5 Steps to Create Your Personal Brand — Lionesses of Africa

by Naike Moshi 

My personal branding journey started 6 months ago; I did not understand what it meant to have a personal brand. I have been busy promoting my business brands for the last 8 years and have been behind the scenes for a while. People are aware of my brands – CVPeople Tanzania and WIMA (Women in Management Africa) but did not know the person running behind the brands. I was under the radar and have remained hidden for a while. After the Covid-19 outbreak, I was disrupted and had to change tactics, focusing on improving my personal brand. Another major wake up call came when I was nominated for the best female CEO, but guess what, I was the one with lowest votes meaning my personal brand was not working well. For the past 6 months, I have made my mission to work on my personal brand and the journey has been amazing. I will share my personal experience and knowledge so that you can improve your own brand.

Personal branding is one of the new trends that has emerged in the last few years. Personal branding is important for business leaders, employees or everyone that wants to promote their expertise, skills, or talents. In the past, branding used to be a thing for only big companies and organisations. Now, branding is not just limited to businesses, but also individuals. Personal branding is the art of becoming knowable, likeable and trustable – John Jantsch

Why should I create and promote my brand? 

People do business with people! In this case, it does not matter if you are a business owner or employee. We all like to feel that we relate to one another, that we have something in common, share the same values, or have a similar outlook on life. The brand answers a fundamental question “Is this person a good match for our business/company?” Your brand has to reflect you – your image, your mission, expertise your values, and your vision

Here are 5 ways you can start building your personal brand

Do a  SWOT analysis

As I was working on my self-assessment, I came to realize that there were many skills and talents that I possess such as talent acquisition for executives, branding, fundraising, networking, business management, and many others. The skills came from my work experience, training, others are natural gifts. One of the first steps in building a personal brand is to do self- assessment or a personal audit of your strengths, expertise unique abilities. You need to demonstrate what makes you unique and different from your competitors. What are you known for as a leader? What value can you add? What do you represent? What do you stand for? By taking that stand as a leader, voicing your opinion, making yourself known, communicating what matters to you.

Find and define your niche 

This is one of the biggest challenges that I faced in finding a niche, coming from being a generalist background with having that broad perspective, it is tough to narrow it down. I believe to differentiate yourself and stand out in a niche or market, it is crucial to start by choosing a niche that you’re truly passionate about, or show your expertise, one in which you will aim for nothing but excellence. It’s equally important to be completely authentic in your approach. “Time will either promote you or expose you,” Donald Cohen. Identifying your niche will allow you to educate, inform, persuade/influence, entertain, and/or build relationships with the right target market. As you are clarifying your brand, you have to express the value you can bring to that market (niche) based on who you are and how you are different from your competitors.

Create a valuable and engaging content

Content is king and engagement is queen. Content and engagement go hand in hand. If the content is catchy, can drive traffic, and provide brand awareness, it needs to reach the right people at the right time via the right platform. As you are creating content, it’s important to be authentic and transparent. One of the best examples of engaging content that I have ever shared was my personal experience, and I was vulnerable on “starting over” – people want to relate/resonate. The post attracted more than 100 comments with many shares.  Always provide content that is shareable. When your followers start sharing your content, it’s free advertising for you, your content is shared outside your network and thus provides more visibility for you. As you are building your personal brand, learn to be “You”. Be believable and be true to who you are and not an imitation of someone else.

Find social media outlet (Share)

There are many social media platforms for you to get your brand out. This creates an avenue to access your audience, With the likes of Facebook, YouTube LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, clubhouse, podcast among other popular platforms, personal branding has become much easier. You have to find ones that matches your personal brand. You need to tailor your content to your audience. Linkedin  is the right platform for me and has provided me with amazing results. 

Measure your personal brand 

If you can’t measure it then you can’t improve it. Set up some key performance indicators for personal brand success so that you know you are heading in the right direction. Find out if you are personal brand is resulting to possible outcomes. I do check my insights to find out which posts are engaging, with more views, mentions,  how many people are viewing my profile- I get to connect and introduce myself , search appearances etc. based on the insights, I get to know which content is relevant to my audience and what my audience are looking for.

Hapa kwenye profile yangu weka (personal brand strategist)

Your first video will be awful.

Your first article will be awful.

Your first podcast will be awful.

Your first LinkedIn LIVE will be awful.

BUT you can’t make your 50th without making your first.

I have gathered my courage to post my first video, thank you L   inkedin family for pushing me. I will be sharing more content on building a personal brand so stay tuned!

Here are five ways you can start building your brand.

1. Do a SWOT analysis

2. Find and define your niche

3. Create a valuable and engaging content

4. Find social media outlet (Share)

5. Measure your brand