Don't lose your personality when building a personal brand

Building a personal brand requires long-term hard work. Gaining the reputation of a successful and trusted expert, thus opening the way to new contacts and opportunities, is not easy.

That is why we will now focus on difficulties connected with personal brand building. Let's take a look at the risks that may turn all your brand building efforts against you.

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Fastcompany.com pointed out the following risks you should avoid if you don't want your personal brand to suffer any damage and bring negative results.

1. Too narrow specialisation

At the beginning, you should choose a niche topic to focus on in your blog or during public appearances. However, remember that over time you should expand your scope; otherwise, you may end up like some actors who remain pigeonholed in certain roles they can't leave.

2. Missing strategy

Personal brand building takes time. Prepare for spending long hours publishing posts on social networks and engaging in other types of communication with your audience. This, however, does not mean it will automatically start paying dividends. You must have a clear strategy for the whole brand building efforts and monitor whether you are achieving the desired results.

3. Loss of authenticity

Personal brand is actually an alternative personality. Of course first and foremost that means you, but your personal brand may accentuate some of your qualities you don't normally show so often. Moreover, everybody changes over time by gaining new knowledge and experience. Therefore, make sure your personal brand does not stagnate in a way that is too far away from your real self. That could hurt not only your brand but mainly your inner self.

4. False marketing

A personal brand should not be inconsistent with what you actually can do. Be careful not to emphasise your qualities to such an extent that it no longer corresponds to reality. It would come out sooner or later and your credibility would suffer a major blow.

5. Negative publicity

Try to avoid controversial situations that may throw a negative light on you. An example might be when you misquote someone in your articles or even publish untruthful information. The more such missteps become publicly visible, the worse for you.

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Article source Fast Company - leading U.S. magazine and website for managers
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