Personal Branding
1 - The Review
Welcome to the Review
The Review will be a weekly look at a few recurring topics, like short threads & expanded thoughts, recent news in the ecosystem or art & development projects + dialogue. Most don’t know this, but I’ve wrote like this before, on a medium page under the title NFTY back in late summer 2021. It lasted four weeks but kicked off what AskNoot has embodied the last year and change, and fed into the beginnings to what is now ScarfDAO.
This week on the Review, I dove into a topic many have been interested in lately: Branding as a Creator. branding is an important element to any character, business, or persona. In personal branding, it is vital to understand how to decide the message you want to send and how to portray that to your target audience.
Please join me in reading. Consider subscribing for free. If you have more thoughts & want to share, I’d love to talk! Please reach out below in the comments, out on twitter, in general chat or DMs.
Personal Branding
I’ve had thoughts on branding & my own personal branding since before I started my Twitter in August of 2021. In this thread, I cover what I’ve found to hold true & grow a consistent brand on the Internet. After 10+ years in community building leadership roles in student body government, in the largest student-led organization at my university, and in Web3 companies today, my experience speaks for itself on the topic of community and branding.
Branding at its core is very straightforward. A brand embodies everything from the color scheme to the anecdotal experiences, and is a connection that is unique from person to brand, brand to brand, etc! Interlacing this concept with a Persona or Business is where things have begun to shift, especially in modern marketing with social media. You no longer want to build a product, but also a community around the product who care. You don’t want a bottle of Coke, you want a bottle of Coke with your name on it. You want The Connection.
Personal branding takes this concept further, where you develop the Connection to be with YOU as a creator. YOU are responsible for developing this link with the target audience, not through the taste of the Coke from the store, but through their interactions with you as an individual. YOU brand yourself in a way that exemplifies YOUR values and personality & (ideally) find YOUR people.
The cusp of the thread is this:
Concept Breakdown
1️⃣ Define the Value - what you provide to your audience.
→ Value is represented in a number of ways; Memes, discussion, giveaways all provide someone value. You have control over this, but do not let it begin to control you (i.e. “I must do x”) if that doesn’t represent your values.
Find your Value your Way.
2️⃣ Be Consistent - giving your audience something to rely on.
→ Consistency is important in any aspect of life, here no less. Building a brand requires people to count on you for something they expect.
You cannot be expected for a certain result if you cannot be consistent to achieve it.
3️⃣ Collaborate and Network - Build with others on common interests or a similar career/journey, expanding network & reach.
→ Collaboration is core to any forward push in life made beyond a One-Man Show. Networking gets you connections, which can be leveraged in infinitely many ways for not just finding new audiences.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it also wasn’t built by one person.
Finding what this means to you could come quickly, but more likely you might need to give thought to one or more of these core values in building your own brand. I myself had to take a step back from social media & ingrain these into my mindset. In my own life I find myself losing the plot & getting too sucked into unconstructive moods that ultimately undermine my message and goals.
If you’re like me & need to think on these concepts, I encourage you to “save” the graphic below to help you.
Building a brand is a unique journey
Every brand is unique, and yours is no different. Your story, your experiences before building this brand and beyond, your skills, qualifications, and connections. All of these affect the creation of the personal brand you grow, and it is important to take note of this.
You may find your experience caters you well to developing a certain type of account. Perhaps you are a natural Spaces Host & want to pursue holding discussions. Perhaps writing & threads are more your speed, or even using your account for developing the support for a new project. These are all extensions of skills built through each person’s life & unique journey and thus give advantages and disadvantages in certain areas.
So if one thing doesn’t “stick,” keep trying.
-Caleb
P.S. Tap in to support the Chop Up this Tuesday night, now partnered with DeFi Society: Set a Reminder
LETS GO CALEB