By definition, personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands.

So the questionn is Do I really need a personal brand?

In our opinion, everyone needs to build a personal brand. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a doctor, a professor, a real-estate broker, or a student.

In today’s information age, anyone can Google your name and learn a lot more about you than you can imagine. Building a personal brand allows you to market yourself on the internet.

Personal branding helps you not just earn trust, which in itself is invaluable. You can also build a following, become a thought leader, make friends, and find a lot of new opportunities.

Even if you don’t like the idea of marketing yourself as a product, you will still be judged by what you put online. Fact!

Let’s take a look at how you can build an online brand for yourself that helps you succeed.

The first thing you need to do is to build yourself a personal website.

While having social media profiles is great, social networks come and go. First is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and now TikTok. You need a platform of your own where you can publish anything you want. A platform where you are the star.

Source: wpbeginner.com

Why You Must Have a Personal Website for Your Personal Brand

First impression matters; introduce yourself on your website first.

The online impression that you build is a result of the content that your audience sees and reads about you. That’s why your personal website gives you an avenue to “represent yourself professionally” (Neher 2017). Utilize your website to share and highlight your “interests, passions, and highlight the best aspects of your personal brand” (Neher 2017).

Ideally, the personal website has your name as the URL: yourname.com so it ranks higher on Google and is likely the first result somebody sees. This will also make your name rank higher in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu Etc. A highly ranked website establishes credibility and can bring in organic (non-paid) traffic to your website.

A quote from Tim Ferris, American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker, sums up the importance of your personal brand online: “Personal branding is about managing your name even if you don’t own a business in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your ‘blind’ date has Googled your name. Going to a job interview? Ditto.” How to Search Your Name on Google Using Private Mode or Incognito Mode

Source: medium.com

Control your own narrative

In other words, write your own content and tell your own story. This will give you control of the narration of your story and allowing you to craft the content that suits the brand that you’re building. Anyone who is searching for you online certainly would land on your website. So take the opportunity to introduce yourself and share your story. In addition, I strongly recommend having a blog on your website to share your thoughts, news, and updates so that your followers can see that you are engaging in your niche sector. Blogs also have the added benefit of establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field.

Your personal website will help you attract better opportunities.

Source: medium.com

Did you know 70% of employers say they’ve rejected a job candidate because they learned something undesirable about them online? (blog.hubspot.com)

Imagine having a salesperson why works 24/7 to promote your brand!

Think of your personal website as a best friend who tells others about you at a party while you are not there. They are not shy to tell others about your experience, achievements, and personality. The website promotes your brand and connects with your visitors. You can also use your website for marketing purposes. You can collect email addresses and future promote yourself through email marketing. Imagine having a salesperson who works 24/7 for you to promote your brand! Opportunities will come to you while you sleep.

Source: medium.com

Show initiative to your employers

If you are employed, having your own website will show initiative to your employers. It displays that you are creating your own way of building yourself up and giving yourself a platform to showcase your strengths. Just make sure you understand your company’s publicity policy first. I have met a few people in professions that this would not be suitable for (e.g. police officers). However, the majority of people could benefit greatly from having a personal website.

Why Your Personal Brand Online Matters

Source: medium.com

All your contact information clearly displayed

Imagine you were referred by a former client but your potential client can’t find out anything about your online. Your contact details will be able to give readers and potential clients your contact information including your social media accounts. If you have your personal website set up properly, then you can expect new leads to come in all the time. These leads are also extremely valuable because they have already engaged with your brand, seen your website, and decided that they like you enough to get in touch.

Source: medium.com

Press coverage, achievements, and testimonials all in one place

Your personal website is where your most up-to-date information should be housed who you are and what you are doing. Make sure you also maximize your website to include relevant information about you. Do you have any press coverage? Do have any awards or industry recognition? How about getting some customer or colleague testimonies? It would be good to compile everything in one place and your website is the best place to house these.

Source: medium.com

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND?

Living in a globally connected world, it is more likely that your first impression is formed online rather than in person. Thus, the best time to start building your personal brand was yesterday, the second-best time is today! Building a reach now can help you later, so get your name out there, build your online presence, and stay competitive. But remember that you need to build a consistent personal brand that is in line with your real-world identity.

In our highly competitive age, the global economy has drastically altered our employment landscape and even top professional jobs are unstable now. High achievers must stay on the innovative edge of career opportunities – today, it is common for executives to change jobs every several years, not every few decades. Thus, do not wait to convert your name into a brand.

Source: audreymongin.com

You need to let potential employers or clients know what you’re doing now.

That means it’s time to update (or create) your personal brand.

Did you know?

In an article published in Forbes, Workfolio’s report states that “56% of all hiring managers are more impressed by a candidate’s personal website than any other personal branding tool” (Smith 2017). (medium.com)

Are you ready to get started with your personal website?

How to Create the Best Possible Personal Brand Website

Building your personal brand? You need a website.

Here’s your guide to making it great.

Your personal brand website is your home on the web, the hub of the content you create, and a destination for every member of the network you’re building to power your career.

“But wait,” you might say, “I have a LinkedIn page. I have all kinds of stuff going on in social media channels. Do I really need a website too?” You do.

The content you post on social media networks belongs to those networks. You need to own your personal brand and purposefully direct it. You do that first and foremost with your website, which allows you to:

Project yourself the way you want, the way you control

Stand out from those you compete with

Globalize your reach

Create connections with like-minded people

Create a calling card that’s far more compelling than a business card or resume

This post (based on a chapter from my book The Road to Recognition, the A to Z Guide to Personal Branding ) will explain how to create a website for your personal brand that’s credible, visible, scalable, and user-friendly. It’s a fun and easily manageable project if you take it one step at a time.

(I’m happy to offer you a free electronic copy of The Road to Recognition. Just contact me to request one Stick around for the “show and tell” portion of the post at the end [or JUMP to it now] because I also want to show you many fine examples of personal branding websites and highlight what I believe are useful, well-executed features.

Source: feldmancreative.com

1. Design a unique logo that reflects your brand

When it comes to online branding, your logo is the element that stands out most. A unique logo can set you apart from the competition and make your website and content easier to recognize. Not taking the time to create (or commission) one is a wasted branding opportunity.

The problem is that not everyone has the design chops to create a stylish logo. In some cases, hiring a designer to do this for you will be your best option. Of course, you’ll need a decent budget if you want a logo that doesn’t look like it was put together in five minutes.

Whether you decide to design a logo on your own or hire someone to do it, there are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind:

Your logo’s concept should reflect what your site is all about.

It should be easy to read and/or understand quickly.

It should include your brand colors (we’ll talk more about this element in a moment).

To play it safe, we recommend that you commission multiple logo variations, so you can weigh your options and choose the one that represents your brand perfectly. While you’re at it, you might also consider developing a tagline that describes what your brand is about, as this is an excellent complement to a strong logo.

Source: themeisle.com

2. Choose a color palette for your website

In some cases, users learn (usually subconsciously) to associate specific colors with a particular site. When you think about Facebook, for example, you can probably picture the exact shade of blue the company uses throughout its website and other materials.

That’s not a coincidence, either. That association forms because those sites make the color a deliberate part of their branding strategy. To do the same, you’ll need to choose a color – or multiple hues – and incorporate them into as many elements of your site as you can.

Choosing a palette where each color complements the others can be tricky. However, using a color wheel can make the process significantly easier. For best results, you’ll want to stick with somewhere between one and three primary colors.

As for which elements to use your brand colors on, there are plenty to choose from, including:

Navigation bars and footers

Dividers between sections

Featured images

Those are just a few places to start, of course. You can get pretty creative when it comes to incorporating your brand colors into your designs. Just keep in mind that consistency is critical, which brings us to the next section.

Source: themeisle.com

3. Keep your branding consistent throughout your website

For a personal branding website to work, it requires a high level of consistency. That is to say, your branding elements should appear throughout each page, and should look uniform.

To give you an example, you wouldn’t want to use two different logos within the same website, since that could easily lead to confusion. The same logic applies to all other aspects of your branding, from the colors you use, to which elements you apply those colors to.

This also means that if you use a particular color for CTAs on one page, it’s best to do the same on other relevant pages. The goal is for users to become acquainted with your brand’s core elements, so they’ll recognize them more easily over time.

Source: themeisle.com

4. Add social icons to your website

These days, just about every website needs a social media presence. Moreover, those social media accounts should also represent your online brand. That means using the same logo, colors, and tagline, as well as writing in the same style as your site’s content.

Keep in mind that you don’t need social media accounts on every platform, just those that are relevant to your audience. Then you’ll want to link those accounts to your WordPress website, and the best way to do that is by using social icons The WordPress community offers a lot of plugins you can use to achieve this. One of our favorites is called Social Icons Widget:

This plugin includes icons for over 80 social media websites (yes, there are that many of them!). Plus, it enables you to add any of them to your pages using widgets. This will direct your website visitors towards your social pages, where they’ll be exposed to more of the same branding – hopefully helping it to ‘stick’ more effectively.

Source: themeisle.com

5. Create an “About Us” or “About Me” page

If you want people to connect with your online brand, they need to know what it’s all about and what you or your business stands for. The easiest way to share this information is by adding an “About Us” section or page to your website:

“About Us” pages don’t need to be overly complicated. In most cases, a few pictures of your team or headquarters alongside a brief introduction will do the trick. The idea is to give visitors enough information that they know you’re more than just a personal branding website, and there are real people behind the content you publish.

There are plenty of ways you can go about creating an About Us page in WordPress. Some themes include pre-built sections or pages that are perfect for these purposes, including several of our own. So you may want to check those out and see which one is a good fit for your site.

Source: themeisle.com

Are you ready to get started with your personal website?

We can help you build the best-performing website for your personal brand. 

Check out the personak brand website offer —–>>> offers.dmztech.com.ng