It’s time to cue up the highlight reel and shine the spotlight down on you; a personal brand is the story of you and showing the world what you have to offer. This is an artists’ guide to personal branding and how to shine the spotlight on you! In today’s busy world, it can seem like a daunting task to differentiate yourself from the millions of people that are trying to break into your field of interest. Rest assured that there is only one of you and as long as you stick true to yourself, making a personal brand will be an exciting journey of celebrating a unique individual. Creating a personal brand is an important task so that you can stand out and show the world just what you have to offer. 

As you develop your brand, there are some questions you have to ask yourself:

• What is it that you offer? What are the stories you are trying to tell and how does that align with the audience you wish to reach?

• Who is that audience? Who are the people that you want to reach? Why are they going to find what you have to offer interesting?

• What are your outlets? How do you intend to showcase your talents? Are you a writer, a video personality, a musician, a comedian, a mentor, an artist? Where and how can you distribute yourself?

• Are you willing to go to any lengths? How much time are you willing to put into your brand? How much are you willing to reveal about yourself? 

• Why you and not somebody else? What makes you different from all the other people that have a talent similar to yours? How can you make this personal?

The Offer: The first thing that you need to figure out when developing your own brand is what it is that you know about, have a talent for, or can create that people will find value in. Carving out your niche is how you can become an authority that people can trust. This is going to be what people come to you for and you need to be able to produce it on a consistent basis. This can be a product, such as music, artwork, blog posts, a wooden sculpture, or anything else that you yourself can make all on your own. You can educate people about the best ways to dress, or the tastiest foods in town. Offer something that people are looking for, and they will come and see if you are worth their time and money. Make sure to showcase what the value is and how it will make their lives better.

The Audience: Once you know what you have to offer, the next thing to do is go out and find your audience. These are the people that are going to really enjoy what you have to offer because they find it relatable and piques their interest. The best way to start off is to find the people that are already searching for what you are offering. Look at how they are finding what is already out there and see what the conversations are about this particular field. Check and see what the competition is doing and also what people are saying about them. Find out what they like about what is already out there and pay attention to what they don’t like, or what they find is missing. While still staying true to what it is you are about, find ways to cater toward what the audience is seeking. This will show that you care for the people you are hoping to provide for. Once you have this figured out, bring it to the people that will absolutely love what you are doing and allow them to spread the word for you. 

The Outlet: This is where you find out how you can reach the audience you are seeking to make an impact on. These days social media is one of the biggest influences and means of connecting with people. You need to figure out which platform is best suited to reach your audience, and how you are going to present yourself to them. TikTok and Instagram Reels have opened up a whole new world for people to express themselves and showcase what they have to offer with videos that can show people right then and there what you can do. This is a way to prove that you can do something and reach a far reaching audience that has become increasingly skeptical of things they read about or just see a picture of online. If you have a talent or product that needs to be seen and heard to really believe in, these short videos can garner you a dedicated audience that will trust you when you say you have talent. On Facebook and Twitter you can also draw people into your own personal website with snippets and teasers about a blog post or pictures of the product or service you are selling. Every brand needs to have their own website where their brand truly lives, and use social media as a means to draw people over to your site where they can see everything you have to offer. 

The Lengths: Developing a personal brand is a never ending process that will continue to grow with you and something you will refine as you change along with the rest of the world. It requires dedication and consistency to continue to reach your goals as they evolve. Building a website that you can be proud of to represent your brand is a key to establishing yourself and creating a place for your audience to visit you whenever they need you. This is where you can show everything that you want the world to know about you. It’s important that the website is designed to reflect your personality and relate back to your followers. A personal brand is the forming of a legacy and to create a space for you where people can be grateful for the impact that you are putting out into the world. If you want to be remembered for something, this is how you get to write that narrative. You must continually put yourself out there and be willing to show that you are not going anywhere. 

The You: This is where you take your game to the next level and show people that you are someone they should take interest in and follow. A major factor to have people invest their time in your brand is making sure that you present your branding in aesthetically pleasing and exciting ways. Through well crafted designs on your website, logo, and social media presence you can communicate your brand’s core values without using words. Using programs such as Canva, Animoto, and Photoshop make it easy for you to create dazzling visual experiences that will distinguish your brand in the marketplace and develop emotional responses from your audience that will keep them coming back for more. Brands that invest their time into carefully selecting the color palettes and font types in their visual presentations will bring themselves a competitive advantage over others and it will help drive user engagement to their websites and social media channels. Also consider creating a line of merchandise that shows your brand’s style and further extends your brand voice. This will help foster a loyalty to your cause and give your audience something they can own that reminds them why they love what you’re all about. There are a lot of competitors in every field these days and making sure that you stand out amongst them will only bring you and the audience you seek closer together. 

Whatever it is you are trying to accomplish in your life, branding is the surefire way to make yourself have a long lasting legacy. The best part about creating your personal brand is that you are expanding upon yourself and the talents and interests that you are already deeply connected to. Ask yourself some questions and dive deep into yourself to find the answers that you need to create your brand and develop your voice. This is your opportunity to bring yourself to the world and tell your story on your own terms. Dedicate yourself to your craft and demonstrate what you are all about to the audience that suits you. Once you have found the audience and your method of reaching them, make sure that you are presenting yourself in the most appealing and attractive way. Trust in the process and give it your all and you will be on your way to a brand new life!  

REFERENCES

1. https://www.canva.com/learn/personal-branding/ 2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2018/11/08/10-golden-rules-personal-branding/

3. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-ultimate-guide-to-personal-branding

4. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/personal-branding/

5. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/5-simple-steps-to-build-a-personal-brand/429483

6. https://redstoneagency.com/branding-marketing/