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Personal Branding Tips for Beginners

Guest post by: Terry Houwerzyl

Article Overview: A quick Web search will tell you there are no shortage of supposed experts with an unlimited supply of personal branding tips. But, what the “experts” don't usually tell you is that you already know who you are and don't need tons of advice on developing your personal brand.

Personal Branding Tips for Beginners

A quick Web search will tell you there are no shortage of supposed experts with an unlimited supply of personal branding tips. But, what the "experts" don't usually tell you is that you already know who you are and don't need tons of advice on developing your personal brand. Where you may need help is effectively marketing your personal brand, which can be exponentially more difficult, especially if you are unfamiliar with the concept of branding. Very simply, branding is the methods you use to distinguish yourself from your competition. Sounds easy, right? Well, it's a bit more difficult than it sounds and requires some know how to do properly.

The great thing, as we mentioned earlier, is that you already know who you are. So, let's start there and help you peel away the layers of your personal branding onion so you arrive at your unique online personality. To do this, take a moment to think about the answers to the eight questions below.

The answers will provide your personal brand roadmap.

1. What is my unique selling point? There is something you do better than anyone else. This is an important element of your personal brand. It can be more than one thing but not more than three.

2. What is your personality? Think about whether you are casual or formal and what sense of humor you'd like to inject into your personal brand.

3. Why should people trust you? Your background is important for personal branding. Experience and knowledge are important to people.

4. What can you do for them? If people don't see value in what you do, they won't stick around. You want to be up front - as part of your personal brand - about what you bring to the table and why it's useful to them.

5. What is your business approach? Some people are aggressive whereas others are more laid back.

6. Who do you want to target? Think about the people who would be most interested in your message and speak to their desires and hopes. Also be ready to answer any barriers to entry with your personal brand.

7. Where do you want to be? Once you know who you want to talk to with your personal brand, you will be better equipped to decide which sites, forums, groups to frequent.

8. Who do you want to be? While your personal brand shouldn't step too far away from who you are, you have some leeway here to think about who you want to be online. Now's a great time to adopt a more aggressive voice or position yourself as an expert.

As you can see, these personal branding tips are designed to dig into your personality a bit and arrive at the areas on which you'd like to focus as you develop your online brand. However, this is just part of the equation. You will want to learn everything you can about writing effective copy so your words maintain a consistent voice and your personal brand shines through in all your marketing campaigns. Once you do this, you will be surprised at how natural it is to bring out your personal brand in your writing. Also, if writing proves not to be your thing, you may want to enlist the help of a third party as your personal brand is such an important part of your business.

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