How to develop your personal brand?

BySheneka Smartt

When getting started on social media, especially with the intent of developing your personal brand, it is important to be specific and intentional about what you post, from the start.

Before you start posting it helps to have a general idea of what you want to do even if you’re struggling to figure out where exactly to begin. What are the categories you want people to know you for? Even if you’re struggling with where to start with developing your personal brand, believe it or not you do already have some idea of what you want.

Before you begin, you already have some idea of what you want your account to be about. Maybe you’re taking the visual approach and have a particular theme or style in mind. How ever, you’re coming at it keep your main goal in mind.

Pick a category and stick with it.

Let’s play a game of this or that.

Fashion or Pet care?

Sports or Taxes?

Business or babysitting?

Gardening or Essay-writing?

Vlogging or Podcasting?

Do you want to be known for your fashion sense? Or is your desire and goal to share unique outfit ideas for people with a similar body type? Maybe you love the idea of inspiring others with the quotes you’ve picked from books you’ve read? Is there something that you have alot of experience in or a particular topic about which you’ve amassed a lot of knowledge? For example, have you had a run in with a period of terrible gut health and have found a unique approach that has not been talked about as far as you know? Are you tapped into the pulse of world economics? Maybe you’re deep into the tomes of law books and know a lot about the intricacies of legal stuff.

Point is, you already know and have some idea about what you want to create. Try the “This or That” approach. Make a list of as many categories as you can think of that you want to be known for. Comparing different categories, cross out the ones that are definitely do not want to have to post about.

Here’s a super fun exercise. Spend a few minutes thinking about your dream account. What does it look like? What are your most popular posts about? What are the drafts on the editing app you use filled with?

You don’t have to be too specific. When you’re first starting out, it’s better to start wide then narrow it down and you continue posting and making content.

That might be hard to narrow down at first But at least it helps to definitely identify the industry that you’re going to be working in. Here’s a list of the most niches :

  • Lifestyle (literally anything that you do)
  • Food
  • Fashion
  • Business
  • Health

Note: You can combine two of these. For example, Health and Food. Or multiple of these and make it a lifestyle. (Be sure to keep the theme of your visuals or imaging somewhat cohesive.)

Whether you choose to be super niched down with one category or if you’re focusing on three. It is important when developing a brand to maintain it.

When it comes to the content they consume people like specifics. “I go to this account when I want to watch this.” Even in real life, I’m not

ADDING ACCENT CATEGORIES

If you’re like me and you also have multiple different interests, you have likely struggled with that unique challenge of “niching down”. That multi-dimensionality, though it makes one’s life more unique and adds to it richness, it can quickly become a difficult thing to manage. And is all the more challenging when faced with the task of picking JUST ONE. Whether you’ve managed to wriggle through that tight space that social media experts talk about on and have identified your ‘one” category, theme, topic or style or still just can’t decide, then here’s some good news. You don’t have to completely toss the ones you don’t choose. You can weave them into your main category. So if you are a mom who posts about fashion you can incorporate cute matching kiddie outfits. or if you’re into food blogging and have a pet or love nature you can add a recipe for the dog treats you made to your website, inlcude a clip of the mess the animal made while you stepped out of the kitchen or make picnic foods. It’s not about you fitting yourself into one of these categories but taking all of the ones that apply to what you do on a daily basis and boome there you have it your personal brand category.

As of right now, my accent categories are: food and books. (when I finally get a rabbit as a pet, at some unknown date in the future, my niche will expand to include small furry animals and my brand to rabbit owner.)

All that being said, people change. So you can pivot. You don’t have to stick with one thing forever. But whatever it is that you’re focused on now, stay with that until you reach the point where you say okay, my life has changed. The things that I do have changed. that is okay. all that means is your audience will change. unless your audience is also going through the same change as you. For example, someone who started posting about newborns but now posts about raising toddlers would have an audience that sticks with them because the people who started with them, their children would also have grown too. Also, someone who started out posting about college-related content when they move into the world of work their content would change. Those college-aged students would become working adults and likely continue with that account. So don’t be afraid to pivot. you don’t have to stay in it forever. just till you’ve grown out of it. Because the other side of it is people might get bored at coming back to the same types of videos after years, (or in this short-attention-span age). But that shouldn’t be a deciding factor. Your personal brand is you and what you’re into. It’s literally you showing up as who you are right now. Whenever you’re starting to build notoriety for the first time or changing how you show up, aka REBRANDING it’s important to keep in mind what it is that you’re about.

Check out this list of ways you can add or incorporate accent categories within your brand content.

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