Building a personal brand is a hot topic for marketers, product teams, and founders in 2024. 

Professionals are building an online presence to get more eyes on a business, showcase expertise, and generate leads.

A big part of building a personal brand is keeping up with industry news in your niche and sharing your thoughts on viral stories with your audience. 

For example, when your niche is AI you’ll strengthen your personal brand by sharing your thoughts on the latest openAI updates, new tools, or trending industry reports. If your niche is SEO, then you’ll want to share an update with your thoughts on Google algorithm updates whenever they’re released. 

Doing this in a timely manner can be challenging, especially when top influencers seem to always post before you. This leaves those of us who are just starting out our personal branding journey thinking: is it even worthwhile to post?

I created a dedicated workflow for posting commentary on news in my niche quickly. Now I’m able to be among the first in my niche to share thoughts on recent industry topics.

In this blog, I’ll explain how you can do the same. 

Step 1: Monitoring relevant the news before it goes viral

Having 10 tabs open with news sites isn’t a very effective way to stay updated. 

Setting time aside daily or weekly to read through news sites is also not the best use of your time. The whole process would often take too long, especially since personal branding is more of a side-project. I was frequently too late with my posts or ended up doom-scrolling news sites and Reddit conversations.

To make this system work I wanted to keep all industry updates in one view. This helps minimize context switching while enabling me to spot important updates before they become mainstream.

Come in: the Bash work feed.

Bash can directly funnel news articles and emails into a single view. Curate a list of news sites and newsletters to stay up to date. Information in the work feed view automatically updates when news sites publish or newsletters are sent out. 

I use the work feed with three different information sources:

• RSS feeds: I’ve added Techcrunch and Entrepreneur 
• Email: I signed up to a few top industry newsletters. I would definitely recommend adding Benedict Evans (tech news) and relevant TLDR’s (tech, marketing, product or engineering) to the email feed. 
• Reddit: I added the r/Marketing subreddit to get a glimpse on what’s happening in the industry from a user-generated perspective. 

With everything in one view, I click on the entries I think might be relevant and quickly glance over the content in the side panel. If it’s interesting and something I want to work with I’ll start focusing on turning it into something new.

Step 2: Turning promising content into something new

AI-generated content will most likely not be publish-ready (and it shouldn’t). You should give content your twist and align it with your brand, and it’s unlikely AI will do all of that for you. 

It will still get you 80% of the way through. 

The hardest part of getting something live is getting started, and AI has been very useful to do so. 

I’m currently managing a few personal and business channels alike. Templates like video scripts, newsletters, and social media posts can be a great starting point for your post.

There are 80+ templates you can use but those are most relevant to this topic. I typically configure the text in a conversational tone, with a general audience and the marketing copywriter persona. 

This will turn the source content into a first draft which I will then proceed to personalize with my perspective and additional insights I think might be relevant. 

Step 3: Personalizing output for your brand

So, Bash will generate a first draft of your post and it will appear in the in-app editor. First up, if you don’t like the overall direction of the post, you can regenerate it and change the configurations if needed.

I sometimes have that I like only half of the content generated. In those cases, I’ll select the copy I don’t like, press “/”, and ask Bash to change it. 

It has also happened in the past that copy falls short in terms of length. When this happens I’ll just press “/” at the end of the document and ask Bash to generate a new section if needed.

After I have all the building blocks I need I’ll edit the AI content and add my thoughts to the document. This helps me take the output from 80 to 100% and publish it across the relevant channels. 

That’s it. 

Try this workflow yourself If you’re trying to build a personal brand and running into writer's block or feel like you’re lagging on industry news. 

Post more frequently and be among the first to cover trending topics to ride the algorithm waves!

Why you should be investing in a personal brand in 2024

Building a personal brand consists of creating your own unique identity that sets you apart from others. It's like having a spotlight on you, making it easier for others to remember who you are and what you bring to the table.

Here are some of the main benefits of building a personal brand:

1. Increased visibility: Stand out from the crowd and gain visibility in your industry or area of expertise. As your personal brand grows, you become more influential and attract opportunities organically.
2. Build trust: Establish trust with your audience by sharing your authentic self and being transparent about your experiences and knowledge. People are more likely to connect and engage with individuals they perceive as genuine and trustworthy.
3. Professional growth: A well-crafted personal brand can lead to speaking engagements, guest writing opportunities, media interviews, or invitations to industry events. 
4. Entrepreneurial opportunities: A personal brand can be a great channel early on to attract clients, investors, or strategic partnerships. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and make it easier to build trust and credibility with potential customers or investors.

Building a personal brand opens doors, creates opportunities, and allows you to make your mark in the world. It's about showcasing your expertise, being authentic, and connecting with others in a meaningful way.

Staying up to date with industry news not only helps you cement your brand but also helps you avoid writer's block and running out of stories to tell.

[Start building your work feed and be among the first who post their thoughts on the latest updates, stories and trends]

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