Creating your visual aids
Personal Branding – The Litmus Test
Seven Part Personal Branding Series:
- The Importance of Branding
- Personal Brand Building: Niche
- Personal Brand Building: Differentiation
- Personal Brand Building: Branding
- Personal Brand Building: Affiliation
- Personal Branding Case Study: Garr Reynolds
- Personal Branding Litmus Test
If you’ve worked through the previous posts in the series, you might have a good idea of what your personal brand is, and even how to communicate it. But unless others pick up on your brand, it won’t do much good. You need to give it time to work, but when audiences have seen your branded presentations a few times, you could carry out this simple test to check you’re on the right tracks.
The Four Word Challenge
All good brands have a simple, clear message about who they are. As should you. Are your presentations, “funny, professional marketing ideas”, or “psychology driven sales discussions”?
Knowing your four word brand statement has two benefits: it helps you to make sure everything you do has the same aims and ethos, and gives you a way to test whether your four brand elements are working.
After a few months, approach members of your audiences and ask them to describe your presentations in just four words. Then compare those words to the four you would use to describe your personal brand.
If both statements closely resemble each other, you’re on track. If not, you need to work harder. I can’t tell you what personal brand Garr Reynolds is going for, but it wouldn’t take long to come up with four words to describe what he does. Presentation, design, Japanese, nature. What four words are you aiming for?