Sometimes I take a look at my RSS feed and am blown away by the number of blog posts promising more readers, followers, fans, and shares by following five (or seven, or three) easy steps.
Actually, gauging by the number of these posts that are thrown into the blogosphere each day, everyone should probably have about a million followers by now. …But they don’t.
Why not? Because there isn’t a cookie-cutter formula for building your brand.
You’re in business because you believe that you have something to offer that sets you apart. You have the solution to a problem, a different perspective, a unique skill. You are distinctive.
So doesn’t it seem strange that someone you’ve never met and who doesn’t know anything about your brand can offer you a magic formula to grow it overnight?
Don’t get me wrong: You can (and should) certainly create a brand-building strategy. But if this strategy originally belonged to someone else, don’t put too much trust in it.
It may take a little guidance. You may need to be pointed in the right direction. But the magic formula – the missing piece – will always be what you bring to the table, not what someone says you should be doing.