a promise. You have missed a deadline, no matter how subtle. When you leave messages or emails unreturned, you create a negative experience of your personal brand. When your communication aligns with the expectations you’ve set or the basic laws of reciprocity, you create a positive experience for your personal brand.

3. Outdated personal branding  

Your online personal brand is the shop front window of your personal brand. Does your LinkedIn profile appear inactive? Have you stopped sharing on your other professional social media platforms? Is your personal brand website out of date? When your online brand goes dormant, it’s like the lights are on for your shop front, but your doors aren’t open. Even Google and search engines use your activity and inactivity to determine how much they can trust your brand. Expect that people would do so too.

For an active personal brand: 

• Update your LinkedIn profile with your latest achievements and experience. For more on updating your LinkedIn profile, see my earlier blogs: 

• Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile Photo to Elevate Your Professional Personal Brand

• Create a More Engaging LinkedIn Banner for Your Professional Personal Brand

• Rewrite Your LinkedIn About Me to Strengthen Your Personal Brand Strategy

• Write a Better LinkedIn Profile Headline for Your Personal Brand 

• 1-Minute Wins to Elevate Your LinkedIn Profile and Professional Personal Brand (6 Tiny Tips).

Create a consistent posting schedule on your platforms. Set expectations and keep your promises. 

4. Not creating original content 

Consistency alone isn’t credibility. If your content feels like it’s written by AI, which is easier to spot than you might think, it dilutes your personal brand. It lacks original thought. Create content that no one else can, that feels original to you and what your personal brand represents. 

Creating content, as Austin Kleon describes, is a way to Show Your Work. He says: 

“Human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do.” 

‘Stock and flow’ is the economic concept adopted by Robin Sloan as a media metaphor. When it comes to your media, ’Flow’ is the feed. It’s the posts and tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. ‘Stock’ is the durable stuff. ‘Stock’ is what lasts months, even years, into the future. It’s the long-form evergreen content. The key is to grow your ‘stock; in the background while you maintain your ‘flow’.

5. Hiding behind your employer brand or  title  

Your title is borrowed credibility. It was attributed to you by your current employer, even if you work for yourself. By hiding behind business or employer brands, you’re letting the institution do the talking for you, instead of personalising the perspective you bring to the industry as an individual. When the context you’ve relied upon disappears, so does your authority.

To build your personal brand presence outside of your current job title: 

• Create a personal brand website.

• Brand your business under your own name.

• Start a podcast, YouTube Channel, blog, Substack or publish articles on LinkedIn.

• Join an industry board or committee outside of your 9-5 responsibilities.

Think impressions, over being impressive

A credible personal brand isn’t built by appearing impressive. It’s built by being consistent, current and clear in how you think and operate. While credentials matter, they don’t replace trust. Visibility helps, but it isn’t authority on its own. And while your titles may have opened doors, they might not keep them open. When you think of yourself as the CEO and Brand Director of your own reputation, your standards shift. 

Every interaction, update, delay, or decision becomes part of the experience people have of you. And credibility, once you see it this way, isn’t something you claim - it’s something you earn.