I always wanted to be a content creator, so when my video accidentally reached 270,000 views for the first time, I had to find a way to keep that going. The problem was, this video was recapping things I had DIY’d for my wedding that was 2 months ago and all of a sudden I was attracting thousands and thousands of new followers that wanted more of that. So what did I do? What anyone in my position would. I became a wedding DIY content creator.
But heres the thing, going viral (okay I know 100,000 isn’t viral… but in a few videos time I was going to make a video in this niche that hit 7.3 MILLION) shouldn’t be the goal. In fact, it was the thing that lead me on a 3 year tangent before I figured out my direction. Since then, I have learned some very important things about how to not build a personal brand.
Lesson 1 – Going viral isn’t the goal and here is why
Yes going viral gets a lot of eyeballs on your content, which can be helpful to gain you momentum. But 1 million disconnected and uninterested eyes are far less valuable to you than 1000 trusting and engaged followers. And in my case because it happened so early, it actually thrust me into a niche that I didn’t know anything about and that I could not sustain. I became a creator that only created for the sake of views, not trust or authority!
Lesson 2 – Making content only for your audience will wear you out
And thats exactly what happened. Because this wasn’t natural to me or the world that I was actually living in, I quickly ran out of ideas and ran out of money (yep, I was paying for everything out of pocket just to make a video!) and it just wasn’t sustainable. So when building a personal brand, don’t forget to make it about you! What your audience connects with is always going to be a factor in what content direction you focus on (if growth in that area suits your brand or business goals), but that doesn’t mean you should go all in because all of a sudden a video went viral.
Lesson 3 – Don’t expect engagement when there is no relationship
One of my biggest lessons from this experience is that no body cares about you online until you give them a good enough reason for them to care about you and to trust you. What I mean by that is people are using social media for entertainment, to get ideas, to learn something, for inspiration etc. If you show and say ‘hi, I’m just jumping on here…’ you’ve just lost them. You provided no value or reason for them to stay. The best content connects with the audience where they are and what they want to get out of their time on social media. So, when it comes to creating a personal brand, those who are the most successful understand that it is not a one way street.
Lesson 4 – I was trying to please everyone, which meant I was talking to no one
I was trying to speak to every single engaged woman on the platform, which lead to my audience not being hyper engaged. The more specific you can get, the better and easier it will be for the algorithm to categorise your content and know who to show it to, so use that to your advantage. Learn everything that you can about your target audience. What are they doing, what are they thinking, what are their pain points, what gets them excited and motivated? That way, you can position your content to address all of these things, and build trust and authority in your niche and industry. I tried doing this with my wedding DIYS, and it worked for a while, but the problem was I wasn’t living in that world.
So now I am building my brand in a new way. A way that is authentically me and builds a relationship with my audience that makes them feel seen and heard. So when it comes to my photography my clients know that their photographer is on the same journey of life as them and will capture the memories that us parents will want to have for a lifetime.
Is the experience just as important as the photos to you when you’re looking at booking a photographer?
