025: The Power of Personal Branding with Kevin Jennings

1. With social media, follow the 60-20-20 rule.

Make the focus 60 percent on others, 20 percent on content (tips, behind-the scenes, etc.), and 20% on promotion. Some people feel like social media is all about self-promotion. This little rule helps you stay in balance and actually flips the script. Promote other people, businesses, and causes. Offer helpful advice and showcase your expertise by actually showing people how you do things. Self-promotion has its place, but you want to think more in terms of having a dialogue, not a monologue. Be intentional about what you share and make sure you are focusing on others.

2. What is it like to be on the other side of me?

That’s the most basic question you can ask when you’re starting to develop your personal brand. What do people say about you when you’re not around? Another way of putting it: What do I want to be known for? Once you honestly answer that question, you can begin developing a strategy to build your brand. And remember, especially when you’re just starting, you are the brand. You embody your company’s values. If there’s inconsistency between what you say you are and what you do, your potential customers will spot that from a mile away.

3. You represent the possibility that someone else can achieve what you’ve achieved.

Think of social media as a platform – not to promote yourself, but to prop up others. You’re not building a platform to stand up on and tell everyone “I’m better than you.” You’re building a platform so others can stand on top of you. That’s a major shift from how social media is often viewed, and it really frees you up to take a whole new angle in how you share content online.