Fellow brand strategy coach Seema Batavia and I sat down to discuss how to build a personal brand from scratch. In the third installment of my Transition: From Corporate to Entrepreneur series, Seema shared how to build the foundation for a brand that brings you joy.
As Seema explains, creating a brand persona is not about creating a false image but about building a reputation. Seema maps out the first three steps you need to take to create your brand.
First Step: Define Your Personal Values
A personal brand is, well, PERSONAL. This means it stems from you and who you are as an individual. Seema stresses that regardless of what you do, your values must be at the core of your branding.
Seema advises to have at least five values to ground your brand. If you are having trouble defining these, a personality test might help you start gaining more insight into who you are, which is a necessary step not only in your brand development but in your entrepreneurial journey
Whether it is the Myers-Briggs personality test, the Enneagram test, human design, or astrology use these as guiding tools to reflect and gain more awareness about what is important to you.
Understanding your values will influence how your brand evolves, including the message you share, the graphics you use, and the content you create.
For instance, Seema’s niche as a brand strategy coach helping introverts came from her belief in advocating for introverts. Her love for animals and sense of humor shows up in her graphics.
As you develop your brand and feel more comfortable with it, you will find ways to incorporate your values. Rather than fixating on details like brand colors, when you first start, your values are the most important as these will continue to show up even if you decide to pivot.
Knowing who you are is foundational as is sharing your expertise.
Step Two: Find and Cultivate Your Interests
Seema shares how the lockdown gave her the gift of time. Despite leading a successful career heading a marketing department in corporate and being content with her job, Seema discovered her love for personal branding through exploration during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Seema’s journey demonstrates what science has shown us: doing “what you love” is not necessarily the road to happiness.
They understand that finding one’s passion is not an overnight phenomenon but a matter of exploration. Seema’s tip to explore without expectations is in line with what science teaches us about our passions.
For instance, despite her initial excitement about design, Seema learned this is not her forte. Had she been driven only by excitement and not curiosity, she may have felt discouraged by this shortcoming and not found her calling.
Moreover, enjoying the process of cultivating an interest will allow you to show up consistently not only for yourself but for others.
Step 3: Share Content Consistently to Build Trust
Having built the foundation for your brand, your next step is to start posting. As with your interests, experiment and share relevant content without expectations.
For instance, you can share content related to the previous two steps. Whether it is a new tool you found, a new trick you learned, or your thoughts on these share it with your audience. Check these in depth tips on brand strategy for clarity on what to share.
The key when you are developing your brand is to share content consistently. Regardless of whether you choose to post three times a week or twice every day, keep a posting schedule that you can maintain.
This may mean keeping content simple at first while you get to know your brand, maybe with something like these customizable branded Canva templates so you’re not overwhelmed with where to start. Once you’re ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
As Seema highlights, your content can be a tweet, an IG reel, a carousel, etc. The point is to let your audience know you are here, and they can trust you to show up.
This means not only posting, but engaging with your community. Building a personal brand means building connections as people, from one person to the next.
The more you create and engage, the clearer your vision will become. Seema started sharing content on introversion a few times and found it resonated with others, and she listened. This allowed her to niche down to become the go to personal brand coach for introverts.
This takeaway is important as this will ensure that you can capitalize on your personal brand in a manner that is both true-to-self while helping people you want to help.
In doing so, it will create a path that leads to empowering alternatives that can help you achieve a greater potential and joy.
To hear more about Seema’s inspiring journey and more personal branding tips head over to IG to listen to the complete interview and check out the complete Transition: From Corporate to Entrepreneur series to start reaching our potential as the CEO of your life.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
You’re ready to increase your visibility on Instagram, so you sit down to create content but cannot think of anything. Part of this may be a lack of brand focus- you may be making one of these five mistakes digital entrepreneurs make.
However, if you have a focus, it’s time to choose your content pillars, also known as content buckets, and start creating an Instagram content strategy.
What are content pillars?
Content pillars are the larger topics or themes you want your brand to focus on and should reflect your brand’s services and core values. Knowing them will keep your content focused, so your followers understand what your brand is all about.
At Livin Vivaciously my three pillars are:
1) Ideas about brand strategy
2) Ideas and tips about content creation for building online business
3) Living vivaciously, i.e. living freely and being an entrepreneur.
These three pillars focus on my expertise in personal brand building and love for travel. If you’re having trouble thinking of your pillars, look to your big purpose statement and identify the topics on which you’re an expert and focus on who you serve.
Once you identify your pillars, you can start generating ideas based on the four types of content.
Pro Tip: Create a document with your pillars to dump ideas to not lose them when you’re focusing on other tasks.
Four types of content for your strategy:
Educational Content: One of the main goals of educational content is to show your expertise and authority in the field. Using it in different formats can support your brand in additional ways. A few examples include:
Creating a carousel using one of your digital products along with tips.
Creating “How to” posts that give your audience a quick win. These provide your audience with immediate value, increasing their engagement with your content.
Scheduling IG lives with experts in your niche to increase exposure and brand awareness.
Storytelling Content: The science doesn’t lie. Our brains respond to stories, making them powerful tools to share information and connect with your audience.
Stories can help build trust and community, which is important for entrepreneurs who want to create positive change through their work. Here are a few ways you can use storytelling:
Share your entrepreneurial journey. You can answer questions like: How have you arrived where you are, and how does this connect to your brand’s core values?
Add some social proof by sharing a client’s story (with their consent). Show their transformation to highlight the value you provide. I created a FREE storytelling template that you can use for this!
Entertainment Content: Another way to connect with your audience is by creating entertaining content. This is also a great way to show your personality. After all, you are more than a brand.
Create relatable and shareable content, such as a meme, a gif, or a reel. A couple of suggestions are:
If you struggle with content ideas, create a meme about your frustrations.
Perhaps there are mistakes you make while making your reels. Make a funny reel about these mistakes.
What’s important is that you show your personality, so people relate to you.
Promotional Content: The fact is people don’t know what you sell if you don’t tell them. The purpose of promotional content is to highlight your services and products. If you fear sounding salesy, you can work around this. Here are a couple of ideas:
Using your educational content to show people how to use your product is one way to increase product awareness.
You can also let others talk on your behalf by sharing user-generated-content.
You put in the work to become an expert and provide value to your clients, so don’t dim your light when it comes to selling.
Create micro-content for Instagram by Repurposing
As you brainstorm content ideas, remember you can always use older content that’s relevant. When repurposing longer content, keep in mind that micro-content on Instagram is consumed in 10-30 seconds.
Whether it is an infographic, a carousel, or a reel, micro-content pieces answer a very specific question. BUT just because they are bite-sized, it does not mean they lack value.
As long as you stay focused on your content pillars and rotate between content types, you will provide value for your followers. Check out these customizable branded Canva templates for ideas and time savers!
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
Struggling to create a cohesive feed to make your Instagram stand out?
This blog post will explain how to keep your feed on brand and perfect that Instagram aesthetic for your brand!
It is really important to develop a cohesive and branded look for your Instagram feed in order to increase both brand recognition and loyalty.
This ultimately will drive an increase in follower engagement with your content as people scroll through mindlessly on the ‘gram because they will be able to recognize your content…you’ll be able to connect with your ideal client!
Here are ten creative and valuable tips to make your Instagram feed more cohesive!
1. Create and develop a Pinterest mood board.
This is where you will house everything that you love including all your inspirations.
Spend an afternoon doing a brain dump pinning everything you love.
Some great ideas include your favorite outfits, travel destinations, places, books, designs, to other people’s content.
2. Use Coolors.co to develop your brand color palette.
You can use some of your favorite images and upload it to Coolors.co and from there select different colors from the photos to create your own cohesive and unique brand colors.
Be sure to select colors that compliment your brand vibe and personality.
Another great tip is to look through your closet and recognize the colors you tend to wear most often and incorporate them into your palette selection process.
Pick between 4-5 colors that you really like to create a cohesive color palette.
Check out this sample color palette created from using images off @brandvivaciously
3. Choose a theme and feel for your feed.
When you envision your brand and feed what types of emotion and feelings are you trying to evoke in your followers?
Create a list of 3-5 words or feelings that encompass the meaning of your brand vibe, IG feed, and brand colors.
Now create a list of words that don’t describe your brand vibe, that way you can avoid creating a look and feel that isn’t authentic to you!
When all these elements are aligned and feel true to you, the content you create will naturally make your Instagram stand out.
If you’re struggling with what type of content to post, you can check out these customizable branded Canva templates to get started without feeling overwhelmed!
You’ll be on track to creating a themed and cohesive Instagram feed in no time.
4. Select 2-3 brand fonts.
To find brand fonts you can use the fonts tool on Canva to find free font combinations that are readily available for all Canva users as inspiration and/or as a starting base.
Additionally, Myfonts.com is a great alternative to sourcing fonts from inspo images.
Similarly to uploading images to Coolors.co for brand colors, you upload an image on Myfonts.com to identify what the font being used is in any graphic or image.
Be sure to select a header font, a body font, and one speciality font such as a script font.
5. Pick a grid layout.
Instagram is a visual-first platform so creating a cohesive Instagram feed that is eye-catching to followers is paramount.
The benefit of using a specific grid layout is it allows your brand to tell a story, gives your profile a visual voice, and also sends a clear message of what you are trying to achieve.
Once you have identified what your brand message and story is that you’d like to communicate to your audience selecting an appropriate grid layout is the next step.
Some of the different types of grid layout options available to make your Instagram feed stand out include:
Checkerboard Grid
Row-by-Row Grid
Rainbow Grid
Puzzle Grid
6. Create and use a set of Canva templates.
Branded graphic templates help you create content really fast while keeping content on brand all the time.
You will not be designing from scratch every time you go to post, allowing you to stick to your brand colors, fonts, elements, look, feel, and aesthetic resulting in a more cohesive Instagram feed.
You can create a set of IG feed templates, IG Story Highlight covers, IG reels covers and IG Live replay covers with your brand colors and fonts that you can simply edit and use when planning your content for the month – check out these pre-made, customizable templates as a starting point!
Or you can bring your big brand vision to life with the Social Media Branding Package.This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
7. Use the same filters for all your images and photos.
To ensure an on brand look and aesthetic using the same filters and look for all your photos will create a more seamless and cohesive vibe for your Instagram feed.
Some great tools for creating and maintaining branded filters and presets include Tezza and Lightroom; they both have presets and easy-to-use editing tools all for free.
Making a uniquely branded preset has never been easier to achieve that perfect Instagram aesthetic.
8. Ensure image backgrounds match your brand vibes.
An easy way to keep your Instagram cohesive is to take on-brand photos of yourself, and here is how you can do that…
Be sure to wear your brand colors and take some photos of yourself against a branded background. This background can be a wall that is your brand colors or in environments that match your brand vibe.
If you find yourself constantly taking photos outside, be mindful of this and keep it on brand with the types of colors, textures, and elements you include in your brand photos.
For example, if you are standing in front of a purple wall and that is not one of your brand colors it will make your Instagram feed look a little bit off.
Clashing colors, vibes, and feel is something we would want to avoid when developing a cohesive look and feel.
9. Maintain consistent type of lighting in all images and photos.
Lighting does not have to get too complicated.
If all your photos have a bright, airy feel with natural lighting stay away from darker lighting or flash that can create shadows for future photos.
And vice versa.
The goal is to maintain the look and feel of your images and content to tell a cohesive feed story.
10. Create a copy guide for your brand voice.
This will include all the do’s and don’ts of your brand voice.
Be clear on what types of words your brand will use.
And, what word your brand will not use.
And stick to it.
Think “if my brand were a person, who would it be?”
“What would it sound like?”
Determining who your brand is, your brand personality, and brand message are all vital aspects that need to be developed and understood to be able to have an Instagram feed that stands out. The Vision Book I created is a great tool for this!
Any misalignment or clashing elements will trigger confusion and your Instagram feed will lack the flow and cohesiveness. If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
In order to build a thriving and profitable online business you will need to invest in the right business tools and services to ultimately grow and scale your business to success.
The key online business areas you should consider when making an investment to grow your business include:
Client Management
Project Management
Content Marketing
Online Business Platforms (for course creators, entrepreneurs, influencers, etc.)
Graphic Design
Personal & Business Development.
The goal is to select online tools, platforms, and services that align with your online business goals that get the job done best without putting your business under financial strain.
There are plenty of cost-friendly tools on the market designed to grow your online business while simultaneously saving you time and money.
Fortunately, there are also a range of affordable plans available to meet the needs for just about any business owner.
So let’s dive in!
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
Client management is the processes your business has in place to manage every interaction between you and your current, past, and potential clients within a system.
Some great client management tools to consider investing in for your online business include:
Possibly my most favorite investment I’ve made so far in my business!!
HoneyBook is a client management software for creatives and small business owners. It includes robust features such as: invoicing, contracts, proposals, client portal software, workflows, and payment management tools perfect to stay on top of all the moving parts of any project and client journey.
Monthly plans are set at $40/month or $34/month when billed annually.
Or use my link to save 20% off HoneyBook for one year!
The goods get you:
Free account setup & training
Concierge customer service
All HoneyBook features
Your branding everywhere
Customized workflows
Payment processing of 3%
Fraud protection
Powerful mobile app
All backed with a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you aren’t ready to invest just yet you can sign up for a 7-day free trial to test out all the features laid out above.
Schedule meetings without the constant back and forth emails! No one likes that!
With Calendly you are guaranteed to never be double booked again with automated reminders, timezone detection, and automated scheduling.
Setup is super simple and easy and allows you to input your availability, share your link, and the rest is done for you as you sit back and watch your schedule fill up.
Features that everyone will enjoy regardless of plan include: calendar integration, control, flexibility, and timezone intelligence.
One of the best features of going with Calendly Pro at $12/month billed annually is being able to add the checkout function to avoid having to bill your client manually and preventing not getting paid on time.
Additionally, with Calendly Pro you can opt to receive SMS notifications, customized workflow automations, color customization when added to your website, and Stripe and/or Paypal integrations.
If you aren’t ready to invest just yet you can sign up for a 14-day free trial to test out all the features laid out above with no credit card required.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Having an online business inevitably means having to balance multiple different projects, tasks, and responsibilities to drive business growth.
Integrating project management tools within your business will ensure a streamlined process of leading the work of teams and/or projects to achieve business goals and ensure criteria is being met or exceeded during specific timelines.
Some great project management tools to consider investing in for your online business include:
ClickUp is the ultimate productivity tool that replaces all the other apps and introduces a project management system that includes everything from tasks, documents, goals, time tracking, and chat.
With ClickUp you can bring all your projects into one place to collaborate, organize, and track progress and goals.
Another amazing feature is tracking an entire project from start to finish with beautiful views with gantt charts, boards, and list views making planning easy and simple.
If you are visual like me, you will fall in love with this tool!
In terms of pricing, you have three pricing tiers – forever free, unlimited, and business.
An enterprise option is also available for larger businesses that would benefit from this option.
With ClickUp Business billed at $9/month annually you get unlimited spaces, storage, and custom views. From a branding perspective the Business plan feature includes branded and customized forms and workflow automations which is a big thumbs up.
Get 30% off the Unlimited Plan and 15% off the Business Plan using this link or if you already have a free ClickUp account use my discount code “LivinVivaciously”
Get your business the tools to create, communicate, and collaborate all in one place.
A Google Workspace Business Starter plan priced at $6/user/month includes a custom and secure business email, 100 participant video meetings, 30GB of cloud storage, security and management controls, and standard support.
For $12/user/month you can upgrade to the most popular Business Standard plan which increases your cloud storage to 2TB, shared drives with your team, and 1st party data with Cloud Search.
As an online business owner it is key to having a strategic marketing strategy focused on creating value-driven, relevant, and consistent content directed towards your ideal audience and to maintain your current audience.
Some amazing content marketing tools implemented at Livin Vivaciously include:
Designing and using email marketing in your business has never been easier than this!!
Flodesk is the holy grail for creatives for perfectly designed emails, opt-in forms, and workflow sequences that look and feel amazing on any device.
In a few uncomplicated clicks, you can design and send on-brand marketing emails and forms to your growing email list.
Everything feels intuitive with this powerful email marketing tool and one of the key reasons we love it here at Livin Vivaciously.
A typical Flodesk plan costs $38/month which includes unlimited everything.
This is one of the many pros of Flodesk, especially as a growing online business. You won’t need to worry about the increasing cost for your email marketing as your email list grows.
If you are into saving money, you can use my Flodesk link to get it for $19/month!
Don’t worry if you’re not ready to fully commit yet. Flodesk offers a 30-day free trial, where you can check out and test all its specs from creating a landing page, testing our workflow sequences, customizing a preloaded template, and learning everything you need to know about an email list.
Do you have a new business idea, service, or product you’d like to introduce to your audience? Not sure what features and details to consider?
Typeform specializes in dynamic digital form building and online surveys so you can reach your customers and learn everything you need to know to create the best service possible based on user needs.
Typeform is the leader in creating interactive digital experiences with your audience to drive more responses and data from your market research efforts. It’s conversational, interactive, and engaging.
With a free account for life option getting started on Typeform is quick, easy, and simple.
Alternatively, there are three pricing tiers available for businesses that are looking for a powerful approach to forms and online surveys. Available Typeform plans include:
Essential Plan – allows for a more personal touch to forms for only $35/month
Professional Plan – includes everything from the Essential Plan plus more powerful and interactive forms to improve user experience and responses. You can get the Professional Plan for the same price as the Essential Plan when billed annually at $35/month
Premium Plan – advanced features including team collaboration, file uploads of 4GB, and Salesforce integration for just $70/month
Check out Typeform here and get started with creating your own custom forms and surveys.
ONLINE BUSINESS/ E-LEARNING PLATFORMS FOR COURSES
Digital learning and courses have been steadily rising in popularity. With many looking at various ways to create digital products and multiple revenue streams for a growing online business, courses can definitely help reach these goals.
An E-Learning platform is a place to find educational content and search and purchase courses on almost any topic from entrepreneurship and business, yoga, travel, or fashion.
With tons of options available to choose from, here are a couple we can recommend:
Kajabi is a complete online business platform for serious entrepreneurs, businesses, coaches, experts, or influencers. Pretty much anyone can teach, consult, or coach on a topic they are knowledgeable and experienced in.
Kajabi provides anyone with the framework to create profitable content on almost any subject without having to become a coder or marketing expert in the process.
Your website can be up and running with just a few clicks, while your landing pages and emails are being sent to people who want your digital course or product.
Additionally, customizable templates take care of the framework so all that is left to add is your special sauce, experience, and expertise.
Getting started on Kajabi is easy and free with a 14 day trial. You will probably be hooked after the trial so the most popular Growth Plan for $159/month billed annually will look very enticing.
With tons of features including 15 products and pipelines, 25,000 contacts, advanced automation, and affiliate programs to join. Get ready to prioritize your success with Kajabi.
Another great option to create online courses and coaching is Teachable. Build an online business you are proud of while Teachable takes care of the rest and keeps it growing.
Join over 100,000 creators who are already on Teachable sharing their knowledge with the world. With unlimited courses and students available on all paid plans.
While you can’t join a free trial of the Basic or Business paid plans, Teachable does offer a 14-day free trial of their Professional Plan. This will provide anyone with enough exposure to experience the versatility of the E-learning platform.
Some of the amazing features of Teachables’ Professional Plan includes:
0% transaction fees, live chat support, 5 admin-level users, Zapier integration, graded quizzes, course completion certificates, upsells, and an unbranded website.
To get started create an account on Teachable and enroll, where you will automatically be entered into a Professional Plan trial. Bonus points for not requiring a credit card for the free trials.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Having a well thought out, purposeful, and intentional visual content to communicate your brand message is vital for your online business to grow and flourish.
With a brand kit including a logo, submarks, color palettes, and brand elements not only makes your brand look and feel professional but elevates your core message, value, and expertise brought to the table compared to other businesses.
Canva is a graphic design platform with the main purpose for anyone, with any design knowledge level, to be able to create social media graphics, presentations, templates, guides, and other types of visual content you can think of.
With a wide variety of preloaded templates for users to pick and choose from allows any business owner to become their own in-house graphic designer.
The free version might be good enough when you are starting out, but as your business grows, I highly recommend investing in Canva Pro. (You can also get these customizable branded Canva templates if you want to save time and don’t want to start creating from scratch!)
To get access to features not available on the free version such as customizable brand kits, downloading transparent images, access to stock images, and one click background eraser you will be taking your graphic content to the next level!
As an avid user of Canva Pro on a daily basis, signing up for the upgrade is guaranteed to streamline your design processes so you can focus on other parts of your business.
Sign up for your Canva Pro account today for $119/annually and get access to the “one-click magic resize” feature plus many more with my link here.
From Youtube videos to IG Reels, InShot is hands down the easiest app to use.
With just a few clicks you will be video editing, playing with filters and effects, adding popular vlog music, and incorporating fun stickers and texts to videos.
The app is completely free to download and quite a bit can be accomplished without upgrading to the Pro version. However, with the app’s premium version you won’t be facing any limits on the effects, filters, stickers, and transitions you can use.
And as a bonus the Inshot watermark will be removed on your creations plus you won’t be dealing with ads.
Inshot Pro has three pricing tiers at $3.99/month, $14.99/year which includes a free three-day trial, or a one-time charge of $34.99 for lifetime access. I recommend just paying for lifetime access cause you won’t regret it and you will be on your way to creating on-brand content.
BUSINESS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
People will always be behind the reason for success for any type of business whether online or not.
To invest in your business is to invest in amazing people, experiences, and knowledge. Some of the best ways Livin Vivaciously has grown and flourished into what it is today is by investing in both a Virtual Assistant and Coach.
Virtual Assistance (VA) services
A Virtual Assistant is a professional specializing in just about anything from administrative duties, public relations, web development, to design and branding.
As Livin Vivaciously was growing at a steady pace with our Brand Development Coaching Program, Social Media Branding Package, Strategy Sessions, and digital shop it was time to bring someone on board that could help with branding & design work, content marketing, the brand development program, and any ad hoc problems and tasks that come up with being an online business owner.
I had an initial call set up with a potential candidate, where I met someone who I not only clicked with but shared similar values, passions, and were driven by our love for design and branding.
This is when my experienced Design & Content Marketing Virtual Assistant, Aliyah joined the Livin Vivaciously team.
We have been inseparable ever since Q4 of 2020 and work amazingly together building on the Livin Vivaciously brand to help freedom obsessed womxn build authentic and profitable personal brands!
I can definitely recommend Aliyah for everything design, branding, strategy, and web development. Feel free to reach out to her for a chat at hello@aliyahaisha.com
A coach
Looking to grow your confidence, create a lifestyle you love, and build a true-to-self brand.
A brand development coaching program might be the answer to getting out of that rut, feeling lost and overwhelmed to having a roadmap towards the life you deserve.
Finding the right person to mentor and coach you is the first step towards developing your confidence, making the essential mindset changes required to create your story, to show up as YOU, and to finally start that brand, business, or project you’ve been procrastinating on.
As a Brand Strategist I’ve had the opportunity to meet, network, and work with some amazing coaches and friends who are amazing at what they do.
Check out Cynthia Pong from Embrace Change a Career Coach for Women of Color. Feminist career coaching for women of color who are ready to step into their power and build their business and earn more money.
I can also recommend Vivienne Okafor from thevoguide a Brand and Content Strategist. With her impactful storytelling abilities and a unique voice, Vivienne might be the perfect mentor to propelling you forward with your online business.
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
For full transparency, please note that some of the links featured in this blog post are affiliate links. If you sign up for any of the platform(s) listed above, I will earn a small commission from the sale. You will not be paying anything more for utilizing these links. Whether you decide to join these platforms is completely up to you and your full discretion.
In the world of content creators, social media brands, and influencers there are close to an infinite number of ways you can monetize your personal brand on social media.
Every one of us can offer a fresh and unique perspective on just about any topic, skill, or experience that can bring value and insight to others.
Building your personal brand on social media provides you with the platform to become a thought leader by sharing your thoughts, content, and ideas with a community of people who share similar values and interests as you.
Here are seven ways to monetize your personal brand on social media.
Sponsored posts and brand partnerships
A sponsored post is when you create a deal or agree on a collaboration with a brand you know and share similar values with.
If you are just starting off with your personal brand, one way of making money on social media is pitching yourself or your personal brand to a business you are interested in working with.
With pitching you will need to have a clear idea of the types of brands or businesses you want to work with.
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package is an amazing opportunity for this. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand. It’ll showcase your work and get you ahead of the competition!
Additionally, some questions you should consider before sending out a pitch include:
Does this brand share the same or similar core values as your personal brand?
Do you align with and believe in the product and/or service you will be promoting or creating content for?
How does this sponsorship or brand collaboration drive you closer to your why and help evolve your personal brand?
Depending on the answers to these questions, you might find that you’ll need to be selective and driven by your brand’s purpose—your WHY—when working towards monetizing your personal brand.
Alternatively, you can use Instagram to look up people/brands who are in a similar niche as you to connect and build a relationship with.
The goal here is to collaborate with someone you’ve genuinely connected with and create value-driven content that will reach both your audience and theirs.
As you consistently start sharing content and value on social media you might find that a brand reaches out to you with a collaboration opportunity.
This could include creating content for their social media channels or website in turn you would get paid for this work.
Payments can range anywhere from $50 to $3,000+ depending on the industry, skillset, and your ability to communicate the value you bring to the table.
If done strategically and with purpose, there is a lot of money to be made here through your personal brand and online content.
Affiliate links
Affiliate links are a way to earn money through commissions off a sale of a product or service that you generated for a company. This is usually a percentage of 5-20%.
With affiliate links, just like brand partnerships and collaborations you need to decide whether the products and/or services you will be promoting align with your personal brand.
To get affiliate links, you can reach out directly to brands that you align with and ask to promote their product or service using an affiliate link.
If your personal brand is centered around branding and design tips for running a successful online business, it makes sense to promote an app to create amazing graphics and visuals, like Canva, for example.
This ensures that you actually convert sales because your audience will be interested in what you are promoting and will eventually sign up using your link.
The higher the value of what you are selling, the bigger your earnings!
Essentially, affiliate links give you the ability to introduce and sell a product to your audience.
Selling advertisement space
For many, monetizing your personal brand through ads on YouTube, Google, blogs, and customized ads is another great way to generate some money through social media.
Although this method isn’t currently available for Instagram we might not be too far from it in the future.
One of the great benefits of utilizing ads is the ease of getting it setup on your website, blog, or YouTube channel.
However, keep in mind you will not be making an entire year’s salary through selling ads on your blog or website but, you can earn up to $1,000 with a little catch…
Your personal brand needs to have a high level of traffic and audience reach to see any sort of high-level revenue from ads.
To keep it transparent and real, you will be looking at earning $10 or less through selling advertising space if the traffic and audience reach isn’t quite there for your personal brand.
Don’t let this dishearten you because this is still a great incentive to monetize your content online in the future by building a powerful personal brand that focuses on serving people and providing value first.
One-on-one coaching or similar services
This is one of the more popular personal brand monetization methods for individuals who have a valuable skill set and experience to offer.
I truly believe that everyone can do this to make money on social media!
Do you have a skill or a story that can help others? If so, then you are ready to start earning money from your content by promoting a service.
Once you have identified your skills, your passion, and the types of services you want to offer to your ideal client you are ready to monetize on social media.
The options here are limitless!
Examples of services are virtual assistance, life coaching, branding, graphic design, writing blogs for other entrepreneurs…and the list goes on and on.
You need to develop a plan to curate your own content and strategy in order to find the people that want to hire you. OR you can always go out there and pitch yourself!
Creating digital products
Did someone say PASSIVE INCOME?!?!
This is the best way to make it!
By developing and creating digital products unique to your personal brand to earn a passive income via social media.
Digital products can be anything from ebooks, presets for photographs, and graphic templates like these customizable branded Canva templates!
Another, great example of a digital product is an online course (like my brand development coaching program, which gives you hands-on experience creating your brand from scratch, including messaging and social media strategy). Did you know that you can teach just about anything in the world to an unlimited number of niche markets.
If you have the knowledge and skills on a particular topic why not bundle it up into a digital course and use your personal brand to make some money on Instagram?
As you can see, digital products are a great way to make money while you sleep and it really can add up over time as you build your audience and make connections on social media.
Speaking engagements or live workshops
For many people, their ultimate goal and dream is to be booked for speaking gigs or live workshops to share their voice, values, and story to anyone willing to pay and listen.
As you build your personal brand, start to hone in on core your message and what you want to stand for.
Once you complete this step, start to craft your message in a way that resonates with people emotionally. Create content on social media platforms around your message.
Live your life true to this message.
The key here is to position yourself as a thought leader who inspires others to take action.
Make people want to listen to you speak!
Be engaging, authentic, and relatable.
Overtime, you will be seen as an “expert” in your field and within your online community.
Realistically, not many people build an entire career off being a speaker but it is definitely something that you can monetize on through your personal brand in addition to various other income-generating sources.
Speaking opportunities won’t magically be knocking on your door one day but, position yourself as someone who has a truly inspirational message that stands apart from everyone else.
In-person or virtual retreats
Retreats both in-person and virtually have been popping up a lot in the past couple of years.
There is a good reason for that—people want to learn and build relationships with other like-minded people!
You can find, attend, or organize a retreat for just about anything you like!
Travelling, knitting, coding, or spirituality.
Through your community on Instagram you can conduct market research to learn about what types of topics your audience is interested in, budget, and the pain points you can solve through hosting a retreat.
Ultimately, if done correctly your mission and message will resonate with your community and audience and they will pay money to learn from you personally and to spend time with you.
Bonus Tip: Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee is a simple, meaningful, yet effective platform to monetize on your personal brand.
Your community can support you through monthly membership options or simply buy you a coffee or two to support the creation of your valuable content.
This is the perfect way to build a loyal community of engaged followers and space for you to be a thought leader and share your expertise.
Does this all feel overwhelming?
Starting a business is a journey, and it can be a challenging transition. However, with the right mindset, resources, and support, you can absolutely build a successful and fulfilling business that supports your true-to-self life. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your existing business to the next level, embrace the process and take the first steps towards building the business and life of your dreams.
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
In this blog post, we will be covering the different ways you can be more authentic on social media for your brand and be on your way to creating your dream life!
Building your brand authenticity is important because it is the only way you can build online trust with your audience to create strong connections and build a community of loyal followers that will continue to invest in your services and products.
Let’s first define authenticity…
Authenticity is when what you say and do is aligned with what you truly believe in!
Here are the five questions you must ask yourself in order to be authentic on social media:
1. What are your brand’s core values?
This is one the very first things you want to do as you are building your brand identity.
Core values drive every brand to lead from an authentic place long-term, which will also create consistency between what you say and what you do online and within your business.
Every brand should develop a set of 3-5 values that their brand will live by. Core values shouldn’t simply be nouns, they should be actionable full sentences that you believe in.
Once defined, you can communicate these main core brand values through your social media content. This way every time you show up and speak online you will be demonstrating these brand values.
2. What is your brand story?
Humans love good stories and we love to find connection points between us and those brands we are loyal to and purchase from.
To start finding your unique brand story you need to dig deep within yourself to understand how to use your own personal history, background, and lived experiences to build your brand story.
For example, I am an immigrant woman living in the US and I make the conscious effort of connecting this personal experience with my brand story. I share this aspect of myself because it is true to me.
Why?
Because…
Only you will come from that one background.
Everyone will have a unique and different point of view.
No one else will have the exact experiences you have lived through.
Even when there are so many brands offering the same service as you, you will stand out to your true ideal audience and draw in followers that align with you and relate to your authentic story.
3. Are you in search of a loyal community or a huge amount of followers?
A big way people build online trust and show up more authentically for their brand is by focusing on community versus followers – it’s all about finding your ideal client!
So what is the difference?
A community consists of people who believe in what you believe, they cheer you on, they support you, and are present during any business pivots you decide to make.
Think of Apple and their loyal community of people. The people that buy iPhones are very different from those that buy Samsung phones.
Apple can sell their loyal community any new gadgets and that community will continue to believe that this new gadget is the best quality because it was made by Apple.
However, followers are people who constantly come and go. They are nothing more than stats on your IG profile.
A community invests in you.
Through a community-focused lens you will show up more authentically because you are aware of what your people need from you.
You know exactly what your people love and in turn, they will love you for who you are and not for what you offer them right now in your business.
4. Do you feel as if you are living a double life online and offline?
A big issue for people wanting to show up authentically online is the feeling of pursuing too many different lifestyles and personas resulting in a feeling of not being the same person online as they are in real life.
The underlying issue here is not connecting personal goals and passions with your business. This is also known as the WHY of the brand.
Speak about what lights you up while simultaneously making an authentic and strategic connection between your passions and what drives you to what your business does.
This allows you to keep the online version and real-life version of you consistent, reeling in your community of people naturally. Check out the Vision Book I created to for a guided way to center yourself both personally and in your biz – you’ll be able to see where the overlap lies!
5. Does your brand voice align with your brand WHY?
Authenticity comes through in how a brand communicates their message online.
The way you communicate is your brand voice and it should align with the values and persona of your brand.
So if you have done everything we have discussed in the past 4 points in this blog post, this part should be easy to build.
Solidify why you do what you do and remember this every time you create content and write your captions.
Don’t use language you wouldn’t use at dinner time with friends. Stay away from industry jargon and keep things simple.
Your community aka the people who really matter to you and your business will notice in a heartbeat because it isn’t YOU so it will never come through as authentic or believable!
And remember, great leaders inspire those around them to trust them and take action because they want to not because they were forced to.
I get it, it is difficult to put together all the pieces of your brand and navigate the world of social media while still maintaining your authentic self online.
If you are ready to build an online brand that allows you to live a freedom and joy filled life, check out my brand development coaching program. This program gives you hands-on experience creating your brand from scratch, including messaging and social media strategy.
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
