What is a personal brand?
This is something I talk about a lot and something influencers need to get really au fait with. Your personal brand is everything you represent and what you become known for. It’s much more than just the fonts and colours you use on your blog of Instagram page; your values, humour, lifestyle etc all go to sculpting your personal brand.
Having a consistent, strong personal brand across your content will really help you stand out from the crowd. People (and brands) need to know who you are and what you’re about. They need to be able to identify with you. Building that strong personal brand helps feed into the know life and trust factor that it is so important to get from your audience.
Why are stories so important?
Stories are just that – a story. They are your space to let people really get to know you. That doesn’t mean you need to share every part of your life with your audience (and nor should you). But it does give you the perfect opportunity to hone that personal brand. It’s where you will share what’s important to you, it’s where people will see your personality shine through and it’s where relationships are built.
When I start working with a new client, the first thing I do is get them to think about their personal brand and start to get visible on Stories. I know this can be really daunting and many people are understandably nervous about chatting away to an audience – possibly of tens of thousands of people – but honestly, it’s not as bad as you think!
Set boundaries
Set yourself boundaries about what you will and will not discuss on Stories. This will help keep you on track (after all you only want to be talking about things that will resonate with your audience anyway) and stop you from over-sharing. If you’re just chatting away about your favourite shoes, latest DIY project or the recipe you’ve perfected for vegan cupcakes, then this is what I call ‘vanilla content’. It’s not likely to offend anyone, unlike chatting away instead about, say, vaccination or your views on Brexit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t talk about this stuff if it matters to you, but it will usually attract a more polarised response. If Stories make you anxious, at least start with the vanilla content and build up to the more polarising stuff!
You are being watched!
Remember, you are being watched not just by your usual audience, but by brand reps, PR agents and everyone in between. They will be assessing whether you are a good fit to work with them. Always keep this in mind and make sure your chat is on brand. It will pay you dividends in the long term!
If you would like to get to work on your Instagram strategy, have a review of your ideal follower and personal brand or need some more long term coaching, you can book a discovery call here.