7 Essential Personal Branding Tips for Women
What Is Personal Branding?
Creating a personal brand is letting people know what you're all about–a combination of your values, experiences, and opinions.
Your personal brand is what people think about when they think about you. It’s the impression that you leave them with, especially in the context of the professional world.
To put it more colloquially, your personal brand is the “professional vibe” you give off to others.
For example, many people tell me that when they think about me, they think about the mental health content I create. As a result, the topic of mental health - including my experiences and opinions related to that topic - has become a part of my personal brand.
Why Personal Branding Is Important for Women
Personal branding is important for everyone in the business world. But it is especially important for women.
Because of the equity gap between men and women in business, whether you’re in tech, professional services, or biotech, women often have to work harder than your male peers to win the trust—and ultimately the business—of others.
Fair or unfair, this is the unfortunate truth many women report. So what can you do about it?
Building a strong and memorable personal brand can help women close this gender equity gap and get a leg up to be on a level playing field.
The benefits of personal branding are tangible and evidence-based. The NIH has rounded up research showing that a personal brand helps individuals attain positive career outcomes, including increased social capital, financial rewards, and career opportunities.
But how can you start or improve your personal branding journey? In this article, I will provide seven tips on how women can create and improve their personal branding. By the end of this article, you should have the tools to enhance your own personal brand.
Tip 1: Create a Mind Map to Find Your Unique Brand.
Your personal brand needs to be unique to you. But how do you uncover the important elements of who you are that build your brand? One way to go about this is to create a mind map. Mind mapping is a tool I learned much about from Jamie Chapman over at Chichbook Consulting (check her out!).
A mind map is a visual representation of words you can use to describe your brand.
To create a mind map for personal branding, write down the important words that come to your mind that describe you. These could be anything, like:
wife
mother
daughter
friend
Dog mom
tennis player
movie buff
real estate investor
grit
kind
funny
Next to each one, explain how they apply to you by describing the relevant who, what, where, why, and when.
For example, one of the words I wrote down is “writer.” Then, I wrote out my descriptions. Why do I love being a writer? Because I'm deeply passionate about telling other people's stories. How do I do it? Through LinkedIn and content and copywriting. Then, I went through each additional question from there.
Your mind map will help reveal the most important things to you and about you—your values, interests, opinions, what you love, and what you don’t love. These insights will be key in helping you build a unique and specific personal brand.
Tip 2: Lean on Your Personal Board of Advisors to Verify Your Branding Concept
Mind mapping is a great way to get started, but when it comes to self-reflection, we can sometimes be biased or have blind spots. Therefore, having a third party to bounce ideas off can be helpful.
This is why I recommend that every woman in business have a professional board of advisors or a trusted group of people in your life who can provide smart opinions, guidance, and advice. Your board members can give you insights on how you are developing your personal brand, including feedback on ideas that have come up through your mind map.
Your professional board of advisors doesn’t have to be exclusively women–it can include anyone you trust with experience and expertise who will deliver the information you need honestly and fairly.
If you haven’t already formed your personal board of advisors, start thinking about the people you can ask to serve that role for you. And if you do have one, go forth and see what feedback they have for you regarding your personal brand. They may have some insight or advice you never would have thought of.
Tip 3: You Are Separate from the Company You Work For
Whether you are a top executive at a large biotech firm or a small business owner in the suburbs of Boston, it’s important to remember that you are not the business you work for. The business you work for has its own brand. It is on you to create a personal brand that showcases the professional woman you are beyond being a part of an organization.
This is especially important if you are climbing the corporate ladder. Only about one-third of executive roles are filled by women. So, how are you going to stand out and acquire one of these roles? Through personal branding, of course!
That said, it’s still important for your personal brand to align with the company you work for. Going rogue and portraying yourself in an antithetical way to your company’s brand can spell trouble and even cause you to lose your job. To use a (very) silly example, if you hate sneakers, maybe don’t emphasize that if you’re a Nike executive.
To avoid getting into hot water, carefully read, understand, and adhere to your company’s social media policy. If you determine that your company’s policies are in significant conflict with your personal brand, this may be a sign that you need to find a new employer.
Even solopreneurs need to make sure that their personal brand is differentiated from their business’s brand. There’s more to you than your business. And people don’t want to do business with companies–they want to do business with people. Your personal brand is your chance to show them the unique, incredible woman you are and why your ideal client should want to work with you.
Tip 4: You Are Always Building a Personal Brand. So Be Strategic
Whether or not you are doing so intentionally, you are building your personal brand. Whenever you show up in a business setting, post on your social media, or make any kind of statement in public, you are giving people an impression of your values, opinions, and interests.
That’s why it is so important to be strategic about your branding. If you create a bad impression of yourself—that you do not work hard or don’t show up on time, complain too much, gossip, or have bad hot takes—this becomes your personal brand. Personal branding can quickly become negative if you’re not intentional with your words and actions.
It can be hard to be strategic with your personal branding. There are so many places and channels where you show up: your website, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, your brick-and-mortar store, networking events, and industry conferences. Everywhere, you encounter people in your network and potential customers.
Having a strategic partner to help you with personal branding can help make your life a lot easier. A great strategic partner can help you build your narrative and connect more successfully with your intended audience. They will help showcase the different sides of who you are while ensuring they stay aligned and cohesive.
Do your homework when seeking a brand storyteller as a strategic partner. Look for client testimonials, great reviews, successful case studies, and real-life referrals from people in your network to guarantee a great partner.
Tip 5: Don’t Be Afraid to Refresh Your Brand Over Time
Everything changes, and so do you. You gain wisdom with age, so over time, certain elements of your personal brand may begin to feel misaligned with who you currently are. That’s normal! This means that you shouldn’t be afraid to level up your personal brand with a refresh.
As you continue to gain experience in your brand, you will find some things work better than others. Maybe you start leaning into a particular industry or niche while leaning out of certain products or services that used to earn you a greater share of revenue.
You may even find that some of your values change over time. None of us are stagnant, and it is important to continue to embrace who we are as we grow. The woman you were ten years ago is probably not the woman you are now and will be different from the woman you are in another ten years.
Giving yourself a personal branding refresh can mean different things. Perhaps you need to start from a blank slate, do a completely new mind map process, and see how much of your old words remain true to you. Maybe you just need to tweak the way you communicate around the edges.
The point is it’s fine to make both major or minor changes along the way. Enough of your core personal brand will likely remain so that you are recognizable as the same general person. The most important thing is that your personal brand remains aligned with who you really are and stays authentic.
Tip 6: LinkedIn Is the Land of Personal Branding for Women
There’s a reason LinkedIn is my go-to platform for my personal (and company) branding: LinkedIn is where the magic happens. Everyone on LinkedIn, from the most to the least active users, is on there to improve and grow their professional lives. This is also precisely what a brand is designed to do.
In a recent episode of my LinkedIn Live series, Founder and CEO of LiveWire Collective Angela Pitter emphasized the importance of building LinkedIn connections everywhere you go. Pitter says you should be connecting with people you know:
family
friends
colleagues
alumni (people love connecting with alumni)
all of your various social networks.
You can start by engaging with your first-level connections, commenting on their posts, and being a part of the conversation. Then, move on to your second-level connections. Even if you switch industries at some point, keep all of your old LinkedIn connections. You never know to whom you can provide value and who can provide value to you from past jobs or previous business connections.
But when it comes to LinkedIn, my number one tip is just to show up. I know it sounds simple, but I can’t emphasize how important it is and how many people don’t follow through. You need to be engaging with the platform regularly to make it work for you. That includes posting but also engaging with other people’s posts, comments, articles, live events, etc.
That doesn’t mean you should just post anything. You need to be thoughtful, intentional, and strategic (again, this is where a professional partner can help!). If that sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But that’s the world we live in today, and you can use it to your advantage or fall behind.
So, I’ll see you out there on LinkedIn!
Tip 7: Don’t reinvent the Wheel - Do Your Research
The old cliche about not reinventing wheels is true, especially when it comes to personal branding.
If you find communicating your brand difficult, there are many resources - both free and paid - to help you along the way. In fact, you can find plenty on my website and LinkedIn pages.
There’s no harm in doing competitive research to find out how your competitors are communicating their personal brands.
Other women can be a great source of inspiration. On the one hand, it’s important to remain true to what makes you unique as a person and as a professional. You don’t want to take over someone else’s brand or lean on potentially gendered stereotypes- you want to create your own authentic identity.
On the other hand, investigating what others are doing can help you figure out both what is and is not working for them. This can generate great insight into how you should go about communicating your own personal brand without needing to reinvent the wheel.
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Interested in more tips on how you can grow your brand and communicate to the world the incredible professional woman, executive, or business owner you are? You’ve come to the right place.
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