As an entrepreneur, increasing brand awareness and reach of your business is a multi-faceted process. Part of that process includes building up your personal brand online. There are many different ways entrepreneurs go about growing their personal brand. One of the most effective and proven ways is by writing and publishing credible, written works online. Article and content creation is effective when it appears on the company website, social media, or other platforms. However, building credibility and reaching much bigger audiences comes from publishing on well-known, credible sites. Publishing pieces on sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur can be the difference maker in building up and spreading awareness of your personal brand and business. Biz Online Marketing outlines why getting published on Forbes and Entrepreneur is important for your personal brand, and how to best go about getting started.
The importance of your personal brand for your business
Focusing on your personal brand as an entrepreneur may seem like the last thing that should be on your ‘to do’ list. Forming a startup and/or growing a company takes a lot of work, dedication, and focus. So why exhaust those internal resources on building yourself up online? As it turns out, your personal brand, its reach, and its success are highly linked to the success of your startup.
Your personal brand and its recognition online help your startup in a handful of ways. Firstly, getting your name out there and in front of readers is extremely important for recognition of you and your business. Any articles or content pieces you publish should have backlinks to other content you’ve created and/or your business’s website. The more people that see your name, read your work, and follow your links, the more attention and talk you and your business will get.
Beyond increasing both personal and professional awareness, building your personal brand can grow your credibility and authority within your field. The more high-quality guest posts, articles, and content you create, the more credible you and your business become. Consulting agencies even attest to the fact that businesspeople form opinions about others based on their writing and quality of content online. Whether it be good or bad, your personal brand is the subject of judgement when you are publishing written work online. High-quality writing, combined with the prestige and reputation of high-quality websites, can greatly help your personal brand.
The power of Forbes and Entrepreneur
As mentioned previously, writing and publishing articles and blogs regarding industries in which you specialize is a great way to build your personal brand. There are a number of different benefits and opportunities that arise from growing your online library of written work. However, creating content for household name sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur carries a special weight and importance to your personal brand.
Reach and scope
These two sites are so powerful for your business and your personal brand because of their scope. Forbes itself is one of the most popular business news sites in the United States. Both sites cover so many different industries, topics, niches, and themes. They have content on nearly anything a businessperson might want to read about. This means that your specialty is most likely a topic of interest for readers of these sites. Thus, you have the opportunity to reach a much larger audience, even within a concentrated theme, industry, or idea. Much of the power of Forbes and Entrepreneur comes from their scope of content and the vastness of their audiences.
Credibility
Beyond sizable audiences, both sites are considered highly trusted sources. Over 27 million individuals per month read, rely on, and trust the information from these sites. If you become a contributor to either of these websites, credibility and authority of your personal brand and your business will grow tremendously.
Improvements in SEO
Increase in audience reach and web traffic play a major part in another great benefit of writing for sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur: better SEO rankings. Sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur are such high traffic sites with good reputations. Search engines understand this through their algorithms, and thus put their pieces at the top of results pages. This means that your writing, expertise, business, and your personal brand will be at the top of browsers. Better SEO rankings on sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur will eventually connect readers to your other content on other sites. Ultimately, this improves SEO ranking of those individual pieces as well because they gain more traffic.
Personal touch
Finally, should you contribute enough to each site, Forbes and Entrepreneur typically have a contributor’s bio for each writer. This page, usually linked to the article, contains a photo and short blurb about you as a writer and a businessperson. These bios can be very beneficial for both you and the reader. Giving the audience a chance to learn more about you, your history, and your personal brand adds to your credibility factor. Moreover, it further exposes readers to your name and your company. Finally, the photo that accompanies the text allows readers to put a face with a name. Ultimately, this makes you more memorable and personable to the audience.
How to build your personal brand on Forbes and Entrepreneur
The first step to building your brand on sites like Forbes or Entrepreneur is to get to know each site individually. Read different articles covering different topics and industries and read the author’s bios. This will give you a better idea for the writing style, tone, length, and other expectations of the site. Having an understanding of the site will better prepare you for when you first start writing for the websites.
Once you know the sites, you should establish an idea of what topics you might write about. These topics should both be appropriate for the audience of the website and fall within your area of expertise. Draft a handful of ideas and rough outlines of what you would write just in case they ask for a writing sample.
After drafting relevant topic ideas and samples, you should visit Forbes’ “Contact Us” page. Here, you can find the necessary information for contacting someone about becoming a contributor. When drafting your email, be sure to include your writing sample, topic ideas, and a brief explanation of your background and expertise. Once you send your submission, expect to hear back within a week.
As for Entrepreneur, this site looks for startup owners and entrepreneurs. In this email, you should be telling an inspirational, yet informational, narrative of you as an entrepreneur. You should also include points or stories which prove you are an expert on the respective topics or ideas you are submitting to them. Like Forbes, be sure to include your writing sample with the email. This will give them an idea of your skillset, tone, and expertise.
Wrapping up
Writing and publishing content online is a great way to build your personal brand. The effects and reach of your work can be even greater should you publish on sites like Forbes and Entrepreneur. To get started growing your personal brand today, strive to become a contributor for these websites. They offer your personal brand and your business great exposure and reach. For more advice on building your online personal brand, follow Biz Online Marketing on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. You can also reach out to our team of experts to help you get started.