The world is changing fast, bringing more opportunities and challenges for those who want to build a career as a solo entrepreneur. While the technology and tools continue to change, some fundamentals will continue to hold no matter the circumstances and may help thrive a personal brand well into the future. What follows are some concepts that will stand the test of time. All of them will be integral to building a personal brand at scale.
Authenticity in Leadership
For some, authenticity has become a buzzword. While it has been; used superficially, it's still a powerful building block for any brand. It may be that the key to genuinely using authenticity as a guide for personal branding is the use of genuine empathy along with other string core values that will provide a huge advantage in building a strong branding.
Empathy requires mindfulness and getting out of your brain; to genuinely understand other people's thoughts and feelings. Authenticity is what needs; to come before looking to find problems to solve for your clients.
People follow People
Showing up with your content marketing allows business owners with a personal brand a platform to develop trust and differentiate their brand. Social media content, videos, and photographs of yourself in context help you build rapport.
Showing up with consistency and talking about your journey, your results, and your experience, for example, establishes credibility and authority. Content Marketing is a fundamental business strategy and can could lead to building a strong audience and who knows... maybe you will even get loyal customers.
The of use Technology and Automation
There will be more tools; that allow you to show up with more consistency. Some business owners find it difficult; to produce content at scale because of time constraints and perhaps overwhelm. The good news is that artificial intelligence continues to grow; at a fast rate. It's providing help in marketing efforts; in generating hundreds of content subject ideas and keywords in a matter of seconds with just a few clicks. AI will become a bigger part of a marketing strategy as time goes by.
AI tools can provide; an unlimited list of topic ideas. It will become an essential component of content strategy. It allows you to screen for idea suggestions from your audience. Other tools are making easier the content creation process.
Online platforms like Canva make generating graphics easier than more complex software like photoshop. Video is also becoming easier to edit with social media platforms and online tools. Be on the look out for emerging tools that will help scale your brand.
The Rise of edutainment.
Content Marketing for your brand should mix important educational information with fun, creativity, and inspiration. Short videos on social media have challenged the status quo of dry long-form content. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Instagram Reels have made clear; that slight touches of fun and creativity; go a long way in building trust with your audience and it's becoming clear that this should be at least considered when creating a branding strategy.
While all of the dancing and completing challenges may appear silly to some; Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri stated that the network is embracing a paradigm shift in which consumers are demanding more entertaining video content. As an example see the gif below the shows in less than 12 seconds how to get cinematic shots will your smartphone.
Learn more about using your smartphone as tool to shoot videos for your brand with my free course. There is no upselling, no credit cards required. Free means Free!