Building An Online Business: Why You Need To Have A Personal Brand

This is a very common problem I've seen many people ignoring when it comes to build an online business.

What REALLY inspired me to make content around this, is the phone call I just had with a young lady on this patreon who is trying to build an online business. 

This is something many people have tried and failed or they have the thought in the back of their mind but just don't actually know how to make it happen.

What Is A Personal Brand?

A Personal brand is essentially when YOU are the business.

" I'm not a businessman, I AM the business... man!"

- Jay Z

This is when your audience wants the person YOU are, no one else.

Think of someone like Kim Kardashian. 

- You don't think of Kim Kardashian "The athlete"

- You don't think of Kim Kardashian "The musician"

- You don't think of Kim Kardashian "The entertainer"

You only think of KIM KARDASHIAN. 

SHE IS the business. Her fans, audience and subscribers will follow her no matter where she goes and what she does due to how invested they are into HER. 

This is powerful because you can essentially venture of into pretty much anything you want to do and you will make money from it due to being able to monetise your audience. 

Don't mistake having a large audience for having a loyal one that you could potentially monetise. There are a lot of people with large audiences who can't monetise it. A large following certainly DOES help but it's certainly not the main determining factor and driving force for having a personal brand. 

Personal branding helps a person build a connection with you. As your reputation builds, you will get more exposure.

Your personal brand explains why you do things and what you do. Building a personal brand makes people feel more comfortable, as if they already know you.

It establishes trust to your audience, employees, potential prospects or anyone else who you come into contact with. 

Having a personal brand also clearly defines what your genuine intentions are, which is key when it comes to building trust.

Most people are more interested in following other people than they are in following specific companies. Therefore, building an audience for your personal brand can actually help increase exposure for your company.

Elon Musk for example, has more Twitter followers than 3 of his companies (Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity) combined.

Why do you think online reputation is so important? 

First, it creates trust. Second, it helps you establish credibility. And both of them are key elements when it comes to growing in a competitive environment.

It becomes easier for your clients or customers to be comfortable dealing with or doing business with you.

Since people don’t want to waste their money on poor quality products, they tend to trust brands that keep their promise and stand for something.

Building a personal brand takes time and effort, but it’s worth it. You will not build a personal brand in 6 Months.

The best way to achieve building a personal brand is to be genuine and authentic. You’ll experience a huge amount of growth after you start engaging with your audience in a way that can be trusted.

How do you build credibility?

You share valuable, information-rich content with your audience. You use your personal brand to educate people who are interested in what you know and what you do.

It sounds easy, but it can get tough when you don't have a personal branding strategy. Once you know exactly what you want to share with your audience, you'll find it easier to connect with people and to share your knowledge with the rest of the world.

• It also allows you to establish your name as an expert in your field.
• It helps in gaining recognition in your area of speciality.
• People will perceive you as an expert if you are more visible to your target audience.

The more credibility you have, the more likely people will be to invest in your digital products.

How To Build A Personal Brand

Firstly, you need to stop hiding and become more visible ONLINE.

Unfortunately, so many businesses and individuals are stuck in their old ways because they’re scared of change.

Step 1/2 

You need to use SOCIAL MEDIA. 

If you are someone starting from SCRATCH. You need to use:

1. Tik Tok

2. Instagram Reels 

3. Twitter

4. Youtube

I've managed to build something off of Snapchat but I would NOT recommend someone trying to build an online business through snapchat. ESPECIALLY if they are starting from scratch and have no audience.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is mainly because snapchat does not have an algorithm which helps you grow. So unless you are an officially verified account, you will not be getting put on the snapchat recommended/explore page, which is limiting your growth.

So the ONLY way you can grow is by word of mouth which again, is inefficient in the beginning stages and it wouldn’t be wise to base your growth on if people talk about you or not.

Apps such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube have algorithms. These algorithms will promote your content based on the amount of views, likes and engagement on your posts, thus leading to a better growth strategy to attracting potential new clients and customers.

But Chambers, YOU Came Up Off Of Snapchat...Soooooooo?

I did not start what I do with the Intention of turning it into what it is today.

It's been something I've been doing since 2018 and in 2020, it got to a point where I was getting asked EVERY DAY if I offered anything off snapchat which lead me into creating a Patreon in 2021. 

Plus, I have hundreds of people who are reposting my content everyday, so I would define myself as an exception to this rule as I receive anywhere between 150-300 new followers a day on the app per day (that's only If I post) the average user isn’t getting this.

You can get these same results in 6 months if you utilise an app which has an algorithm.

However if i had the INTENTION of creating this sort of business and I was starting from scratch, I would use Tik Tok and IG REELS to grow it. It's more time efficient and I'm exposed to a bigger marketplace.

Think about how you came across some of YOUR favourite online creators. I'm pretty sure you must have seen them in your "Recommended for you" section or you opened the app and just happened to have saw them on your explore page. 

That's how an algorithm works in your favour.

Another reason why I wouldn’t recommended Snap (unless you're officially verified) is because many people have a selfish mentality. I have had many people message and told me:

"wow! your content is amazing. I'm not telling ANYONE about this!"

There are some people with this type of mentality. They see good things and want to keep it to themselves and because the snap app doesn’t promote regular users, this can severely affect your growth as a creator and someone who is looking to monetise your online presence.

Also with snapchat, your content will delete every 24 hours. meaning you have to keep on creating and creating and creating. whilst on other platforms, that content can keep on working and generating new followers, clients and customers for as long as you wish to keep it up.

Andrew Tate is another example. He has been online on other platforms for years but it wasn’t t until accounts on Tiktok started to repost his content to which they was getting a high amount of engagement which led to him having a meteoric rise and was trending globally to where he became who he is today.

I genuinely see TikTok and Instagram as a golden opportunity and if you have an online business, you NEED to take advantage of it.

Step 2/2 

When building a personal brand, you need to have money in the back of your mind for the first 2 - 3 years and focus on delivering value consistently to your audience.

Value can be delivered in several ways:

- Educational content

- Informative content 

- Entertaining content 

If you look at some of the biggest creators and people with a strong personal online brand, they are doing one of those 3.

so you will need to pick one. 

As you experience growth, you can slowly start to monetise.

Example.

Lets say I wanted to start a clothing brand.

I would create a page on TikTok, IG or twitter and I'll give out soo many tips and advice on fashion. 

from what colours go with certain skin tones, what types of clothes to wear for certain occasions, how to find the right fit etc...

I'd do this everyday for about 3 years and my main focus would be on delivering consistent value and growth.

Eventually it WILL get to a point where some of the people who are following me will see me as the GO-TO guy when it comes receiving help for their fashion.(credibility)

I could either charge for my time to consult them OR I could create certain products to sell to my audience. and they will buy it because they see me as an expert due to the amount of consistent knowledge about fashion which has helped them about fashion.

A perfect example of this is from a guy called Jose Zuniga. I've been watching him on Youtube for the past 10 years.

He runs a Men's fashion channel on youtube called "Teaching Mens Fashion"

https://www.youtube.com/c/Teachingmensfashion/featured

He makes around $10m a year....

yeah, I know.

His most recent videos are a bit more diverse but if you take a look at his older content "oldest to newest" you will see for about 5 years he was only posting content which was aimed at HELPING people and dropping all kinds facts and tips around mens fashion. He also has one HELL of a work ethic.

That's what made people see him as an expert and as the GO-TO guy for men's fashion.

Now he has a very big mens brand which the people subscribe mainly because of HIM which lead to him being able to build a very successful and profitable business off of that on the backend of his personal brand. 

This is one of the businesses he built off the backend: https://www.jadeblack.co/

He isn’t the only one who's done this....there’s millions of people who have pulled it off.

You can too.

The mistake people make is that they come out of nowhere and want to sell products and services. This works really well is when you have a VERY GOOD marketing strategy AND have a decent advertising budget.

The BEST way to sell services and products is doing it on the backend of your personal brand.

Here is what you can do to improve online visibility for your personal brand:

• Post at the right time 

It’s not enough to just create the right message. You have to show it to the right people at the right time.

While there’s no standard time when you must post your content, you can choose times when your audience is more likely to be online. If available, look at your insights to determine when your content will produce maximum engagement.

• Consistency, Consistency, Consistency.

Consistency is key. Your success depends on your ability to be consistent and produce good quality content.

• Get To Show Your Personality

Our personalities are what makes us unique and memorable and that is what gets people to like or dislike us. We want to show this personality in our brands.

You want to find the people who love and hate you. 

• Being relatable 

The easy definition for ‘relatability‘ is when you react to someone’s content like “Haha, that’s so true!” You agree with what is being said and find similar patterns or occurrences in your own life.

Do not try to be Fake relatable. Just keep shit real. When you’re able to operate without the fear of being judged by everything and everyone around you, you’ll quickly notice how easy it is to get along with people. You’re open, so people deem it safe to be open with you.

Conclusion

If you’re struggling to brand yourself, social media is where you should be focusing on.

Once you get content out there and create a personal brand. People will start to see your content online and start to lean into your message and story more which will eventually turn them into die hard fans and/or making them loyal customers.

Personal branding isn't something that happens overnight and it's not something that you should leave up to chance. You need to take control over your personal narrative and make sure that you know exactly what you want to share with your online audience.

Share valuable information with your audience and never post something unless you have a purpose for doing so.

Once your personal brand begins to take off, you'll be more visible online. You can leverage your network, become more relatable, and make your business stronger.

Plus, your online relationships will flourish. You never know what types of opportunities might present themselves once you become well-known.

Till next time.

Post edit: I have written an article on how to monetise your audience.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/53066229?utm_campaign=postshare_creator