How to use Visual Storytelling in Your Personal Branding
Four easy ways to curate the look and feel of your personal brand
Storytelling for your personal brand is more than your verbal narrative - it’s visual. Without saying a word, you speak volumes.
When I was in my first year of school, I loved learning. Then one day, I got into some expected trouble.
I was certainly no wild child, so this was as much trouble as a bookworm could get into. My teacher was unhappy I had taken home a book for my nightly reading that was too easy. In her defence, she had a point. I remember the book contained just one word on each page. They might have even been the same word.
Was it lazy? Perhaps. But, maybe I was just tired, given all the words I normally indulged in. I may have just wanted to experience storytelling in a different way.
The lesson I took away was that words are more valuable than pictures. As a child, you are taught to replace your tendency toward imagery with words.
Thankfully, 15 years in marketing helped me unlearn this lesson. Because the most effective storytelling combines narrative with visual storytelling. This is no different for your personal branding.
Here are four easy ways to use visual storytelling for your personal brand.
Tip #1.Priming and Framing
The average person is exposed to thousands of marketing messages daily.
Marketing to Mindstates by Will Leach says you experience more than 35,000 decisions per day.
Behavioural economics tells us humans have two systems:
System 1 (95%)
Unconscious
Fast
Automatic
Emotional
System 2 (5%)
Conscious
Slow
Indecisive
Logical
The most effective branding strategies tap into the unconscious mind. This is because humans buy emotionally first and then rationalise with logic. Visual priming and framing, therefore, become essential for your personal brand.
Priming
This is a subconscious reaction to stimuli that impacts conscious decisions.
Framing
Visual framing is the presentation of elements in relation to the main subject.
Say someone visits your website or profile. You have a twentieth of a second before neurological processes kick in.
Rather than lazy generic options, use photos that prime and frame. Clearly communicate your key messages. In an instant, communicate your personal brand value. I’ll discuss ideas for selecting these images later in this blog.
Tip #2. Your personal brand colours, fonts and logos
In his book, The Best Story Wins, storytelling master Matthew Luhn shares his insights. The Pixar veteran uses the iconic Tiffany and Co to explain the power of visual storytelling.
One of the most recognisable brand colours, Tiffany blue conveys tranquillity. The logos and typeface are sophisticated. And the imagery communicates the romance of love stories. All are carefully curated to tell their brand story.
Similarly, the look and feel of your personal branding should tell a story.
For your own personal brand, consider:
A signature colour
Consistent fonts
A personal brand logo
A quick visit to Canva and you’ll see the abundance of opportunities.
In a noisy marketplace, these elements help build a recognisable brand. In branding, consistency is critical. It builds trust.
Tip #3. The shop front window of your personal brand
Your personal brand touchpoints are your retail experience.
This includes:
Your physical workspace (office, desk, video or online meeting setting and more)
Your online presence (social media profiles pages, posts, websites, blogs to name a few)
In copywriting, it’s often said that every single word needs to earn its place on the page. Your visual storytelling should be the same.
Consider these personal brand visual storytelling opportunities online:
Review your headshot across all platforms
Use a photo with deliberate wardrobe, colour and background choices. Reflect your personal brand style.
Review your LinkedIn banner
Replace generic backgrounds with priming and framing images.
Pick an image that shows any or a combination of:
Your value in helping to solve a problem: For example, mine is designed to communicate the value of personal branding in a noisy marketplace. View it here.
Your creditability: A speaking engagement, media opportunity, book or similar.
Your customer experience: You on the job.
Your customer transformation story: This shows your customer success stories.
The first three help position you as the Guide character in your storytelling. And the personal touch of showing your face helps build trust.
The customer transformation story image is also highly valuable. It makes your audience the hero of the story.
Review your website images
Whether it’s a personal website or other platform, review your images. Do they tell a story about your personal brand?
Tip #4.Your personal brand personal style
In 2006, Princeton psychologists, Janine Willis and Alexander Todoro, researched first impressions. They published some compelling conclusions about its speed. They deduced that these are formed by an alarming tenth of a second.
The research suggests that humans are evolutionarily hardwired with an accelerated ability to judge trustworthiness. It is crucial to our natural survival instinct.
So, remember what you wear matters as it:
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
We are so often taught that it’s what is inside that matters. While it does, humans are hardwired to first judge a book by its cover. Make yours the impression you want, so others want to discover what’s inside.
So, what story is your personal brand visuals telling?
PS This wraps up my personal brand storytelling series for now. Next week, I’ll be sharing tips for finding your personal brand inspiration.
