“Is it too late for me to start an online brand?”

I’ve been a digital marketing specialist for 7 years and I always get this question.

So I finally took my own advice and started a personal brand and for the last 4 months I tried posting regular content on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter along with publishing a regular article/newsletter online.

The results:

The goal was to post regular content on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter along with publishing a regular article/newsletter online.

• LinkedIn: Started with 324 connections ended up with 563 followers. 117% increase on post impressions in the past 90 days.

• Instagram: Started with 100 followers, gained 25. Post impressions up by 27.4%.
• Twitter: Over 32K post impressions, almost 6K profile visits. More than 2X the following count.

• Articles & Newsletters: Published newsletters across Medium, Substack, GetRevue and, more recently, Beehiiv.

From zero, manage to grow it to a list of over 200 subs in total.

“But these are vanity metrics, not business results.”

The fact is having followers in the hundreds won’t make me viral soon but that’s not the point. I’m not doing it to get famous. I doubt I ever will.

But like I always tell my clients: building an online brand and publishing regular content is the best way to:

a) get leads to your business and

b) ensure that you stay relevant and top of mind to your customers.

“What’s the net effect to my bottomline?”

• Upwork profile views are up 3X.
• Search hits on my name is optimized for the right keywords. Specifically, I wanted “top rated digital marketing consultant” to appear right next to my name search.
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is up 11.63% in the last quarter of 2022.
• Booked my first paid consult and a Facebook ad project in December.

“Is it hard to publish content regularly?”

Yes, but only at first.

But once you get the hang of it, it actually gets fun.

One of the things that prevent a lot of people from creating a personal brand or promoting their business online is ego — the fear of getting embarrassed or made fun of.

Newsflash: no one cares that much and we’re all too self-absorbed online to mind small mistakes.

Remember we all start from zero views, zero followers so get over yourself.

How to begin? Pick a platform, and post regularly.

Don’t know what to post? Pick a content creator that you like and write your own version of their posts until you get the hang of it.

The point is to start and to keep showing up on a regular basis — that’s how you build an audience and a following.

With the current crop of digital tools at our disposal and how quickly it is to learn, create and share content, it has never been easier to promote and market your own brand.

All you need to do is start.