What is one way someone can develop their personal brand to build credibility and trust?
To help you best develop your personal brand for credibility and trust, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders this question for their best insights. From collaborating with like-minded people to taking on speaking engagements, there are several ways to effectively develop your personal brand to earn credibility and trust for lasting success.
Here are 11 ways to effectively develop a personal brand to build credibility and trust:
- Collaborate with Like-Minded People
- Feature in a Popular Podcast in Your Niche
- Make Your Audience The Hero of Your Story
- Avoid Coming Across as Too Promotional With Your Brand
- Start With a Clear Definition to Help Build a Strong Foundation
- Create Content That Demonstrates Your Unique Expertise and Passion
- Support Your Personal Brand’s Ethos With Social Proof
- Develop a Strong Presence On Linkedin
- Practice What You Say
- Build a Community Online
- Take on Speaking Engagements
Collaborate with Like-Minded People
So this might be a bit of contrary advice, but listen: even though it’s your personal brand, you cannot thrive alone. Go and find relevant people in your community. People that are putting effort to build their own brands; for instance, bloggers, influencers, or other business people that are closely related to your industry. Go collaborate with them. Interact with their audience so you can overlap your loyal fan base, and really grow together. That’s how you get exposure and get seen as someone who is genuinely putting effort to help the community.
Daniel Close, We Buy Houses in Kentucky
Feature in a Popular Podcast in Your Niche
Podcasts are a terrific way to get exposure, develop brand awareness, and build credibility. Unlike videos and other types of marketing, podcasts consist of a live, nonsense-free dialogue with the podcast host. These interactions are typically perceived as “candid interviews” and allow you to communicate your brand’s narrative, history, and mission.
Potential customers get to meet you and your brand and realize that a real person is behind the brand and product. If you don’t have a podcast yet, attempt to join a few podcasts in your field.
Hector Ruiz, BBQ Grill Academy
Make Your Audience The Hero of Your Story
Rather than telling you what not to do, which can lead you to hyper-focusing on that, let’s focus on what you can start doing, today. One way to develop your personal brand to build authority, credibility, and trust is to make your audience the hero of the story. To explain, you are often told to identify the pain points, needs, and awareness levels of your audience.
Though it’s important to know the demographics and psychographics of your audience, it’s fundamental to learn how to leverage your personal narrative. Your personal narrative includes your knowledge, skills, and experiences, which allows you to meet your audience right where they are along their journey.
Here are three ways to build credibility and trust this week: 1) share what you wish you knew when you first got started; 2) the things they need to start doing to achieve the result they are looking to solve; or 3) host weekly hot seats with live Q&As. Bonus Tip: Have guests register, so you can build your email list.
A. Margot Blair, AMB Consulting & Co.
Avoid Coming Across as Too Promotional With Your Brand
One simple way an individual can develop credibility with their brand is by not being too ‘sales-y.’ Overly promotional content can be a distraction to consumers doing their own research, or can come off as flashy and disingenuous. Customers want reliable information before they feel comfortable enough to make a sales decision. This builds trust and credibility on its own through the continued quality of your product/service.
Sasha Ramani, MPOWER Financing
Start With a Clear Definition to Help Build a Strong Foundation
Your online presence is a powerful tool to grow your personal brand – but to build credibility and trust, it has to align perfectly with who you truly are. The problem is that most people struggle to show up in the online world with the same presence as they do “in the room”.
Having a clearly defined personal brand helps amplify relevant and authentic attributes so that you show up online with a tone consistent with your actual personality. So if you want to build credibility and trust with your personal brand, you have to start with a clear definition. That’s what gives you a strong foundation. That work will feed into all your content creation – whether it’s social media posts for grabbing initial attention, or longer form content to show the depth of your knowledge.
Frank Prendergast, Frank and Marci
Create Content That Demonstrates Your Unique Expertise and Passion
Create content that demonstrates your expertise and passion, whether that be for a particular product you’re selling, or a hobby you love. People are more likely to trust someone if they come across as authentic. What better way to build trust than to share content that comes from a place of sincere connection to the topic at hand?
If you are catering to a specific niche audience, do your research on whether there are any gaps that need filling on the topic. Is there a good podcast about it already? What are popular Instagram accounts doing in this space and how could you stand out by giving it your own personal touch? Every person on earth is different, so figure out what stands you apart from others and confidently express it through your content.
Oliver Zak, Mad Rabbit
Support Your Personal Brand’s Ethos With Social Proof
Use social proof to persuade others of your credibility and track record. People like to see that other professionals have collaborated successfully and have associates willing to vouch for their work capacity. Reviews and endorsements work as well for personal branding as they do for businesses. No professional succeeds alone. References help build a new contact’s credibility and trustworthiness for prospective partnerships or employment.
LinkedIn makes terrific use of social proof, for instance, in helping professionals network within their industry. When anyone can write up a fabricated track record or resume, having professional contacts to corroborate our history is essential to building credibility.
Shawn Munoz, Pure Relief
Develop a Strong Presence On LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the world’s most influential and effective platforms to develop your personal brand. The business and employment-oriented site is a central hub for professionals, employers, and candidates alike to build and engage with their professional network. LinkedIn functions similarly to other social media platforms in that you can post status updates, blogs, and other valuable content in a professional setting. This engagement can be extremely beneficial for connecting with other like-minded and respected brands, while effectively building your credibility and trust at the same time.
Dan Gray, Kotn Supply
Practice What You Say
The only way I think you can develop a credible and trustworthy personal brand is by ‘practicing what you preach’. Don’t just develop your core values or publish wisdom words. Instead of just keep on saying stuff, practice that wisdom through your actions as well. Whether it’s your team, audience, or clients and whether they reach out to you in public, in your profile’s comments, or in your DMs — simply interact with them the way you’ve projected your image. That I think makes you a credible personal brand that people can blindly trust.
Scott O’Brien, PPC Ad Lab
Build a Community Online
Building a community of like-minded people online is one of the top ways to establish a personal brand. You get a chance to connect with people and they’ll feel like you’re one of them. You can achieve this by setting up a Facebook group, membership site, or YouTube channel, among other online platforms that your target audience uses. You’ll be able to influence people through such channels and get them to try your products and services.
Mike Stuzzi, Mike Stuzzi
Take on Speaking Engagements
Find opportunities to speak in front of audiences whether that’s on camera or in person. A lot of people avoid public speaking because they just don’t like it without realizing how it can transform how people see you. If you invest the time to become a good speaker, you can join the ranks of top leaders who show confidence, knowledge, and personality. This is one of the fastest ways to get noticed in your organization and set yourself apart as a leader who can command a room.
Susan Siravo, Siravo Media
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