Here’s a fact.
In the digital space, people will judge the book by its cover. Period.
Because they have no choice but do that. The only thing they can see is your website, you profile, or your content. It’s a hard pill to swallow but accept it anyway.
However, looking at the bright side, your personal brand will:
attract more opportunities
make your audience trust you more
give you influence and credibility
Now that you know people judge by your ‘online appearance’, a good personal brand becomes much easier to achieve than you think.
All you need to do is to brush up your ‘online appearance’.
Here’s how to do that.
Put more effort into your profiles
Your profiles are like your business card. It’s the first thing people see when they’re first getting to know you. You should ‘dress up to the occasion’.
If you must invest in a good professional headshot for your accounts, by all means do it. A good personal brand starts with your nicely brushed up profile.
Your personal brand is what people think of you. It’s your reputation. Investing in your profile goes a long way to leaving that great first impression on someone.
Live up to the expectation
If you look at some of the world’s biggest superstar, they live up to people’s expectations. Their fans are precious to them. To the fans, they’re an icon.
It’s a mutual relationship. And sometimes it goes beyond that.
You’re not a superstar so I think you can manage the expectation people have on you, right?
That’s the thing about personal brand. Once you set the expectations, people expect you to live up to it.
If you’re a writer, your audience will expect your content; If you’re on LinkedIn, your connections would want to see your latest post.
These are the only two you should be doing on a consistent basis to grow your personal brand.
The hardest part of consistency is not the subject itself… but the motivation needed to keep going even if the results aren’t what you’ve expected.
So keep going despite not getting any results in the beginning because building a personal brand is a marathon, not a sprint.