Over the past several years I have been educating myself on how to grow my personal brand as a blogger and even working as an influencer. I have collaborated with brands and organizations through my social platforms as well as blogging. Its a myth that you need huge following numbers on social platforms or a blog with thousands of page views in order to collaborate. Brands, now more than ever, have learned the power of micro-influencers. If you have a business that sells products or services you could also benefit form using influencers to market your brand. There are many ways that brands leverage influencer marketing, learn more about it HERE. I’m sharing with you some top tips of how to grow your personal brand through collaborations through your blog and social accounts as an influencer.

Blog Growth

Growing the traffic to your blog takes patience and dedication. This is an area that I have really started to try to learn and grow, especially over the last year. There is a lot of great information that you can learn on this by reading other blogs on Pinterest, watching YouTube videos or following other bloggers on Social Media that share helpful tips. Collaborating with brands and even other bloggers is a great way to help your blog grow. When you collaborate with other bloggers you can guest post on their blog and typically a link back to your blog is shared. Brands that collaborate with you on a post may send you free products or even promote a blog from your website. This helps to spread more awareness to you and grow your personal brand.

Authenticity

Discovering my voice and a message I am passionate about sharing took some time. My messaging and brand also continues to grow and evolve. I have realized how important it is to be authentic when it comes to sharing your personal brand with others. People appreciate people who are real and that they can relate to. If you do not share your authentic self, it with show through and people will be less likely to connect and entrust in you. Finding and sticking to your authenticity is not always easy, but it will pay off and help you grow organically. It also makes you more attractive to brands, making them more likely to want to collaborate with you. Do not do brand collaborations simply because you get something free or save money. Make sure whatever you are promoting whether its personal or through a collaboration, that it aligns with you. A great example of someone who has stayed authentic as an influencer is Jen Strange, check out her story HERE.

Build Trust

You must build trust with your audience and also those that you choose to collaborate with. Sticking to your word and following through on work that is promised is essential. When you work well with brands as an influencer, follow what is requested and deliver on time, then you can request a testimony from the companies you have worked with. It also helps you build a good reputation. Brands may be more likely to want to build an ongoing relationship with you as well. Being authentic, as talked about above, is part of what helps both your audience and collaborators want to trust you.

There are many strategies, tools and methods you can use to grow your personal brand that are both organic and not organic. Regardless, if you do not have the basics down than success will be much more difficult. First sticking to these basics will help you be more attractive to others and allow to to create a long term relationship where people want to stick around, continue to follow and even work with you. If you are looking for some specific Instagram growth strategies, you can check those out in my previous post: “Top Tips for Increasing your Instagram Following & Engagement from a Social Media Manager”. For more information on where to find brands to work with, you can check out my previous post - “6 Ways to Find Brands to Collaborate With”

Be true to yourself and the rest will flow to you

Health, love & happiness,

Courtney