The 7 Biggest Mistakes Personal Branding Doesn’t Want You to Make

The idea of personal branding can be an intimidating one, especially if you’re just starting out in your career. Despite what the term personal branding might imply, you don’t have to come up with a bold new tagline or even change your appearance to fit the image you want to project. In fact, these are some of the worst things you can do! Personal branding is all about being yourself and showing off your strengths, rather than trying to be someone else or present an image that isn’t really true to who you are as a person.

1) Not Knowing Who Is Following You

If you want to build your personal brand, it’s important that you know who is following you. Are they relevant contacts? Potential partners or clients? Are they people who would hire you or buy from you? Are they casual followers or avid fans? Knowing these answers will help you tailor your approach and what content you share with them.

2) Being Careless About Keywords

One of the biggest mistakes personal branding doesn’t want you to make is being careless about keywords. In order for your website to perform well in search engines, you need a lot of pages on your site that have a lot of content—and a big part of building up all that valuable content is writing with SEO-friendly keywords in mind. Without making sure these keywords are placed throughout your site, you could easily find yourself with a lot of dead pages and not much traffic.

3) Choosing Images That Can Get Stolen Easily

Of all your branding materials, your image is likely one of your most valuable. And yet, many people choose images that are more susceptible to theft than others. Images of faces, places and recognizable logos can often be found with a quick Google search—and plastered across other peoples’ profiles without you knowing it. By choosing high-quality photos that aren’t easily searchable on Google or stock photo sites, you reduce your risk of having someone else use them without giving credit to you for them.

4) Not Recognizing Opportunities

Not having a point of view is just as bad as being too self-centered. Having a public presence means helping your followers and fans understand what you have to offer, but if you have no insight or value of your own, it doesn’t matter how hard you work at building a following. They won’t trust you—and if they don’t trust you, they won’t stay.

5) Being So Self-Centered That It Hurts

This might seem obvious, but there’s a difference between being self-aware and being an egomaniac. It’s difficult enough to stand out in today’s market; don’t try and do it by putting yourself on a pedestal. Be humble and be willing to listen—it will make you stand out far more than any business card ever could.

6) Doing What Everyone Else Is Doing

If you want your personal brand to stand out, chances are you’ll need to take a different approach than everyone else. So before you spend any more time or money on your branding efforts, ask yourself whether anyone can point out what makes your brand different. If they can’t, then it’s time for a change. At best, your personal brand will blend in with all of its peers—making it hard for anyone looking at it from outside of your industry to really see or understand what sets you apart.

7) Doing Nothing at All

This may be your biggest mistake of all. Too many people are willing to put in some work on their personal brand, but they won’t push themselves or really commit. To get over that mental block, remember why you want to work on your personal brand in the first place—and remind yourself of how valuable it can be when you do make time for it.