As an introverted business owner, I know how tempting it can be to try and hide behind your brand. I bet you didn’t start your business to become a content creator or spokesperson. No way—you wanted the freedom of solopreneurship.
Well, I can tell you as an introverted business owner, brand strategist, and personal brand, I’ve come to recognize—and have witnessed—just how important it is to show up as the face of my business.
It didn’t happen overnight, it’s something I’ve slowly improved at—and it does get easier.
So with that being said, I want to offer you personal branding tips for introverts, as an introvert. Because let’s face it—with AI and tech automations taking over the business world, being the beautiful human that you are is going to be your brand’s distinct super power.
CONTENTS
BRAND PERSONALITY AND IDENTITY
You probably think if you’re leading as yourself that you don’t have to brand your personality.
Wrong.
We rarely stop to consider our own personality in everyday life. But as a personal brand, we need to take stock of who we are, how we speak and behave, and how we want to represent ourselves and our businesses.
As you define your brand personality, give your friends and family a personality quiz to get a well rounded view of who you are and how you make people feel.
How would they describe you to a friend?
What traits come to mind?
What do they come to you for?
What is your most renowned attribute?
Look for trends among their answers along with how you want your personality to come across. Your personal brand strategy should include a list of keywords that represent how you want your brand to make people feel.
To build brand awareness and earn the comfort and trust of your audience, you need to act like a brand which means: consistency. Your brand personality encompasses your brand voice and your brand identity and both of these need to be used consistently.
The words you write and the words you say need to feel aligned with your brand personality. The colours, fonts and design styles you choose for your brand identity need to feel aligned with your personality.
While you will be the face of your brand, your brand experience has so many other elements that will be influenced by your brand personality. Make sure it’s prominent and cohesive across all of your brand touch points: from your website and social channels to lead magnets and emails.
PERSONAL BRANDING TIPS FOR INTROVERTS
Even as a personal brand, don’t underestimate the value of a brand strategy to guide you. For any business, your brand strategy gives you strategic parameters to work within, allowing you to act with more intention.
For a personal brand like you, let’s look at a few important areas of your strategy:
brand voice and tone
brand purpose
brand values
content pillars
Brand Voice and Tone
Just being yourself is your best bet as a personal brand. But as we learned above, you need to define your brand personality and how that translates in your tone.
Brand voice and tone, while different, have some overlap. Your brand voice is what you say whereas your brand tone is the way you say it.
Using your brand voice—even if it’s your own—when defined, ensures when someone visits your website and social channels, they all sound like you. When someone opts in to a freebie, the words of the CTA button amplify your personality and the content within the freebie does too.
Brand Purpose
Get clear on why you do what you do. Your brand purpose should be used in your brand storytelling as a way of connecting with your audience and keeping you connected to your own mission.
A unique research study in the U.S. looked at how consumers both felt and reacted physically to purpose-driven brand messaging. Let me share a few highlights:
Purpose-driven messaging has a greater ability to capture the physical and emotional attention of respondents compared to functional narratives.
Purpose-driven ads inspired more trust and a positive emotional connection to the brands.
Brands that lead with purpose are 83% more likely to gain consumer loyalty.
79% felt a deeper personal connection to companies with values similar to their own.
Brand Values
What are the principles that guide you? As a personal brand, your core values will emerge from your own beliefs. But you also want to present your values in a way that amplifies your brand personality.
Blume does a great job marrying their mission with the needs and desires of their unique customer. They use their brand voice to present their values in a way that’s approachable and relatable, further supporting that connection with their audience.
Content Pillars
What do you want your personal brand to be known for? This should be your guiding question when deciding your content pillars. When you show up on social media, reserving your content pillars to a few key areas will allow you to shape your reputation and position your personal brand effectively.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS MEANT FOR PERSONAL BRANDS TO THRIVE
Before making a purchase, most consumers today turn to social media to do brand research. This is our chance to see who the brand really is, what their vibe is, and look to the brand’s social presence to form our opinions.
For me personally, if I’m looking into a brand—especially a personal brand where the person is the name of the brand—if they aren’t active on social, they lose credibility.
That’s not to say they aren’t fully qualified at what they do. It’s just a missed opportunity to form a connection with me, a potential consumer.
This is a very real part of the decision making process these days.
I’d rather look for a brand that I get some semblance of who they are as people: as their real honest selves, not a polished business façade.
Authenticity and Connection are Leading the Pack for Brand Appeal
Reality check: your future customers or clients want to know who you are.
In a post-pandemic study, Shifts in Consumer Habits, 88% of consumers said authenticity is important when deciding which brands to support with their hard earned cash.
Admit it—we all feel a stronger connection to those brands who get in front of the camera and let us into their lives a little bit. That’s what social media is all about.
I’m not saying you have to be overly personal just because you’re a personal brand. But I do encourage you to show up regularly and let people get to know the real you. It goes a long way because they, just like you and me, want to know the human behind the business.
According to the study, Creating Connection by Sprout Social, 76% of consumers would buy from a brand they feel connected to over a competitor. I know I would.
So as personal brand, embracing who you are will improve your bottom line.
SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR INTROVERTED BUSINESS OWNERS
On social media, you have to be social. As a personal brand, this should be easy. You just get to show up and be yourself—which I know, as an introvert can be a lot to ask. From one introverted business owner to another, here are my personal branding tips for growing your brand on social media.
Embrace Your Weirdness
Your personality is the easiest way to distinguish your brand. Your unique personality is the reason people will choose to buy from you over the competition. Start attracting your tribe by being your authentic self. Weirdness and all.
Get Active on Stories
Start making a habit of getting on stories. This is the best and easiest way to start growing a connection with your audience. You don’t have to be an entertainer, just start simple with sharing photos instead of video. The next time you’re in a great mood and feeling good, jump on camera and talk about something you’re working on or whatever you can to get a conversation going.
Talk like you would to a friend.
Don’t overthink it.
Make it as brief as you want to.
This is a good habit to cultivate. Slowly but surely, you’ll feel more comfortable getting in front of the camera. But more importantly, your audience will get to know you!
Use a Script for your Video Content
As introverts, we don’t naturally gravitate to the spotlight. If you need an assist with longer story content, prepare by jotting down your thoughts first. I still use a loose outline or script for my reels and, occasionally, my stories. I feel way more confident in the words I’m saying because I’ve spent time writing it out instead of trying to think about it on the spot. Which is not always my strong suit. Use my Content Marketing Planner for Notion to keep all your content ideas and scripts organized.
Engage Meaningfully with your Audience
Don’t just use social media as a marketing platform, use it to engage with your audience and foster real connections with the human on the other end. Active and intentional engagement boosts memorability and brand awareness.
Think of how good it feels when someone leaves a comment on your post that isn’t just a series of emojis or something generic. By taking a few extra seconds to leave thoughtful comments, your followers will be delighted by the comment and you'll remain top of mind. You also meet some really cool people too!
In a study by PWC about experience, 75% of people said as technology improves, their desire for real person interaction grows. So use your personal connection to your advantage.
At the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat, introvert or not. Sure, some people are born to be performers, but a good majority of us are not. Having a brand strategy and visual identity to rely on as you grow your personal brand is going to be worth its weight in gold. It will give you confidence. It gives you a foundation to trust as you embrace being the kick ass brand that you are.
If you’re ready to get to work on your personal brand strategy and identity, this introverted personal brand is eager to help you. Learn all the ways we can work together.
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Jenny Henderson Studio is a branding studio that increases memorability, connection and performance for service-based solopreneurs using strategic simplification and design.