Your personal brand can establish you as a credible problem-solver before you have a single conversation with a new contact. Efforts to build and establish your brand are crucial for career success, but make sure you aren’t achieving the opposite effect by making common branding mistakes!
Putting your name out there is just the first step toward standing out in a crowded market. Make your brand a successful one by avoiding these common personal branding mistakes.
Lack of clarity
Your personal brand should be like a persistent elevator pitch. When someone looks you up, they should quickly be able to tell what your niche is. Before you update your LinkedIn page and other socials, you need to have a clear idea of what this niche is yourself!
Author Dan Schawbel says to start by looking at your career highlights and finding a common thread. If you try to cover too many niches, it’ll be difficult for people to find you for something specific. A defined purpose is much easier for you to communicate and build upon.
“A diluted message is a forgettable one. Focus on your niche and own it unapologetically.” –Shaan Rais
Being inconsistent
Once you know the purpose you want to be the focus of your brand, you can start actually building that brand. As you build, make an effort to be consistent in both your words and actions. Consistency will help you build a reliable brand that people know they can count on.
TechEasify suggests coming up with a “brand guide” to define your voice, messages, and how you communicate. While this is common for bigger organizations, it’s extremely effective at the personal level as well, ensuring you hit the right points and have a consistent language style over multiple platforms. Consistency also means posting regularly, but with value. Don’t just make posts to post—make sure you have something to say that aligns well with your brand!
“Consistency involves presenting your clear brand message across all platforms and interactions.” –William Arruda, Forbes
Being inauthentic
Another way to stay consistent is to make sure your brand actually aligns with who you are. You can try to chase trends or be what you think people are looking for, but it’s easy to tell when someone is inauthentic. If the vibe you give off doesn’t match who you are, you’ll appear inauthentic and lose credibility, potentially costing you jobs or clients in the future.
Forbes’ Caroline Castrillon says to focus on the value you bring rather than creating a persona. Finding clarity in advance and knowing how to market what value you know you have will not only increase your authenticity but also make you feel more confident in what you bring to the table.
Failing to stand out
No matter what your niche is, it’s a crowded market. To be the expert, the problem-solver, and the answer, you need to stand out from others in your niche. The entire purpose of building a brand is to stand out, not to just be one more option.
Understand what truly separates you from others in your niche. If all other levels of experience were equal, what would set you apart from others? Focus on that and put it at the front of your brand.
“Be creative and inject your perspective into your brand to ensure that it stands out, booms, and aims higher to sell itself out there.” –CJ Darnieder
Neglecting in-person networking
Personal branding is often used synonymously with a social media plan, but they aren’t the same thing. Social media usage is a part of personal branding, and sites like LinkedIn are some of the first places potential connections can learn about you. But if you want to be a person behind the brand, you need to get yourself out there in multiple ways to spread that brand.
Networking is the best way to advance your career, so use your brand to support in-person networking. Enterprise Mobility suggests attending career fairs and recruitment events to get your name and brand out there. Being able to put a face to a brand will help you stand out in a crowded market.
Wrap up
If you avoid these errors, your attempts to build your brand and establish yourself as an expert will be much more successful. A good brand should be clear and genuine and help you stand out from others in a similar niche. Have a clear vision for your personal brand and show why you’re the right person for the job!
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