Biggest Avoidable Errors In Personal Branding

As far as business and entrepreneurship is concerned, branding plays a key role. Let's face it, you are first seen before you are heard. But being a brand is more than just being aesthetically pleasing. We have come to see that personal branding has become more of a necessity and requirement than a mere competitive edge. Unfortunately, many business men and entrepreneurs do not know this and have become prone to personal branding errors. In this post, we will learn of real life personal branding errors and mistakes and how to avoid them.

Being A False You:

  Remember when 'they' always told you to be yourself? Well, doing the opposite of being yourself is exactly the first and perhaps the biggest error of personal branding. You do not need a PhD holder to explain that personal branding is just that, personal!. 

Personal branding is about  marketing and showcasing that unique you. It is also about creating an online persona  to help you achieve your goals. These goals vary with individuals and organisations. 

However, a lot of the positive features tend to be projected and that, in itself, is not a bad thing if it is done moderately . The problem begins to surface when, in your bid to show the positives and impress, you fail to show the actual you. 

Authenticity is important in personal branding. Nobody wants to hire  a fraud.As much as we all want to impress, remain authentic, remain really authentic.

Ignoring Opinions In The 'Brand Creation' Genesis

In the forming and creation of a personal brand, opinions matter!!!. read it again, twice!. Sure, it is a personal brand, but it is not meant for you to see, it is meant for people to see.
Fun Fact: People tend to see themselves as more beautiful than they really are. Keeping that in mind, your perception of you may be a tad exaggerated and that is exactly where you need the view of others to help with your personal branding.
With personal branding, opinions from friends  and family can not be overemphasized because if we really look at it, we pay the same money to marriage counselors, psychotherapists and professional branding firms to get their opinions and perspective. Learn to listen, it helps.

Failing To Produce Original Content

I'm sure you have probably heard the phrase 'content is king' ad nauseam, so I'll choose not to say it (but I've already said it). I have a friend who says that sharing content published by other people makes you a content DJ ( I do not know where he got that from). In reality however, what you are doing with shared content is promoting the work of other people ( possibly competitors)  and even if there is nothing incredibly horrible in sharing content especially if it is from 'perceived' leaders of you industry, you should keep in mind that you are indirectly redirecting fans to go elsewhere for industry knowledge. Now, that can hurt you a lot.
Instead of depending solely on shared content, sometimes do your own research, add your own voice. Express you own opinion and publish content that your audience will care about.
You can always supplement with content from around the web every once in a while. Now, that wouldn't hurt.

Getting Followers Because You Just Love The Numbers

 You see, a great man once said "I'd rather have two followers on Facebook who constantly like my picture than have 500 hundred followers who ignore my post". That great man is me (believe me, I'm great, I swear). My point is this, if you rack up the number of followers and barely get the number of engagements that you think your posts deserve with respect to the number of followers, then you have a couple of useless followers. Sometimes, like in this case, it is not all about the numbers. This is where advertising helps. With Facebook and Google ads, you can target audiences that you feel will have a genuine interest in what you represent.

Thinking It Wouldn't Take That Much Time Or Effort

A great man once said "nothing good comes easy". I am not that great man this time. As a matter of fact, I don't even know if it is a man or woman that said it.
In building a personal brand, you always have to stay relevant. Before 'staying' relevant, you have to become relevant and it is at the point of becoming that your patience will be tested to the limit.
Building a personal brand is more than just owning a website with one or two social media channels. It involves providing real, unique, useful and relevant content consistently and leaving a lasting impression on the people you interact with the most.
Becoming relevant in this world of endless competition is not easy to pull of.. It's Not.

Ignoring Le Process

There is a brand discovery process that should not be ignored for any reason at the start of building a strong personal brand. You need to sit down and think before you write that first blog post or make that Facebook post. Determine what you, as an entrepreneur, are about and find a way to make that what your personal brand is about. Skipping this process may lead to you as person trying to keep up with a forced brand and that can be every kind of arduous.
You do not want to spend time building a website and gathering followers only to find out that you do not know what you are
about.
Take time to think!.

Ignoring The Big People In Your Field

There is a whole blog post dedicated to capturing the attention of social media influencers and it was not written for the fun of it. Social media influencers are useful in building a strong personal brand. Do yourself a favour and read that post.
Engaging social media influencers in you field exposes you to a wide audience.

Post Constantly and Consistently

To become relevant, you have to post constantly. To remain relevant, you have to post constantly.
Moral of the story: Keep posting.
Although it is possible to overdo the posting, in building a personal brand, consistency is key. You simply cannot invest all your time in one post and hope it goes viral. The digital world is already too noisy as it is and it can only get noisier . Do not lower the probability of you being seen even more by failing to post consistently.

In this world of never ending change and unending competition, growing your social media presence is not exactly easy but it is important in personal branding. Learning to build your brand the right way has become indispensable knowledge. More than anything, remember to remain consistent.