There have been a few recent changes here on Han Meets World and with it, I thought I would share with you a couple of key points that may not only help you, but also serve as a good little reminder for me. From experience, running your own site alongside a day job can be tricky at times and the line between personal brand and personal project can become blurred.

While it may seem simple enough to see the actions that need to be taken for someone else' brand, the line does not seem quite as transparent when dealing with your own. So, in line with the relaunch of the Han Meets World website, here are a couple of tips for maintaining a strong personal brand:

1. Marketing as a friend, operating like a brand. It's not personal, it's just business.

This point sort of comes in two parts:

A. I learned this one from experience. The great thing about blogging - and the whole reason influencer marketing took off - is that it creates an authentic relationship (most of the time) between brands and consumers. Despite our extensively-developed marketing options, nothing will ever quite beat word-of-mouth from a real human. 

However, the difference between being a friend and a blogger/influencer is that you have to find a professional line. It is all very well to take a stance, provide critical feedback and make witty comments about your weekend routine of binge-watching Netflix and eating chocolate. 

If you are serious about taking your personal brand further however, it is important to remember that you are representing something for your audience. An ideal, a goal, a way of being. Brand socials and sites are there for providing value for others. Complaining about a 'friend', a brand or something else, does not serve you other than as a cathartic reliever for a whole five seconds. If you wish to voice your opinions online, I highly recommend creating a private or personal account. 

B. Social media and apps are, first and foremost, a business. And as such, they must operate as so, conducting things like updates and checks in compliance with laws and customer feedback.

Particularly at the beginning of the year, it was not abnormal to scroll through the ol' Twitter and Insta feeds and see at least 10+ users complaining about the lack of likes and followers and "how unfair" the algorithm was. Let me just clear something up: it's not personal! It's really just business.

As a personal brand grows, just like any other business, you really have to keep defining the overall goal of it. Polishing it. While a blog can serve to provide some personal thoughts, we have to remember to separate ourselves from the product itself. Less likes does not equal that we are boring. Likes are an analytical tool for seeing where we can scale up the 'service' we provide to others in continually writing a blog and posting photos. Likes do not, I repeat DO NOT, equal your self-worth.

The solution? Love what you do, and the content you get to produce, but I strongly encourage you to exercise treating your blog as another point in your diary. I've previously mentioned making time in the diary for it, however content strategy is just as important a factor.

This means choosing days that work for you to post your blog posts and social media posts and sticking to them religiously. Mondays have been a blog posting day for me for a while now - which I will continue to uphold - but moving forward I will officially only be uploading Instagram posts on Wednesdays and Sundays. It can be too easy to get excited and confuse your audience. Keep it consistent and if you want to post whenever you feel like it, I again highly suggest creating personal accounts - that have no relation to your personal brand accounts.

2. Expanding your reach, developing your network.

Personal brands are businesses. Whether selling yourself or a product. It needs nourishing, it needs developing and so scaling up is key in the long term. Having a six month, one year, five year (you get the idea) plan is crucial to the personal brand growth. As is the case for any business!

This will happen by continually developing and learning new ways to make your site and content stand out. From upscaling my site, to continually finding ways to network with others, a personal brand can never stay still. From daily posting in year one to establishing a social theme by the end of year two, there are never enough ways to be the best representation of your professional values.

What is one action you could take today to make things a little easier for yourself and your personal brand today?

Han x