On the surface, nothing could be more complex than personal branding success. Our abilities and skills, the strength of our determination to succeed, the strategy we follow or even being in the right place at the right time all seem to be contributing factors. And yet by so reasoning we would be falling into one of personal branders worst mistakes: to believe that personal branding revolves around us when it in fact always invariably revolves around others. Because even if you are a freelancer or your own boss, it is others with their nod of approval who will catapult you into stardom in your career and your life. Not until significant others believe in your brand will the magic begin in your personal branding journey.
If this was true in the pre-digital age, it is even more so now. It is only by attracting brand advocates ready to viralize our content – be it a CV or résumé, a blog post, a video, tweet or the buzz about us – that our personal brand will gain enough momentum and we will become relevant in our chosen field. This is why – following inbound marketing tactics – our contents should be magnetized and addressed at least initially to a specific audience niche that can help us reach our goals fast track. And experience proves time and again that the greater your network, the more chances you have of becoming an online success.
It is crucial at this stage that you become thoroughly familiar with two online species that are essential to your success: evangelists and influencers.
Evangelists are people who grow enthusiastic about you and your contents and become engaged ‘consumers’ of your brand. They are your frontline brand advocates who share the news about your brand across their online networks reaching wide and far. They are an integral part of your online personal branding strategy and keeping them happy is one of your first and foremost duties if your brand is ever to take off.
Influencers are key people often considered referents in your field (and every field has its distinct influencers) who command the respect of the online community. Having them on your side is one of the greatest bonuses to any sound personal branding strategy, since their stamp of approval will give your brand the credibility it needs to be respected and taken into account instead of letting it drown into a sea of obscurity.
Just as Einstein was able to capture the complex realities of the new physics in his famous equation, I propose the following Personal Branding Formula to account for online success for personal branders:
Personal Branding Success = #Brand Advocates × Level of Influence
whereby we equate success with the number of brand advocates we have at any given point in time times their level of influence.
Luckily for us, the strides forward of the novel (and as of yet imperfect) online influence metrics means that sooner than we think we should be able to express with a surprisingly high degree of accuracy this success formula for any given individual. Its practical implications are clear: our online personas must be designed to be fundamentally likeable for strategic segments of the online community who can elevate us to success. And this is exponentially more likely to happen if we build a personal brand that truly adds value to the community, responds to the best within ourselves and is not afraid to be talked about and/or engage others.
With the exception of those who previously had a powerful offline network at their disposal and therefore enjoyed a head start, every online personal brand success I have known or worked with (including my own) has been built – knowingly or not – on the application of this formula. I therefore challenge you to adopt it as one of your key personal branding guiding principles and let it shape the building and management of your personal brand. You may be amazed at the results.
