(Akiit.com) The idea of a personal brand can be quite confusing. How does it differ from one’s personality? Why is it useful? Why should someone bother to develop one? Well, it differs from how you are every day with your friends because it is more managed than that, and in fact, it is designed specifically to be marketable. What that means in practice is that if you are able to become someone who people are interested in, they will spend time engaging with you. This could be on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, or in person. Once you have established this interest, it is exceptionally 
easy to monetise it. There are lots of examples of personal brands that are successful. The astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is no longer just a scientist.
As a result of his exuberant personality, his wit, and his sense of humour, he has become someone that many people know and care about. He now has over 7.25 million followers on Twitter and is regularly on radio and TV programs. Whether he still conducts experiments and does research, as other non-famous astrophysicists do, is another matter but the fact remains that he is a media personality now and he may be able to live just on his name. This is the power of a personal brand.
However, the same skills are just as valuable if you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur. If you establish a personal brand with which your customers are familiar, they will likely trust you and feel more comfortable when doing business with you in the future. The only question that remains is, how do you develop a personal brand?
Well, there are a few fundamental things you have to do first. The reality of the modern world is such that if you are not online, you are not going to succeed. You only have to notice that nearly every major personality in American culture has a Twitter account to realize their utility. Another thing that successful people have in common is that they have their own website. They are easy to set up and not as expensive as you might imagine (you can learn more here). Having a website is a great way of making money because it allows you to advertise your products or services as well as offer advertising opportunities to other companies.
Good customer service and competitive prices will only get you so far in developing your business. If you are going to become a leader in your industry and be someone that other business people trust, you have to engage with them too. A personal brand is crucial here as well. To become someone whom others admire, you have to be open, authentic and generous with your time. You should share with others the things that made you successful. However, you cannot be everything to every person so identifying what it is that you do best and sticking to that is a good idea.
Staff Writer; Ronald Hall