Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Personal Branding Guide
Personal Branding Guide
Personal Branding Guide
There is a ton of useful information in this guide, but it only scratches the surface
of what I provide in my community and course bundle.
Click here to join the community, access 200+ past essays, get 5 new essays per
week, get your questions answered, get your writing critiqued, get a 100-page
book on writing and a 30-page guide on freelancing.
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people who want to DIY and don’t want a recurring charge).
And if you can’t click those links for whatever reason, go to writingtoriches.com to
find the offers.
That list could go on and on. The point is, there’s probably something you’re good
at that an online audience would like to hear more about. If it isn’t completely
obvious, dig deeper and find it. Again, it’s crucial to realize that you don’t have to
be a high-level expert to teach. As long as you’re a year ahead of someone else on
some sort of journey (health, wealth, etc), you can deliver value to them with
content, products, and services.
Finally, it’s important to note that most accounts have a primary niche, but they
also go outside of it to talk about other things. For example, almost everyone in
the marketing and fitness niches also talks about mindset. This is because mindset
is relevant to every self-improvement domain. Don’t feel like you have to stick to
one area. You can pair two or more complementary niches.
Though you’ll be offering all kinds of value to all kinds of people, it’s still useful to
settle on your go-to offer and audience. Then, you’ll eventually want to solidify
what you’re offering from a business perspective. For example…
● Selling eBooks.
● Selling high-priced courses.
● Selling coaching and/or consultations.
● Selling membership to a useful community.
● Selling a physical product or a piece of software.
● Some combination of two or three or all of these.
For me, I want to help freelancers, content creators, and online business
beginners make more money. 99% of my customers get that value from me
through low-priced courses, while 1% of them pay for higher-priced consulting.
Later on, I will also offer a paid content subscription and maybe a physical or
software product. We’ll discuss this more in step #7.
● I tweet.
● I copy-paste those onto LinkedIn.
● I screenshot my tweets and post them on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Choose the platform you already like best or the one you think will build your
brand best, then focus the majority of your energy on it. For most of you, Twitter
and LinkedIn will be best because they are perfect for written content.
● A well-written bio.
● A relevant profile photo.
● A relevant header photo (if the platform has one).
● Eventually, a landing page to funnel traffic to.
The profile photo is the simplest of them. If you’re a personal brand, it should be a
high-quality picture of you. If not, it can be a logo. Your header photo isn’t terribly
important, but if you want to optimize it, talk to a graphic designer. There are
plenty on Fiverr and Upwork. Next, you’ll eventually want to funnel traffic to some
kind of offer, like a newsletter signup or product. You can skip this in the
beginning, but later on, it will become essential.
Those are all either pretty simple or not entirely necessary. What you should focus
on most in the beginning is your bio. This is a short pitch for why you’re worth
paying attention to. You don't get many words, so it better be good.
There are two great kinds of bios for informational and personal brands. The first
is explaining what you do for your followers. Here’s an example of that from a
200,000-follower Twitter account, @LifeMathMoney:
“Get Rich. Get Fit. Get Smarter. Learn what the schools won't teach you.”
This communicates what the page is all about, which kinds of people will like it,
and what the account can do for you. The first three sentences offer three things
that just about everyone in the world wants. That is, getting richer, fitter, and
smarter. The next sentence says that they teach what schools won’t. This is a
classic “us vs them” persuasive tactic and gives the brand a level of mystique and
a clear message: The establishment lies or withholds information, but we don’t.
LifeMathMoney then links to multiple eBooks. Again, if you have an offer already,
go ahead and put it in your bio or website slot. If not, don’t worry about it. You
can get your foot in the door first, then start a newsletter, create a product, or
become an affiliate for a product later on.
The second classic bio option is explaining who you are and doing so in a way that
makes following you appealing. This can most obviously be seen in the marketing
niche, where people signal their income to build authority. The same can be seen
in other niches too. In tech, people add which companies they’ve worked for. In
academia, they add credentials and past schools. Here’s mine:
Writer scaling my income to $1M per year (current progress: 23%). Sharing
everything I learn along the way.
This signals what I do (write), that I have an aspirational goal, that I’m pretty
successful at it (23% of $1M is a 6-figure income), and that I’m going to share
valuable thoughts about it with my audience.
My final note is that you can use a hybrid of these two strategies. For example, I
might indicate that I’m a successful writer and then include a note about what I
teach and who I teach it to.
Think about your niche, your offer, and the value you provide. Then, ask:
Below, I’ve listed 17 persuasive devices that garner the most engagement and
interest in your account. Please note that when I wrote these, I was thinking about
tweets, but you can apply their persuasive principles to content on any platform.
1. You, Not I
I don’t use “I” in the majority of my content. Why? Because my audience wants to
learn about writing and marketing, not just me and my thoughts.
Think about it. If I post something like the following, what will the reaction be?
Okay, cool. Every person who sees that is moving on. Now, let’s try something a
little different.
Even if someone agrees with you, they probably won’t want your opinion on their
timeline. On the other side, those who disagree probably won’t care to argue
against one person’s dumb thoughts. When you present your opinion as a general
truth, you make it a lot more appealing.
2. Except Sometimes I
That said, using “I” does make sense, especially if you’re building a personal
brand. For example, if I want to talk about a big win I had, there’s no way to make
that a “you” statement, nor would doing so be beneficial.
The best practice here is that if you use “I”, it better be something like:
It pays 2x as much as my last one, and the company culture is perfect for me.
● When you post something self-referential like this, people will like and share
because they’re happy for you.
● Those who don’t know you will also want to check your profile out.
● Posting about yourself, and especially about your success, makes it much
easier to sell your products and services.
3. No Nuance
Obviously, this isn’t totally true. Plenty of reasonable people don’t believe in
Bitcoin, and it has a lot of limitations. There’s nothing wrong with not liking
Bitcoin, so why are we calling them clueless?
If you disagree, that’s reasonable, but I think you’ll end up being wrong.”
Everybody wants to touch that: Bitcoin lovers, Bitcoin haters, and everyone in
between. You don’t have to be as combative as my example, but in general, you
want to leave nuance out of short-form content.
4. Comparisons
Now you’re presenting two arguments, not just one. So not only will carnivores
engage with your post (and be more likely to do so because of the drama), but
vegans are more likely to as well. The best engagement comes from both sides.
Comparisons give you a better shot at getting it.
5. Predictions
The sports media business has been using this principle for years. Predictions are
tantalizing because you put your credibility on the line with them. It’s like a bet,
except instead of money, you’re wagering your understanding of the world.
By 2050, over half the population will be self-employed, and we’ll all be better off
for it.”
Again, people who agree will engage, people who disagree will argue, and your
impressions will shoot up.
6. Lists
While overused, lists are notorious for getting great engagement. An example that
comes to mind is “The 10 most important principles in marketing” as the title and
a list of them as the meat of the content. Lists also often have a question at the
end of them, such as “what would you add?”, to increase engagement.
These work because they give you multiple shots at igniting emotion. Often, a
post will have just one or two ideas. When using lists, it can have 10, and people
might engage if they agree or disagree with just one of them.
They also have a friendly format, for two reasons. First, they take up more space
on the timeline. People are rolling through posts faster than you think. If they love
you, they’ll often stop to see what you have to say no matter what, but most
people don’t (at least not yet). A long list gives you more real estate and a better
shot at catching attention. Second, lists are easy to consume. Most people don’t
want to read deeply. Putting concepts in a list instead of a paragraph makes them
easier to understand, which usually makes them easier to engage with.
7. Correcting Consensus
People love someone who thinks differently. Even if they disagree, going against
consensus is an extremely appealing persuasive device.
You can do this with any subject. Take a widely believed idea and explain why it’s
wrong. People will listen.
This is one I’ve used a lot. It really, really, really resonates with a certain type of
person. Why? Same reason why Jordan Peterson became one of the most famous
intellectuals in the modern age. Everyone knows that they can do more, and many
of them like to hear about it.
When you remind them, they go one of two ways. They either agree and share or
argue against you. Either way, that’s engagement. My top tweet ever (over 4
million impressions) fits into this category. A bit of tough talk can go a long way.
9. Inspirational
Not much to say on this one. It’s similar to personal responsibility porn, but it’s
usually less abrasive. Inspirational tweets provide a reminder of what people want
or who they want to become. An example:
That example combines inspiration about being successful with the appealing
philosophical idea of being private about it. Motivational pages thrive off content
like this. If you want a softer audience, you can word these positively. If you want
a more hardass one, you can be a little more “tough love”.
10. Encouraging
Feel-good posts often do well. Give people credit for all the work they’re doing,
note that they’re doing their best, etc. These might not get you a lot of profile
clicks, but if you have the right audience, they’ll respond well to them.
A quick example:
Alternatively, you can challenge your audience. Tell them that they could be doing
better, that they’re not managing their time well enough, that they’re
procrastinating, etc.
An example:
“If you don’t have $5,000 in the bank, you better not be watching football today.
One thing to be careful of is that being too harsh can push your audience away
and attract people you don’t want following you. Talking down to people is a
common marketing tactic for personal brands, but I don’t recommend it for those
of you trying to build a sustainable brand.
12. Us Vs Them
This is a classic copywriting technique, and it works for content too. It’s a lot like
correcting consensus and comparisons, so I’ll use a similar example.
This will resonate deeply with people who follow the carnivore diet. It appeals to
their sense of identity, strokes their ego, and turns nutrition preferences into a
battle. “Us versus them” essentially politicizes any topic (vegans vs meat eats,
democrats vs republicans, etc), which increases engagement.
13. Delivering Real Value
When I write “delivering real value”, I mean educating people on your expertise.
This won’t apply to those who just want to entertain, but for anyone who teaches
(fitness, marketing, whatever else), it’s an important type of content.
Unfortunately, this one is often underused because you need to deliver value and
be persuasive at the same time. Most people only do the first, get poor
engagement, and start almost exclusively posting clichés.
Just know that you can pull off delivering value and getting crazy good
engagement at the same time. You just need to combine it with other persuasive
devices too. Value is often inert on its own, but when mixed with other appeals, it
turns into something special.
Like being self-referential, this method also builds up your brand and your ability
to sell. Posting platitudes all day gets people addicted to your content, but it
doesn’t make you worth buying from. When you deliver value, you build trust, and
you can leverage that trust into profit.
14. Transformation
This is a subset of talking about yourself in a positive light (aka flexing). The
difference is that rather than just showing off your results, you also talk about
what you used to be. Depressed to happy, poor to rich, etc.
An example…
Grateful for every person who has helped me along the way.”
You can also post about someone else’s transformation, especially if you’re
coaching them or working with them in some capacity.
15. Surprise
When people are browsing their timelines, they see a lot of the same stuff. They
often end up getting in a groove where they don’t engage with anything because
it all looks the same. This is when you use a pattern interrupt.
This works because readers are expecting a cliché post about journaling,
meditation, or some other wellness activity. Instead, you surprise them while
simultaneously delivering a valuable mindset shift.
Many creators have a series of inside jokes they have with their audiences. Ed
Latimore (@EdLatimore) is my favorite example. He tweets about crackheads and
black coffee.
These little jokes often light up like wildfire. Why? First of all, they’re pretty funny.
Second, people feel like they have an inside joke with him. Everyone loves an
inside joke, so they engage and even write their own versions.
Every network has a series of clichés and funny little tactics they use to get
engagement. After a while, people start to recognize these. That’s when you can
surprise them with a joke that only makes sense to that network.
For example, I see a lot of serious posts saying things like:
“If you don’t have $20K in the bank, cancel Netflix and sell your TV.
So, you might play off that cliché with something like:
“If you don’t have $10M in the bank, don’t celebrate Christmas.
People often get tons of engagement when posting fun stuff like this. They also
get lots of profile clicks because they show that they understand the culture of the
network and are creative enough to poke fun at it.
We discussed engagement a lot already, but let’s quickly summarize. If you want
people to engage, they have to feel something. Agreement, disagreement,
stroking their ego, etc. The real reason I’ve added this section, though, is that
high-engagement posts don’t always lead to followers.
Let me explain…
I’ve had tweets that reached over 1K retweets before and netted me less than 25
followers. On the other hand, I’ve had ones with 100 retweets that netted me 300
followers. The point is, there’s a big difference between a post that resonates and
a post that makes you want to find out who wrote it.
Here’s a concrete example. A couple years ago, I wrote a classic list-style platitude
about how to live a better life. It hit all the beats you’d expect: get better sleep,
eat well, etc. After an hour, I noticed it had about 30 retweets and 100 likes, so I
checked the analytics. Only three profile clicks. That’s a tiny number.
The reason why is that even though many people agreed with the tweet, nobody
cared who wrote it. There was nothing interesting about the author, so they liked,
retweeted, or ignored, but nobody wanted to check me out.
The key to getting followers is engagement and interest in you, the author. The
three best ways to do this are controversy, self-reference, and delivering value.
The controversy example can be the same one we’ve used a few times:
People want to know who is behind that strong opinion, so they click on your
profile and see. Here’s one that references yourself or your results:
“I’ve lost over 30 pounds in the last 90 days, and let me tell you…
Not only does that bring in some controversy, but it also makes you, the author
worth taking a look at. People want to know who’s losing all that weight, so they
click. Some will check you out and move on, but many will follow.
Note: “Flexing” your results too much will put a lot of people off. Being too
controversial will too. These are tools, no prescriptions. Only use these methods if
they apply to the audience you’re trying to build, and do so carefully.
Long-Form Content
That’s where longer content comes in. There are three core types of it:
The amount of long-from content you create per week will depend on your
preferences and the brand you’re trying to build. Though I don’t recommend it, if
you’re just trying to build a large audience for a generic page, you don’t need
long-form content at all. In that case, your goal is just to rack up followers, not to
amass email subscribers, customers, clients, and brand advocates.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to build a legitimate educational brand, I
recommend doing at least one long-form post per week. A couple years ago, I did
zero, and while my follower count exploded, my email subscribers and revenue
didn’t. This was because I was picking up a bunch of dopamine addict followers,
not ones that want to be educated and are willing to pay for that education.
I think one, two, or three pieces of long-form content per week is the right level
for most brands. Let’s do some examples of each. These will all be the first tweets
of Twitter threads, but you can apply their principles to any platform.
Your next step will be deciding exactly what you want to sell. Some options:
You can also do a combination of these rather than choosing just one or two.
If you want people to check out your offer, you need to get them off the platform.
Here’s how:
First, let’s talk about some conventional copywriting methods. Two of the most
common are AIDA and PAS. With both, you’re looking to grab attention with a
well-written first line, cultivate interest with the body of the text, then sell your
reader on a click. Some basic examples for the courses I recently retired:
Ad #1:
Ad #2:
How much you can earn when you combine them = At least $100,000 (seriously)
Even in those basic examples, you can see my mini sales pitch take form. They
catch attention, make a small argument for why you should click, then ask you to
make that click. You can use similar copy to sell your offers. I will say, though,
these conventional-looking ads are the weakest of the three strategies I explain in
this section. The reason is that while they’re fairly persuasive, they don’t get any
engagement. That means lower reach.
The second way to persuade with your posts is by delivering real value. As we’ve
already discussed, if you can create a high-value, high-engagement long-form
post, that’s the best of both worlds. This is true for getting followers, but it’s also
true for selling your offer. Once you show real expertise with long-form writing,
people will want to buy from you.
Finally, the number one copywriting principle that crushes it on social media is
proof. This means providing evidence that supports the quality and effectiveness
of your product, service, membership, coaching, or affiliate product.
Let’s go through some examples. I’ll give a brief explanation of why each of them
works, then give you a couple more methods that I don’t have a screenshot for
but are also effective.
Why It Works: This post shows my expertise, provides a bit of value, then makes a
sales pitch. If I wanted to, I could turn this list into a thread where each list item is
its own tweet. That would deliver more value and show off my expertise even
more. The point is, providing value and signaling that you know what you’re
talking about are great for making sales.
Why It Works: This is a simple one. When people see 30 five-star reviews, they
start to wonder what the hype is about. Of course, they can’t see that unless they
visit the landing page. So, I write it into the copy, which provides proof and
motivates them to at least give it a look.
Why It Works: First, this provides proof that I know what I’m talking about. Your
results are your number one selling point, so use them frequently when selling
your products. If you’re selling a freelance/agency product, you can use a payment
that you received from a client. If you’re selling a fitness product, you can post a
picture of your body or a video of you working out. The second reason why these
are so effective is that they garner engagement. Your followers will see your
results and like the post because they’re happy for you. This gives the post more
reach, which then gives you more clicks. I’ve found this method to be the absolute
best for getting sales. The show of your results gets engagement, then the clicks
come to your offer.
1. Testimonials.
2. The results of one of your customers/students.
Two notes before we finish this section. First, most of the time, influencers “soft
sell” with their posts. So rather than just posting a sales pitch, they start with
high-engagement content and finish with a pitch.
A recent example was my 100K-followers sale, where rather than post my progress
plus a link, I made a celebration post only, let it get some engagement, then
plugged the sale in the tweet below. On Instagram, you can make a sales photo
the second in your carousel. On LinkedIn, you can start a post like it’s a regular one
then finish with a call to click a link on your profile or one in the replies below.
Second, you can use copywriting principles when creating content, not just when
crafting sales posts. For example, you might show off your results or write
valuable long-form content without the explicit goal of getting sales. Then, later
on, when you try to get customers or clients, they will already trust you and be
ready to hand you their money.
Finally, I recommend that you think about advertising posts as a funnel. You don’t
want to close the sale in one post. You also don’t want to brush it off and not try
to make it tantalizing at all. Instead, the idea is to create interest. You’re selling
them on clicking the link. After that, the landing page will do the heavy lifting.
Now, if this were a 200-page book, I would write full sections on:
● Offer creation.
● Funnel creation.
● Copywriting.
● Email marketing.
● Sales.
But it’s not, so I’ll just recommend that you learn more about those on YouTube
and inside the community.
What’s most important early on is to not get overwhelmed. If your accounts are
small, how you monetize them barely matters. Build your following, build your
email list, and then decide which combination of offers best meets your needs.
Maybe that’s low-ticket only, high-ticket only, or some combination. No matter
what, you’ll need an audience first. Focus on that right now. The rest will fall into
place as you start to understand sales and marketing better.
Roadmap
Here’s a quick summary/checklist of what’s in this guide:
Monetizing
Scaling
The last thing I’ll give you are some software picks to get you started (these are
affiliate links, so if you click through and buy, I’ll get a small commission):
With this guide, 50 Rules For Better Writing, and that affordable software stack,
you’ll be on the fast track to success.
Good luck.
Reminder:
There is a ton of useful information in this guide, but it only scratches the surface
of what I provide in my community and course bundle.
Click here to join the community, access 200+ past essays, get 5 new essays per
week, get your questions answered, get your writing critiqued, get a 100-page
book on writing and a 30-page guide on freelancing.
Click here to learn more about my 4-in-1 course bundle (this is a great option for
people who want to DIY and don’t want a recurring charge).
And if you can’t click those links for whatever reason, go to writingtoriches.com to
find the offers.
Thanks for reading!