🔎 Do your customers know what you look like?

I recently read an article on LinkedIn all about being the face of your brand and your business. Let’s dive into each piece of the article by Kate Beavis, Midwife and Menopause Coach.

Build Authenticity and trust

How can photos on your social media do this? With consistently showing your face and what matters to you. Consistently showing up as who you are and what is true to you.

Eg. If you don’t drink wine or cocktails, don’t show photos of you with “pretend” cocktails just to fit into today’s trends of unwinding with a glass of wine. If it’s not you, don’t pretend it is.

Differentiate yourself

This one speaks directly to consistency also. What are you known for? What do people close to you think of when they think of you? Is it a brand of clothes/shoes? Is it a color? Is it bold jewellery? Is it jeans and a T-shirt?

Eg. If you are known for bright fun colors, don’t try to follow the trend of soft muted earth tones in your IG feed. That will be very hard to maintain when your show clips BTS of your real life if your real like is splattered in bold colors.

Enhance brand Awareness

Your brand is more than your colors, your fonts and your logo. SO much more. It’s how people FEEL when they see your social media, your products. How they experience a service your provide.

Eg. HOW you make people feel matters and this is probably the trickiest to convert in social media personal branding photos. Remember your captions matter. The posts you reshare on your stories, matter. People are following you and investing in you because they can relate to who you are. Be authentic in WHO you are and it will resonate with YOUR TRIBE. None of us are for everyone. Find your self and you will find your people.

Create stronger relationships with customers

This one is super important. Have you ever responded to an influencers post, or even a friends post? How did you feel the minute they took the time to respond to your comment? Like your opinion or thought matters! Engaging and being authentic in your relationship with your friends, followers and customers will grow your referrals and business.

Eg. When you start sharing professional selfies that you took (or you had a Professional Photographer take), respond back when the love starts pouring in. People WANT to see your FACE!

Control your brand narrative

This is where Personal Branding photos preparation is required. If your brand is uplifting, empowering and confidence building, as an example…be seen! How can you possibly inspire others to live their best life with love and intention if you are struggling to put your best face forward? I’m not saying fake it until you make it, because I believe faking anything is a bad idea. But I do mean, show up no matter what. Scared, tired, deflated, demotivated…show others through your brand images that you too are human and work hard everyday to push forward and live your best life.

Eg. Show up in your stories or TikTok, candidly. Unkept, unprepared, unscripted. Be real and you will see your audience connect with you on a more personal level. (I’m not saying put all your dirty laundry on the internet line…but be authentic with challenges you are facing. Keep the details vague enough but real enough that you build a true connection with your audience and followers and hopefully clients or buyers of your product/services).

Build thought leadership

Does your brand and business inspire others? It could be through motivational quotes on coffee cups, or public speaking engagements on your topic of expertise. It could be a book you have written or a podcast you host. I have learned that the best way to reach a specific outcome is to collaborate and ensure everyone has a chance to be heard, seen and understood. You may never meet your followers, customers or “internet friends” in person so inspire them through your photographs of you and your brand.

Eg. If you sell cool coffee cups with cool phrases…show that. If you build amazing crafts out of wood, clay or steel…show that! If you knit, crochet or macrame the coolest projects…show that. Do you own a farm with goats, hens and donkeys…show that. Inspire your audience through your actions. The ripple effect could inspire you the way you have inspired them.

Increase engagement

OK. This one is fairly obvious. The internet loves engagement on posts, reels, TikTok’s, YouTube videos…If you want to be seen on the internet you kinda need to keep up with your presence on the internet. This is not my area of expertise, at all. I come and go with the wind on my social media accounts. So this will be a do as I say, not as I do blurb.

The influencers in business that I follow consistently post, share, blog. Maybe that’s daily. Maybe it’s every Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Whatever their schedule is, they do it consistently. If you need to set reminders in your phone calendar to post something on a specific day, do that. Every online brand that I have purchased from (and that’s a LOT), it’s because they show up consistently, I feel like I know them and that we are “internet friends”.

Eg. To set yourself up for success, I definitely recommend batching your social media posts, reels, TikTok’s. Set a day or just an afternoon to grab some social media Personal Branding content with multiple changes of clothes, environment and message. Grab your camera and a tripod and start shooting!

Humanize your brand

I know AI and ChatGPT are so common these days to help inspire content, build presentations and even craft emails. I won’t say I have never used Chat GPT. It’s awesome to get the creative juices flowing for suggestions on what to post. I did one blog post that was all AI, except a few minor tweaks and it felt so completely against my brand and my authenticity. I want to inspire others to take Personal Branding photos with confidence and to book an in person Boudoir Session with me. AI can’t help me those things. AI can help with inspiration to get me started, but my brand values and message is all me. Every time.

The human behind the brand is SO important. Every single letter in this post was crafted and written by me. I was inspired by the LinkedIn article above. But even for that article, I googled “why is it important to be the face of your brand” and that was the first article in the search.

Eg. When you are planning your Personal Brand photo session, whether it’s a selfie session or a Pro giving you the experience of a lifetime, ask yourself…Who Am I? What’s important to me? If you could only portray your personal values and business brand in photos, what would need to be in them? Are they colourful and carefree? Are they black and white and sophisticated? Are they chaotic and abstract? Are they wholesome and muted? Are they in nature, a city, a garden, a home, an office or a craft room? Be strategic when you think of the elements required in a photo to ensure your audience gets you!

Click HERE to get started taking your own Personal branding photos today!

You are your brand. Be clear. Be authentic. Be present and be prepared for your tribe to support you like you never knew was possible.

XO

Whatever you do, do it with gumption.