Why does personal branding accelerate your growth both personally and professionally? It is because when you create an influential and credible personal brand you are playing the game and giving yourself the opportunity to gate jump.
Here are 5 personal branding tips to help you gain lift:
1.) Identify and introduce yourself to 10 strong personal brands in your niche through Linkedin
When you know the people with juice in your niche and you begin to develop a relationship with them opportunities will come your way. A great way to start the introduction is to read one of their blog posts and let them know what you thought of their work in the introduction. This will show you care and make a positive first impression — everyone likes to be genuinely complimented.
2.) Begin to comment regularly on the high readership blogs in your space
As you begin to comment regularly you will be remembered and your name will begin to run in circles with influence. Other readers will realize you have something to say, the blog author will know you exist and be more inclined to bring you an opportunity in the future. This is one of the best ways to create your thought leader status.
3.) Ask to interview the well known personal brands in your space and post the interview on your blog
This is one of the most powerful strategies to gain mind share and credibility. As you begin to interview a wide group of thought leadership in your niche, you will be the beneficiary of some of their personal brand juice. You will also be deepening the relationship with those you interview as well as providing them with more exposure. It is a win for everyone.
4.) Ask to write guest posts on the influential blogs in your space
If you have developed a working relationship with the blog author through your Linkedin connect and commenting on blogs you are now in a position to ask to do a guest post. The blog author will know who you are and be pretty likely to allow you to do a guest post as long as it will have value for their readers. You get a link back to your blog, traffic, exposure and they get a break from writing content. Again, everyone wins.
5.) Create linkfests on your blog that link to some of the best articles you read that week in your niche
This is a great way to aggregate good content in a central place on your blog. Just put the title of the article and then link to the original blog post to give credit to the author. Your link will notify the blog author and they will usually make their way to your blog to see who linked. You will be providing awesome content and also be driving the powerful personal brands in your space to your blog.
When you implement these 5 personal branding tips consistently you will create opportunities for yourself over time. Really interesting things will start to come your way, your personal brand will grow in the right circles, and you will find yourself on an accelerated path to success.
What do you all think out there? What are some of your personal branding tips to help you gate jump?
*hat tip to Chris Brogan for the gate jump theory
