What is a personal brand?
Sport touches people’s lives like little else. People care about it. And they care about the individuals that provide the entertainment.
Modern-day sportspeople have a unique opportunity to connect with their fans. Social media has broken down barriers in a way that would have seemed unimaginable to previous generations.
For a young sports fan of the 20th century, you’d watch your heroes either on TV or in the flesh – and if you got lucky you might meet them afterwards for an autograph. Beyond that, you’d have to read the newspapers to get any insight into the personal lives of sports stars.
The creation of social media ensured that was a thing of the past.
Vlogs allow athletes to talk directly to their audience. Thoughts and reflections on performances can be shared instantly on Twitter. Instagram can be used to give an insight into personal lives, especially when Instagram Stories are used effectively.
But the possibilities this offers extend way beyond athletes giving something back to their supporters.
Whether you’re an international footballer, a personal trainer or a badminton coach, people will be interested to hear your insights and experiences.
And this is where your personal brand comes into play.
Your personal brand is how you present yourself, once you establish that there is a market and audience for the value you can provide people with your knowledge and experiences.
It is the starting point to becoming an influencer through your views, and to making a business of your personality.
It is taking control of your social media and digital output and making it work for you to achieve what you want from life.
How do you do this? Here’s some tips on how to get started:
_BE AUTHENTIC
If people are tuning in to your content, they’re doing it because they’re interested in you. That means it’s crucial that you stay true to your personality – that you’re authentic. It’s easy to see straight through people if they aren’t genuine. Don’t recommend anything you wouldn’t do yourself, talk in your natural tones and expressions and try to be comfortable in your role as an influencer.
_BE CONSISTENT
To build an audience you’ll need to post regular, consistent content. People won’t want to work to keep up with your schedule. Remove any barriers, be explicit about what you are posting and when. And don’t put pressure on yourself to be overly creative with your message – the aim is to share your insights. Don’t worry about being “boring”, if people are tuning in to your personal brand, they’re interested in your life. Give them what they want.
_BE PATIENT
You could have the best content, the sharpest branding and the most fascinating life story, but you can’t expect to build an audience overnight. A large element of building your personal brand is down to word of mouth. Be patient, trust in the value of what you’re providing and continue to hone your output, and the followers will soon start growing.
An example of someone who does all of this, and is reaping the benefits, can be found with Merijn, founder of Student Aesthetic, an online fitness programme that helps people to combine fitness training with an outgoing lifestyle.
Merijn has identified his target market, plotted how best to cater his personal brand towards earning business for his company, and executed it skillfully. He has just shy of 200k YouTube followers, and the same amount on Instagram.
Now not everybody will have quite the success – nor the physique – that Merijn has developed, but browsing through his social media channels show the commitment to the basics that can work for anybody in any aspect of the industry.
That’s where we come in. At Orfi Media, we’re experts at content creation, social media strategy and brand development.
Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be going into more detail on this blog about how you can maximise your digital potential, so subscribe to our mailing list to make sure you never miss a post.
Interested in developing your personal brand, or your digital marketing operations overall? Get in touch to see how we can help you at hello@orfimedia.com.
