The Personal Branding Strategy Nobody Talks About
Forget followers and engagement rates. Here's what actually builds a memorable personal brand.
3 min read
personal-brandinglinkedincareer
# The Personal Branding Strategy Nobody Talks About
Everyone's talking about personal branding these days. Build your LinkedIn, post consistently, engage with others, optimize your profile—you've heard it all before.
But here's what nobody tells you: **the best personal brands aren't built online at all.**
## The Offline-First Approach
Think about the people who come to mind when you need help with something. Are they the ones with the most followers? Probably not. They're the people who showed up when it mattered, who helped without expecting anything in return, who made you feel seen and valued.
That's the foundation of a real personal brand.
## What Actually Matters
### 1. Reputation in Small Rooms
Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. And those conversations happen in:
- Small team meetings
- Coffee chats between colleagues
- Group chats among industry peers
- Private recommendations to hiring managers
You can't control these conversations, but you can influence them by consistently delivering value in your actual interactions.
### 2. Being Helpful (For Real)
Everyone says "provide value," but most people:
- Share generic advice anyone could Google
- Only help when there's something in it for them
- Disappear after someone can't help them back
Instead, try:
- Making introductions expecting nothing in return
- Sharing specific, hard-won insights from your experience
- Following up on conversations weeks or months later
### 3. Having a Point of View
The most memorable brands have a clear perspective. They stand for something. They're willing to have opinions, even unpopular ones.
This doesn't mean being controversial for attention. It means:
- Thinking deeply about your field
- Forming opinions based on experience
- Sharing those views authentically
- Being willing to evolve as you learn
## The Content Component
Now, with that foundation, content becomes powerful. But not in the way most people think.
Your online content should be:
**A record of your thinking**, not a performance for algorithms.
**An extension of conversations you're already having** in real life, not manufactured for virality.
**Genuinely helpful to a specific audience**, not optimized for maximum reach.
## The Long Game
Here's the truth: building a meaningful personal brand takes years, not months. It requires:
- Consistently showing up as yourself
- Building real relationships, not just a follower count
- Developing genuine expertise through practice
- Helping others without keeping score
The people who do this don't need to convince anyone they're experts. Their reputation precedes them.
## Start Here
If you're building your personal brand:
1. **Define your craft**: What do you want to be known for? Get specific.
2. **Practice in public**: Share what you're learning as you learn it.
3. **Help specific people**: Make a list of 10 people you can help this month. Help them.
4. **Build genuine relationships**: Connect with peers, not just potential opportunities.
5. **Be patient**: This compounds over years, not weeks.
Your personal brand isn't what you say about yourself. It's what you do when nobody's watching, how you treat people who can't help you, and the value you create without expectation of return.
Everything else is just marketing.