3 Personal Branding Mistakes You Must Avoid
Posted on December 06, 2018 by Veronica Mesuraca, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Knowing what not to do is often as important as knowing what to do, and avoiding these mistakes is crucial if you want to build your personal brand
My work as a Personal Branding Consultant & Coach is not only about giving guidance and advice on personal branding, it is also about helping you avoid the most common personal branding pitfalls so you don’t risk wasting your time, energy, and possibly money, along the way.
Knowing what not to do is often as important as knowing what to do, and avoiding these mistakes is crucial if you want to build a personal brand that is true to who you are, well defined and compelling to your specific audience.
Below, I share 3 personal branding mistakes you must avoid.
Mistake 1: being inauthentic
While this may seem an obvious mistake, it’s not always an easy one to avoid. Often we are not being true to ourselves because we are afraid of being judged or not being liked, we compare ourselves to others, we try to be like the people we admire, or we believe that we have to behave in a certain way because that’s what people want from us.
It’s smart to be aware of our competition (professionally speaking) and it’s also important to have common sense in how we present ourselves, but I really want to encourage you to challenge your beliefs and assumptions, and stop trying to be someone you are not.
You cannot please everyone, and it’s certainly not the way to stand out when building a compelling personal brand that people will remember and appreciate. Plus it’s exhausting!. Why not use your energy to be your best you?
Mistake 2: being ‘all-inclusive’
If you are still trying to be all things to all people and tick all the boxes, please stop right now. Not only are you wasting a lot of energy and time by trying to be ‘all inclusive’, you are also doing the opposite of building a well defined personal brand that stands out to attract your specific audience.
You want people to think of you and immediately have a clear idea of who you are, what you do, what makes you valuable and different, so you will be the first one they contact when they need someone with your particular expertise and personality. And that is pretty hard to achieve when you are all things to all people.
Mistake 3: being inconsistent
Inconsistency is usually one of the first things that confuses and even turns people off when they experience your brand. Here are some examples of how inconsistency may show up in the communication of your brand:
Your personal style is different from the rest of your communication
Your bio on social media says something about you and what you do that is different from what people see and read in your posts
Your behaviour and actions don’t match your words
Your visibility is random: one month you are everywhere the following you’re nowhere
This can be a little bit challenging while you are still working on defining your personal brand but it’s crucial to keep in mind if you want to build trust and a consistent look and feel to your brand.
What personal branding mistakes are you making right now, and what concrete actions are you going to take to avoid them in the future?
