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© 2025 Copyright, Jennifer R. Farmer

The PR Whisperer

Author, Crisis Communications Expert, Strategic Communications Advisor

Tag: personal branding

Want to Grow or Protect Your Brand in 2025: Remember These 5 Tips

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Be in private, who you say you are in public.

Your brand is like currency. The stronger your brand, the greater your leverage. The weaker your brand, the more difficulty you’ll face in building relationships, launching new products and closing business deals.

This really isn’t hard to believe. Companies work with influencers and spokespersons who have strong brands. They work with people who aren’t marred by conflict and crisis.

For these reasons and more, everyone should be concerned with their personal and professional brand. In 2025, if you are looking to build or solidify your brand, here are five things you should consider:

  1. The first step in developing a brand is getting clear on who you are and how you want to be known

    Once you have a vision for who you are and how you want to be known, you can make decisions that support your vision.

  2. Your brand is not just what you say, it is what you consistently do.

    The best thing you can do for your brand is to be consistent. It is also to develop a consistent practice of living the way you want to be perceived. If you are a health influencer, develop a consistent practice of making decisions that are good for your physical and mental health.

  3. Be in private who you say you are in public

    A strong brand is fidelity to who you say you are. In other words, close the gap between who you say you are and how you actually show up. If you notice incongruity between who you say you are and what you consistently do, spend time working to address this area.

  4. Identify people who have a strong brand

    Spend time studying those individuals and get clear on what they do, why it resonates with you. Assess their strengths and any identifiable weaknesses. Determine if there is anything that they are doing that you admire.

  5. Don’t confuse having a strong brand with over-saturation

    You do not have to be everywhere at all times. You can have seasons of respite, seasons of research and seasons on private work.

 

Jennifer R. Farmer is a crisis communications expert and founder Spotlight PR LLC. The firm helps clients build their platforms and protect their brands.

7 Tips to Strengthen Your Personal Brand with IG Lives

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The IG Live is about your audience. So do everything in your power to make this a good experience for them.

By Jennifer R. Farmer

At the end of each year, I focus on the media landscape and what needs to happen to gain media coverage. I try to offer concrete tips on what clients and colleagues can do to increase their coverage, as well as brand awareness and exposure.

While I think traditional media has its place, I believe it’s also important to build and grow your personal brand. One of the ways you can do this is by building your social media platform, including growing your online followers. To do this, consider utilizing Instagram Lives. They’re a great way to interact with your followers and elicit demand for your content.

And if you’re considering an IG Live, below are 7 things you can do to ensure it goes smoothly. Try these out and let me know what you think. And if you have other tips, be sure to share those as well.

  1. Write a Script. Very few people can speak off the cuff. Most of us benefit when we have a sense of what we plan to say before we say it. When I go live, I have learned to write a short script. When I do this, its easier to remember all the points I want to make. I hate feeling like I forgot to say something that was important. If you struggle with knowing what to say and when, or if going live feels like a lot of pressure, consider writing out a script.
  2. Promote Your Live. Promoting your live is an excellent way to build demand for your live. It’s also a good way to invite your audience to join you for the live. You can promote your live with a few IG posts or via an email to your list.
  3. Be Consistent. Years ago, I offered communications support for Bishop William Barber II’s Moral Monday campaign. It was a weekly protest at the North Carolina General Assembly. The beauty of his campaign was that it was every Monday. If you missed one Monday, you knew that the event would happen again and you knew when it would happen, Mondays. Many of us want to support our favorite organizations but with a busy schedule, we are not always available. When we get consistent with IG lives, we not only condition our audience, letting them know when to expect a live, but we also reduce the internal jitters of going live due to going live regularly. I am setting an intention of developing a regular interval at which I’ll go live in 2024. How would you feel about joining me in developing your own IG live schedule?
  4. Engage with Your Audience. During the live, engage with your guest if you have one, but also with the people who tune in to watch your live. Everyone wants to be seen and acknowledged so let your audience know you see them and appreciate their being there. You can wave at people on your live with the icon, acknowledge them by name, or occasionally stop and thank your audience for joining. You could also ask questions of your audience so the live is interactive.
  5. Invite a Guest. You don’t have to do it alone. Invite a guest from time to time to join your live. Once you invite a guest, you can create a graphic and invite them to collaborate on the post. This will ensure information about the live, and the live itself, appears on both of your pages. Doing this will ensure more eyes see the live, which is what we wanted in the first place.
  6. Ensure the right set up. Be sure to have the right technical equipment including a ring light, a tripod, an established background and anything else that will help you feel comfortable on your live. Be sure to test everything; your audio, video, lighting and positioning. This will ensure you feel good about the live and your presentation.
  7. Be Yourself. You are special and unique. How you talk about your work is special and unique. Who you are in the world is meaningful. You should not feel that you have to become someone else to have a successful live. Just be yourself.

Please remember that these tips will help you, but they’ll really help your audience. The IG Live is about your audience, not you. So do everything you can to ensure it is a good experience for them. And try to give them what they want and need.

Hope these tips help. If there are things you do that boost your lives, please share with me and my audience.

 

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