Social Proof: Predictions About The Future of Personal Branding

Personal branding has become an increasingly important aspect of successful career growth. It’s a big part of why we created Social Proof, our series tackling the topic. We interview amazing individuals with different goals who grew their brands on social media to further their career and business prospects. Thanks to social media, individuals have more control than ever over how they present themselves to the world. As the landscape of social media continues to evolve, the future of personal branding will be shaped by these changes.

In this article, we will explore the future of personal branding through the expert opinions of Social Proof interviewees and I’ll be making my own predictions based on general market trends. Stick around to dive into the developments that are set to shape the way we think about personal branding in the coming years.

Creators will need to find a balance between authenticity and oversharing while creating an identity of their own

People are increasingly wary of buttoned-up, “professional” content that doesn’t feel genuine. So Fadeke Adegubyi emphasizes that “Anyone building a personal brand should lean into authenticity.” However, it’s also vital to find the balance between authenticity and oversharing. Resist the temptation to give away every detail of what happens in your workplace, and get up to speed on HR’s guidelines for what can and cannot be shared.

Fadeke also shared that people need to build identities outside of their employers, and in a recent edition of The Jungle Gym, Peter Yang echoes this idea. He shares three questions that people might start to ask themselves:

What's my zone of genius?
What's my long-term goal?
What's my plan to get there?

As the economy and tech industry go through another shift, more people will look inwards and ask themselves who they are separate from their employer and how they can craft an identity that is wholly theirs.

You can grow a large audience on a social media platform, but how are you going to achieve the goals of personal branding like showing your expertise and providing value upfront to keep the professional opportunities coming? Jack Appleby says, “If you're building a personal brand based on a profession or your business expertise, there is immense value in having content that is deeper than a single social media post. Twitter is great, but 280 characters on their own only go so far.”

Whether it's a newsletter, an encyclopedic YouTube video, a Twitter Note, or a deck that you've shared online, creating an in-depth piece of content on a channel that you own is where you can go from someone who's in the space to someone who's provided value. In tandem with this idea, turning large pieces of content into smaller chunks for repurposing on different platforms where you might not need to make as heavy an investment will also become part of the personal branding future.