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Why Personal Branding for Women Is More Important Than Ever

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The pandemic resulted in a disproportionate number of lost jobs for women, which is why their need to self-brand effectively is uniquely critical.

You keep saying that you want to show up differently, gain authority in your industry, get booked on national TV, grow your business, speak on a big stage or confidently apply for that six-figure job. But as you’re reading this, does your online presence reflect that?

If you’ve ever tried to grow your personal brand from the ground up, you know that it can be intimidating, but right now and more than ever before, it is vital for women.

American working women took some major hits during the pandemic. Before 2020, they made up more than of the workforce, a percentage not expected to return until 2024. It was a rough year, to say the least, and we had to make some tough decisions. Many women saw their lives briskly transformed by stay-at-home orders, school closures and the onset of remote work. When child care centers closed, hundreds of thousands of working mothers lost their jobs, requiring an overwhelmingly larger number of women versus men to stay home and prioritize family needs.

Now that it’s time to return to the workforce, women must establish a personal brand. Whether you are looking to find a new job, get a promotion or create a competitive advantage, it’s imperative that you now represent the best version of who you are online — showcase what you do, what you stand for and what you do believe in.

What is personal branding anyway?

Put simply, this term refers to how you present your unique combination of skillsets, experience and personality, as well as your perspectives. Jeff Bezos famously quipped that personal branding is “…what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” That can be a paralyzing thought; what are the lasting feelings that people around you feel when you’re no longer in their presence?

We tend to associate the concept of a well-crafted brand with major corporations, but that can’t be further from the truth. In this digital age, where we are the product, it has become a critical ingredient to success — on both the personal and professional fronts.

The truth is, you have all of the power to design how the world sees you, and by extension your professional brand. You have everything you need, both visual and written, to usher new energy into whatever space you occupy (or want to occupy). Whether you’re an intrapreneur aiming for a six-figure promotion, the founder of a non-profit or a self-employed Etsy designer wanting to share genius with the world, crafting a strong and authentic personal brand is the differentiator — the key to securing more interviews, being considered for more opportunities and giving people around you a memorable sense of who you are. A personal brand puts you in control of your next career move and helps you attract the employer you want, not just the one who will have you back.

Why it’s crucial for female entrepreneurs

Before the pandemic hit, perhaps your career path was a little blurry or non-traditional. These times have changed everyone, including giving us time to reflect on values and passions. Struggles highlighted our strengths and what set us apart from others. For many, the pandemic provided clarity concerning which goals they wanted to continue to pursue, which ones to let go of and where a broader purpose might lie. All of the above make up who you are. This introspection will help you truly thrive, and is the key to crafting a personal brand story. When you weave it into branding, you alert others to what you desire and expect in your next career move, as well as what they can expect from you.

What is the story you want people to tell when you walk out of the room? That message you leave behind — that is your brand. Eventually, if done correctly, it becomes more than a career or a business; it becomes your legacy. Whether you’ve decided to return to the same field, start your own business or perhaps run for political office, creating a strong brand will help elevate all goals.

Building a personal brand post-pandemic

As lockdowns and other restrictions unfolded, the world became a little more savvy and dependent on technology. We all got a crash course in video chats, remote work or education and certainly increased online activity overall, including possibly Googling a few new people who crossed our social feeds. That same level of online curiosity will continue as people emerge from being homebound, seek out new relationships and try to reconnect with old ones.

According the Pew Research Center, 31% of U.S. adults report being online almost constantly now. So clearly, an online presence impacts our day-to-day lives, whether we are looking at the screen or producing content for others to find. What we each put out into the digital world makes an impact. By building a personal brand online, you attract the type of people, employers and relationships you desire, while also telling the world what you won’t stand for. It sets clear boundaries and expectations and lets the world know what your presence, ideologies and work ethic bring to the table.

Such a digital footprint is, in fact, the first impression most employers, future relationships and potential clients will see, so how you make it is more important than ever before.

People buy from people first, and that will never change, and they don’t connect with stories that don’t resonate. If they can’t connect with you, they will likely not care to purchase from you, either. Your personal brand is that connection.

So, does your online brand reflect your inner brand? Have you created an online presence that you can be proud of? The better you present that unique you online, the more straightforward your path forward will be. When done right, it encompasses story, vision and purpose and keeps an audience loyal and committed, no matter where life takes you.

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Sourced from Entrepreneur

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4 Pointers To Help You Get Hired In The Post-Pandemic Era

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By William Arruda

“Help Wanted” signs are everywhere, and they’re not going away anytime soon. A shortage of workers is gripping the nation: April saw a new record of 9.3 million open positions.

As employers struggle to fill critical roles, the time is ripe for you to pursue your dream career. Just remember that you still have competition. Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University, says the business world is entering a “great resignation,” as more and more workers seek to switch jobs.

What does this mean for you? If you’re interested in starting post-pandemic life in a new position, don’t wait. The most coveted roles with the most in-demand benefits (yes, including remote work) are likely to attract hundreds of qualified applicants. You have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Here’s how:

1. Highlight transferable job skills on your résumé.

According to Isaiah Hankel, founder and CEO of Cheeky Scientist, today’s employers are less worried about highly specific skills. “You might have been told to tailor your résumé for each role you apply for, but from what I’ve seen, that strategy won’t work in 2021,” Hankel says in his recent article for Harvard Business Review. “Many companies are nervous about hiring more specialized candidates because they’re unsure what the business landscape will look like after the pandemic. To show you are adaptable, generalize the skills on your résumé into three main areas: systems-oriented, people-oriented, and self-oriented.”

A study by global staffing firm Robert Half found that 84% of companies are willing to hire and then train candidates who might not meet specific job requirements. Considering 62% of employees reported landing a position they weren’t qualified for, it appears companies are largely being honest about their intentions.

2. Focus on personal branding by updating your online presence.

Anne Pryor, a Reach-certified personal branding strategist shares my passion for urging all applicants to spend time working on their digital personal brand. “Regardless of the current economic climate, it’s absolutely critical for all professionals in job search mode to understand their unique promise of value and be able to express it in the virtual world,” Pryor says.

Today, your personal brand is intrinsically tied to your online presence. In fact, your first impression will be delivered online. A study by CareerBuilder indicates that 58% of employers use social media to verify candidates’ qualifications—and 50% see a professional online presence as a reassuring sign of a candidate’s potential. Tailor your profile on broad networking platforms like LinkedIn and other mediums that fit your desired position or industry. An established GitHub profile, for example, can cement your status as a software engineer.

3. Go beyond the traditional résumé format.

Remember when a résumé had to fit on a single page with your entire work history neatly organized in chronological order? As proof that these formats have gone out the window, check out TikTok Résumés. The popular video-sharing platform is partnering with companies like Chipotle, Shopify and Target to invite job seekers to apply for in-demand positions.

Today, your imagination is the only thing limiting what form your résumé can take. A video résumé might be a great way to show off your visual work if you’re applying for a role as a videographer, graphic designer, or illustrator. If you’re looking for a job as an accountant, make a résumé in Excel that shows off your highly relevant knowledge of complex or obscure formulas. One student applying for a position at Spotify even made a playlist-themed résumé—and it’s fantastic.

4. Use stories to convey experience during the interview.

Storytelling isn’t just an interesting way to convey information. Research indicates stories can be 22 times more memorable than facts on their own. When hiring managers think back to interviews with dozens or even hundreds of different candidates, your ability to tell a story will make you and your experience stand out from the crowd.

Lily Zhang, a career counsellor at the MIT Media Lab, understands the power of a compelling story. “A good place to start when preparing your narrative for a particular interview is to figure out what main points—personal experiences, skills or qualities—you want to get across to show the interviewer you’re right for this job,” Zhang advises. “Then, look for opportunities to tie these points together in a cohesive way and find supporting stories from your work experience that back these points up. Connecting your career story to the job you’re applying for to create a bigger narrative is the goal.”

If you’ve been thinking about applying for a new job, now might be a good time. But the abundance of opportunities shouldn’t make you feel complacent. Instead of relying on a cookie-cutter approach, make yourself stand out by incorporating these four key ingredients. After all, effective personal branding is about authenticity and differentiation.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By William Arruda

William Arruda is a keynote speaker, author, co-founder of CareerBlast.TV and creator of the LinkedIn Profile Type Indicator (LPTI) which measures your LinkedIn profile likability and credibility. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. 

Sourced from Forbes

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How To Double Down on Personal Branding in 2021

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By Julian Paul

A proven 3-step approach to personal branding

Recently I took the Marketing New Realities and the Personal Brand class by the great

as part of my MSc High Tech Entrepreneurship at

. There were many brilliant concepts covered. But the core centered around how the world increasingly emphasizes this fact: A brand’s credibility and existence now rely on what customers say and do rather than what the brand wants them to do.

Before going into my three main takeaways, let me share two case studies I felt were quite impactful to myself and the broader class.

The North Face — Question Madness

The North Face video ad campaign with extreme athletes as the stars. YouTube

What an ad! This campaign portrays the uncomfortable and scary truths. Something not often seen from big brands… pain and broken bones are ugly, but they define the daily lives of extreme athletes. The North Face knows this and shows the entire world they understand exactly who their customers are.

Further, The North Face decided to take a user-generated content (UGC) route with a strong focus on empathy which translates directly into a sense of belonging with their core audience. Because of this, they literally did not need to put any product front and centre. Rather, their brand and product is the athlete — no matter where they are. As a result, their entire brand now resembles the safety and support system that allows athletes to survive extreme conditions — which translates into their secret sauce:

  1. The customer is the hero.
  2. The customer is the marketer.
  3. They helped people belong.

Heineken — Worlds Apart

A short video on Heineken’s “Open Your World” Campaign. YouTube

Phew! What a shocking video and context. Mark posed some great questions to this case study. Who is the target audience? Why would this sell more beer? Let’s get into what I think about it…

The target audience is those who think our differences are greater than our potential to connect. It’s a beautiful analogy to the way the world is seemingly trying to divide us among our identities. And it offers the antidote: Heineken Beer. Heineken is treading a thin line between encouraging alcoholism and highlighting the culture it enables.

I personally believe it is clearly the latter. As a beer consumer myself I can relate to the environment filled with deep conversations that occur in a typical pub, bar, or even at home… I think you know what I am talking about. So the answer to the second question is also very clear to me: this campaign would definitely sell more beer. Its message is inclusivity from all political or ideological ends.

My 3 Main Takeaways

Building on these two case studies, I collected three main takeaways that resonated most with me. Now, if you know me, then you understand how much I love mental models and processes. So, my takeaways are designed for a personal branding beginner (like myself). And personal branding begins with producing inhuman amounts of content… the following points relate to a process I have identified from this class and am applying to myself. They are meant to be applied top to bottom. Let’s get into it.

1. Apply AIR with your initial content

I know it’s cliché, but content is king! Simple, right? Not really. Creating content that actually connects with people is difficult. AIR makes this easy:

  1. Authentic = Are you real? Is what you’re sharing honest?
  2. Interesting = What value does it add? Is it tangible?
  3. Relatable = Does it connect to your target audience?

People believe and trust in what they see and experience. AIR relies on consistency and trust. The key to AIR is community-driven.

Be of the community, not just in the community.

Once you nail AIR, you create acts of advocacy that will move customers to connect and communicate with other customers. This only comes from creating and sharing content, increasing buying decisions as a result.

Mark says this best:

“Know who your super sharers are and tailor your content angle towards them.”

I say in addition, you need advocates, not followers.

2. Define your customer island

Personal branding is the marketing of today. And marketing is about all things human. It’s about emotions. So you should aim to create the marketing of no marketing: enable your customers to create and share your/their stories. Do this by understanding what they are into. And once you define that, you can group them into customer islands (imagine a Maldivian atoll as a reference), where the name of the game is word of mouth (WOM) marketing.

This might seem very difficult, but there is a simple solution: Think about creating talkable stories and approach the following types of influencers: celebrities, creators, and advocates. Each has its unique use case and its effectiveness will depend on your application.

Once you understand your customer islands and which influencer type you need to gain access to each, you will receive feedback from a whole range of customer segments that were totally agnostic to your personal brand. Beautiful, right? So analyze carefully and choose wisely.

If you create your personal brand, you create your island. And those who identify with it, will come to you.

Mark categorizes customer islands under human-centered marketing, which he built a beautiful manifesto for. Check it out here.

3. Leverage RITES to scale your content

Expanding on the ideas of customer islands and creating your first consistent content series with AIR, I loved this model as a way to scale bigger and broader as a creator. Once you’ve ticked all of the five RITES boxes, you will be able to connect with your island like never before:

  1. Stay Relevant
  2. Be Interesting
  3. Be Timely
  4. Be Entertaining
  5. Become Superior

Mark goes on to state that your personal brand is a business. So, as with any business, you should know that the customers are in control. Even more so in the age of personal branding. Be wise and make your personal branding efforts less about ego and more about the people on your island. RITES allows you to discover and frame the type of content you need to grow your personal brand to new heights.

The internet is all about giving away value and enabling others

Coming Full Circle

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did writing it. Needless to say, the ideas put forth are interpretations and learnings I took away from Mark’s class. However, the approach and condensation of them are my own. My hope is that you receive the same amount of value as I did. Thanks so much for all of these concepts

. It’s been a pleasure!

More insights from Mark’s class

My final realization

Personal branding is here to stay. So why not master it and create the island thousands of people are waiting to join?

Feature Image Credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash

By Julian Paul

Sourced from BetterMarketing

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Personal Branding Could Be a Solution Against Unemployment: Humberto Herrera

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The United Nations (UN) reported that the number of jobs that have been lost during the Sars-Cov-2 virus pandemic has doubled compared to the 2009 economic crisis.

Releasing its most recent report, the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN integral organization, asserted that full-time job losses are estimated at up to 255 million.

For the director of the ILO, Guy Ryder “this has been the most serious crisis for the world of work since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its impact is much greater than that of the global financial crisis of 2009”.

Likewise, the ILO estimates that the loss of world income from these jobs amounts to 3.7 billion dollars. It transcends that women and young people are the ones who have suffered the most from job losses.

About this, the specialist in personal branding, Humberto Herrera Rincón Gallardo, assured in an interview for this medium, that to alleviate the crisis that the entire world is going through it is necessary to manage finances and protect the personal economy, through a strategy of positioning.

This strategy -Humberto Herrera said- consists of making a difference with 97 percent of the other competitors in the labour market and of taking advantage of the digital tools that are within our reach such as social networks to grow our credibility and provide greater confidence to employers, clients, etc.

When asked if we are facing one of the most difficult moments in the world economy, the expert -with ten years of experience in advising great figures in the business world- assured that it is indeed one of the most complicated moments and therefore, where we should try different things in order to get around the situation.

“Of course what is happening is very delicate, but above all, we must see it as an opportunity to prosper and try innovative strategies using all the tools we have at our disposal, and of course, following the recommendations of international organizations”, explained Humberto Herrera.

Among the suggestions made by the ILO Observatory, the maintenance of flexible macroeconomic policies for this year stands out; the formulation of specific measures aimed at improving the situation of women, youth, and low-skilled workers who receive low pay, as well as the promotion of social dialogue to implement the necessary recovery strategies to achieve more inclusive, fair and equitable economies. sustainable.

With more than ten years in the field, Humberto Herrera is one of the top personal branding experts in the world. In the last 10 years, he has advised more than 1,000 clients in the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

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Sourced from Influencive

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A Complete Guide to Using Social Media for Your Small Business

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By Anders Hjorth

Social media has revolutionized human relations and transformed the way we communicate. It has created a new type of celebrity thanks to the power of personal branding.

And businesses are increasingly realizing how direct person-to-person relations via digital channels can be beneficial to their sales and marketing.

To master this new type of business communication, most companies could use a bit of social media advice and some digital marketing tips. So, we’ve gathered a collection of social media tips for business in this article.

They’re easy to understand, easy to execute, and should prove valuable for any small business social media marketing operation.

8 effective social media tips for your small business:

  • Learn about your audience
  • Choose your primary and secondary social networks
  • Use a mix of hero, hub and help content
  • Repurpose your content
  • Leverage inbound marketing and partnerships
  • Set up social commerce
  • Evolve your content from articles to video to live
  • Plan and automate

8 social media marketing tips for small businesses to try

Whereas social media marketing has become an advanced marketing discipline where experts compete for excellence and for outstanding results, it’s also a playground where any business — big or small — can make a difference for itself.

The following social media marketing tips can be implemented by practically any business. (Take special note of Nos. 4 and 8, which are our favorite social media tips on this list.)

1. Learn about your audience

One of the great benefits of social media is the access to market data it provides. Social media platforms are data-driven platforms designed to tailor advertising to their users. In the process, they provide access to some of that data to businesses.

As a business owner, you’ll get access to the social media metrics you need to steer your business, but you’ll also get insights into your audience that you can use for a social media audit or for defining your target market.

How to put your audience insights into action:

While running your social media activity, you’re constantly learning more about your audience. However, you can gather audience insights for a marketing plan in a more structured way.

  • Define your target: First, define what characterizes your target market. Perhaps you have several segments with different characteristics you can outline.
  • Estimate segment sizes: Go to Facebook audience insights and enter the characteristics for each segment to gather an estimate of the audience size.
  • Learn about their media consumption: Identify which publications your audience reads, what they watch, and who they listen to and follow on the internet by looking up their media preferences with SparkToro.

2. Choose your primary and secondary social networks

There are so many communication opportunities via social media marketing that you can easily spread your efforts too thin. By choosing one primary social network where you concentrate your efforts, you’ll get the biggest return on investment.

Other networks can be part of your small business social media strategy as secondary networks that you utilize in a more opportunistic way.

How to select your primary social network:

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to pick one social media network and stick with it. Here’s one approach.

  • Analyze the options: Analyze the user characteristics of the various social networks via information they share with you. Make a list of candidates for your primary social network.
  • Compare with your target audience: Compare and contrast the characteristics of the users on each platform with the characteristics of your target audience to find the best fit.
  • Evaluate your strengths: You probably have more affinities and more reach with one or more of the social networks on your list. Objectively evaluate your strengths on each platform.
  • Apply weights: Set up a simple spreadsheet where you can score each social network on attractivity, audience fit, and strengths. You can weight each score to account for the most important elements. Then pick your primary network, and mark the others as secondary. Build your social media strategy around this primary social network.

3. Use a mix of hero, hub, and help content

Google has a challenge. Its advertisers were brought up with search marketing but were not necessarily educated on how to use Google’s other great advertising channel: YouTube.

Google therefore created a conceptual framework for working with YouTube. This framework helps define the role of video content, which by nature is more expensive to produce and distribute.

Whether you plan to use video or not, the YouTube strategy playbook — which uses the three Hs of “hero,” “hub,” and “help” — can be of great use when planning social media activity for your business.

How to establish your content mix:

Creating a mix of content with the three Hs is very focused on the hero content, or the driving elements of your business’s storyline that you want your broadest audience to see. Let’s look at what you need to do to establish your content mix with this in mind.

  • Content audit: The first thing you need is an overview of your existing content and events that can be used in your content strategy.
  • Brainstorm: The fun part of the process is the brainstorming and idea-testing for your hero content. Aim to find a unique and remarkable content idea that resonates strongly with your audience and emphasizes your brand’s differentiation.
  • Plan around the hero content: Some of the other content you use in your social media strategy can be built around the hero content. Other content pieces act as “hubs” and will simply help your brand stay top of mind. And “help” content is more traditional company information that you place around and between the more story-driven hero content.
  • Build a content calendar: The three types of content come together in a social media content calendar, which helps you stay organized and share your content in a consistent and effective way.

4. Repurpose your content

If you’ve followed our second tip, you may be wondering how to best utilize your secondary social networks. You may also be overwhelmed by the thought of needing to publish content to your social networks multiple times a week.

This is why content repurposing is an important strategy. A publication has a limited life span on social media, and in order to generate a return on your investment in a piece of content, you need to maximize its usage.

How to thoughtfully and effectively repurpose your content:

The initial version of your content should be optimized for your primary social network. Subsequent versions can be formatted to suit other networks, perhaps using a more visual angle, a different perspective, or simply different text.

  • Optimize for your primary network: The first time you publish a piece of content, it should be optimized for your primary social network. Each social network has its own ideal mix of image, video, text, emojis, and hashtags.
  • Adapt to secondary networks: You will likely need to make changes to the format of your content when publishing it on your secondary social networks. Perhaps you’ll only use parts of the content you prepared for your primary network.
  • Republication: One piece of content can typically be presented several times to your primary audience. This is useful as you never reach 100% of your followers with one post since everyone is online at different times. Using different text and images for subsequent publications is a good way to make sure your content doesn’t appear stale or repetitive.
  • Repurposing: Content in which you have invested significant time or money can be repurposed at a later stage. Perhaps you can update a survey you ran, provide a new editorial angle, or redo the graphics. A good way to organize the use and reuse of content is to build a social media content calendar.

5. Leverage inbound marketing and partnerships

Inbound marketing is an approach by which you create and publish content that will drive interested users closer to your offering.

It’s a structured process using planning, scoring, and automation to manage long customer interaction processes. It’s a great approach to marketing for small business, especially in the B2B space.

How to put inbound marketing into action:

Inbound marketing is about using content to drive users to your offering without reaching out to them with advertising.

  • Analyze the user journey: Users travel through various stages before they become prospects for your offering. You first need to identify what questions the user is asking before they’re ready to move to the next step in the user journey.
  • Create and publish content: With the stages of the user journey in mind, create content that corresponds to each stage, and think of mechanisms that will bring the user to the next stage: Newsletter subscription, whitepaper download, webinar registration, etc. This is the stage where you’ll actually use social media platforms to publish your content and engage with your audience.
  • Automate the funnel: One of the aims of inbound marketing is to create an automated lead generation process. It uses content and publications on social media to generate interest and subsequently works like a content relationship management tool. You’ll need a technical solution such as HubSpot or Salesforce Pardot to pursue this approach seriously.

6. Set up social commerce

Users can be strongly influenced by social media but may not be used to buying products there. There is, however, a rising trend of social commerce on social networks like Instagram and Pinterest.

Facebook also recently launched its Page shops, adding e-commerce functionality to business pages on its platform.

How to use social commerce in your social media strategy:

Social commerce is a shortcut from social media to e-commerce. It can be an interesting opportunity for companies with strong social media activity and the possibility to sell online.

  • Prepare product information: In order to sell online via social media, you need the same information as for any other e-commerce activity: product titles and descriptions, images, prices, and an order fulfillment solution.
  • Choose your platform: If your primary social network has e-commerce functionality, go with that platform. If it doesn’t, consider trying one of the leading social commerce platforms: Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook.
  • Build the e-commerce functionality: It’s fairly easy to set up social commerce. Products and prices can be entered individually or as a product feed so your shop is up to date.

7. Evolve your content from articles to video to live

When you first consider content for your social media marketing plan, you might think about articles and images.

But video content has become accessible to small businesses now that platforms like the Facebook Live Producer empower you to create professional-looking live video content. You might even want to make video your hero content, as we saw in tip No. 3.

How to make smart use of video:

All you need is a smartphone with a good camera to start producing live video. We also recommend adding a good-quality microphone or headset.

  • Plan your video content: For video content, you need to create a title, write a script, and find the right filming location with good lighting and an appropriate background.
  • Test-run your video: To overcome the fear of looking silly and get used to speaking to the camera, do at least one test run. A teleprompter software tool can be helpful as well.
  • Set it up as an event: You can create video content for later publication or create a live event. Whichever you choose, make sure to build awareness before publication to drive more views and more engagement.

8. Plan and automate

Running social media activities is about efficiently using resources. The best way to organize any social media activity is to plan ahead and automate as much as possible.

There are a number of simple social tools to help with automation that each perform specific tasks, or it can be done using a more complete social media software suite that covers all of your automation needs.

How to plan and automate your social media activity:

If you’ve built your content mix using tip No. 4, you may have started using a content calendar as the nervous system of your social media strategy. Now, all you need to do is connect your primary and secondary social networks to your content via automation.

  • Define your primary social network: As described in the first tip, you should first define your social network set-up and decide where primary content goes.
  • Build your content calendar: A content calendar is a key component of a social media strategy. Build your calendar by placing the hero content first and scheduling supporting content around it. You will likely have a regular flow of hub content, and the amount of help content you produce will depend on your business activity and commercial calendar.
  • Automate publication: Bring it all together with automation software that allows you to connect your content to your social media accounts. Schedule posts to each of your social networks in advance, keeping your content calendar moving like a well-oiled machine.

The best social media tools for small business

Social media automation tools will help your business automate the implementation of your content strategy. In the tips above, we’ve mentioned various tasks for which these tools are useful: in implementing a content calendar, automating publications, and planning ahead.

Let’s look at a few tools that work in different ways.

1. Later

The core functionality of Later is to build a visual content calendar and schedule image posts to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Later’s visual overview of the calendar is one of the best we’ve seen.

Screenshot of Later Calendar View

The content calendar view of Later is visual and well adapted to planning Instagram posts.

2. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is great for getting the most out of your content. It’s the content repurposing, recycling, and automation champion.

MeetEdgar's automatic post creation tool.

A unique feature of MeetEdgar is the automatic creation of post variations submitted for approval.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is one the best and most complete social media management tools covering the entire spectrum of automation, management, research, and reporting functionalities for your social media activity.

Sprout Social's reporting options

Sprout Social provides a wide variety of reporting options, including content performance across the social media channels you are using.

Learn from what you do and focus on where you win

Most social media activity only pays off in the medium to long run, which can be frustrating to businesses looking for quick wins or a rapid return on their investment.

But some of the above tips are sure to generate value for your business even in the short run as they can help you focus on what’s essential and what tasks are the best use of your time.

Focus your efforts, optimize your content output, plan ahead, and automate where you can in order to get the most out of your small business’s social media strategy.

By Anders Hjorth

Sourced from the blueprint

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How Personal Branding Can Help You Land Your Dream Job

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By Valentin Saitarli

When it comes to personal branding, you probably think about celebrities, world-renowned writers, super successful businesspeople or politicians. But personal branding can help everyone — not just the famous and wealthy. It’s a tool that anyone can use to climb the ladder of career success.

Being in the PR industry, I know the real value of personal branding. When you’re applying for your dream job, it often takes more than a well-written resume to land an interview or, better yet, a job offer. Companies often receive a large number of applications, so it is essential to stand out from other applicants. This is where personal branding comes in.

In a nutshell, personal branding is about sharing who you are — your mindset, values, principles and beliefs. It goes far beyond highlighting your achievements and knowledge. Though building up your personal brand can sometimes be confused with self-promotion, it’s much more profound. Personal branding is showcasing the best version of yourself. You might describe yourself as a role model or a field leader, or highlight how you’ve made a social impact.

Developing your personal brand involves cutting through the clutter and building a strong foundation based on a well-crafted story about your background.

Not sure where to begin? Here’s what I suggest: Compose a story about what you are passionate about and good at. Be genuine, and show why you’re happy doing what you do. Walt Disney once said, “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique,” and he knew what he was talking about. Make your authenticity the core of your story, and contribute to it, highlighting your strengths, downplaying your weak points and discovering new opportunities.

Mention some of the accomplishments you are most proud of, your most innovative successful projects, contributions to finding solutions that mattered, working out new approaches to existing challenges, internships you had, and travel experiences that widened your outlook. Also mention your social skills or role models you admire. Own your story. Stay consistent with it, and share it with others in your network.

From what I’ve seen, many people seem to forget about the digital aspect of personal branding. Your digital presence is especially important because it allows potential employers and recruiters to learn more about you.

Social media presence has become an integral part of personal branding strategy. To successfully share your expertise and life story via social media and other digital channels, make sure your content is genuine, educational and entertaining. With great content, you don’t need to worry about traffic; it will catch attention.

Also, be sure to structure all of your digital assets in a user-friendly way — simplicity and consistency are key. Employers don’t have time to spend hours trying to determine whether a person is you. This is important especially for people with common names. Make sure you have one website or blog that brings together all your digital assets for potential employers or recruiters. However, be careful not to share sensitive personal information online because the threat of identify theft is real.

Remember that you communicate your brand in many ways — in-person through your presentation, delivery style and performance, and online through your resume, cover letters, social media profiles, comments and video channels. Make sure you’re being consistent across all of them.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Valentin Saitarli

Managing Director at Exclusive PR Solutions, overseeing Brand Strategy and Marketing. Read Valentin Saitarli’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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How to Use Your Personal Branding to Attract Employees and Clients

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By John Boitnott at Inc.

You don’t have to be a branding expert to attract the right clients or the right employees. Just cover the basics.

You’ve perhaps heard a lot about branding a business, but how much time have you invested in building your personal brand? Just like a business’ brand helps form that company’s identity, your personal brand is part of how you market yourself. It can encompass everything from your experiences to your beliefs. And, when it’s done well, your brand can help you snag good employees and clients.

Even if you’re not a thought leader or “influencer,” or haven’t put much thought into your personal branding, you can improve it using these six methods.

1. Think about who you are.

To get to the heart of your personal brand, take a step back and think about who you are as a person. Consider your achievements, talents, interests, career goals, and what motivates you in your professional and personal life. These elements help make up a strong personal brand, and as you develop that brand you’ll want to find ways to include materials that represent each of those qualities.

2. Do a social media and website audit.

To improve your personal branding, start by auditing your social media profiles and website pages. If you’re looking to find more clients as a small business owner, now is the time to remove any materials from your online presence that you don’t want clients to see. I’ve talked to professionals over the years who take inappropriate tweets or blog posts into account when deciding on which vendor to work with. See what shows up when you do a Google search of yourself. Take some time to double-check the permissions and security settings of your accounts, too, so you know just who can see your posts.

Next, review the content on all of your online platforms to make sure your personal brand is consistent. Perhaps it’s a high priority for you to convey a personable, professional image. Be sure your social platforms and website pages show that brand to visitors. They should highlight your recent achievements, skill set, and relevant projects you’ve worked on.

3. Be yourself and show what you’re passionate about.

With a personal brand, you can truly be yourself, so you don’t have to go out and find new causes to support or activities to build your company brand. Think about some real life qualities and interests that make you unique and then show off those qualities.

Maybe you were a marketing professional before you started your business, and also a talented juggler with the goal of visiting all 50 states by the time you’re 40. While a job candidate or client might be most interested in your entrepreneurial endeavors, your juggling talents and travel goals make you unique and instantly help you stand out from other prospective employers or vendors. Many feel that even if some of the qualities of a potential employer or vendor feel a little silly or unrelated to work, they can help personalize the company and make it more alluring.

4. Make valuable connections.

When networking, use your own brand to establish valuable connections. If you’re networking in person, elements of your brand can make for natural conversation starters and talking points.

While you should be sure to try to focus conversation on the other person so that they feel valued and understood, discuss some of your hobbies or interests outside of your company, too. This can make the conversation more engaging and help your new connections or potential clients remember you.

The same is true of networking via social media. If you ask to connect with someone on LinkedIn, include a personal message that incorporates a bit of your personal branding. Introducing yourself as a founder who specializes in software and loves skiing is more compelling than introducing yourself only as a founder. This personal brand angle immediately sets the tone for the conversation and may even identify something that you and your new connection have in common outside of work.

5. Build your reputation offline.

While your online brand is obviously vital, don’t forget to devote time to your offline personal brand, too. Volunteering in the community, sitting on the board of directors of a nonprofit, or mentoring up-and-coming professionals are all admirable ways to contribute to causes you care about while building your brand.

6. Be authentic.

When it comes to improving your own personal brand, it can be tempting to talk up your achievements and even inflate your image. Doing this could help attract clients, but they might not be a great fit for your company, or what you can actually deliver as a vendor. Instead, stay honest about what makes you, you.

If you’re planning to hire new team members, take on new clients, or just want the public at large to know more about your company, investing some time in your personal branding is a wise move. The better you know your brand and include these branding aspects in your social media and website pages, the greater chance you’ll stand out to prospective employees.

Originally published on Inc.

Feature Image Credit: mimagephotography/Shutterstock

By John Boitnott at Inc.

Sourced from Thrive Global

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Personal branding for people who hate personal branding

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By ANA ANDJELIC

Self-promotion might not come naturally for some, but less outgoing people can use their natural strengths to create an authentic online presence.

Psychologist Carl Jung popularized the terms “introvert” and “extrovert” back in 1921, but he didn’t think anyone was solely one or the other. “There’s no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert,” he wrote, and yet, nearly a hundred years later, we still love to use these terms to explain our behaviors.

There’s a reason that these simple dichotomies can be useful: Organizing people into categories helps us quickly orient ourselves in the world. They also let us make a point quickly, as author Susan Cain demonstrated in her exploration of the benefits of introversion in the Western world. Much of what Cain describes is internet culture, which is noisy, crowded, and interactive by design. It requires constant self-promotion, inspires oversharing, and rewards the loudest of voices.

Internet culture shapes our ideas of diversity, representation, and empowerment. For a woman to win, she needs to “put herself out there,” act fearless, be a “superwoman” and a “girlboss.” Boldness, loudness, fierceness are mandatory. Even our fight for equality is made for those drawing energy from being around others.

Today, this culture is at its fever pitch. But there’s also been a backlash: There’s increasingly talk about the millennial burnout, the dangers of hustle porn, the warnings about our ever-shortening attention spans, and about the benefits of unplugging. We all need some quiet time.

This emerging cultural shift asks for the nuance. It gives us an opening to question the accepted norms when it comes to professional advancement and to desirable work practices, including building a personal brand. It offers us an opportunity to examine the stereotypes and to undo the old narratives.

The first step in this process is to recognize that craving constant social interaction is a personal tendency, but also a currently dominant social, organizational, and business ideology. In the same way that we pushed ourselves to be constantly “out there,” we can flip the script and turn the traits of unplugging into our collective aspiration.

We can all strive to communicate less, but deeper and more meaningfully; to prioritize listening and observing over speaking; to be less motivated by ego and more by larger purpose; and to focus on self-expression over self-promotion. In the age of overstimulation, there is much to be said for the ability to focus, work autonomously, spend time alone, and nurture independent thinking.

Enjoying time alone and having a personal brand was once considered a contradiction in terms. Today, it may be the winning approach. In practice, this means playing up on the benefits of recharging solo, regardless of where you are on the introversion-extroversion continuum. It also means decoupling social interaction and social media. If you are a person who draws energy from spending time alone, one or more of these personal branding styles may resonate with you. And if you are a person who is energized by social interaction, you can use these methodologies to infuse more nuance into your own personal brand.

THE LEADER

We have been primed to think of leaders as fast-charging pep talkers, but it turns out that introverted leaders deliver better results than extroverts, according to research by psychologist Adam Grant, a management professor at Wharton.

“I know it’s fashionable now to call yourself an introvert,” says Chapin Clark, executive creative director at an advertising agency R/GA, and the voice behind its popular @RGA Twitter account. “Being too visible, too exposed, makes me uncomfortable,” says Clark, who instead says he’s worked to be receptive to ideas of others, making them more motivated to participate. “In working with junior creatives, I like to step back and give them more space than other people might to pursue their ideas. That goes for presenting work, as well. I like to make it a shared responsibility.”

According to research published in Harvard Business Review, when leaders are open-minded and supportive, employees are also more inclined to step up their game, knowing their ideas will be heard and implemented. If success of startups like Glossier, Tracksmith, or Outdoor Voices is any indicator, modern entrepreneurship emphasizes crowdsourcing, invites customers in the brand, and fosters a feeling of fandom and community. Introverted leaders have proven that they go beyond their ego and craving for spotlight and work toward a larger goal; this purpose-driven approach gives them the power and authenticity that inspire a following—and a personal brand worth cultivating.

THE CURATOR 

Introverts are able to spend a lot of time with an area or activity of interest. They are repositories of specific knowledge, ready to travel the world to obtain a coveted item or experience, and passionately talk about their latest acquisitions. Born in Vancouver, Kevin Ma says he grew up far from the hubs of youth culture. He started Hypebeast as a sneaker blog from his bedroom in 2005. Fast forward to 2019, and the company, now publicly traded and with diversified revenue streams, is the ultimate global destination for streetwear, fashion, and culture.

Hypebeast’s site enjoys 46 million page views a month, and has more than 660,000 Twitter followers and 7.9 million Instagram fans, but Ma’s profile is decidedly low. “Curators are often playing the long game, slowly building up knowledge, sharing it, improving upon it,” says Colin Nagy, head of strategy for advertising agency Fred&Farid. Because curators are able to focus and dig deep, and because they are highly selective in how they socialize, they regularly build influential cultural niches around themselves—whether that be sneakers or denim or food—and often become a source of inspiration for wider trends. Their identity is often deeply tied to the subject matter, which makes them stand out in the vortex of speed, superficiality, and newness.

THE OBSERVER

Introverts’ inclination is to listen rather than speak. This makes them sensitive to the nuance and complexity of life situations, and it gives them time to think and process aspects that may go unnoticed by extroverts. Their comfort zone is writing vs. talking, and social media offers them a platform to build a personal brand around their astute and often witty observations. It gives them the ability to reach a number of people on their own terms—in the solitude of their office, for example—without having to be physically present and active in large social groups.

“The advent of social media, Twitter in particular, has been a blessing for me. I have always felt confident expressing myself in writing, and Twitter, the way it works, felt like it was made for me,” says Clark. “It allowed me to express myself in a public way … that at the same time feels safe. That’s because it has allowed me to create a persona that is me but also not me. … There is a distance, a buffer, that allows me to say things in writing that I wouldn’t out loud.”

THE EXPERT

Kawhi Leonard is a three-time All-Star and a two-time NBA Defense Player of the Year. He’s equally famous for his reclusive behavior, monosyllabic press conference answers, and avoidance of social media. He built his brand thanks to mass media and thanks to his single-minded focus on honing his skills.

Exposure, self-promotion, and amassing a large following is never going to compensate for the lack of willingness to invest time and energy to become good at what you do. Obsessive preparation, time spent thinking and honing one’s craft, evaluating and constructing a solution, and not giving up easily are critical to building one’s name in any profession. If you are an expert in your area of work, others will take notice—with or without your social media presence.

Feature Image Credit:[Photo: Timon Studler/Unsplash]

By ANA ANDJELIC

Sourced from FastCompany

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Nine Personal Branding Questions To Ask Yourself

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By William Arruda

Personal branding is a lot more than updating your LinkedIn profile or posting tweets to Twitter. It involves a much deeper, more personal, almost existential activity. Over the decades, as a pioneer in personal branding, I’ve developed nine powerful questions to clarify your brand. Use them to uncover and communicate your unique promise of value.

1. What makes me stand out from my peers?

When answering this question, think beyond your work activities. What are the things that make you interesting – the weirdest or quirkiest thing about you? Maybe you speak four languages or you’ve climbed three of the world’s tallest peaks or you have a giant collection of maps of national capitals. Those things may not be essential for doing your job, but they do make you interesting to those around you. And we all want to be connected to those we find interesting.

2. Who needs to know me so I can reach my goals?

Personal branding is not about being famous, it’s about being selectively famous. You need to be clear about whom you’re seeking to influence. All of the personal branding activities on which you’ll embark will be directed at this community. It would exhaust your resources to try to communicate the world at large, and it would likely have little impact. Get clear about your brand community.

3. What are my values?

Your values are your operating principles. I think of them as your non-negotiables. They impact how you feel, behave, and react. When you’re clear about your values, you can make sure to keep them in alignment. When you’re living your values fully, you’re fueled up and ready to deal with whatever comes your way. When your values are being violated by you or others, you start to exhibit negative emotions. You become the person no one wants to be around.

4. What’s my ultimate career goal?

All great planning – including your personal branding strategy – starts with the end in mind. Knowing where you want to go with your career will point you in the right direction when you start implementing brand-building activities. If you are unclear about what you want to do, your brand will flail about like a half-raised sail billowing in the wind.

5. Who makes up my support system?

Strong personal brands don’t go it alone. They have a community of mentors, sounding boards, emotional support friends, etc. to help them get clear, stay positive, make impactful decisions and ultimately achieve their goals. The digital age has made it easier than ever to grow a strong support system.

6. What brings me joy?

When you connect what you do with your passions – even if they aren’t the same thing, you’re putting fuel in your tank – giving you the energy to achieve your goals. And as an added bonus, when you’re connected to your passions, you exude a positive and engaging energy – one that makes you attractive to those around you.

7. What’s my superpower – the thing I do better than anyone else?

Strong brands take the things that they’re great at and they integrate it into everything they do. When you maximize your superpowers, you become known for them. You deliver value on a much higher scale, and become revered for your excellence. People will start using superlatives to describe you.

8. What’s my favorite way to communicate?

You likely won’t engage in personal branding communications if you despise the form itself. I get energized when delivering keynotes, but you might abhor public speaking. If that’s the case, simply pick another medium; don’t make it the center of your personal branding activities. Choose something you actually enjoy doing – perhaps that’s long-form writing like creating well researched white papers, or maybe you like to write brief, pithy, witty quips (if that’s the case, Twitter might be the best tool for you).

9. What’s my why?

We are all focused on what we do, and some of us are clear about how we do what we do – what makes our approach different. But few people are really clear about why they do what they do. When you have the “why” – your potent purpose defined – you have a sense of direction and a way of knowing what to pursue and what to ignore.

When you’re clear about the answers to all those questions, you have what you need to build a strong, authentic, and compelling personal brand.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By William Arruda

William Arruda is the cofounder of CareerBlast and co-creator of the free video course: The Insider’s Guide to Getting Noticed and Promoted.

Sourced from Forbes

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