Originally published in 2008. Updated in 2025 as part of the Personal Branding Blog relaunch under Brown Brothers Media.
If you’re new to this blog or post series, please read the first entry. Part 1 focused on your situational analysis and contained your mission, vision, projected annual compensation and your personal life cycle. It’s really the first step into realizing your brand and now I’m going to teach you about the second part called “audience analysis.”
In business, a market analysis is a way to research and discover trends in the market you’re interested in pursuing, such as “soft drinks” or “real estate.” A market is a grouping of individuals that share similar qualities and/or attributes.
Personal branding is all about the niche markets rather than the full-blown industries, but the industries give you an idea of where the niche is heading.
Markets can be sectioned off in what’s called market segmentation, where you choose a piece of a larger market and promote your brand to them specifically. As you brainstorm and segment a market, the output is a beachhead, which is your main target market that you will be going for.
Your personal brand works in the same way, displacing the word “market” with “audience.” An audience is how you measure personal branding success, as well as how you connect and who you’re messaging to. An audience size can make one person a celebrity and another an unknown. As you increase your audience size through blogging and networking, you have more opportunities at your feet.
Large audiences are the reason why creators, podcasters, and independent publishers on platforms like Substack, YouTube, and LinkedIn earn substantial income. Advertisers, sponsors, and collaborators compensate based on size of audience, relevancy and credibility.
Audiences (followers, subscribers, people in your network, or prospects interested in your topic) are the ones that will come to your speaking events, message you for information or want to do business with you. Audiences can be converted into friends, friends can be transformed into clients and clients into money.
In this post I’ll dive into audience research and a SWOT analysis for you.
Audience Research
Just like companies, you want to find out where your audience lives, how they communicate, their lifestyle and their behavior. Remember that you’re not dealing with companies in a B2B/B2C operation, but rather the individuals who may “purchase” your product (brand).
If you’re looking to get a job, then research where recruiters gather — that could mean spending time on LinkedIn, Indeed, or even GitHub and Behance, depending on your field.
If you’re interested in connecting with college students or younger audiences, you may want to pursue platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Discord.
Conduct searches on Google, Reddit, or X (formerly Twitter) under key terms that reflect your interests. It’s also useful to conduct research on the current job market trends, which you can find on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics site, as well as modern employment hubs like LinkedIn Jobs and Glassdoor. You want to know what’s hot and what’s not.
If you’re in the technology field, be forewarned that things change so rapidly that your brand can have a lot of momentum and then be tossed away in a heartbeat. Your brand must stay relevant, and if it’s not, you may want to re-purpose it a little without losing authenticity and passion.
Consider it a balancing act, but still important in your long-term success. If you see an upward trend for your niche, then you will want to position yourself immediately.
There are two forms of research: quantitative and qualitative. When you view hard-number statistics that is quantitative, and it’s easier to trend that type of data over time. Qualitative relies on reasoning and behavior, such as someone being energetic, enthusiastic, or empathetic.
The people in your audience are people, which means they all have their own brands and have the freedom to stay a part of your audience or leave to be a participant in another’s audience. Your goal is to research a niche of people that are reflective of your brand — and a blog, newsletter, or podcast is a great filtering tool to keep only the subscribers who enjoy your brand active.
Personal SWOT Analysis
For all of you who haven’t taken a marketing class, a SWOT analysis consists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This model tends to be applied to businesses of all sizes, while incorporating competitors to see where they stand in relation to the company.
1. Strengths
Think of your skills, which could be your ability to design graphics, develop websites, write, communicate, project manage, or lead. Personal strengths may include your networking skills or how magnetic your brand is in attracting others.
2. Weaknesses
These are areas where you need improvement. They could range from your ability to craft a personal website or digital portfolio to how you present yourself in public or online. Weaknesses are an important part of your development plan as well, and overcoming them is essential to your personal growth.
3. Opportunities
As you progress in your career, you need opportunities to reach new heights, gather new skills and meet people who can help you along the way. I’m not saying to take every opportunity given to you, but never miss out on one that fits into your plan.
4. Threats
Threats come in all shapes and sizes. A threat could be another individual competing for the same job, an environmental factor that may hinder your chances to succeed, or a new technological shift (like AI automation) that could possibly make your brand less relevant. Some threats can be avoided and others cannot. With the right opportunities you can bypass some threats.
Conclusion
Building a personal brand today still relies on timeless marketing fundamentals like clarity, consistency, and connection, but the channels have evolved. Your audience is now everywhere: in communities, newsletters, livestreams, and search algorithms.
Keep studying where they gather, adapt to emerging trends without chasing every fad, and refine your message until it resonates naturally. Your personal marketing plan isn’t static; it’s a living document that grows as you do.
This article is part of Personal Branding Blog’s Legacy Series — highlighting timeless insights from our archive. Learn more about our story here.
