Huge credits to Colby Fayock for the motivational and informative talk on the 9th of April! Check out the resources of this talk and his Twitter! This article will cover most of the points mentioned in this session! I hope that it benefits those that did not have the chance to join Hashnode Bootcamp Batch lll.
Article Outline
- What is a personal brand?
- What makes consistency?
- Impact of personal brands
- Go Build Value!
- Resources
- Conclusion
What is a personal brand?
A personal brand is not being a bad actor, showing different personalities on different platforms. No matter how sly you are, people will sniff it out!
A personal brand is:
Consistent images for online presence (GitHub, Linkedin, Twitter).
This will build "brand" recognition. An example of Mr. Kent C. Dodds from Colby's slides!
Consistent messaging (What you do)
Colby gave an example of swyx! He has a consistent message that he is helping developers with #LearnInPublic!
Even on his YouTube channel and personal website.
swyx ended up writing a book revolving around #LearnInPublic! Info here.
- Consistent voice
For instance Maggie Appleton.
Maggie explains programming concepts through metaphors. This figure of speech helps the audience understand the concepts better as she compares them with well-known items.
As an example, she explained about react components using potatoes! Something that we are more familiar with. Therefore, when we think about React, we might remember what Maggie has shared in her talks. For Maggie, this allowed her to give tech talks in her voice. Using metaphors to convey messages to the audience can be expected for her talks.
What makes consistency?
- Your profile pictures across all platforms should be the same as it is the first thing people see.
- Your profile picture should be able to portray your personality.
- Your banner images/ cover images are crucial and should be similar too.
- The description of what you do should be similar across platforms.
- It will be easier for others to search for you across different platforms.
- When people see your content on another platform, they will recognize you too!
Colby showed us his social media as examples
Impact of personal brands
Building Authority
- Take Angie Jones as an example. She is a Java Champion.
If you have no idea what Java Champions are, Java Champions are professionals who made significant contributions to the Java ecosystem. It is a recognition given by the creators of Java themselves. It gave her the authority to teach the community. Furthermore, it also led her to be the instructor for a Java course. Others put faith in her and believe what she teaches as she is recognized for Java.
- Take Angie Jones as an example. She is a Java Champion.
Building Communities
- The image below was Scott Hanselman's first blog!
Scott is a teacher, speaker, and programmer who built his community from blogging! He shares content that is close to the hearts of programmers. For example, Scott talks about imposter syndrome and why it is okay to have it.
- The image below was Scott Hanselman's first blog!
Building Expertise
- Build a brand around your particular expertise. For example, Josh W. Comeau that explains CSS transitions with interactive guides!
- Build a brand around your particular expertise. For example, Josh W. Comeau that explains CSS transitions with interactive guides!
Go Build Value!
- All the inspirational peoples above are ultimately providing value! Everyone started from 0 and leveraged their passion to path their way to where they are today. Find your calling! Do something that makes you happy while making an impact. Then, build a brand around it.
"You miss 100% of the Shots you Don't Take" - Bob McKenzie
Resources
- All resources related to this talk by Colby are here!
Conclusion
This session showed me the impact of branding and the psychology behind brand recognition. I hope it gave you some pointers to build your brand! Remember that it all starts with consistency and uses passion as fuel to leverage your brand!
Thank you for reading! 😄
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