23 Personal Branding Mistakes You Should Avoid - Sahil Kashyap Author

“Your personal brand is your reputation. And your reputation in perpetuity is the foundation of your career.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

Your Personal branding today is your Presence of who you are and defines your aura and persona to the World. However, it pretty much works on the reverse psychology and you show to the World, how they want to perceive you.

Today, building a brand out of yourself has become the need of the hour and defines and controls your success, largely. Though it isn’t as easy as just spreading the melted butter over the bread. It takes brainstorming, a good plan of action and then a plan in action. It requires hard work and wisely spent money to create a brand you.

But then, some people mistake temporary popularity for branding. Here, today, breaking the myths and some very common mistakes that people make while constructing a Personal Brand.

Read the full list of 23 important mistakes to avoid the same, if you want to be a brand as well.

Remember the reverse psychology trait which I just mentioned? Well, moving away from truth and trying to be what you aren’t and just looking at making yourself look what people want you to see as, is the first common mistake. Faking it, in short, is very commonly made by many.
While you aren’t expert enough about something but brag about it a lot, is the next big mistake that is very common. You want to compete with you’re the ones you are obsessed about and hence fall into the trap of equal or rather more knowledgeable personality skills than that person.
Personal branding is all about you, the person. So, it demands your face and not any random image or logo. Perhaps a perfect image of your face which defines your personality. Many people use their company logo, visiting cards or their favorite actor/actresses’ pictures instead of theirs, which is a common mistake or rather a blunder.
Not understanding your target group/audience and hence not portraying yourself as contagious enough to catch on to the emotions of the audiences.
Underestimating your content. We all have stories to tell, so dig deep and look at what you have to tell to the World and your followers.
Oversizing your audience is a major issue that people avoid and suffer. You should always know your audience and size it accordingly to reach the same.
Getting overboard. Don’t get overboard with your philosophical emotions and rather connect with the audience instead of just discoursing.
Just pushing in hard for fame and doing almost everything for it, leads nowhere.
Plagiarizing is a hot selling mistake. Do not plagiarize the content, style or persona of anyone. Be original and yourself. Yes, you can get inspired and be open and vocal about it, but never sound or seem a copy-cat.
Being just a brand. Common, Make a difference to your audience and be a part of them. Let them feel you like their own and be an inspiration to them. Give in a personal touch to your content and personality while you communicate with the audience, whether through whatever content. The content should be valuable as it is about your and different, that just doesn’t focus on selling products but bringing in the personal touch or change to one’s life. Well, most of the Personal brands don’t do the same.
Not valuing the quality of content over quantity is one of the biggest mistakes. Also, not utilizing every valuable digital platform to its potential and being monotonous is a big mistake.
Yes, everyone wants money and even the personal brands, but wanting it too soon from your branding, kills your brand value. So, don’t rush to monetize your content from your branding, take it slow and the quality of content will automatically lead to great image building, followed by whooping amounts, but at the right time.
Ok, so the most common mistake is very simple, doing what most of the money minded artists do, publicizing what they don’t use. Like if you do not drink cooldrinks, would you ever promote them? Well you can for the sake of money, but in today’s digital era, where transparency is super-efficient, you can easily be trolled as a hypocrite hence hampering your personal branding, big time. So, never fall into the trap of promoting stuff which you aren’t confident about, no matter what.
Do what you are good at and do not just follow the trend. If you can blog well, just write out your thoughts. If you can produce music, just do that, if you can make videos, just make them and upload. Do not do what you can’t, you can never be the master of all trades, or else it would give weight to the famous saying, ‘Jack of all trades and master of none.’ Avoid this common mistake or your image will take a shot back.
Fall prey to online criticism and trolls. Avoid unless really important to respond back. Do not fall for this cheap trick that people play to bring down brands/artists/social media stars etc. Just keep doing what you do and let people talk about it.
Not Networking is a big mistake. Go, network yourself to keep communicating with fellow netizen influencers, bloggers, vloggers, personal brands and if needed, go for collaborations. It always strengthens your personal brand value.
If you aren’t responding to your audiences, you mean nothing to them, coz your followers make you. Indulge in chat or live sessions with your social media followers as much as possible to increase your engagement and brand building. Don’t overlook this considering yourself a sensation.
Any branding without a plan is now or next a failure. Many people do not plan and just get on to the track of branding, not exactly knowing their plan of action. Know your steps and follow your plans to be a better brand.
Regularity is the key. Not being regular with the posting literally kills your brand value. Be regular and engage your audiences.
Follow your thoughts and it will lead you to great heights. Do almost everything your thoughts guide you to do. Many people forget this Important step and do not produce new content just because they follow the trending content. Instead, one should be creative and always run the brain and hearts to be new and fresh. Just do not only rely on the trending content only, be thoughtful always and new in what you present.
People tend to perceive you as a positive personality but many personalities simply follow the saying, any publicity is good publicity, which is wrong. Remember, speaking negative on what is negative, should work or you could become the joke of the decade or who knows forever. We have seen many examples of this. Being a Personal brand, every word coming out of your social media handles is vital and must be well thought. Do not go in for wrong strategy and just stay positive, unless you feel in dire need to speak over an issue which might lead to controversies, but only where the majority stands with you.
Today the Social Media is full of so many philosophers or motivational speakers who have gained popularity due to their content but it is becoming stale and hence you cannot be just one of them. Avoid this common mistake of doing what everyone is doing. Yes, speak positively and why can’t you be a motivational speaker? Or Inspiring figure? But with your original taste and self. Bring in originality to your content so that people can easily define your Motivational content from others and are pulled in towards your positivity.
When you do all this and perhaps are on a journey to become a personal brand/public figure or a social media sensation, always remember, Rome was not built in a day. This is simplest yet biggest mistake that personalities make. Remember you are building your personal brand till you live and who knows beyond, if it becomes powerful enough. So, have patience and think long. Look at the larger picture. It is not a small-time game. It takes time and hence the benefits are for long or rather lifetime as well.