Four Ways That CEOs Can Grow Their Personal Brands

CEOs of successful brands often find themselves in a challenging situation. They want to help their businesses grow and become more successful, but they also understand that a brand’s success isn’t everything. In the long run, it’s important that CEOs are able to grow their personal brands simultaneously if they want to continue pushing their careers forward.

Sound familiar? Well, here are a handful of ways that you can grow your own personal brand without compromising your position as CEO of an important business:

1. Leverage Social Media

According to a recent study by Brandfog, C-Suite executives who participate on social media and engage regularly with their audiences are able to increase the quality of their leadership from 45 percent to a healthy 75 percent within a matter of 12 months. The simple act of putting your name out there, sharing thoughts, and engaging with your peers and followers is enough to help you grow your personal brand, and gain a competitive advantage.

2. Pursue Multiple Channels

Unfortunately, most CEOs have the wrong impression of personal branding. While social media is certainly a powerful platform for networking, it’s not the only thing into which you should be investing your time and effort. When looking at CEOs who’re able to grow their own personal brands, serial entrepreneur Neil Patel is the perfect example of someone who understands the importance of multi-channel marketing.

Patel has built four million-dollar companies, while simultaneously expanding his own personal brand in the Internet marketing industry. And as he continually reinforces, growing a brand requires a comprehensive marketing strategy. You need to focus on as many online and offline digital marketing channels as possible if you want to grow your brand quickly and effectively.

3. Add Your Name to Content

Patel is a big believer in using content marketing to grow brands. Whether it’s your own personal brand or your company’s brand, content marketing matters. By attaching your name to guest blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, informational pamphlets, and emails, you slowly but surely begin to claim ideas and position yourself as a reputable source of relevant information. Even if you have to have it ghostwritten to save time, make branded content a significant part of your personal branding efforts.

4. Be the Go-To Source for One Thing

As a successful CEO, you’re probably good at a lot of different things. You likely have multiple talents and vast amounts of knowledge regarding a variety of business-related subjects. However, in order to grow a personal brand in a congested industry, you must specialize.

The CEOs who’re able to build successful personal brands are the ones who successfully market themselves as the go-to source for a single issue, topic, or strategy. What your go-to thing is will be different from the next CEO’s go-to thing, but every personal brand needs one. Patel’s go-to thing is Internet marketing. Steve Jobs’ go-to thing was computers and mobile devices. Warren Buffet’s go-to thing is investments. What’s your go-to thing going to be?

The Value of Personal Branding

As a CEO, you should be focusing your efforts on building two brands. First and foremost, you must pay attention to the company that you’re leading. This is where the majority of your attention and focus belongs. If you can’t grow your company’s brand, your own brand will fall by the wayside too.

However, it’s not a crime to focus on the other brand – your brand. As a forward-thinking professional, it’s wise that you position yourself well for the future by growing your personal brand and increasing your industry influence. Keep the tips mentioned in this article in mind as you do just that.

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4. Who Is The World’s Most Powerful Person: 2015 Top 10 List?
5. The World’s Top 20 Most Prosperous Economies, 2015

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By Larry Alton, an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship.