A personal brand is to provide a human experience that creates and builds customer trust and loyalty through delivering superior value.
To know what your value is, you will need to evaluate your strengths.
Example of strengths = availability, reliability, informative, knowledgeable, and communicative.
Once your value is defined, it needs to be relayed to your audiences via the content you share, which becomes your brand’s “message”.
The purpose in having a personal brand is to constantly deliver and remind customers of your value and how it can benefit them.
This is why having a brand identity is important for every personal brand, but what about a brand image? Are these two not the same?
A Brand Identity Vs. A Brand Image – What’s the difference?
Crafting a brand identity is how you want to be perceived by your audience and is often confused with, Brand Image.
Although these two phrases play important roles in having a personal brand, they are different from one another.
A brand image, is how you are perceived by your audience, which might not always be the same as your brand identity.
- A Brand Identity (How you want to be perceived by audiences.)
- A Brand Image (How you are perceived by audiences.)
A brand identity is what you convey to buyers and a brand image is how buyers perceive you from what you convey.
— What is said vs. What is heard —
Therefore, your brand’s content, whether it be a video, blog post, image, or status update should always showcase one or more of your strengths (value) to reinforce your brand identity. How you share your content, whether it be on your website or social network, becomes the “message,” which is how you convey your brand identity to your audience.
The type of content your audience finds online about your brand or lack thereof, is how your brand will be perceived — creating your brand image. Needless to say, your brand content is of high importance and can impact your personal brand in either a positive or negative way.
Your brand identity has the ability to shape your brand image and vice versa. Your ultimate goal, through quality content, strategic methods, and “message” consistency, is to make your personal brand image a positive and true reflection of your brand identity.