In working on Nametag, I have to think about building my own personal brand much more than I normally would. I’ve always monitored my twitter followers, my blog numbers, etc. But now that I have a small amount of momentum, it’s time to reevaluate my strategy for 2016 and beyond.
It’s Always Been Out Of Enjoyment
I wanted to address one of the biggest misunderstandings of building a personal brand: it doesn’t mean it has to suck the fun of being yourself on any social media platform or on the internet in whole. It just means you’re taking the small steps to build up an audience, produce content of your own, and keep certain metrics in the back of your mind.
Really, not much changes. You don’t have to feel like you’re wearing business casual on the internet all the time – you should definitely be yourself. It’s just a small adjustment of mindset and consistency that makes the difference.
Being At The Mercy Of A Platform
Two weeks ago I rewrote parts of this blogpost I wrote for PLA and posted it on Linkedin. It was selected as a Linkedin’s Editor pick and received over 20k views. Another post I wrote back in 2014 is approaching 15k views. My other posts, though, range between 750-2.5k views each. The problem with posting your content on someone else’s platform is that you’re at the mercy of how they let you communicate with your followers and find new ones.
Starting A Newsletter
As a result, I’m reviving an email newsletter to begin building up an audience that I have more control in how I communicate with. It’s incredibly frustrating that and admittedly interesting that many social media platforms do not give you the tools you need to push your content to everyone that has followed you.
On Medium, you’re at the mercy of what collections pick up your story. On Linkedin, you have to pray that you get on Pulse (I have over 1k followers, but it hardly even matters). On Twitter, your followers are likely to miss your tweet. On Facebook, you have no idea how many people saw your post.
Ironically, Email is one of the last tools left to where you have autonomy in how you communicate with your audience. So as a result, I’ll be starting mine back up right here.
This is actually something we’re in the process of in working on with Nametag. With the launch of our Personal Website creator in the next few days, you’ll be able to spin up a page about you. Eventually, you’ll be able to follow and be followed by other people and push content directly to your followers.
It’s how easy building a personal brand should be.
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