{"id":234,"date":"2022-02-16T22:59:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T22:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/?p=234"},"modified":"2022-02-16T23:02:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T23:02:04","slug":"how-to-build-your-personal-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/how-to-build-your-personal-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build your PERSONAL Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have you ever heard the saying \u201cPeople buy from People, not businesses\u201d?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even in this tech age where Amazon Prime has 147 MILLION users in the U.S. alone, there is a counter-culture where people still want to connect with who they give their money to. They want to feel good about their purchase not just because it\u2019s a great product, but because it\u2019s supporting someone they \u201cknow\u201d. This is great news for Direct Sales\/Solopreneurs &#8211; finally, an edge over Amazon! &#8211; but it means that we\u2019ve got some work to do. We each have to build our own<em> Personal Brand<\/em> to make sure our customers feel like we are worthy of their money.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s your \u2018Personal Brand\u2019? <\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s the cohesive impression of you\/your product based on the expertise, actions, and experiences that you put out there on social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where should you start? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a nutshell, this is what you have to do:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identify who your ideal customer is.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understand what your customer wants to see (and what they DON\u2019T want to see).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">consistent<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> marketing that speaks to your customer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Share your personality.\u00a0 Be personable.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Above all, BE AUTHENTIC!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the bare minimum, your social media posts should support your brand.\u00a0 If you sell dog collars, don\u2019t post all the time about how cute cats are.\u00a0 If you sell shirts that say \u201cPeace Love and Happiness\u201d, don\u2019t post a rant about how angry your neighbor made you. \u00a0 Yes, you may love cats, and yes your neighbor may have been a bonehead, but your ideal customer doesn\u2019t care about those things.\u00a0 They want to see cute puppies, and learn about your calming energy.\u00a0 Stay in your lane, and play nice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By no means am I telling you to be fake.\u00a0 I know we all have those moments in our lives where we go off the rails a bit.\u00a0 But before you hit the blue arrow to post what\u2019s on your mind, run your post through this \u201cBrand Filter\u201d:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\" aria-checked=\"false\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do my customers want to read this?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\" aria-checked=\"false\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will this build trust or community with my customers?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\" aria-checked=\"false\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does this build my authority as an expert in my field?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the answer is no on all three, [x] out of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This does NOT mean you have to stop sharing funny memes. Instead, reinforce your brand by finding a video or picture that comments on your industry.\u00a0 So the guy that sells dog collars might google funny dog videos, or dog walk jokes.\u00a0 And \u201cPeace, Love, Happiness\u201d shirt gal might search for funny zen memes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CONSISTENCY is huge. It creates familiarity with your customers.\u00a0 I use Canva.com to create a lot of my content.\u00a0 In Canva, I created templates to use so I have the same colors, same format, and everything is branded at the bottom with my site.\u00a0 I have templates I use for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Menus for Parties<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Event Announcements<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you for your order posts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-235 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/personalbrand-1024x344.jpg\" alt=\"personal brand example\" width=\"1024\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/personalbrand-1024x344.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/personalbrand-300x101.jpg 300w, https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/personalbrand-768x258.jpg 768w, https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/personalbrand.jpg 1415w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice how they all use the same colors and fonts?\u00a0 We do this to make sure when someone sees a post, they KNOW who it\u2019s coming from. Using templates, I can create a new image in less than 2 minutes.\u00a0 Fast, easy, consistent branding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might think, \u201cmy brand is the company I sell for\u2026I don\u2019t need to create my own\u201d. Well\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it\u2019s true that your company HAS a brand (they spend thousands of dollars on marketing every year), the company is marketing their products, not YOU.\u00a0 They will make sure all their marketing is on trend, and that their products are appealing. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>But what the company site DOESN\u2019T do is tell your customers why they should buy from YOU and not the 3 other people they know that sell the same products that you do.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most company-sponsored websites will give you a small space to write a short paragraph about yourself, and you can upload a small postage stamp sized picture.\u00a0 But that\u2019s about it.\u00a0 Do you think your customer ever sees that page on your site? If they do see it, is it enough info for them to bond with you? Probably not.\u00a0 If you are relying on the company business page to share your personality, I\u2019m afraid your customers may never see it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/createaccount\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-242 size-medium\" style=\"-webkit-user-drag: none; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: -1ex; font-weight: bold;\" src=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ycfmliz-166x300.jpg\" alt=\"Liz YCFM\" width=\"166\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ycfmliz-166x300.jpg 166w, https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ycfmliz.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/a><strong>Instead, what if you could send people to a site where they can watch a short video of YOU<\/strong> <em>telling them how much you love your products and how you have made it your mission to help people who need them.\u00a0<\/em> You can build that PERSONAL BRAND understanding what <em>your customer wants to see, speaking to their needs, sharing your personality and being authentic &#8211; all at once<\/em>. Then your customer is just using the company site for their ordering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Makes sense, right? Let\u2019s do it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can hire a web developer, a video company, and a marketing firm. (Bye bye savings\u2026) Or you can try to learn coding yourself, take a class on internet marketing and video production. (Who\u2019s got time for that?!?) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OR you can <a href=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/createaccount\">follow this link to youcanfollow.me<\/a>.\u00a0 Where we have already built the platform for you.\u00a0 We offer training and guidance for our consultants, and we CARE.\u00a0 Take 2 minutes to start your free trial.\u00a0 You&#8217;ll be up and running in minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/how-to-build-your-personal-brand\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever heard the saying \u201cPeople buy from People, not businesses\u201d?\u00a0 Even in this tech age where Amazon Prime has 147 MILLION users in the U.S. alone, there is a counter-culture where people still want to connect with who they give their money to. They want to feel good about their purchase not just &#8230; <a title=\"How to Build your PERSONAL Brand\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/how-to-build-your-personal-brand\/\" aria-label=\"More on How to Build your PERSONAL Brand\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-branding","category-direct-sales"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youcanfollow.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}