How to create brand value for a new personality through PR

Authored by Mausam Shah, Founder and Director, Maars Communicates.

The primary goal of a new personality looking to establish a personal brand should be to gain trust. If a person is considered trustworthy and authentic, the brand value scales higher. So, how does a new personal brand build solid equity with its target audience?

Though there are various approaches a brand strategist may deploy to build a personal brand. One of the key pillars in the larger scheme of things will need to be PR. When compared to its cousin functions, Marketing and Advertising, PR relies on third-party experience and sentiments. It makes PR a reliable mechanism to build a personal brand.

There are many tactics a PR strategist may activate as per the approach designed for a personal brand.

Credibility Through Thought Leadership

Sharing a personality’s point of view, knowledge and information of value to stakeholders via trusted media portals adds a credibility badge to the personal brand. Over time, with consistent and valuable insight sharing, a personal brand is able to carve a niche and establish a unique voice. A personality may attend a webinar or event and give a talk that they have expertise in. Opinion-based editorials are another way. A thought leader is considered credible only if the ideas shared have thought-provoking and educative qualities. If done wrong, it may either lead to misinformation or incorrect brand perception.

Authenticity Through Strong Media Relationships

It's a misconception that a PR person needs to gatekeep their media contacts from the client. Especially when it comes to personality, initiating and scheduling non-agenda meetings needs to be a top priority. This increases affability and approachability, putting a face and voice to the person. The deeper the understanding media stakeholders have about the personality, the better they will cover the personality. Due to positive relationships, information is paired with personal experience of authenticity and dependability.

Recognition Through Profiling

Interviewing a personality or writing a profile about a person, contributes greatly to introducing them to audiences. While media meetings make a brand relatable to media members, interviews do the same, but for larger audiences through the lens of the journalist. The personal brand gets a face, voice and third-party endorsement when they are interviewed. They can share information about themselves, their viewpoints, their plans and their way ahead. The target audiences of the personality get a chance to be introduced to and know more about them. Interviews usually need substantial data points and achievements on part of the personal brand, for gaining media interest in doing a profiling story.

This step usually comes later than the first two steps, since the media and audiences will need to know and trust you as a trusted expert. However, there is no set chronology of these activities and varies from situation to situation. For example, if a new personality has a high-value newsworthy achievement to their name profiling and interviews are soon to follow. Profiling highlights the back story, features, and vision of a personality. It adds a human perception lens to the information provided.
This is a broad overview of elements that can help, however, PR is never one size fits all. To onboard a trusted PR professional or team of professionals is the best first step a new personality can take when they are looking to build their personal brand.