Let’s be real, ‘personal branding’ kiiinda sounds like something a wanky FinTech founder would come up with, a new buzzword to make ‘posting on LinkedIn’ sound snazzier, and gatekeep it in the process.
I’d love to come up with a new name, but alas, ‘personal branding’ actually fits the bill pretty well. Let me explain why.
Firstly, what is ‘branding’?#
Let’s get the basics down first. Branding and marketing are often used interchangeably, and although their linked, they’re pretty different.
You might be wondering what this has to do with you posting on LinkedIn, but I’m getting there - patience.
Marketing is the strategy and tactics used to generate leads and convert them to sales. It’s the ‘how-to’, the ROI, the campaigns, the promotion. Branding is the foundations - who you are and what you stand for. It’s the long game of earning trust and increasing reputation. Branding generally comes before marketing.
Branding includes:
- Your visual identity - logo, colours, fonts, image style
- Your tone of voice
- Your values and personality
- Your mission statement
How does this relate to you?#
I get it - you’re a human, not a company. Surely you don’t need to brand yourself?
I beg to differ. If you’re active in a professional community, especially on LinkedIn but also speaking or attending conferences and networking, it applies to you. I’m not saying you need a logo, but I’d argue everything else is necessary.
Personal branding allows you to have input into how others perceive you in a professional setting.
It puts you in control of what they see - and therefore influence what they think of you.
Obviously, authenticity should be at the heart of your personal brand, I’m not suggesting you should manipulate people or bend the truth to make yourself sound better. In fact, sharing when you’ve messed up or when something didn’t go to plan makes you sound human. Truthful and authentic.
What does it look like?#
Generally speaking, your personal brand will show up in places where you show up, professionally speaking. (It’s not going to follow you home, don’t worry.) This could be LinkedIn, conferences, meetups, TikTok, your blog. And it’ll show up in different ways too - from website branding and slide deck templates to tone of voice.
It’s up to you what it actually looks like. You might choose to have no visual branding (fonts/colours etc), and go hard on tone of voice and networking. You might have the prettiest brand kit on earth and use that to support a somewhat mediocre tone of voice. We all have our strengths, and they can be used as leverage to find a personal brand that works for you.
Why should I bother?#
Humour me for a sec: let’s say you have a blog, speak at conferences, and post on LinkedIn. Someone saw you speak at an event and loved your session. They go home, follow you on LinkedIn, and see you have a blog. They have a skim and call it a night. A few days later, you post again - apart from your name, how can they recognise that it’s the same person who’s session they loved?
Say it with me: personal branding! It’s the fast-track lane to that recognition, building awareness of who you are and what you have to say.
But where does that recognition actually lead? What’s the point?
Combined with consistency and quality, your voice becomes trusted in your industry. That opens doors. To speaking at events, or at different types of events. To career advancements. To publications, podcasts, industry-specific awards. The list goes on.
Take me for example…
I started speaking at events in 2024.
I started posting on LinkedIn with a personal brand in September 2025.
Since October, I’ve been invited on a podcast, and a webinar panel, and got 17,000 impressions on a single post (does that count as viral??). Granted, this isn’t exactly a keynote, but also isn’t half bad since my personal brand is less than 2 years old, and I’ve only been posting for 4 months!
I don’t say this as a humble brag - I say it because even I was a tad sceptical about the whole ‘personal branding leads to opportunities’ thing, especially as someone who’s involvement in the industry is on the periphery (marketing in data).
So imagine the impact it could have if you’re at the heart of your industry, whatever that may be. I sometimes see people who don’t want to try because the space they would join is saturated; loads of people post on LinkedIn and speak at events.
But let me assure you - there is space enough for all of us, because we all have something new to bring, whether this is experience, skills or perspective. Personal branding just means you have more of an impact, and can get to where you want a little quicker.
