Having a personal brand is becoming increasingly relevant in today's world, where standing out from the crowd is sometimes not just a need but a condition for survival. A personal brand is much more than an online or social media image. It is a comprehensive perception of you as a person, a professional, an expert in your field, and more. It also involves the attention of potential clients and employers, trustful relationships with the audience, and many other aspects that can impact both your business and your life.
Who needs a personal brand?
Since building a personal brand is part of the overall PR and business strategies, we usually start by understanding whether you actually need to focus on it. Surprisingly, not everyone needs a personal brand. This is confirmed by the experience of over 200 SLOVA Tech PR clients over 10 years.
Below, you can find a checklist with questions that will allow you to timely understand that you might not need to engage in building a personal brand:
- What is your direct goal in building a personal brand?
- Do you personally have the time and resources for daily long-term work
- How sensitive are you to criticism?
- Does the thought of publicity cause you even the slightest discomfort?
Why you might not need a personal brand (for now)
- You are not ready for taking risks and criticism
There is nothing wrong with that. Creating a personal brand means being ready for most clients to associate your business with you. Accordingly, any claims will primarily be addressed to you — as someone who is easier to find on social media than reach the technical support hotline. You don't believe it? Visit the pages of the head of Nova Poshta [This is about Volodymyr Popereshnyuk, co-founder of Nova Poshta, Ukrainian delivery company with branches in 18 countries, including Poland, Germany, Italy, France, and Sweden — ed.] or the founder of Monobank [This is about Oleg Gorokhovsky, co-founder of Monobank, a Ukrainian neobank with more than 8.6 million clients. — ed.] and read the comments below any post.
Another aspect is that any misstep, even unintentional, can have unpredictable consequences for your business. For example, Elon Musk's tweet, ‘Tesla stock price is too high,’ led to a $13 million loss in the company's market value.
- You simply don’t like publicity
That's fine. Any interaction with people, offline or online, requires your energy. If you have a gut feeling that it is more productive to direct your energy towards work rather than communication, you are right. However, building a personal brand is not a task you can delegate 100%, even to the most professional team. Even if…
- …you want to, but you don’t have time
Your brand is you, your personality, and your individuality. A PR team that helps you is primarily:
- Strategy, understanding of important tools and key messages that need to be conveyed;
- People who will help you create a content plan and the content itself, handle all organizational issues, develop creative ideas, etc.
But if you hope to only finalize pre-prepared texts, visuals, and other public appearances without your direct involvement, it will look insincere and will be perceived as such.
Why you NEED a personal brand
A strong personal brand facilitates achieving business goals, such as:
- Establishing partnerships;
- Finding clients;
- Attracting investment;
- Increasing the value of services, etc.
For example, many people know the name Oleksandr Solovey in Ukraine's fintech market. The entrepreneur actively runs a personal blog on Instagram with nearly 9,000 followers and regularly participates in thematic events. His goal is to ensure that Finmap, a money management service for modern businesses, co-founded by Oleksandr, satisfies existing clients and attracts new ones. Additionally, scaling and globalization are impossible without financial support: in 2023, Finmap raised another round of investment of €1 million.
Self-actualization
A personal brand helps in:
- Moving up the career ladder;
- Expanding your influence;
- Forming a network, growing a social circle, etc.
Dana Sydorenko, founder of the GameTree platform, is well-known in the gamers' community, ex-paramedic in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and serial entrepreneur. Dana is now on Forbes' ‘30 Under 30 — Europe — Sports and Games’ list.
The world recognizes her as an advocate for non-toxic gaming and co-founder of a powerful community of over 900,000 users, united by the goal of playing peacefully without experiencing hate and abuse. Investor confidence in Dana has a specific figure: $1.7 million in seed investment at the end of 2023.
Four more arguments FOR building a personal brand
- Direct impact on company reputation
Almost half (48%) of a company's reputation depends on the personal brand of the founder or leader. In critical situations, their behavior may depend on the future of the business.
- Customer trust and loyalty
60% of consumers are willing to engage with a business led by a bright leader with a strong personal brand. Another 57% are even willing to pay more for products or services from such businesses.
- Talent acquisition and employment
A strong personal brand of the founder or leader can increase the positive result in finding and attracting talents to the team by 70% and retaining staff by 77%. At the same time, a job candidate's popularity can also be a significant plus during an interview for a dream job.
- Business development prospects
For 87% of investors, a well-developed personal brand of the founder is a significant argument for making a positive decision.
A strong personal brand opens up numerous opportunities, from career growth and new business contacts, to enhancing personal confidence and achieving goals. Creating and developing a personal brand is a continuous process that requires constant attention and effort. However, the results of these efforts can be well worth it.
Therefore, before you start building a personal brand, you need to understand how much time you can devote to it — and whether you are ready to invest that time in the long term. We recommend discussing all possible risks with your team first and rehearsing a few potential crises to see how the client handles publicity and emotional stress.
