How to Prevent Personal Brand Injury [4 Steps]

How to Prevent Personal Brand Injury [4 Steps] Have you experienced personal brand injury? When you decide to embark on the personal branding process you are so  energized to do as much as you can to be your brand.  The process is motivating  as you start to see  the fruits of your labor and the results of your hard work. However, along the way you may suffer from a setback â€" something that has perhaps caused a strain in your personal branding effort. In such cases, you need to avoid the temptation to push forward and risk personal brand injury. Here are 4 areas you should not rush into when branding yourself. Take appropriate breaks and recover before risking personal brand injury. 1.  Your  Brand Colors Do the colors you use reflect your brand attributes?  For example if your brand is seen as “passionate”, “energetic”, and “active”, are you using RED? If others see you as “mysterious” and “spiritual” are you using PURPLE? Are your colors culturally appropriate for your target audience? I recently noticed that 4 different sites to hire freelance professionals all  use the color blue in their logos. This actually makes perfect sense as blue represents ‘authority,’ ‘integrity’, ‘trust’ and ‘loyalty’ â€" all the brand attributes you would want in a person you hire for a freelance  project. 2. Your Brand Logo / Slogan The heart of your visual personal brand is your logo and slogan.  Once you launch your logo and slogan they immediately become your brand identity. Make sure you have invested the time in selecting the best logo, image/icon, and slogan  to represent you.  Hire a professional to design a bunch of options,  select a handful that  you like, and then informally survey  people in your target audience.  Always inquire as to why they prefer a particular logo or slogan  over the other choices. Look  for consistency in their feedback. Do your options  clearly articulate the brand  message you want  to express?  If not, take a break, recover  and start again before injuring your personal brand. Trying to revamp a published  logo and slogan  later on will prove to be a big nightmare! 3.  Your Website or Blog A great way to prevent personal brand injury to to make sure your brand has a strong core such as a website or blog. To develop this strong core you must be able to answer the following questions and develop your site/blog around these answers. What are the goals for your site? Who is your audience? What are their needs? What  thought leadership content can you give to  meet these needs? Who are competitors and how will your site stand out? What  visual vocabulary will the site have to show  your brand? (colors, style, logo, etc) If you are not ready to invest in a website, or if you are not interested in blogging, then at least set up a personal portal on About.me,  Flavors.me, Pitch Engine, Profiled.com, or Vizify. These can function as your website.  Just keep in mind that these portals also need to have a strong core that sends out the right visual  message for your brand. 4.  Your ‘About’ Page and Bio Your about page is usually the first page on your website or blog that people will visit to learn about you and make that critical decision to connect and  do business with you. It may be the only  page they will  use to decide  if it is worth spending their  time to either  click on your  other links, or “bounce” off  your site. The same goes for your bio on a personal portal site.  Take the time to create a branded bio that captures your authenticity and story. By uncovering and including your story, you can truly provide that emotional hook to draw people into your brand. Do you have any other suggestions to prevent personal brand injury? Please share in the comments below. Image: Shutterstock