How To Build A Personal Brand As A Remote Worker
Building a personal brand as a remote worker is critical to career growth. We are living in a digital era, and the first thing employers or customers do when your brand gets their attention is perform a search online on you. What they see will determine whether they choose to engage with your products and services. Therefore, it only makes sense that you establish a killer personal brand that makes you stand out from the crowd. Here are some tips on how to build a personal brand as a remote worker.
Define Your Brand
Before you put your name out there, you need to know who you are as a remote worker and what your brand is about. What is your story and what makes you relatable and authentic? Here are a few tips on defining your brand:
Set a Goal: What are your long term goals? Where can you see your brand in the next five to ten years?
What is Your Unique Selling Point: What makes you stand out from the competition? Why should your customers spend their money with you and not with a competitor down the road?
What is Your Story: Why do you do what you do? What is the story behind your brand?
Establish Your Personality: Which side of your personality are you most comfortable displaying?
Create a Brand Statement: A brand statement embodies everything your brand is in a few short sentences. Go back to this when developing content to ensure you remain consistent.
Get to Know Your Target Audience
Who do you want to buy from you and what do they need? As long as you know what your audience needs, you can provide them with the right products and services. The question is, how do you find out? Since you’re just starting out and you probably don’t have a budget for market research, the most effective way to become familiar with the needs of your target audience is to study your competition. Check out their social media pages, read the comments and read their reviews. You will quickly discover the likes and dislikes of your target audience.
Step Up Your Social Media Game
Using social media to build your personal brand is a no brainer. But what most people don’t do is have a strategy that works. When it comes to social media, your main priority should be building a loyal following and not a large following. While it’s true that a large following gives the illusion of social credibility, high numbers does not always translate into loyalty. Before you start envying your competition with one hundred thousand followers, check their ratio of likes and comments. If their audience is not engaging with their content, having one hundred thousand followers is pointless. But you can have one thousand followers and a large majority of them are fully engaged with what you do. It’s well worth investing in your social media strategy, if it’s not in your budget to have a social media manager run it full time, you can hire an expert to create a strategy for you to implement.
Gain Some Credibility
A great way to gain credibility in your field is to get some media coverage. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to achieve, but it’s possible. Media coverage can be in the form of magazine and newspaper articles, or radio and TV interviews. Media coverage establishes your brand as an authority within your industry, and gives more people access to your business. You’ll probably need to hire a PR company for this so it may be something to consider later on down the line once your brand starts becoming more successful.
Another way to gain credibility is to get as many qualifications as you can related to your field. Self investment is the best investment, and the more you learn, the more you earn. There is a dangerous misconception that after graduation you don’t need to pick up another book. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Whatever industry you’re in will keep evolving, and if you don’t evolve with it, you’ll get left behind.
Building a personal brand as a remote worker takes time and dedication. You’re not going to become a national sensation overnight so don’t get disheartened because things are moving slowly. Nevertheless, with consistency and persistence, you will eventually develop a personal brand that you’re proud of and gets you the attention that you would like to curate.
Source: Forbes.com
Cc: Goldie Chan
