Your personal brand is similar to that of a bonsai tree — you must regularly maintain and care for it, lest it will die.
Many people care greatly for their personal brands, but even the greatest influencers have experienced problems with their brand at multiple points in their careers. But if you know how to detect the signs early, you could be able to prevent your brand’s untimely death.
Here are just a few ways you can sense if your personal brand is in trouble.
1. Silence is deadly
Do you recall a time when your brand was dominating interaction, leads, and general engagement? If you remember a time like that, but it has been on the decline, then maybe it’s time you thought about switching things up.
Change your strategy, reevaluate your target audience — the biggest way to tell if your brand is in danger is by routinely checking up on it and seeing the signs, and zero interaction is definitely one of the most noticeable.
2. Fill it with too much unrelated content
It’s perfectly fine to share content that has nothing to do with your industry as long as it’s interesting and in moderation, but do it too often and you could wind up with a problem on your hands.
If you share too much unrelated yet interesting content you might get a larger following, but it will be for all the wrong reasons. You won’t get to establish yourself as an expert in the HR industry, per se, if you post more about funny videos than you do about HR-related content.
Keep the unrelated content you share to once or twice a week, and always make sure you have more related content than you do unrelated, if you choose to share unrelated content at all.
3. Inconsistency
It could be you’re working more often, spending time with family, or travelling for a long period of time — if you don’t post content at least semi-regularly, your personal brand is going to see some setbacks.
If you want to maintain your brand while still making time for other things, it might be best to hire someone to manage your brand for you. If that’s out of the question, you may need to reevaluate where your priorities lie.
4. Use your common sense!
If you’re in the midst of building a truly spectacular personal brand, and you consider yourself an influencer in your field, use your common sense and foresight to regularly check if you’re going to be running into problems.
Once you’re able to see clearly, your chances of personal brand destruction slim incredibly, and you’ll be able to take your brand to new heights.
It’s one thing to clean up after a mess, but it’s another to be able to spot the cause of the mess before it poses a problem.
