Your branding is EVERYTHING
One of the good side about growth is the number of interactions with your account is exploding.
If a few months ago I was happy as a kid when there was a comment on one of my stories, now I’m lucky enough to get new comments every day and it makes me feel that my account is alive.
After spending three months creating content into the void and being invisible, I finally breathed a sigh of relief and said to myself: I was right not to give up when the only thing i wanted to do was to do it.
Now that I’m growing, I want to help others who are in the same situation I was in: have positive growth and progress in their writing careers.
Today, this is the most brutal but honest advice I’m going to give you: you need good branding like VERY GOOD branding.
It’s the most important part of your profile and you should take the deepest care of every element of it (only if you want to be followed, of course).
I browse dozens of profiles every day and I’m a little disappointed. Some have incredible content but their profiles are far too unwelcoming or messy. They send signals that aren’t clear and their branding hurts their growth.
My branding is far from perfect, I admit, but know one thing: it used to be even worse. I’ve seen the difference between this profile and the previous one. I was writing the same things, the same quality, and yet this profile converts a thousand more.
It made me realize that the online world is just as much about appearances as the offline world. In the offline world, we’re going to judge a person in the first few seconds of a interaction. More often, our attention is going to be focused on their looks.
If they are attractive, they’ll benefit from the halo effect. If they aren’t, they’ll suffer from the horn effect.
(If you aren’t familiar with these, i can only encourage you to jump on my newsletter because i made a long post about how these two effects have the power to change a life.)
It’s exactly the same in this virtual world. The average user sees dozens of profiles every day, if not hundreds.
Ask yourself the one million dollar question : Why should they follow you?
Would you even follow you if you saw your profile ?
Your profile has to stand out from the hundreds of others. It has to be impactful enough to make them stop, piqued by curiosity or interest, and say “Why don’t I check out his profile?
Once that’s done, it’s your content that’s going to convert. If you think about it, your profile is even more important than your content, since it’s the step that will decide an interaction or not with your content.
If your name or profile photo isn’t attractive, rest assured, they won’t click on your content.
Now that we’ve said that…
How to create a good profile ?
My method is simple: you want to opt for a photo, look at the top writers in your niche, observe the colors, the positioning of their photo, the style, the framing and copy something you like.
If you’ve got the resources and want to go all out, you can contact a photographer who’s an expert in this field and can create a beautiful photo for you. Contact someone who use to do photos that convert, someone who have an expertise in marketing. Who will explain to you what will work and why it’s going to work.
The photo must be in line with your branding theme. Certain colors work better with certain niches. It’s up to you to find the best aesthetic associations.
If you don’t want to show your face, you have a solution like mine: find something simple and impactful. I chose an ink pen on a black background. For me, it symbolizes writing in all its forms. It’s visible and in line with my niche.
Once the profile photo is done. It’s time for the name. Again, no rocket science. You can use your first and last name. Many do it successfully. You can use an alias that sounds good. “My name is Bond, James Bond” It’s the perfect time to create your catchy name.
You can use an idea. Again, take inspiration from successful people.
Browsing medium, I realized that almost all successful authors use a name or alias. I didn’t take this route because I already had my branding in place before creating my account, but also because I don’t want to embody a person but an idea.
I want all writers to be able to put themselves in my shoes and say, “I could have written that.”
You’re free to follow your desires BUT because there’s a BUT!
Some ideas are fatal mistakes. Pejorative connotations, humor that’s way too targeted, too cold profile … for the last time, it’s all about signal.
Keep with you : Is my signal clear, or is there too much noise?
When browsing your profile, the reader needs to know : - what you do - the value he will get following you
And for this seduction operation, they only have a name, a photo and a bio. That’s a lot and not a lot.
“But I’m Shy”
That’s one of the objections I get most often when I say they need to change.
1 — I’m not your therapist 2 — I’m shy too but you don’t have the choice to put yourself out there 3 — No one can do for you the steps you need to take. And being shy isn’t incompatible with a beautiful profile. You can turn your shyness into a strength and create an aesthetic profile that respects your limits.
Conclusion
The question I get the most : How can I grow my account? The first step is this. Not content. Not being consistent. Not publishing a lot. The first and only step is to fix your profile. When they see you, they want to connect with you.
Once it’s done right, it makes everything much easier. More conversions per profile visit. Faster growth. More interaction. And more motivation for you to create content.
For the hundredth time in this article, don’t miss this crucial step in the building of your epic story.
As usual, if you got any value from this article, please let me know in the comments. If you’d like me to review your branding, feel free to leave one too, explaining what you do on medium. I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer everyone, but I’ll try. Be careful, i’m honest. If you can’t stand criticism, avoid it.