Even if you have decided that you want to create your Personal Brand, it can be difficult to get started. 

The two big concerns most people have before building their Personal Brands are: 

“I am NOT an expert at anything, what could my Personal Brand be about, or why would people follow me?”

“There are so many other people already doing it, how can I be better or different?”

In this article, you are going to find the answers to these questions. And learn how to get started the right way. 

Let’s dive in! 

1. Why People Follow Others on Social Media

The most important idea in building your Personal Brand is that people do not follow you because you are cool. 

They follow you if they get VALUE out of the content you produce.

I get so many DMs from people on Instagram, who send me their profiles and ask me questions like:

“What is wrong with my profile?”

“Why am I not gaining followers despite having produced more than 100-200 pieces of content?”

“What can I do to get more followers?”

When I hop on to their profiles, I see that their profiles are serving THEM. All their content is about them.

Deep down they want to show others how handsome or beautiful they look, how cool their lifestyle is, or how much money they are making.

Honestly, people do not care if you have a chiselled body while running a multi-million-dollar company, that you had a perfectly cooked cheese omelette for breakfast, or that you are chilling in Bali for the weekend. 

You are not a celebrity.

If you look at any celebrity’s Instagram page, you will notice that they post about themselves. They post their shirtless pictures on the beach or their latest wardrobe collection. 

And they CAN do it. Because they are already celebrities – and people follow them because they want to be like them.

So understand that you are not a celebrity yet. When you will become one, you will play by different rules of the game. For now, only focus on adding value to people’s lives.

Examples of Value-Adding Content

If you are a guitar player or a singer, and you are posting videos of the songs you have written or your singing videos, people will most likely not follow you.

That is because your underlying psychology with such content is:

“Hey guys, I’ve written this cool song. Follow me for more such awesome songs”.

That is NOT why people will follow you. 

Instead, people will follow you if you start telling them how to learn 4 chords to play 10 different songs or learn the basics of singing.

Because by doing the latter, you are providing value that is making other people’s lives better.

If you are a foodie, people will follow you if you are giving them food hacks, teaching them how to cook a healthy meal in the least possible time, or reviewing different food items. 

They will not follow you if you just post photos of exotic meals you eat around the world.

If you are into personal grooming, people will not follow you to “look like you”. 

They will follow you if you are giving them personal grooming tips which they can follow to become presentable. 

If you are into fitness, people will not follow you if you have pictures of flexing your muscles. 

They will follow you if you share your workout routines so they can benefit from your content and become muscular. 

If you are a traveller, people do not want to look at your bikini body at an exotic beach, or your arms-out pose on top of a mountain. 

They want to know how they can earn a side income by working for clients remotely.

The list is endless, but the bottom line is that people follow you only because of the value you add to their lives. This is how you’re going to build your Personal Brand.

Don’t Worry About Competition

Also, if you are proving value through your content, you will not need to worry about your competition. 

“Why would people follow me if there are so many other people doing the same?”

People do not follow other people by doing a comparative analysis.

When a piece of content comes across other people’s feeds, their minds immediately gauge the value that piece of content has added to their lives and they take an instant decision to follow them or not.

And at that moment, they don’t do a comparative analysis of your content vs 5 other similar pieces of content they might have seen in the past.

They will follow you when that single piece of your content that has come across their feed has added value in their lives.

Actionable Step

Identify 5 non-celebrity influencers on YouTube or Instagram or any other social platform. They should have 10,000+ followers.

Find out what kind of content they are putting out? What is the value that they are adding to people’s lives?

This way, you will get an insight into how you could create your content and develop your Personal Brand in a way that attracts people by providing them value. 

2. Target 80% of The Market

Let’s assume that you are into fitness, and there are 1 billion other people in the world who want to improve their fitness.

You don’t have to be better than 1 billion people to share fitness tips and coaching.

You only need to be better than 80% of these people.

What scares most people who want to develop their Personal Brands is that they look at someone better than them in their field. Then, they think that they can only start their Personal Brand when they are at that above level.

And they are generally comparing themselves with the top 1% of people in that field.

You need to understand that you are not to be making content for 100% of the market.

You will be making content for people who are behind you in that specific journey.

So, you just need to be in the top 20% of that field. Not in the top 1% or even in the top 10% of that field.

For example, you do not need to have perfect abs like Chris Hemsworth to start giving fitness tips. 

You just need to have a fit body, an interest in fitness, and a fitness routine that can help 80% of people reach your stage.

To reiterate, if 80% of the people can benefit from your work, you are already an expert in that field. 

So next time you doubt yourself by thinking that you are not an expert in anything, just look around your social circle and ask yourself:

What is it that my friends ask me advice for?

What is it that my colleagues tell me that I’m really good at?

Whatever makes your stand out in your social circle will make you stand out in the world as well.

If you stand out in your social circle for anything, chances are you will be in the top 20% in the world in that field.

In this article, you have learned why will people follow you when you will embark on the journey of building your Personal Brand. 

In the next one, you will learn about how to find a profitable niche for your Personal Brand.

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Over on my blog, Digital Nomad Academy, you can find several other articles and masterclasses that will teach you different aspects of building your own laptop lifestyle.

Also, for behind-the-scenes mischief, you can follow me on Instagram and join 30K+ others like you who are in different phases of building their location independent lifestyles.

Hope to see you around globe-trotting one day 🙂