Personal Branding for Founders: Elevating Your Startup Through Your Story

People tend to choose businesses whose values resonate with their own, which is why branding experts such as Joe Daniels from agency positioning specialist Treacle suggest founders focus on building their personal brands.

This isn’t about being vain; rather, this is simply another means of promoting the company and helping it flourish.

Create a Personal Branding Strategy

As a founder, it is crucial to have an effective personal branding strategy in place. Doing so will increase both your visibility and credibility within your industry while drawing more clients and investors to your business.

Personal brands allow entrepreneurs to demonstrate their experience, knowledge, and expertise. It also gives potential customers and investors an understanding of who you are as a person which builds trust between both parties involved.

Your Personal Branding Strategy should incorporate multiple media platforms tailored specifically to the medium and audience you are targeting, including social media, blogs, podcasts, webinars and others. Find those that best reflect your goals and personality; set a content schedule you can stick with so your target market always has fresh material to engage with! This way you’ll ensure that they never run out of fresh pieces to engage with.

Consider creating a personal website or blog where you can post more in-depth pieces of content about yourself as a founder and your journey, without oversharing. Your audience wants to hear stories – but not too many stories!

Alongside blogging, it is also crucial that you consistently utilize social media platforms. Post updates and images regularly; to do this easily you could use scheduling apps such as Hootsuite or Buffer that allow you to pre-create posts in advance and then automatically publish them at certain times during the week or month. It is also worth remembering that your followers on social media could potentially become your target market for business!

LeiLani Kopp from Sweet LeiLani Cosmetics does this extremely well as she centers her business around the fact that her volunteer work inspired her to “heal through makeup”.

Create a Personal Branding Website

No matter, if you are starting from scratch or purchasing another business, creating a personal branding website that showcases your expertise, is critical for positioning yourself as an authority and growing an audience. Doing this is a surefire way of getting clients who need what you have.

Personal brands can be displayed in many different ways, from blog articles and social media posts to digital portfolios. A personal brand website gives you the flexibility of consolidating all your content in one convenient location. You can also build credibility by including any press features or articles written about you.

Personal brands should include more than just your professional narrative and core values; they must also encompass your personality. A relatable and honest demeanour helps build trust with your target audience. Striking the proper balance between vulnerability and oversharing is crucial – too much openness could damage your brand while too much skepticism could deter people from engaging with your content altogether.

Start building your personal branding website by answering this question: why? Jot down three to five reasons that led you to create one and keep going when feeling uninspired. Personal branding can increase visibility within an industry, make lasting impressions during networking events, and even lead to greater visibility within sales departments! By following these tips for creating an exceptional personal brand that sets itself apart from the competition you may gain an edge when attracting clients, business partners, investors and other supporters.

Create a Personal Branding Blog

Personal brand blogs can be an excellent way to build your reputation, giving potential customers and investors the chance to get to know you and trust your company. A blog can also serve as a forum for discussing startup mission and goals – a community must exist around your insights as an entrepreneur!

Once your blog has gained a following, it’s time to monetize it by posting affiliate links or sponsored content.

As another way of expanding your personal brand, creating a podcast can help. Podcasts offer an effective way to establish yourself as an authority within your industry while simultaneously showing off what knowledge you possess. Plus, interviews with other experts in your field will further establish yourself and boost credibility!

No matter if you are just launching a business or expanding an existing one, having a powerful personal brand is key to its success. Particularly during the early phases when your startup lacks track records or substantial financial backing, an effective personal brand can help gain traction and foster trust from potential customers and investors.

People may hesitate to do business with companies they don’t recognize or trust, such as startups. A strong personal brand can ease this hesitation and give investors confidence to invest in your startup business.

Create a Personal Branding Social Media Strategy

As a startup founder, personal branding is of critical importance. This helps your startup stand out to investors, clients, and vendors, showing them that you have credibility and trustworthiness which is necessary for getting support for the business. Also providing them with an image of yourself allows them to have faith in the capabilities of the startup company they’re investing in.

Establishing a social media strategy is one way you can start building your personal brand. This involves posting regularly, which is vital for building awareness of your business or organization and earning trust among your audience. A good rule of thumb would be posting three times each week or 12 times monthly with the use of a scheduling app like SocialPilot for managing and scheduling this content ahead of time.

An effective strategy for showing potential investors, clients, and vendors who you are as an authentic, honest, reliable person would be to create blog and video content about yourself that displays all aspects of your personality, work ethic, opinions, work experience and skills. This will give them an idea of your capabilities so they know they will do an outstanding job on their project with you.

An impressive personal brand can make it easier to secure business loans or investments from investors, by showing that you are an expert in your field and convincing them of your ability to run a successful enterprise. Furthermore, it shows them that you have strong networks in the industry which makes for easier collaboration in running successful businesses.

Create a Personal Branding Video

Making videos for personal branding can be an effective strategy because they capture audiences more effectively than text-based content. A well-crafted video will enable viewers to connect more deeply with you on an emotional level, making it easier for them to identify with and identify with your brand. Furthermore, video production doesn’t need to be complex or expensive: an all-in-one online video maker like Powtoon makes creating personalized brand videos simple and affordable.

For best results when creating a personal brand video, ensure it reflects both your personality and showcases the benefits your startup brings to its audience. Furthermore, be sure to create shareable videos which encourage audiences to spread the word about your brand – creating something inspiring, captivating and authentic will likely increase its spread! This includes creating shorter-form content that is more likely to keep audiences engaged and including closed-captioning to make it accessible to a wider audience. Forbes outlines steps to creating an intriguing brand video that still shows the personality behind it.[2]

Be mindful that personal branding encompasses more than your professional endeavours; your audience wants someone they can trust who lives outside their startup world. Creating a strong personal brand as a founder is crucial when it comes to fostering trust and forming connections with investors and clients. By using social media, blogs, and branding videos, founders can elevate themselves and their businesses and pave the path for a successful long-term plan.

[1] https://www.horizonsearch.co/post/leilani-kopp-s-brand-of-compassionate-cosmetics

[2]https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2023/11/05/craft-a-compelling-video-bio-to-showcase-your-personal-brand/?sh=3fb853bf4c06