Brands are everywhere. In today’s world, branding doesn’t only apply to companies, it’s personal as well. Some people have a personal brand which is also a company brand, such as some fashion designers, elite athletes, stars and artists. For many people, personal branding has a lot to do with reputation management, taking a strategic approach to one’s career and leading with influence and impact. Here are 10 steps to taking a more proactive approach to personal branding.

1. Personal Branding: How to increase
your influence in 10 steps
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2. Brands are everywhere. In today’s world, branding
doesn’t only apply to companies, it’s personal as well.
Some people have a personal brand which is also a
company brand, such as some fashion designers, elite
athletes, stars and artists. For many people, personal
branding has a lot to do with reputation management,
taking a strategic approach to one’s career and leading
with influence and impact.
Here are 10 steps to taking a more proactive approach
to personal branding.

3. IDENTIFY WHAT
YOU WANT TO
ACHIEVE
Start with your goals and
objectives first. What do you
want to achieve? Creating
your vision will inform your
planning. If you’re the head
of a division seeking to move
up to a company’s executive
team, your approach to
achieving that goal will be
different from an
entrepreneur who is seeking
to grow a start up. Without
identifying where you want to
be, you will find it hard to put
a plan in place.
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4. DETERMINE
WHAT YOU
STAND FOR
Clearly articulated values and
beliefs are your guideposts
and help provide a sense of
purpose and direction. What
you stand for will underpin
much of your decision
making, how you conduct
yourself and the content you
publish or speak about.
Communicating your values
regularly will ensure the
perception of who you are
aligns with what you stand for.
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5. ARTICULATE
WHAT SETS
YOU APART
In addition to what you stand
for, what are other ways with
you can you differentiate
yourself? What beliefs do you
hold about your industry, what
behaviours do you exhibit in
your daily life, what
accomplishments have you
achieved while exuding your
values? Are there experiences
you’ve had in life which have
shaped your worldview?
Having examples at the ready
where you have demonstrated
this can go a long way. This is
the beginning of shaping a
narrative for your audiences.
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6. DEFINE WHAT
YOUR STRENGTHS
ARE AND WHAT
AREAS YOU CAN
DEVELOP MORE
Identify your strengths and
consider how you can
capitalise on them to support
reaching your objectives.
Taking an honest approach
when reflecting on your
development opportunities
will help you prioritise.
Consider certificates, formal
study opportunities, or simply
a new category in your Feedly
dedicated to a topic, or even
new podcast series for the
commute. Structure your
professional development
time according to short-,
medium- and long-term
objectives.
When it comes to strengths
and weaknesses, consider also
how you view yourself in light
of how others may perceive
you.
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7. WRITE YOUR KEY
MESSAGES
Your key messages are the
core statements which
communicate who you are,
what you stand for and what
makes you different. Your key
messages will be reflected to
some degree through your
online and offline presences
to your audiences and
stakeholders. The more you
refer to your key messaging
and communicate them, the
more they become ingrained
in your everyday use. The
more consistently key
messages are used, the more
you proactively influence
others’ perception of you.
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8. MAP OUT WHO
YOUR
STAKEHOLDERS
AND AUDIENCES
ARE AND WHAT IS
IMPORTANT TO
THEM
Just It’s important to map out all of
the stakeholders in your life. This will
vary from person to person.
Stakeholders and audiences can
include groups such as current and
prospective customers, investors,
team members, direct reports, staff,
investors, affiliates and partners,
suppliers, analysts, journalists, council
committee members, family
members, groups of people
depending on which social media
platform you’re connected on, and so
on.
For each group, identify what is
important to them. What are their
needs and wants? This may be
confidence that the company is
growing in a sustainable way,
assurance that they’re connected to
strategy, a sense of purpose if they
are sponsoring or donating. This
mapping will enable you to identify
how you can add value to your
stakeholders.6

9. DECIDE ON HOW
YOU WILL
ENGAGE
How you engage with your
stakeholders is just as
important. Often, this comes
down to channels of
communication and how
committed you are to
regularly communicating. Not
every stakeholder group is on
every channel and not every
message is suited for every
medium. Plan out how you
will communicate and how
often. Whether it’s in person,
via a town hall, email,
newsletter, formal print letter,
a publication, a brochure, a
blog post, a tweet, an intranet
update, or any of the
hundreds of options available
to you, make sure you are
choosing the most effective
ones to reach the audiences
important to you.
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10. CONSOLIDATE
YOUR ONLINE
AND OFFLINE
PRESENCES
Using your key messaging and
planning, rewrite your bios to
make them consistent and to
convey what you stand for,
makes you different and the
value you add to others. You
may find that you have many
online and offline presences
built up over the years. Delete
accounts no longer in use.
Update the ones you will
continue to use going forward
according to your channel
planning above. Remember not
to copy and paste the same
content for every presence,
some are more complete than
others. A LinkedIn bio is more
complete than a Twitter bio, but
you can still ensure they’re
aligned to reflect the same you.
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11. IDENTIFY
OPPORTUNITIES
It is likely you have a
rhythm of how and when
you communicate to
others. Identify additional
opportunities which can
support your pursuit of
your objectives. For
example, if you are seeking
to position yourself as a
thought leader in a
particular field, guest
blogging and writing
commentary for news sites
can be a great way to build
trust in your expertise.
Think about opportunities
which will make a
demonstrable difference
and think outside of the
usual.
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12. IMPLEMENT
YOUR PLAN
When implementing your
plan of engagement and
building relationships,
regularity is important. In
order to maintain
consistency, ensure your
plan is sustainable. Setting
out to participate in every
social media forum and
placing ambitious goals for
writing and publishing may
not be sustainable for the
long term. And it’s
longevity that can add
clout and value.
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13. Contact us to discuss how
you can engage and build
deeper relationships with
the audiences which
matter to you through
personal branding.
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