Now that we’ve talked about some of the foundations for easily building your personal brand I’d like to give you some extra things to start working on. These are things you can do now, or keep in mind for the future. But you may as well look into some of them today! Why wait?
Things You’ll Need in the Future for a Stellar Personal Brand
You’ve probably noticed that many successful entrepreneurs, writers, speakers and really anyone out there that’s thriving in their industry have head shots, bios and most likely a library of content out there on the web. You’ll need these things too!
Now, I realize that building a personal brand won’t happen over night, and it takes quite the investment of time and money. It’s only a lucky few that have plenty of both. So that’s why I’m including suggestions for those who have no real monetary budget, and some for those that do. But, as I mention in my six-week course on Personal Branding, a budget includes more than money. It also includes time and your emotional bandwidth.
The Headshot
There will come a point when you’ll need a real headshot. Those awesome selfies you take for social media, or cute pictures with you and your dog aren’t going to cut it if you want to look professional and be taken seriously on platforms outside social media. You may even want to use them as your profile picture for social media! That’s not to say you shouldn’t show off your personality. But the photo you choose to represent yourself in the professional world should be of a certain standard and quality.
But Headshots Can Be Pretty Expensive, Right?
Well, yes. But in my opinion, if you have the budget, they are worth every penny. We happen to offer them at my company, MonkeyCMedia, because they are so integral to your online presence and personal brand, we just figured we may as well fill a need. My co-founder (and husband) Chad Thompson is our pro photographer, check out his work here. One of the reasons he takes just awesome photos is lighting. TIP: If you are working with a friend or trying to capture a pro shot on a low budget, I have a hot tip: use natural outdoor light (preferably North facing light). And, if you can capture your beautiful face during the final hours of sunlight when the sun is low in the sky, you will notice a huge difference in how flattering that golden hour light will be.
If you don’t have a budget
If you don’t have a budget for professional headshots you can always collaborate with a photography student or a photographer who’s just starting out and see if they would take your headshot in exchange for something to add to their portfolio. I highly recommend that you choose someone who will take their time and who you have a good rapport with, the more comfortable you are, the more authentic and natural your headshot will be. Wine helps too.
The Professional Bio
You’ll need a professional bio for all your platforms—you’re website, social media, and your book or blog when you have them.
If you have a budget
Hire someone to write your bio for you. This service can range in cost, depending on how long your bio is, and how many versions you’ll need.
But professional copy and content writers know the ins and outs of the process. They’ll take what you want to say and put it on the page in a compelling way to make your bio not only professional sounding, but engaging. Plus, they put an objective eye on your accomplishments and history, and don’t mind bragging a bit about you, which you may feel a bit weird about.
We also have a copywriter/content strategist on hand at Monkey C Media, for that reason and many others!
If you don’t have a budget
Get a friend (or three) to help. Ask their opinion. Have them do an edit or offer suggestions on wording.
If you need help with the whole process, I wrote a book on the very subject!
The Content
And finally, to save time and always be prepared you should have a backlog of content to steadily put into the world.
This means you need to keep up that brainstorming, sign up for those Google alerts, and subscribe to relevant content-producing platforms, as I mentioned in my last post. You’d be surprised how much quality, shareable content is out there!
It also means that when you have the inspiration—WRITE! It doesn’t matter if you have multiple drafts or outlines working at once. You just need to get the thoughts on paper— then revise and edit when you have time. This way, you’ll always have something there to start from when you’re feeling writer’s block or pressed for time—which happens a lot, believe me! Just make sure you keep this content organized.
It’s also good to pick a day or time that works for you and commit to creating content in that time period. And I know, we don’t always have the time or inspiration on a schedule.
But that’s where your content backlog comes in.
For third-party content
When you see something important or of interest save it! Bookmark it, save the link in Facebook, or even email it to yourself. Then you won’t have to go searching when you’re just trying to schedule your social media posts. But don’t wait too long, you want what you share to be timely and relevant. Scan through these at least once a week. Decide what’s worth sharing and schedule it.
If you have a budget
If you have a budget for it and very little time or inclination to write regularly you can hire a content or copywriter to create content on the topics that relate to your brand. A good ghostwriter or content writer will write in your voice, and use the proper tone and style for your personal brand. Trust me. It’s a thing. You don’t have to feel bad for not creating your own content. Many people just aren’t content writers. And many of us have a limited time budget—especially once we’ve reached some of our goals and get busy with other aspects of our work. And, really, that’s a good thing.
