Madalyn Sklar

Building a Personal Brand Through Voice, Value, and Visibility

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Building a personal brand through voice, vlue, and visibility - #TwitterSmarter chat with nathalie Gregg - October 15, 2020

We all know the value of having a personal brand. Whether you are a small business owner running your own show or work for a larger brand’s social media operations, it’s important to showcase your brand voice to your audience. Not only does this increase your credibility, but it also helps your audience connect with you as a person. That’s why we invited leadership coach and long-time #TwitterSmarter member, Nathalie Gregg, to talk about how to develop a personal brand by offering value. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Nathalie Gregg
Topic: Building a personal brand through voice, value, and visibility
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: How can you leverage your personal brand as an asset?

Your personal brand is an indication of who you are and what matters most to you. So when you prioritize on your brand and the way you communicate with it, you automatically make valuable connections and conversations. That is the priceless asset that your personal brand can give you.

Jake said it well. To get the most of your personal brand, find what you’re good at and passionate about. You can then use that to enhance your personal brand and offer value to people around you. It’s a great way to establish your authority and get returns from it.

Q2: How do you determine your value on social media?

Answer the three main questions our guest mentioned.

  • Is your brand powerful enough to generate awareness?
  • Do you consistently get enthusiastic engagement?
  • Does your brand align with your values?

Once you answer those questions, you’ll have a good idea of how much value you and your brand is generating on Twitter.

In addition to that, as Stephen suggested, you can also ask your audience what they think of you and how much they want to hear from you.

Of course, if you can ask your audience and they respond positively, that’s a sign that you already have an established community. As Kushlani pointed out, your community and your contribution to them is a great measure of value.

Q3: Why is it important to know your strengths and challenges?

When you know your strengths, like Nathalie mentioned, you can drill own further and improve upon it.

And as Iynette added, once you know what your challenges are, you can use it as a learning opportunity.

But it’s also important to balance out your strengths and challenges. For as Christine pointed out, focussing on one and ignoring the other can also be harmful for your brand in the long run. Make sure you build a strong strategy with a prime focus on your strengths, but at the same time, work on your challenges so that they don’t come back to bite you.

Q4: How do you create a unique voice?

The important thing is that you shouldn’t go big too soon and overwhelm yourself. Instead, start small—building a unique brand voice that people can resonate with doesn’t happen overnight.

To start off, choose a social media channel where you have the most engaged audience. Then think about the content you share, and align it with your values. And then choose two-three words that relate to your brand and use it consistently to help audience recognize and recall you.

One of the best ways to make sure that your social media voice is unique is to make it authentically you, as Lori mentioned. The more you try to “create” a voice, the more it tends to morph into something that’s not inherently yours.

Q5: How can you make your voice a strategic part of your personal brand?

There are a few things you can do to incorporate your personal voice into your brand. As Nathalie pointed out, focus on your target industry to get the most engagement.

  1. Collect and share a bunch of third-party content about industry news.
  2. Engage in conversations with people who share content about your industry.
  3. Listen to your industry-based podcasts and review their work.
  4. And then create your own content, like blogs, podcasts, social media content, webinars, and downloadable ebooks.

Of course, you don’t have to follow each of these steps in that order. But if you’re starting out and need some guidance, consider it as a good way to go about nurturing your brand. Ultimately, every successful brand does all four activities on a daily basis.

Janet made an excellent point about being consistent and present at the same time. So many brands, though consistent in sharing content, fail to be present—listening and engaging with their audience. If you do both and do so in a channel that needs your brand’s presence, you’ll naturally incorporate your personality in your branding.

Q6: What role does visibility play in your personal brand?

It’s the key for a successful social media presence. We all buy from people we like and trust. And we also tell others about who we buy from. That’s why it’s important to be seen and noticed. To achieve that, you need a good branding strategy that’s based on community wellbeing.

As Christina pointed out, unless you’re seen, you won’t be heard, understood, or appreciated. However, you also don’t want the wrong kind of visibility—which is only too easy to get on social media.

Q7: How important is networking to our personal brand visibility?

It’s everything. A good network will take you places. And to build that network, connect with similar-minded people, express what matters most to you and the trials you go through, and prioritize your community, engaging with them regularly.

As Gene so well articulated, there’s no point in waiting to build your network. Every day is a good day to start because all of us need help to move forward in our life. Human beings are designed to collaborate and help each other out. It’s only natural that that primal quality translates to social media as well.

Q8: What are some common mistakes people make with their personal brand?

Nathalie’s top points summed up our chat nicely. Some common mistakes according to her are:

  • Not prioritizing branding efforts.
  • Not having a plan.
  • Losing heart and giving up because it’s taking too long to establish your brand.

Marianne mentioned a few other great mistakes, including talking too much about yourself and assuming you know it all.

Lance also shared a few mistakes that many brands make when starting out on social media. For example, swearing, trying to be someone else, ignoring mentions, and not giving credit where it’s due.

Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading and for more insight from our chat with Nathalie, have a look at this Twitter Moment that Joana put together. And if you have time to spare next Thursday, join us at 1pm ET for #TwitterSmarter.

About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.

Say hello: Personal blog | LinkedIn | Twitter

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