If you have a personal brand you need to be visible.
If you have a business brand, it’s slightly different, but something Chris Ducker said at the Atomicon Conference stuck with me. He said, “Even if you have a business brand, you’re still actually a personal brand because people are still doing business with people.” And it’s true.
How confident are you in terms of your visibility? About putting photos out there of yourself, putting yourself out there even more in general, putting yourself out there in front of new audiences…. How confident do you feel in terms of visibility with regards to doing video?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel about your visibility?
If you’re just starting out, I imagine it will be quite a low score. And this is the thing. When it comes to having a personal brand, you need to be visible. You cannot hide behind a bit of paper, or behind your camera so no one can see you. You need to become more visible.
There’s small steps that you can take to get you going.
The first thing to think about, which is more to do with mindset, is what’s stopping you from becoming more visible? What’s stopping you from picking up your phone and doing an Instagram story, which is only a 15 second long video? What is stopping you from doing that? What’s stopping you from sharing photos of yourself?
It could be you’ve got imposter syndrome, which crops up quite a lot for women in business; don’t feel like you’re good enough to share photos or videos of yourself and to become more visible. It could be that you feel like an idiot. It could be that you don’t feel confident in doing it or it could be, and this is a really big one, you don’t actually like seeing yourself on camera…
When I first shared a video, I was extremely nervous, but it’s the whole practice makes perfect scenario. The more you do it, the more comfortable you become.
If you think about Instagram stories for example, they’re only 15 seconds long and only stay there for 24 hours. The idea that your videos are only there for 24 hours is really appealing. It’s all about practice makes perfect and obviously when it comes to video you can pre-record your videos rather than doing a live. Doing a pre-recorded video could mean doing a million takes and you may end up unhappy with it and even give up. Make sure you know what you’re talking points are as this will help. If you really want to plunge into the deep end, you’ve got to get comfortable doing live videos.
Whether you make a mistake or not, you’re only human and no one is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. I make mistakes. I did a live a few weeks ago, introducing myself and what I do and part of the way through, I actually totally forgot what I was saying and that was all live. It was a little bit embarrassing for me, but it’s just one of those things. But you’ve got to think, that’s who you are, you’re being authentic.
Share more photos of YOU!
When it comes to increasing your visibility within your personal brand, the first you could do is share more photos of YOU. This is a big one and if you don’t have any good quality photos, here’s a couple of options to think about:
- Work with a professional photographer.
I’ve done this three times now, and they’ve made a massive difference. - Ask your business bestie for some help.
If you don’t have the budget to work with a professional photographer then why not take a business bestie out and ask them to take some photos of you with your phone. This way you will be relaxed because you’ll be with your friend and you’ll be able to have some fun.
Depending on the look and feel of your brand, you’ve got to think about how you can translate this within your photos.
You could do this a few times throughout the year, wearing different outfits so you’ve got a range of different photos. You could go to different locations as well. By doing this it’s going to help you get some photos in the interim before working with a professional photographer.
Share your brand story
The second way is to talk more about your brand story. This means rather than talking about the services you offer, why not share more about you as a person? A lot of business women don’t like doing this, but it’s going to help create real connections with potential customers.
Sharing your story means sharing, first of all, why you do what you do. So, why do you do what you do? How often are you sharing this with your customer? How did you get into your business in the first place? Was there a really specific reason why? Where do your passions lie? If your passion lies in what you do, are you sharing enough of that? Is there a significant moment within your life that influenced why you do what you do now? And are you sharing that with your audience?
I know this can be scary, but at the end of the day, it’s all about creating those really strong relationships. Your loyal followers and potential dream customers will love the fact that you are being true, authentic and genuine to who you are. And they will love the fact that they’re finding out more about you as a person.
Start small…
You could do a Friday introductions post on Instagram for example with the hashtag #fridayintroductions. You could share a photo of you introducing yourself and it could be some fun facts about you. It could be an introduction to you, who you are, why you do what you do. It could be an introduction in terms of one of the services you offer. Think outside the box and get creative with it.
In terms of visibility, what kind of brand do you want to have?
The next thing in terms of increasing your visibility is asking yourself how visible do you want your brand and business to be?
Do you want your brand to be a local brand where it’s just known within the local area of where you are?
Do you want to have a national brand? So, do you want to be known nationally?
Or do you want to have an international brand where you’re known all over the world? I want you to really think about this and what kind of brand you want to have/be.
Once you make a decision the next question to ask yourself is, what are the next steps you can take to turn it into that kind of brand? What action can you take TODAY to increase your visibility within your personal brand?
Visibility and visual branding
Thinking about how visible you want your brand to be overall actually influences how your visual brand should look. Think about your visibility; So local, national, international brand and look at where you are now. Can you come up with a few actions of what you need to do next to create that type of visible brand for your business.
For example, it could be posting in a Facebook group where your dream customers are hanging out. If you’re lurking in the background, not really interacting in any Facebook groups or on Facebook pages where your dream customer’s are hanging out, how do they know that you exist? How do they know that you’re there? They won’t know you are there unless you make yourself visible.
It’s like a continuous loop.
If you know something is stopping you from creating the visible brand you desire to have/become, then a great thing to do is journal on it. Really think about that and keep questioning yourself until you get to the root of what’s holding you back.
I would love to know what action are you going to take TODAY to help you move forward.
