Personal branding has always been and still is an important topic. With the rise of influencer marketing and social media networks, it has even become more integral to everyday life. Just a few years back and the subject of branding was a thing only for companies wanting to sell their products.
Today, it’s something for everyone. But a lot of people still find it challenging to create a personal brand but not Patrick Van Negri, who has built an impressive personal brand and has a decent social media following.
Patrick hasn’t only built an incredible personal brand for himself; he shows others how to do it too because to him, “this is easy” and it’s second nature. In this article, we will learn a few tips on how to build an astounding brand.
First a little bit of background
Who is Patrick Van Negri?
To keep it somewhat simple, Patrick Van Negri is a social media influencer, a content creator and a fashion, travel, lifestyle, health, and fitness blogger, among other things. He is a versatile, daring, and involving person.
He is a curious, ardent learner and loves to tests things himself so you can be certain the things he shares about personal branding are things he has tried out himself and lives.
Patrick is also a GQ Insider, an elite group of GQ magazine readers who help in promoting brands across print and digital, and events as well.
Before going into Patrick’s steps to creating a brand, let’s first look into what he thinks about Personal brands and branding.
Personal brand
A personal brand, in Patrick’s view, takes some time to build but is every bit worth it. According to him, your brand is your reputation and track record for excellence. It is built in a similar way a business’ brand is built.
Your brand isn’t just how you look. It’s much more. Your brand has more to do with your personality and character. In the age we’re in, your brand includes your social profile, the influence you have on people (including the followers you have), your passions, and everything you do help change and improve society at large.
In the age, we’re going into, according to him and especially because of influencer marketing, your brand is going to be your secretary and your salesperson all in one, so be careful the kind of brand you’re building. If your personal brand isn’t good enough and appealing, you won’t make much of an impact or have much influence, if at all you do.
Building your Personal brand
Now let’s get into Patrick Van Negri’s secrets to building a personal brand for beginners
- The first thing you need to understand about building a brand, according to Patrick, is that it isn’t about you. It’s about the people you’re trying to reach, inspire, and influence. If you cannot get this, you can as well go home. Your brand is a tool to help improve other people’s lives.
- While an alluring personal brand can help you make money, if you think only in terms of money, you will lose out before your even get started. It’s about the knowledge, experience, ideas, opinions, passions you have that you can share and better people’s lives with.
- In creating and posting content, seek to create a bond with your audience and try as much as you can to engage them, but don’t overwork yourself thinking about the outcome. One post might do very well, and the other might not. Just allow the audience to decide.
- Put in your best. Remember, you’re trying to improve someone’s life, so give it your best shot. Keep your followers in mind, and after posting content it is important to get feedback about what they think of it, specifically if it helped, how it helped and how you can do better.
Many social media influencers shy away from teaching other people how to create personal brands for fear they might be training their competition, but that’s not Patrick Van Negri. He believes it’s all about his audience and what he can do to help. If you want to build your brand, you can begin from these insights shared by him.
Interesting Related Article: “What is Brand Management?“