By
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Jul 16, 2022
Whether you're aware of it or not, if you are the CEO of a company, chances are, you already have a personal brand.
People around you are forming an impression about your character and capabilities, which ultimately affects how they see your company.
You might as well take matters into your own hands and manage it to your advantage. This is where personal branding and digital marketing in Miami comes in.
To earn the respect of your employees and win over customers, certifications, industry experience, and good reputation are all important.
That said, they’re not enough. You also need a good personal brand.
In this article, we'll discuss what a personal brand is, why it's crucial, and the five steps you can take to start building your own personal brand as a CEO today.
According to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, your brand is what people say about you when you're not around. In other words, a personal brand revolves around people's perceptions of you.
However, don't confuse this with your reputation. Personal brand and reputation are not the same. Everyone has a reputation.
The first impressions you make with your customers, your relationships with your employees, and how you communicate with others – all of these things impact your credibility and how people perceive you.
Conversely, your brand is more intentional. It's how you want others to see you. Your brand is about visibility and the values you externally represent to influence how the public sees you.
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Photo from Webershandwick.com
A study by Burson-Marsteller revealed that 48% of a company’s reputation is associated with the reputation of its CEO.
You represent your company’s vision, so your goal is to exemplify the same traits and values that your business upholds on social media and every other digital channel you’re on.
Whatever you post, the type of content you share, the way you engage and interact with users online, your voice, your story, and your message: it's all part of your brand and it impacts the way people feel about you and your company.
It may sound like a lot of pressure on your part but managing your brand as a CEO can bring many benefits to you and your company.
A study by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research found that 44% of a company’s market value is directly linked to its CEO’s reputation. The same study showed that companies whose CEOs have positive brand reputations experience the following benefits:
Your brand plays a huge role in your company’s brand equity. However, you won't stay CEO forever. This should give you more reasons to create a brand identity you can own.
People buy from people they know, like, and trust. It doesn't matter if you're selling products or services and whether you're selling online or offline. What matters is who they're buying from, and that's YOU.
It means that when it's time to leave your company behind and move on to the next adventure of your life, you get to bring your brand with you.
Whatever you tackle next will be just as successful as the previous one because of this personal brand you've built and the community around it.
Now that you know what a personal brand is and why it matters, let’s look at how you can start building an exceptional one for you.
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The first step to building an exceptional personal brand is to identify who your company’s audience is.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Who are you trying to appeal to?
What platforms are they on?
What are their goals?
What’s interesting to them?
What are their problems and how can you help?
Create customer personas to get to know your audience on a deeper level. Once you completely understand who they are, you can now create a personal brand that resonates with them.
It is crucial because it dictates how easily you can reach out and communicate with them. Otherwise, you might appear irrelevant and risk your company's brand equity.
Storytelling aids in how well your audience receives your personal brand.
It gives you the opportunity to share your values and beliefs in a meaningful way, which helps your audience understand better who you are and what you believe in.
As a result, you can establish a deep, meaningful, and authentic connection with your audience while at the same time building your authority.
So, when contemplating the story you want to tell, ask yourself the following questions:
What do you want people to think when they hear or see your name?
What do you want to be known for?
What are your values?
What are you passionate about?
What are your skills and expertise?
What subjects are you interested in?
What is your purpose in life?
What do you have in common with the people you admire the most?
Write down your answers and pay attention to your answers. It will help you identify the values, beliefs, and goals that drive you to get up every morning and go to work.
Now that you know your business' audience and what story you want to tell them, the next step is to figure out how you will get your message across.
The first thing you want to do when developing a digital marketing content strategy in Miami is to choose a voice and style you’ll use in your communication. To find your voice and tone, here’s what you need to do:
Once you’ve decided on a tone and voice, the second thing you need to do is choose the type of content that both you and your audience are interested in.
For example, if you’re in the tech industry then your audience might be interested in innovation, artificial intelligence, robotics, cryptocurrency, and many more.
The next step is to choose the best digital marketing channels in Miami to communicate your personal brand. But before you do that, clean up your existing online presence first.
Keep your private social media account private and make sure to hide old blogs you’ve written in the past that no longer represent who you are today.
A lot of CEOs use LinkedIn to build their personal brand. But, CEOs like Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, Tory Burch, and many other outstanding CEOs are using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to establish their personal brand and connect with their audience.
Our tip is to focus on one platform you’re comfortable with first (preferably where your audience is on) and then later expand to other networks.
Last but not the least, define the topics and plot the frequency of your posts. Aim to post regularly on your social media account – at least twice a week.
It's also important to come up with content that is helpful to your audience, which leads to the next point.
To clearly differentiate your value and what you bring to the table, you need to determine how you can help your audience and what you can do to make an impact online.
There are four different ways to do this: educate, engage, inspire, or entertain people with your content.
Educational: One of the things you can do to help your audience solve a problem is to share expert tips and tricks. This is also a great way to showcase your expertise in your field. Make sure you educate your audience on topics they’re interested in and not on things that aren’t relevant to them.
Inspirational: As a CEO, you’re in the position to inspire others. Inspirational leaders encourage everyone around them to dream bigger and live a more fulfilling life. Influential leaders also make the workplace a more fun place to be. When you succeed in inspiring others by sharing your personal challenges and how you overcame them, or simply by being enthusiastic about your passions in life, people will remember you the most.
Entertaining: People love humorous, fun, and highly-engaging content, whether it’s in the playful tone of voice of your blogs, highly engaging how-to videos, or personality quizzes. It captures their attention and gets them hooked!
Engaging: People like it when you interact with them and get them involved through polls, Q&As, social media contests, and many more. Do your best to present content in a way that allows you and your audience to have a two-way conversation.
Lean into your expertise and experience to determine the best way you can differentiate yourself from the crowd while at the same time helping your audience.
You want to create a personal brand that allows you to be your true self. This is why it’s essential to incorporate your personal values into your personal brand.
Your values serve as your moral compass and the backbone of who you are – whether you're at work or home.
For example, if you value honesty and integrity, make sure to incorporate this into your brand. If you believe in creativity and innovation, you can tie this into your brand as CEO.
By identifying and reflecting on your personal values, you can deliberately demonstrate them in your communication with your audience.
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Photo from Webershanwick.com
When it comes to establishing an exceptional personal brand, consistency is the name of the game.
If you want your audience to trust you, you need to consistently show them that you’re reliable and trustworthy.
You can achieve this by posting helpful content regularly, answering your customers’ questions, engaging with your employees, and many more.
Building a personal brand takes time. A single post on social media won’t turn you into an iconic CEO overnight.
You need to keep publishing expert-written content, how-to videos, speaking at conferences, guesting at podcasts, posting on social media, optimizing for SEO, and developing a Miami digital marketing strategy to grow your brand and build a trusted name in your industry over time.
Help your company gain traction online and get more customers by building your own personal brand as CEO! Just follow the six tips we shared with you above to get started.
At Digital Resource, our team of digital marketing experts and SEO specialists will work with you to create a personal brand that will help put your company ahead of the competition and gain more customers online!
Contact us today to get started.
Think you've got what it takes to hang with the pros at Digital Resource? Check out our Careers page to browse current job openings!
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