10 Common Personal Branding Mistakes

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Legacy Letter where every Tuesday you’ll get an email directly from me helping you build your brand, grow your business, and leave your legacy.

Let’s get into today’s message…

A Brief Overview of Today’s Legacy Letter:

10 Common Personal Branding Mistakes I see:

1. Ignoring Audience Engagement

2. Not Having a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

3. Poor Visual Branding

4. Ignoring Storytelling

5. Lack of Consistency

6. Over-Promotion

7. Not Defining a Niche

8. Ignoring Analytics

9. Copying Others

10. Ignoring Trends and Relevancy

1. Ignoring Audience Engagement

When people leave comments on your posts, don’t be afraid to reply back.

People follow people, and people want to know you’re a real human, so engage with them and let them know you appreciate them.

Example: When someone leaves a comment on your post, reply and engage with them.

2. Not Having a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

You should always guide your readers to take a specific action… even if it’s to follow you.

Many people make the mistake of either not having a call-to-action at all, or having multiple calls-to-action, confusing the audience.

Example: At the end of your posts on either X or Linkedin, add something like this: Thanks for reading! If you found value in this post, follow me @TwitterHandle for more.

3. Poor Visual Branding

The reality is… people will make an assumption about your profile based on the way it looks.

Make sure your headshot is clear and professional-looking. And make sure your banner or header in your profile is purposeful and engaging.

Example: Here’s a profile with a clear banner and a professional-looking headshot.

4. Ignoring Storytelling

Storytelling is by far one of the most underrated aspects of personal branding. Anyone can create content in your niche… but your story is what separates you from others…

So don’t be afraid to share personal stories in your posts.

Example: Tell the story about what led you to do what you’re currently doing and add it as the “Pinned Post” on your X profile.

5. Lack of Consistency

Consistency is key for nearly anything you want to succeed at in life… even more so when it comes to building your personal brand.

Come up with a content strategy and commit to it for 6+ months.

Example: Aim to post at least once per day and never miss a day no matter what. Use scheduling apps like Metricool, or Tweethunter to schedule out multiple posts in advance.

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6. Over-Promotion

Your “personal” brand should be a combination of value, advice, tips, and personality. People do business with people.

The key is to avoid your profile looking like a storefront by only posting business or lead-generation-type content.

Example: In your content strategy, alternate between posting business content and personal content.

7. Not Defining a Niche

Without a clear niche, it’s hard for your audience to understand what you offer or how you can help them.

People often associate others with a specific idea or concept.

The goal is to associate your personal brand with your core offering (your business).

Example: In the bio of your profiles, make it crystal clear what you do and how you help people… even say, “I help people with… xyz.”

8. Ignoring Analytics

Nobody crushes it right out the gate with their personal brand. The goal is to consistently get better every week.

But without knowing what’s working, you’ll be spinning your wheels and making the same mistakes over and over.

Example: At the end of every week, go into your scheduling software or into the platform you use and export the analytics from your posts. Scan through them… see what did well and what didn’t. In the future, post more of the stuff that did well.

9. Copying Others

There is only one you.

A personal brand is personal to who you are and your unique skill set. Don’t get caught up in how others have been successful. Focus on yourself.

Example: Write down what makes you unique and add it to your content strategy.

10. Ignoring Trends and Relevancy

Failing to adapt to changing trends or staying relevant in your niche can cause your brand to become outdated.

Don’t get too carried away here to the point where some things become “off-brand,” but take advantage as trends arise.

Example: A year ago, Chat GPT took social media by storm. Everyone was posting about it… and you could create a Chat GPT thread and grow by thousands of followers. Look for trends that are popular but remain relevant to your brand.

There you have it! 10 common personal branding mistakes I see tons of people making every single day.

That’s all for today’s message. Thanks for reading!

Until next time... Keep building,

Clifton

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help:

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We utilize a tool called Metricool -- it allows us to share to multiple platforms for our clients, and it has a strong track record with consistent content delivery (we swear by it):

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