7 steps to build a personal brand in 2024 (with examples)

One of our most talked about 2024 predictions is the surge of personal branding. 

Personal branding can help you stand out in your field, establish credibility, and attract opportunities. But there’s more to it than just posting frequently online. 

In this blog post, we’ll cover 7 steps that will bring your personal brand from zero to hero.

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is the process of creating a unique identity and reputation for yourself that aligns with your personal and professional goals. 

Personal branding myths

Before we build out your personal brand, let’s do some myth-busting.‍

Myth: Personal branding happens overnight

Like all personal and professional growth, personal branding takes time, consistency, and effort. While it’s possible to experience some quick wins, don’t expect instant success or fast results.

Myth: Personal branding is only for celebrities or influencers

While it’s true that celebrities and influencers have their own personal brands, it’s not limited to them. Anyone can build up their personal brand, no matter their industry, experiences, or knowledge.

Myth: Personal branding is for self-promotion only

Personal branding is not solely about self-promotion or creating a flashy image. A personal brand should be authentic and valuable for your audience.

Myth: You must be extroverted to have a personal brand

Just because you’re not comfortable in the spotlight doesn’t mean you can’t build a successful personal brand. Introverts can leverage their strengths and expertise in different ways, for instance focusing on written pieces instead of videos.

7 steps to build a personal brand in 2024

Building a personal brand is not unlike building a commercial brand. The difference is that you and your expertise are the product.  

Here are 7 steps you can take to build your personal brand:

1. Identify your brand

Start with a self-assessment. It’s easiest to build around subject matter you’re already comfortable with. So, what are you passionate about? What are your strengths? Where can you offer unique, valuable insights? And how do your experiences and skills support this? 

Once your self-assessment is complete (or if you’re struggling to make decisions), ask your peers, colleagues, or clients to validate your ideas.

2. Define your target audience

Now that you have an idea of what your brand is about, it’s time to figure out who wants to hear it. This is where personas come into play. 

A marketing persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer, based on market research and data, used to better understand and target specific audience segments.

There are plenty of persona templates available online (here’s a template from HubSpot). You can also create your own by answering these questions:

- Who will find my subject matter relevant and useful?
- Where are they primarily located?
- What are their job titles?
- What are their primary professional goals?
- What challenges or pain points do they face in their role?
- How frequently do they like to be interacted with?
- Which social platforms do they use?
- What are their primary personal goals?

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3. Determine which platforms you’ll use

Your first instinct might be to get on every platform. If you haven’t already, it’s not a bad idea to claim your username on each. But, don’t underestimate the time investment needed to create content, post it, and engage with it on each platform. 

If your personal brand isn’t your full-time job, start with 1–2 platforms. Choose platforms that your audience is already active on, but also where your content creation interests lie. For example, if video is not your forte, you probably won’t enjoy (or maintain consistency) posting on TikTok.

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In addition to social media platforms, don’t forget the powers of a personal website or blog. Here, you get full ownership over content and distribution and aren’t impacted by changes to algorithms or policy. 

4. Build a content strategy

Now that you have your platforms and brand, it’s time to create a content plan. There are 3 building blocks to a successful content strategy:

Create valuable, original content

Build out content that your audience can relate to and find useful. Position yourself as an expert by sharing valuable insights, opinions, and solutions to typical challenges you and your audience face.

For example, if you’ve identified in the persona process that a common pain point for your audience is work/life balance, create a list of strategies to help them log off easier at 5 pm.

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Balance your content with a mix of short-form and long-form content. You’ll learn what your audience responds to best but a mix of content is usually optimal. Typically short-form content is best for building awareness while long-form is best for education or in-depth insights.

Be consistent

Maintain a regular posting schedule to build anticipation and brand recall. Consistency doesn’t have to mean that every post is a new idea. You can repurpose longer content by cutting it into smaller, actionable chunks. Or, you can organize smaller related ideas into a larger post.

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Engage with readers 

Posting content is only the beginning. As our Chief Executive Orca Joe Teo likes to say, “Community is built in the comment section.” Interact with your audience by responding to comments and messages, as well as participating in discussions.

5. Build a visual brand

In addition to consistent content, a visual brand can help differentiate your content from other creators, enhance the communication of your information, and build recognition.

A style guide, consistent colour palette, defined typography and fonts, and consistent visuals and imagery are a good place to start. Try out Canva’s free tier to get started.

6. Engage and build relationships

As mentioned in Step 4, posting your content is not enough. You need to engage with your audience.

Start by responding to comments and messages, and not just with a “Cool!” or “Thanks for reading.” The best conversations happen when you ask a question back. Other ideas include sharing other people’s content, commenting on posts that are not your own, and hosting live sessions.

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7. Monitor, adapt, and seek feedback

It’s more than ok to start your journey into personal branding on instinct alone. But as you start posting and developing more rapport with your audience, you should leverage analytics. 

All social media platforms come with metrics to track success. Start with engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments to see which content and posts get more buzz than others. Your follower count will demonstrate how many users were impressed enough to want to stay connected. And your reach will show you how many unique users have seen your content.

If leading followers back to your website is part of your personal brand strategy, you’ll also want to look at traffic sources in Google Analytics 4.

Finally, ask for feedback from your audience and peers to improve and refine your brand.

Summary

You are now ready to take hold of your personal brand in 2024 and use it to reach your professional and personal goals. Personal branding is more of a marathon than a sprint so keep learning about your audience, creating content that resonates with them, and building meaningful relationships online.