Don’t Make These Personal Branding Mistakes

Many online marketers, entrepreneurs, and bloggers don’t take personal branding seriously. They believe that all it takes to be successful is to know social media marketing and promoting their business.

But that can’t be further from the truth. Personal branding is one of the key components of a successful online business. We are going to cover 17 mistakes that 95% of entrepreneurs do so that you will be able to avoid them.

Before we start, I would like to invite you to our FREE Coaching Group where you will learn more about self-branding, social media marketing, email marketing, blogging and more. We don’t bite 😉 so CLICK HERE and join the party 🙂

FREE Coaching Group for all entrepreneurs, bloggers and online marketers that want to learn more about social media marketing, email marketing, blogging and more.

Now let’s jump to these 17 personal branding mistakes that you should avoid at all cost. Are you ready? Ok, here we go…

1.) Not being who you really are:

It’s tempting to copy a leader who already achieved the success you want. But you shouldn’t be someone you’re not. Don’t pretend, instead embrace who you really are.

If you have a bubbly personality – show it. You don’t need to take the online business too seriously. Wearing an expensive dress for a Facebook live video is not a must 😉 Relax and enjoy, but make sure you don’t look too horrible 🙂

Put some makeup on, dress nicely and focus on bringing value. Your audience will relate with you better if you will look good but not posh 😉

2.) Not taking personal branding seriously:

Take Personal Branding Seriously

I know I said above that you shouldn’t take your business too seriously. But this is a different story. Personal branding will bring you a lot of success. It is not connected to your business, but to YOU! Let me explain…

Probably you won’t stick to one business your whole life, right? So if you build your brand (yourself) correctly, your audience will follow you everywhere. That means you will achieve success faster even when you start a new business.

Just look at the leaders you follow. Why do you think they make so much money fast even when they start something new? Because they branded themselves the right way and their audience trusts them. So take your personal branding seriously and learn how to do it right!

3.) Not having a personal branding strategy:

We just talked about being serious with branding yourself and that includes having a great strategy that you will follow daily. Without knowing what you’re doing, you will just be lost.

To be honest with you, 95% of all online marketers, entrepreneurs, and bloggers do this fatal mistake of not having a good strategy in place. That’s why so many quit and say that online marketing is a scam.

You know that’s not true, but probably you are facing some obstacles with the strategy, right? I sure didn’t know what I was doing back in 2014 🙂 You don’t need to worry, because I made a FREE Personal Branding Strategy PDF for you. You can grab it by CLICKING HERE.

Free Personal Branding Strategy - Big Income Paradise

4.) Not generating your own content:

I’ll tell you a short story that happened to my friend in 2017. She made a longer Facebook post, sharing her story. She shared all her struggles and what she did to overcome them. It was an amazing post!

But then one of her own Facebook friends copied that post and published it on her own profile. No, she didn’t share the post – she literally copied it and posted the exact same post and made it “her own”.

Of course, my friend called her out because it’s not ok to lie and steal content from people who put their whole heart in it. That person – let’s call her Stealing Nancy – lost a lot of Facebook friends and followers in just one day.

That happens when you don’t make your own content. Someone can call you out and your self-branding is destroyed in seconds! So make sure you produce your own content, but you can still share other people’s posts or at least give them credit.

Content is king/queen for personal branding

If you will ever get stuck and you won’t know what to post, then read our blog post about Social Media Research Topic Ideas here.

5.) Not being consistent with personal branding:

CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO SUCCESS IN YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

You probably heard that before, and you will hear it a million times more. That’s because it’s true. Without consistently posting and being in front of your audience, they will just forget you.

Do you still remember Tina who was promoting Mary Kay cosmetics but posted on Facebook once per week? Yeah, me neither 😉 Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t spam either.

Recently I made a test with my email list. I send out an email every day for a week. Even though I was sharing lots of value, I got more unsubscribers. So make sure you don’t overdo it.

But social media marketing is different. Because it’s social, you should post daily. Your audience will get used to you and if you share more value, they will soon see you as a go-to person who probably has a solution for them. It will take some time but you shouldn’t give up.

6.) Buying followers just for the looks:

Fake Followers are not good for personal branding

Don’t do this! Buying followers will hurt your exposure. Your posts will be shown to fewer people which means less traffic. Anyone can see you have fake followers because of the engagement you get on your posts.

This year in January I got a new Facebook friend and she was talking like she’s a big badass leader. When I checked her Facebook profile – it screamed fake to me. She had low-resolution photos, almost no engagement and she mostly spammed her business. Besides that, she tried to sell me her products right away before getting to know me.

Then I checked her Facebook page. Over 50,000 followers! I thought “Ok, maybe I’m wrong about her.”…until I saw she had zero engagement on her posts.

Would you trust a person like that? Would you still see her or him as a leader?

7.) Choosing quantity over quality:

We said before you should be consistently posting on social media platforms. But many choose to produce too many posts that are of no value to their audience.

Quality should be your focus! Make great and valuable posts and videos that will help your followers. Also, share your own story and the success stories from your customers and teammates.

There is already too much content produced daily so if you want to stand out of the crowd, you will have to make quality content. Something that most people don’t share.

8.) Promising but not delivering:

Always overdeliver

Were you ever in a situation where someone promised you “the world” in exchange for some money, but when you paid you got super disappointed? You didn’t receive what they said you will. I still remember that day clearly…

It was a couple of years ago when I invested $2,300 for a social media marketing course. But I got an outdated course on making websites. You can imagine how angry I was. And if you’re wondering if I got my money back …no I didn’t 🙂

That was a big lesson and I’m able to share with you this really valuable tip:

NEVER PROMISE SOMETHING IF YOU CAN’T DELIVER!

And there is an even better strategy for this. Don’t just deliver, but OVER-DELIVER! That means you give them more than they expect. You will turn your followers into raving fans in no time if you start doing that today.

9.) Doing everything yourself:

From personal experience I can say – NEVER do everything yourself. You will only get burned out. This was happening to me all the time. In the beginning, you have energy and you are determined to complete everything from your to-do list. But after a month, you get really frustrated.

You can be on a tight budget but there are many free ways you can outsource. When you don’t know what kind of content to produce, you can simply ask your audience what obstacles they are facing and make a value post solving their problem. You can read more about this topic on our blog post about social media research topic ideas, just click here.

The only obstacle to free outsourcing is time. Yes, it will take you longer to do something, but that’s why it’s best to save up some money and invest it in your business.

10.) Not analyzing your results:

Analyze your personal branding results

If you think analyzing is boring and it’s not necessary for your online business – you are SO WRONG! It is crucial because the results will show you if you have a good strategy or not.

By analyzing everything you will know what to change and what to do more of. It might be boring now, but when you will start getting better and better results, trust me, you’ll fall in love with it 🙂

No one said that online business is only sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns. There will be boring and hard parts that you will dislike. But with time you’ll get used to it and learn to love it.

11.) Not improving yourself daily:

Yes I know, we always tell you to love yourself and embrace who you are. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t improve yourself. If you are not one of the positive people, you won’t see any results in your business.

Positivity and good vibes are a part of success. When you will feel like quitting, the only thing that’s going to save you is your positive mindset. That’s why it’s so important to read personal development books daily.

Besides that, you should also learn more about social media marketing and about topics in your niche. The more you know, the more you are valuable to your audience.

Just look at the leaders – do they know more than most people?

12.) Ignoring personal branding in messenger:

Start using messenger for personal branding

Have you ever heard that messenger is a super powerful tool? Well now you did 😉 Think about what you actually have – a powerful tool that can connect you to almost anyone in the world, and it’s totally free.

You should start talking with your audience, connect with them on a more personal level. Maybe even go on a video call. Trust is built faster that way. Pretend you are talking with a great friend, smile more, and help them if they are facing any kind of obstacles.

Sometimes we don’t value free stuff enough. Don’t make that mistake and test it out. Talk with at least 5 new people every day, make new friends and don’t try to sell them anything.

13.) Not sharing your story:

You are missing out if you never opened up and shared your story. I know it can be scary but we sometimes have to be vulnerable. That’s what makes us real. And besides that, your audience will be able to connect with you faster. Here is why…

There are many people who have the same or similar obstacles and problems that you had. And if you share your story of how you felt when facing those problems and what you did to overcome them, they will love you for that. Who wouldn’t love to hear a solution to their problem, right?

Facts tell, but stories sell

14.) Not showing yourself as an expert:

Lack of confidence is a real reason why many entrepreneurs and bloggers don’t show themselves as an expert in their field. So your first assignment is to build your confidence up.

But how? It’s actually simple, just follow these steps:

  • Read personal development books daily
  • Read affirmations out loud
  • Learn about the topics in your niche

Not complicated, right? 🙂 But you’re probably wondering about what does the last point has to do with confidence. The more knowledge you have, the more you will be able to share with your audience. And also you will build confidence that you know enough to teach and help your followers.

15.) You’re not clear on your purpose and goals:

Not knowing your goals and purpose can be a real deal-breaker for personal branding. How can you brand yourself if you don’t know what you want to achieve?

It’s like going to the store to buy something but you don’t know what. In the end, you spend too much money on buying a bunch of stuff you don’t really need. Not good 🙂

Write down your personal branding goals

Write down your purpose and goals for your personal branding. To really crush it in your business, make sure you grab your FREE Personal Branding Strategy by clicking here.

16.) Not doing personal branding with videos:

If you’re not doing video marketing, you are missing out. On a video, your audience can see your face and hear your voice. But what does that have to do with personal branding?

Let me ask you this question – who do you trust more:

A) Someone who’s hiding behind text
B) Someone who’s not afraid to show their face and put themselves out there

99% of people will say B – that 1% will say A because you’re a rebel 😉 It can be scary to make a video but you have to get out of your comfort zone because nothing grows there.

17.) Focusing just on making money:

We all want to be financially free, but when starting a business you have to be focused on more than just money. You don’t want to brand yourself as a spammy, salesy marketer who only wants a better life for himself/herself.

When you find your passion it’s usually more than just wanting a freedom lifestyle. You want to help others overcome obstacles that you went through before. That burning desire in you will push you to make a difference in other people’s lives.


Free Coaching Group for all entrepreneurs, marketers and bloggers who want to learn personal branding, social media marketing, blogging and more

CONCLUSION:

Personal branding is a must in the online marketing business. There is no way to go around it, over it or under it. To achieve the success you want and deserve, you have to do it!

Maybe this is the only thing that’s holding you back. So the sooner you take action, learn and implement all the tips that we shared above, the better.

Let me know below which of these 17 mistakes will you stop doing first?