Is Your CEO On Social Media? If Not, Your Business May Be At Risk.

Roughly 60 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are not active on any social media channel and fewer than 12 percent are active on more than one channel.

That’s surprising, especially given consumers’ overwhelming desire for transparency from businesses and business owners. Consistent headlines about data breaches and privacy concerns are surely to blame, leading 86% of Americans to say business transparency is more important today than ever before.

It’s no longer safe for businesses to stay silent on their values, business decisions, and political and social stances. Younger buyers, especially, are using digital transparency as a measuring stick to identify the companies they want to purchase from — and those they don’t.

That helps explain why an industry leader like Nike felt compelled to launch an advertising campaign with an athlete is polarizing as Colin Kaepernick. It’s simply a good business decision: some 86 percent of people are likely to take their business to a competitor when there’s a lack of transparency on social. (In fact, Nike’s sales surged in the days following the Kaepernick ad debut, suggesting that Nike’s competitors may be suffering from this very affliction.)  

CEOs are in a uniquely appropriate position to answer the consumer cry for business transparency on social media. Not only can they can speak to the rationale behind business decisions and give a compelling behind-the-scenes perspective, they can also share insights on industry trends that inspire consumer trust and interest.

Even so, nearly 90% of Fortune 500 chief executives are still missing the mark on social. They either don’t understand how social media supports business objectives or aren’t committed to using it effectively to achieve their goals.

That’s a risky situation for those businesses because a CEO’s reputation is directly responsible for 44% of a company’s market value. When you consider the impact on recruitment, corporate reputation, and stakeholder confidence, it becomes difficult to ignore the financial impact of an executive’s personal brand.

Sure, social media transparency is just one component of a powerful executive brand, but it’s an essential component. Not only do consumers want to know what a business stands for, they also want to know the same of the people running the company.

Transparency can even play a significant role in the long-term preservation of a business and its business owners. Think of it like an insurance policy: when brands are transparent and develop a history of transparency, nearly 90% of people are more likely to give them second chances after bad experiences and 85% are more likely to stick with them during crises.

At its core, a CEO’s social media strategy ought to appeal to the curiosities of its most important audiences, whether that be investors, consumers, or employees. According to a recent study by Sprout Social, when it comes to a CEO’s social media activity, consumers find the most value in the company’s reasoning behind business decisions, followed closely by industry thought leadership and inside looks at the company.

Though this type of information tops the charts when it comes to positively impacting consumers’ brand perception, executives with different priority audiences may find alternative content to be more effective. A focus on employee recruitment may necessitate sharing individual employee stories while a focus on investors may inspire more content about the CEO’s entrepreneurial experience and long-term vision.

Regardless of an executive’s target audience or social media focus, it’s important for their online activity to feel as authentic as possible. Whether CEOs choose to run their own social media profiles, manage it in-house or partner with a digital agency, their activity must feel relevant and representative. After all, most consumers set a higher standard of responsibility for business transparency on social media than they set for politicians, nonprofits, friends/family and even themselves.

Is that high bar due, in part, to the current lack of social transparency found among today’s Fortune 500 CEOs? Perhaps. Is there pressure for tomorrow’s executives to adapt or risk alienating their target consumers? Definitely.

Those willing to take their executive presence outside the boardroom and into the digital landscape are primed to enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. After all, simply posting on LinkedIn is enough to make you more socially transparent than the majority of today’s most successful CEOs.

Tired Of Skimming Through Identical Resumes? Try This Instead.

I don’t know about you, but my eyes start to glaze over as soon as I pick up a resume. All those one-pagers with tight formatting, impressive-sounding titles, bullet points with powerful action verbs — it’s enough to make you crazy.

Resumes seem like a great idea.. until it’s time to actually hire someone. That way of sorting prospective workers may be effective for weeding out the careless (a-ha, a typo!) but it makes it extraordinarily difficult for companies to find standout employees. On paper, the clock-in-clock-out types look the same as the standouts — they have the same experiences, same job titles, and same responsibilities. It becomes impossible to distinguish between the passionate and indifferent, motivated and unmotivated, culture fits and rotten apples.

But those distinctions matter. My suggestion? Put down the polished resumes and try Googling your job applicants instead. You’ll get much more valuable information, and you’ll find it on your own terms.

Here’s exactly what you should be looking for:

Red Flags

There’s a reason 75% of HR departments are already required to search job applicants online. It’s a far more effective way to find those exceptional employees than a piece of paper. It’s also a more instructive method for finding red flags than a polished resume — 70% have rejected applicants based on info they find online.

The first page of search results are a great place to start. Take a quick skim and see if anything weird stands out. If you find a website and active social media properties, you can probably move on. But if you find any red flags — legal issues or negative press, perhaps — you might want to think twice. It’s not to say a bad search result is a reason to automatically reject an applicant, but it’s certainly worth looking into more.

Next, move on to images and public social media profiles. Do you find loads of drunk college photos and inappropriate pictures from Spring Break? Do they tweet, share and comment using offensive language? Do they bash their current employer, insult others and get involved in controversial topics?

Your employees represent your company online, so you’ll want to be careful before hiring someone with this kind of questionable material. Again, it’s not necessarily a reason to reject an applicant on the spot, but you’ll want to proceed with caution.

Unique Value

A job applicant’s online footprint is one of the easiest ways to locate their unique value-add for your company.

If they have their own website, that’s a great place to start. A personal website is a sign that your applicant takes their online presence, job search, and career growth seriously.

So take a quick look around. If they have a blog, read a few posts to get a feel for their writing style and thought process. If they have a portfolio, it could be the easiest way to gauge their skills and actual output on previous projects.

See what other nuggets of info you can dig up. Take a look at their press or awards page — if they have one — to see if anything stands out. Have they been published on top tier publications? Perhaps that’s a connection your company can leverage. Have they been mentioned in trade magazines? Have they published a book? That kind of credibility and expertise might be helpful to have on staff.

Next, explore their social media channels. A large and engaged audience could be a massive benefit for your company. The research shows that content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brand channels. And brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when posted by an employee versus the brand’s social media channels.

Don’t underestimate the value of a huge and engaged social media following. That network and level of reach comes in handy when it’s time to spread the word about new job openings, important company updates, or that latest piece of press.

Personality and Culture Fit

Don’t wait until the interview to gauge your job applicant’s personality and potential fit with your company culture. An initial look through someone’s social media is often enough to give you a sense if someone is worth pursuing or not.

Look through visual mediums like Facebook and Instagram to get a snapshot into their personal life. Check out their Twitter and LinkedIn to see what articles they’re reading, what stories they’re sharing, and what thoughts pop into their heads.

And if you still feel like you’re missing some high-level chronological understanding of this person’s career experience, just check out LinkedIn. It’s the internet’s functional equivalent of a resume and has the added benefit of providing a full list of other eligible applicants if this one doesn’t work out.

Originally published on Forbes.com.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes in Personal Branding

When it comes to personal branding, we’ve certainly seen some crazy things lately. We learned hilarious branding lessons from Mexican drug lords and uncovered a trend of using fake names while internet dating. We learned the troubling truth about Louise Delage and watched Trump and Clinton stab each other on social media as their fans rallied behind them.

If one thing is clear, it’s that personal branding has become less of a competitive advantage and more of a requirement. It’s become a reality for the political process, for enacting social change, for taking advantage of business opportunities, and even for helping (or hurting) us in our dating lives.

As we all look to take advantage of this important reality of the online world, I encourage you to be smart about your personal brand. Take stock of these classic personal branding errors before you trip and make the same blunders yourself.

Here are the top 10 personal branding mistakes:

1. Thinking it doesn’t pertain to you.

Whether you’re a high school senior, a c-suite executive, or somewhere in between, personal branding has a place in helping you take your career to the next level.

Personal branding is all about marketing and distinguishing yourself -- and showcasing that online. It’s about taking control of your online narrative to help you achieve your goals.

If you’re a high school senior, your goal may be to earn acceptances from competitive colleges. If you’re a college student, you need to showcase your skills to land an internship or a summer job. If you’re a c-suite executive, then you might be looking to grow your business, earn more clients, or switch into a new industry altogether.

Whichever path you’re on, your online presence can either help you or hurt you along the way. Don’t make the mistake of thinking personal branding doesn’t pertain to you.

2. Pretending to be someone you’re not.

When we’re first dating someone new, we often try to show the best side of ourselves. Maybe our apartments looks a little cleaner than they normally do. Or perhaps our jobs suddenly become more interesting and impressive than they were last week.

In small amounts, this practice can help you gain someone’s attention and forge a deeper connection. Taken too far, you risk becoming someone you’re not for the sake of continuing a relationship.

Now, think of personal branding like dating. If you selectively showcase your positive side online, you give yourself the best chance of getting the attention of colleges, companies, and new clients.

But if you take it too far, you risk it backfiring. Nobody wants to date, hire, or employ a fraud. Authenticity is key, both for relationships and personal brands. Don’t make the mistake of pretending to be someone you’re not.

3. Waiting until something bad happens.

Dentists recommend brushing your teeth twice a day, every day. Can you imagine what would happen if you only brushed your teeth once they started turning brown and funky? You’d probably get gum disease, have some pretty brutal tooth aches, and your smile would leave a lot to be desired.

Once you get to this point, it’s usually too late to fix everything. At the very least, there is a lot of ground to make up. Brushing your teeth on an ongoing basis is a far more effective way to maintain a winning smile and good oral hygiene.

Personal branding works in much the same way. It’s harder to take control of your online narrative once there is something bad that you need to contend with.

Many folks only realize how important their online presence is once they have a problem. But that’s a classic mistake. Personal branding can be even more effective, and less of a headache, when it’s done preventatively. A little work now can make things a lot easier later.

4. Not asking the hard questions first.

Would you ever sit down to market a business when you’re still unsure what the product is? Of course not.

The same is true for personal branding. You need to ask some important questions first before you write a blog post or send out that first tweet. And the reason is simple. It may not be an easy or comfortable process, but figuring out what makes you “you” is a necessary first step to making your brand realistic and relatable -- and getting in front of the people who matter most.

The people who skip this step and jump immediately to packaging themselves are the ones who end up with forced brands that they can’t relate to and ditch after a week.

Personal branding requires a lot of time, with a focus on website design, content marketing, social media activity. With all of that online activity, it would be foolish to not determine your unique value proposition or your target audience. Otherwise you’re just spinning your wheels.

5. Ignoring others in the brand discovery process.

When creating a personal brand, you cannot overestimate the importance of external consulting from friends, family, or a professional branding firm. After all, you're not creating a brand to impress yourself, you're creating a brand to impress others. And it is very difficult to see yourself clearly from your own perspective.

Talking your brand out with someone else can help you get a little distance from the narrative you already hold in your own head. It’s the same reason we pay psychotherapists and marriage counselors -- and branding firms -- for their advice and perspective.

And the consequences of making a branding mistake are pretty scary. You can run with a “great idea,” only to find out afterward that it is extremely offensive to a core group of your audience. A little outside perspective goes a long way.

6. Underestimating time to develop a great brand.

Building and maintaining an effective personal brand is a lot more than just having a website and a few social media channels. It’s about providing people with real value, again and again. It’s about distinguishing yourself from your competition and making yourself memorable for the people you want to impress and interact with most.

That’s no easy feat, especially in a noisy digital world. It takes five to seven impressions for someone to remember a brand on average, so imagine the work you need to put in to get in front of the right people over and over again.

And along the same lines...

7. Ignoring influencers.

Publishing content without doing any outreach is usually a waste of time. Imagine a new business owner that opens up a shop on a quiet street. He has an amazing product but does absolutely nothing to bring in new business. He turns on the lights and sits in his swivel chair, swiveling around waiting for people to come in.

Of course, nobody arrives. Personal branding works in much the same way -- if you don’t do the work to get yourself seen by the people who matter, then you won’t get the reach you desire.

The most efficient way to do this is through influencers. They might be colleagues and family in your existing network, your friends from way back when, or complete strangers in your industry who would be happy to collaborate. Do yourself a favor and find these influencers first so you can get the traffic and engagement you desire.

8. Not generating your own content.

If you exclusively share content published by other people, then you’re a content DJ.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being a content DJ. It’s great to give shout outs to other thought leaders and businesses in your industry. And sure, people may find you have an exceptional taste in shared content.

But the problem is that, when it comes down to it, you’re convincing your fans to go elsewhere for industry knowledge.

So rather than relying only on shared content, make an effort to generate your own. Develop your own voice, express your own opinions, and publish content that your audience will care about. Once you start doing that, there’s no reason you can’t supplement it with other content from around the web. The more the merrier!

9. Convincing yourself to post less.

Sure, it is possible to overdo the online activity and become spammy. But chances are that you’re not posting nearly enough. Not even close. You’re probably publishing way too little content, you’re not engaging with your audience enough, and you’re definitely not active enough on social media.

Remember, when drafting a social media posting schedule, you’re not looking to check off boxes, you’re looking to get attention for yourself and your brand.

If you post a video once a week or once a day, you’re going to get a lot more attention than if you post once a month or once a quarter. You can’t spend a lifetime on one post or one tweet and simply hope that it goes viral.

Remember, consistency is key. The likelihood of your audience seeing your content in a noisy digital space is already tiny. The last thing you need is to lower that probability even more. Get active, and get active now!

10. Getting followers for the sake of followers.

Getting followers for the sake of simply growing your follower count is a rookie mistake. If you have 500,000 followers and get no engagement on your updates, what’s the point? Your content is still getting ignored and nobody new is thinking about your business. You’re not fooling anyone.

What is more valuable to you? 500,000 fake followers or two dozen die hard fans that engage with your content every week? I’ll go with the engaged followers every time. They’re much more likely to tell their friends and share your content-- and to buy from you -- than the 1-cent followers you bought from that dude on Craigslist.

If you’re keen on growing your following quickly, then my suggestion is to use a tool like Crowdfire, where you can customize the people you want to follow based on keywords, hashtags, and specific audiences.

Originally published on Entrepreneur.com.

22 Statistics That Prove the Value of Personal Branding

We live in a world where your online reputation can be your strongest asset or your biggest liability. A world where sales and marketing are better executed by employees with strong personal brands than by the brands themselves. A world where companies hire not based on resumes and cover letters, but on information they find online.

Today, it has never been easier to grow a massive following and become a celebrity in your industry.

Personal branding is becoming less of a competitive edge and more of a requirement for anyone looking to grow their business; get that dream job; or take their career to the next level.

Here are 22 essential statistics, which prove the overwhelming value of personal branding:

The power of employees' personal brands.

• When brand messages are shared by employees on social media, they get 561 percent more reach than the same messages shared by the brand’s social media channels.

• Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when posted by an employee versus the brand’s social media channels.

• On average, employees have 10 times more followers than their company's social media accounts.

• Content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagementthan content shared by brand channels.

The bottom line is that we trust people more than we trust brands, and we engage with people more than we engage with brands. If you don’t get your employees involved on social, you’re absolutely losing out to companies that do.

Personal branding helps sales and marketing.

• Leads developed through employees’ social media activities convert 7 times more frequently than other leads.

• Sales reps who use social media as part of their sales techniques outsell 78 percent of their peers.

• Ninety-two percent of people trust recommendations from individuals (even if they don’t know them) over brands.

• Marketers, who prioritize blogging, are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI.

• Consistency is key. It takes five to seven impressions for someone to remember a brand.

If you’re looking to grow your pipeline and get more attention for your offerings, then you’ll want to invest in personal branding initiatives. Train your sales and marketing teams to use the free tools at their disposal, such as social media, blogging, videos and webinars. People have so much going on these days that if you don’t make an effort to stand out, you risk getting left behind.

The power of social media in recruiting.

• Employees at companies that invest in personal branding initiatives are 27 percent more likely to feel optimistic about their company's future; 20 percent are more likely to stay at their company; and 40 percent are more likely to believe their company is more competitive.

• Of all recruiters, 95 percent believe that the job market will remain or become more competitive. If you don’t stand out online, your competition will.

• Seventy-five percent of HR departments are required to search job applicants online.

• Eighty-five percent of U.S. recruiters and HR professionals say that an employee’s online reputation influences their hiring decisions at least to some extent. Nearly half say that a strong online reputation influences their decisions to a great extent.

• Seventy percent of U.S. recruiters and HR professionals have rejected candidates based on information they found online.

• Of all executive recruiters, 90 percent say they conduct online research of potential candidates.

This one is pretty much a no-brainer. Imagine if you’re a hiring department - all else being equal -- wouldn’t you rather hire someone with an impressive digital presence over someone with no presence at all?

Successful companies want stand-out employees, and one way to gauge that is by your online reputation.

Personal branding for online reputation management.

• Reputation damage is the No. 1 risk concern for business executives around the world, and 88 percent say they are explicitly focusing on reputation risk as a key business challenge.

• Of all executives, 87 percent rate reputation risk as more important or much more important than other strategic risks their companies are facing.

• Of respondents who experienced a reputation risk event, 41 percent say loss of revenue was the biggest impact.

Reputation has always been a big deal for companies, but now we have to contend with it both offline and online. With reputation damage as the No. 1 risk companies face today, it’s no wonder executives are preventatively investing in online reputation management as an insurance measure.

Growing your business with personal branding.

• Out of all business decision makers, 84 percent start their buying process with a referral. And Google is the very first place people look after getting a referral.

• Of all Internet users, 65 percent see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies. That’s a higher level of trust than any other online or offline source.

• Fifty-three percent of decision makers have eliminated a vendor from consideration based on information they did or did not find about an employee online.

Even when consumers have a referral, they start their buying process online. What kind of first impression do you want to make? A terrific online presence lends credibility and gets customers excited while a bad or irrelevant online presence turns customers away.

And despite all of this...

Of the 75 percent of U.S. adults, who Google themselves, nearly half say the results aren’t positive.

If you don’t like the way you look online, there’s plenty you can do about it. If you’re serious about improving your personal brand and need a gentle kick in the pants, hop on my 28 Day Online Reputation Management Challenge. I’ll walk you through your first month, step-by-step, so you can build the foundation necessary to get your dream job; develop your career; and grow your business. The choice is yours.

A version of this article originally published on Entrepreneur.com; infographic made with Visme.

How to Define Your Personal Brand in 5 Simple Steps

I have clothes hanging in my closet that I’ve barely worn since I bought them. They’re practically brand new, hanging there and never seeing the light of day. What gives?

Here’s what I’ve learned. If you buy a fancy cashmere sweater because you think it’s the type of thing you should wear, you won’t wear it. If you get a flashy suit vest and suit vests just aren’t your style, it probably won’t make it out of your closet when it’s time to get dressed.

Personal brands are like wardrobe choices. You need to be honest about whose attention you’re trying to get, what your natural style is, and the story you’re trying to tell. Without all that, you won’t make comfortable clothing choices, and you definitely won’t have a personal brand you can relate to. It’ll be more likely to hang in your closet, along with the rest of your unloved vests and sweaters. R.I.P.

On the flip side, an authentic and relatable personal brand is like a perfectly tailored suit. You’ll look great, feel great, and be much more likely to close the sale, get the dream job, or land the first date.

To get your personal brand to feel less like an ignored sweater and more like a tailored suit, you have to get to the heart of what makes you “you.” To do that, I guide all my clients through the following five-step brand extraction process.

1. Determine your goals.

Setting goals are an obvious first step for people looking to improve their online image, but I don’t mean goals like, “I want to look good online” or “I want to generate ROI.” These aspirations are great but they don’t take into account the personal branding work that’s required.

In order to improve your digital presence or drive more business online, you’ll need to start generating lots of online activity: publishing content, growing a social media presence, engaging in PR initiatives -- the list goes on.

With all of that digital activity, it makes sense to dive a little deeper into figuring out your specific goals first. Otherwise, you waste a huge opportunity to use those online efforts to support where you’d like to be two years, five years, or ten years down the line. Remember, looking good online is a means to an end -- and you need to determine that end before you start.

What are you most excited about achieving in the next few years? Do you want to write a New York Times bestselling book or would you rather land your first speaking engagement? Do you want to be generating a certain amount of revenue at your company or would you prefer to start your own venture?

Your answers to these questions (and the ones below) will be the steering wheel that drives your personal branding campaign. Without them, you’re just pressing on the gas without looking where you’re going.

2. Pinpoint your unique value proposition.

You would never begin marketing a business before you’ve determined the product and its unique value in the marketplace. Or you might, but it probably wouldn’t work out so well.

Personal brands work much the same way. Before you start a blog -- before you even send out your next tweet -- you’ll want to pinpoint your unique value proposition.

That’s a fancy way of saying you need to figure out A) what benefit you offer people B) who those people are C) how you solve their problems and D) what makes you different from others like you.

If you’re having trouble answering these questions, I find it’s useful to first determine why you’re passionate about what you do. From there, you’ll be able to figure out what audience you’d like to help the most and how you can do that better than anyone else.

3. Craft your professional story arc.

People remember stories. Think about someone you really admire -- a CEO, a public figure, a family member -- and ask yourself why you admire them.

There’s a compelling story to tell about that person, right?

J.K. Rowling is one one of my favorite examples. Rowling grew up poor and remained that way as a single mother struggling to make ends meet for her daughter. She got the inspiration for Harry Potter while stuck on a train, and hurriedly wrote it down on the back of a napkin. Her manuscript for the first book was rejected 12 times, but she persisted anyway until a small publishing firm gave her a chance, and the rest is history. Rowling went from being unemployed and living on state benefits to becoming a billionaire in under a decade.

Another favorite story of mine comes from Anik Singal. Singal was a kid who just wanted to prove he had what it took to “make it” as an entrepreneur, experimenting with digital marketing for 18 months straight before he finally made his first dollar. He learned quickly and grew his business from nothing to $10 million, and then watched everything come crashing down as his business, finances, and health all went down the tubes. Given a second chance, Singal took a hard look at where he was, shifted his priorities, and then worked even harder to get to where he is today as the dedicated CEO of Lurn, one of the biggest digital publishing platforms in the world.

Determining your own story arc will be crucial to crafting a brand narrative that your audience will relate to and remember. Your brand narrative will come naturally if you ask yourself the right questions: What obstacles have I overcome? What desirable goals have I reached or am in the process of reaching? How have I changed for the better?

Talking this out with someone else can be extremely helpful to get a little distance from the narrative you already hold in your own head. If you want to try it by yourself, imagine someone on an interview asking, “Give me the whole story -- how did you get to where you are today?”

4. Establish your character personality.

Your personality is an essential part of what makes you, you. Without her perseverance and passion, J.K. Rowling would still be the author of Harry Potter, but she wouldn’t be nearly as interesting or memorable. Anik Singal wouldn’t be the same entrepreneur without his “fighter” persona.

As you ponder your own personality traits, remember that people typically describe themselves a bit differently than others would describe them. And since “others” will be the ones engaging with your personal brand online, theirs is the more important perception. Your audience is never wrong.

Don’t run the risk of expressing an inauthentic or ineffective brand. Ask your your friends, family, and colleagues to choose some adjectives they would use to describe you. Consolidate those adjectives and choose the ones you connect with the most.

5. Distill it down to a brand statement.

Once you’ve gathered all the above information, it’s time to distill it down to a brand statement. Just one or two sentences that you’ll refer to internally to keep your digital strategy consistent as you begin engaging with your audience.

A word of caution: you can use the same information to craft a brand statement that’s incredibly exciting or painfully boring.

Let’s use Santa Claus as an example, because why not.

Here’s one way of presenting Santa’s brand:

Santa Claus is the CEO of a non-profit organization that gives gifts to children globally. With decades of experience in supply chain management and manufacturing technology, Claus has helped turn Christmas into the modern celebration that it is today.

Booooring.

Here’s another way:

Santa Claus is the jolly, grandfatherly figure behind the single biggest gift-giving operation in the world. Known for his spectacular flying reindeer and wacky chimney delivery system, Claus has become a loved cultural icon who’s turned Christmas into the modern celebration that is today.

If you were using each of these brand statements as a blueprint for a digital strategy, I bet you can guess which one would would generate interest and which one would put readers to sleep. And unless you’re a mattress company, you have no business putting people to sleep.

Take the time to make your brand statement compelling -- it will serve as a guide for your online efforts, and livening it up can make all the difference.

When you’re done asking yourself these questions, you should feel a sense of comfort. There’s an overwhelming relief in having an authentic personal brand. Unlike clothes that hang ignored in the closet, the authentic brand is like the classic outfit you can’t wait to grab again and again because it aligns perfectly with who you are, how you feel, and where you’d like to go next.

Originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

The #1 Secret to Building Your Perfect Personal Brand

Some people absolutely hate the idea of personal branding because they think it feels fake or forced. Sure, I’d hate that too. Who wouldn’t? But an effective personal brand should never feel forced by definition.

I’m going to let you in on an insider secret. Brand building is actually a misnomer. You don’t sit down and decide what you want your brand to be. In fact, that’s completely the wrong way to go about it. The secret to building the perfect personal brand is this. You don’t actually “build” a great personal brand, you “extract” it.

It may not be an easy or comfortable process, but figuring out what makes you “you” is a necessary first step to making your brand realistic and relatable.

The people who skip this step and jump immediately to packaging themselves are the ones who end up with forced brands that they can’t relate to and ditch after a week.

It’s only once you’ve extracted your personal brand that you can package it for others in a compelling, memorable, and relatable way.

Extracting your personal brand.

The first step to extracting your brand is being 100 percent sold on who you are and what you’re looking to accomplish in the marketplace.

It’s like marketing a company’s brand. Would you ever sit down to market a business when you’re still unsure what the product is? Of course not. A company must first determine what benefit it offers and how it’s different from the competition. In other words, it has to determine its unique value proposition.

What’s your unique value proposition?

Most people haven’t thought about this much before. That’s good news for you because you’re about to put yourself 10 steps ahead of the competition.

Determining your unique value proposition.

This process is very much like defining your own personal business plan. You need to first answer three main questions:

• Who’s your audience? Whose attention are you trying to get?
• What problem or challenge do you solve for them?
• How do you distinguish yourself from the competition?

Let’s say you’re a college graduate looking for your first full-time job in PR. Great, now it’s time to dive a little deeper.

The target audience is obvious, right?

At least in the short term, you’d want to reach the hiring departments at your favorite PR firms. But it’s also worth thinking about your audience in the longer term. Will you want to appeal to other PR professionals, editors at publications, or other people looking to break into PR?

Next, what problem or challenge do you solve for your audience? Well for starters, you’re going to solve the HR department’s challenge of finding their next awesome employee.

Taking it a step further, let’s say you want to be a PR thought leader and act as a guide for others looking to break into the space. In that case, you’ll want to provide them with all the information they need to break into the industry and succeed.

Lastly, what makes you unique? How do you stand out from the crowd?

Perhaps it’s your incredible depth of experience despite your young age. Or maybe you have a fresh perspective thanks to your academic background in a completely different field. Perhaps you’re so good at throwing parties and organizing events that PR firms can’t afford to pass you up.

Packaging it all up.

Once you’ve answered these questions honestly, you can finally move onto packaging your personal brand. This is the exciting part. Your answers will help inform how you’ll reach your audience, delight them, and keep them coming back for more. You will figure out what kind of personal website makes the most sense and what your call to action should be. You’ll decide which social media profiles to use and what kind of content strategy you’ll use.

These packaging decisions will definitely feel forced or fake if you’ve built up a brand without much thought or deep questioning. It’s like building up a house of cards that’s bound to collapse at the slightest breeze.

But an effective personal brand is like a tree, with strong roots and branches that extend naturally from the trunk. And like a tree, your personal brand will grow and evolve over time as your goals change.

That’s the beauty of extracting your personal brand, rather than building it. By getting to the core of your passions and your unique value proposition, you invest in a brand that’s transparent, relatable, and sensible for the long haul. That’s an investment in your future worth making.

Originally published on Entrepreneur.com.