Personal brands are a powerful asset, but most people do not seek one out just for the sake of having it. The doors that a strong personal brand opens are what people strive for, and those doors generally have common characteristics at their foundation. 

In this blog post, we take a look at the key facets that most personal branding goals have to help you set your own goals for your personal brand.

What Do Most Goals for Personal Branding Have in Common?

Most personal branding goals have the following characteristics in common: they focus on professional development, require network growth, prioritize economic gain, involve creating more leverage and freedom in your career, and include developing and showcasing professional skills as a critical element of attaining each goal.

While the way each of those personal branding goal characteristics is accentuated and prioritized will be unique for each individual, those are the key facets that most personal branding goals possess.

Common personal brand goal characteristics covered in this blog post:

1. Most goals for personal branding focus on professional development 
2. Making Connections and Growing Your Network
3. Most Goals for Personal Branding Include Economic Gain or Monetization  
4. Freedom and Leverage in Your Career
5. The Opportunity to Develop and Showcase Your Professional Skills

1. Most goals for personal branding focus on professional development 

All personal branding goals focus on professional development at some level. For example, personal branding goals might include finding new job opportunities, improving your resume, strengthening digital channels to look better to potential employers, and making more connections and network growth— all personal branding goals related to professional development. 

For many people, personal branding is a means to an end related to advancing their careers, business growth, and supporting other professional projects. 

Check out our personal branding framework as a starting point for building your own personal brand.

2. Making Connections and Growing Your Network

Network growth is one of the positive outcomes that building a personal brand produces, and is usually a facet of every personal branding goal that someone sets. 

Goals like connecting with more potential employers and recruiters, building relationships with more thought leaders and influencers in your industry, and developing a larger audience of potential customers for your business are all personal branding goals that have network growth in common. Follow the tips in the personal branding framework blog post linked above to see how you can be intentional in your niche target audience identification and growth.

Learn more about personal branding benefits in this blog post: The Benefits of Personal Branding.

3. Most Goals for Personal Branding Include Economic Gain or Monetization  

If someone asks “what do most goals for personal branding have in common?” there’s a strong likelihood the answer involves money. Reason being that personal branding goals, both long and short term, generally include economic gain or monetization at some level. In other words, people build personal brands because they want to improve their financial situations.

Examples include strengthening resumes and LinkedIn profiles to get better jobs and advance in your career, and building an audience to promote your business. Personal brands have plenty of other benefits that have nothing to do with money, but financial benefit is generally an element of every personal branding goal at some level.

Use these personal branding tools to help monetize your own personal brand.

4. Freedom and Leverage in Your Career

With the tools and scale that the internet provides there is no limit to what people can achieve. And many creators and entrepreneurs are taking advantage as they build personal brands that enable them to control their own careers and separate their time from their income. 

Side businesses that give you additional income or passive income make your full time job less of an “all or nothing” aspect of your finances, and helps to de-risk situations where you might have face a layoff, salary reduction, negative changes in your job role, or some other challenge that is out of your control when it comes to your job. 

Beyond that benefit, some people are able to make enough money with their side hustles to completely replace their full time job income — creating leverage that allows them the freedom to decide what jobs they take, or whether they leave the workforce to work for themselves. 

This freedom and leverage is often an aspect of people’s personal branding goals, as they want a personal brand as an asset that has the long term potential to give them more control of their income and career path. 

Follow these personal branding tips to get started on your own personal brand journey. 

5. The Opportunity to Develop and Showcase Your Professional Skills

Monetization and financial leverage aside, one of the most rewarding and valuable byproducts of building a personal brand is the opportunity to develop your skills and showcase them via real-world case studies.

Examples of personal branding goals that have skill building in common:

• The goal of building larger social media channels demands personal brand content creation, both written and visual. If you achieve this personal branding goal, your writing skills, image creation skills, and video creation skills are likely to improve and be evident on your social media channels like LinkedIn, Tiktok, and Twitter
• Writing a book or ebook will simultaneously improve your writing skills and give you a great asset for demonstrating them to potential employers
• Building an ecommerce business as a side hustle will force you to learn the ins and outs of marketing, sales, logistics, and a plethora of other skills. Your online store and successful side business will be a tangible example of those skills and your ability to apply them

Whether your personal branding goal is to advance your career via new job opportunities and job role advancement, or if you want to set out as an entrepreneur, professional skills development is an important aspect that most goals for personal branding have in common. And this isn’t just the truth for seasoned professionals, as college students and young professionals working on their personal brands have goals that generally involve developing their professional skills and showcasing them to potential employers, or building credibility as skilled entrepreneurs.  

Related: Personal Branding for Job Seekers - Developing a Personal Brand for Your Job Search

Final Thoughts

There are a variety of goals that you can have for your personal brand, ranging from building an audience to leverage as you start a new business to building a stronger reputation and thought leadership platform in your industry. While every personal branding goal is unique for each individual, most goals for personal branding have the elements discussed in this blog post in common.

Bonus Personal Branding Tips

• Personal Brand vs Business Brand - What’s the Difference? [Comparison + Examples]
• The Importance of Personal Branding
• What Are Personal Brand Attributes? - Definition, Overview of Key Personal Brand Attributes, and Examples
• Personal Brand Attributes Examples - Different Types of Personal Brand Attributes Explained
• Examples of Personal Brands: 5 Personal Brand Examples From Creators Who Built Huge Audiences and Successful Businesses
• Personal Branding Action Plan - Checklist + Complete Guide for Starting Your Personal Brand
• Personal Branding Checklist - Essentials Every Personal Brand Needs
• Personal Branding Myths Debunked: What People Get Wrong About Personal Brands
• Common Personal Branding Mistakes: Personal Brand Mistake Examples + Tips for Avoiding Them
• 10 YouTube Personal Branding Content Ideas
• 10 Content Ideas For Building Your Personal Brand On Facebook
• Personal Branding Challenges: Tips for Overcoming the Most Common Personal Branding Challenges
• Personal Brand Audit: Assess Your Personal Brand [free guide]