Promoting Your Personal Brand VS Promoting Your Business.
There has been a lot of debate around how valuable is personal branding and how it can directly impact your business. But is it something you think needs more attention or does personal branding of the founder don't really matter in terms of scaling your business?
Recently the world has seen shifts towards personal brands being the brands that matter and I think this is primarily because of social media. When you see someone post you read it but when you see a company post it's often dismissed as an ad. A great example is Joe Wicks in the UK who has built an amazing fitness brand just on his name and personality! An easier example is Kylie Jenner and her make-up company - her make-up is just white-labelled products from someone else, almost the entire value of her company is the name on the front.
I'd say personal brand but this may be coloured by the fact it is more valuable to you as you can affect multiple products with a single personal brand
I just think we shouldn't hide behind a business, saying "we" if we're working alone on it.
Being a human behind a product is good. Most big companies are totally anonymous nowadays, like big machines which don't really understand the end user. It's a great for us.
The downside is your credibility, as a person: if you don't have any, nobody will trust you.
I was re-reading a post from @patio11 this morning, pointing out that if you want credibility, you just need to create a lot. If you want to have credibility in mountain photography, take a lot of them.
Personal brand or not, credibility can be hard to build, and it takes time. But it's essential I think. When you sell a product, you sell as well an image, directly attached to your business and, if you don't hide behind it, to you. Your image needs to be compelling for your target market.
I'm not sure, BTW, you "promote" a personal brand. I think you build it on the long run. Promotion is more for products.
I believe promoting the personal brand comes hand in hand to building it keeping a long term perspective/ time frame in mind. I personally know a lot of experts in their respective fields who have massive credibility but need the exposure and don't know how to go about promoting themselves since their entire lives they just kept working on their craft and doing what they do best. The new business scenario is different, the sooner you understand that your credibility is amplified through ethically promoting your personal brand, the easier it becomes to drive attention to you and your business.
I'm curious. Concretely, what would be promoting your personal brand for you? Writing a blog? Going on Twitter?
Promoting your personal brand is never as simple as a two-step process. It's a complex strategic process, which will involve not only putting out relevant and value-driven content on social media platforms and blogs but will also include having meaningful conversations with people.
It all boils down to how much value are you giving to people in your conversations or content and that will dictate your journey of how quickly you gain visibility and credibility for being an expert.
That's a nice definition. I would call that "help" more than "promoting", though. But it's the same in essence.
There should be a balance between both. Some research showed that people trust other people better than brands, so it would make sense to promote your personal brand and at least put some face on your business. But every situation is different of course, but if I had to pick one... probably personal brand because in the end it can benefit both you and your business and all your future ventures :)
It all boils down to social proof and nothing builds up social proof like a trusted personal brand or a face you can associate with that particular business. It's just buyer psychology and a lot of founders are realizing this. Even the introverts who would be behind the camera have realized the value and are now stepping out there promoting their personal brand.
Luckily being in front of the camera isn't the only way to grow a personal brand (I'm writing an ebook about personal branding for introverts and hope to finish it this year), but your idea is right. Personal branding is a great way to create a foundation for trust.
That's a wonderful idea and your niche audience being 'introverts'. I'm sure you've hit the nail on the head with this. Good luck with your e-book.
Thank you so much!
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Yes definitely. I truly believe that focusing on personal branding is the right way to consciously give direction to your venture and your online presence on different platforms.