Nick Pugh is a University of Illinois senior, passionate about how business strategy, branding, and technology intersect to shape modern organizations.

My blog is based on “10 Ways to Blow Your Personal Brand” from Professor Wolters on YouTube. These days, having a personal brand is essential. Don’t want to BLOW it? Here’s a few to AVOID to make sure your personal brand is thriving!

Don’t Be Fake

Authenticity is the foundation of every single strong personal brand. When you pretend to be someone you aren’t, the entire structure collapses the moment people see the real you. Your audience is way smarter than you think… trust me, they can sense when something is off! And once that trust is broken, it’s nearly impossible to rebuild.

Being authentic matters. Here’s some reasons why it’s advantageous to keep it that way:

• It’s so much easier to maintain! When you are authentic, you aren’t forced to “perform”
• It attracts the correct audience, not just any audience
• Loyalty. Builds long-term community instead of short-term attention

Staying true to yourself isn’t hard to do either. Build your brand around your own values. Share your own genuine interests, not what’s trending, and don’t pretend to be an expert in something you’re not. Some of my most viral videos on TikTok have been sharing my own thoughts and interests, like comparing Olivia Rodrigo’s album release to the stages of a breakup (it got over 300,000 views) or sharing performances I was proud of playing my dream role in Cabaret. It’s not always a big or flashy, just things you really care about! An example I thought of recently was a popular influencer Matilda Djerf. She rose to fame for promoting a “clean-girl” aesthetic. She even had a popular clothing brand, Djerf Avenue, that was selling extremely well. However, when one of her employees took to social media to tell them how awful she treated them at the workplace, going so far as to segregate her “personal” toilet from the rest of her staff, people fell out of love with her, and FAST. Moral of the story.. The truth always come out, so it’s in your best interest to live it!

Being Indecisive or Inconsistent

A personal brand is a promise. When you constantly change what you stand for, people stop knowing what to expect from you. People want to know what they’re getting from you. When:

• One week you’re all about fashion
• The next you’re all about movies
• The next you’re talking about politics

Your audience has zero clue who you are. Finding your niche might take a little longer, but once you sit in the pocket there, the opportunities are endless! Take a second and think about your closest friends. They show up the same way again and again and it builds trust! Your brand works the same way. Nobody is going to keep tuning in if you show up as different versions of yourself everytime you post a video!

Staying consistent means:

• Define your core message
• Stick to a few key themes
• Avoid chasing every trend or the “hot” topic

At the end of the day, consistency is not rigidity; it’s clarity.

Acting without thinking

In the highly digital world we live in, many people destroy their brand by simply not thinking before they act. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Engaging with your community is a key part of managing your brand, but here’s a few things it is NOT!

• Posting emotional rants
• Commenting impulsively without getting the full context
• Staying active by posting meaningless content

Every post, comment, and interaction you have on and offline becomes a part of your brand’s story. When you act without thinking (ex. fighting with people in your comment section) you lose control of the narrative. The best advice I could give is to just pause before posting. Ask yourself… “does this align with my brand?” Make a plan for your content instead of just winging it. In my work as a marketing director for several different organizations, creating a content plan always succeeds far more than coming up with it on the the fly. One of the best examples of this was Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner ad, where there were protesters, and police, but as soon as Kendall handed that can to police and they popped that can open, they all danced and celebrated at a sort of impromptu block party. It was a strange commercial, that sparked huge online debate. At the time, the Black Lives Matter movement was huge in the United States, and the ad seemed to reduce the movement and systemic racism into a feel-good soda moment. It read super tone-deaf. It was a huge misstep, and within 24 hours, Pepsi pulled the ad and issued a public apology. A classic case of acting without carefully thinking about the message you are trying to send.

Action wins over meaningless noise every. single. Time.

Prioritizing Quantity over Quality

One of the biggest pressures in branding nowadays is the belief that you must constantly produce content, but more isn’t always better. Even if you have a thousand Facebook followers or a million YouTube subscribers.

Quantity without Quality leads to:

• Audience fatigue
• Lower engagement
• Diluted brand
• A perception that you’re phoning it in

Instead, focus on the quality of your videos! One single thought-out post has the potential to outperform 20 rushed ones. Set a realistic posting schedule and only post content that you’re truly proud of. You can also batch-create content to make a lot of posts at once, and of course, REVIEW it all before it goes live! If you viewers see wrong information, or unpolished work, what makes them want to stay around and keep supporting you?

Remember: your brand is only as strong as the weakest content you publish!

Read: What Goes Into a Successful Influencer Campaign

Chasing Fame Instead of Building Value

Many people sabotage their brand by chasing fame and virality instead of building something meaningful. Let’s face it. You aren’t going to be a Kardashian and an internet sensation overnight. For most creators and artists, it takes time. Take Sabrina Carpenter or Zara Larsson for example. Both had some popular songs in the 2015-16 era, but have absolutely exploded after pivoting and fully leaning into their personal brand as artists. This evolution was only possible after the hard work and blood, sweat, and tears they put into their career for years. Success isn’t dumb luck, or something that happens overnight. Chasing fame leads to:

• Gimmicks instead of substance
• Attracting the wrong audience
• Creating pressure to constantly “top” yourself
• Little long-term success

You don’t want your brand to be a flash in the pan. You want it to stay around, and continue to provide value for your audience. A value-driven brand builds:

• Trust
• Community
• Opportunities
• Repeat engagement

It’s not hard either to provide value. It’s as easy as being yourself. In what ways can you help others? Share your expertise? Solve problems? Be relatable? Hone into those aspects, and the community you build will follow. Fame is a byproduct of the value you provide, not the other way around!

Not Managing or Monitoring your Brand

Your personal brand isn’t just what you’re posting online… it’s how you behave everywhere. It goes beyond digital interactions, your audience wants to know that you are the same kind and cool person that you act like on screen! This includes:

• How you speak to people
• Behavior at events
• Your response during crises
• How you treat friends, colleagues, and strangers

Monitoring matters. If you don’t pay attention to how your brand is perceived, you have no idea how to improve it. Managing your brand isn’t a giant lift either, it’s taking small steps to look at your community like:

• Reading comments and feedback
• Reflecting on your presence offline
• Ask your circle (friends, advisors, trusted people) for honest input
• Staying aware of how your actions align with your core values

A strong brand isn’t something that just happens by accident, it’s intentional, measured, and takes real work to maintain.

Forgetting the People Who’ve Helped Build Your Brand

Nobody builds a personal brand alone. Your supporters, fans, friends, mentors, and collaborators all contribute to your success. That’s why it’s extremely important to be a person your fans want to root for. This is especially important as:

• The people around you who feel appreciated become organic brand ambassadors
• Collaboration helps expand your reach
• Gratitude strengthens your relationships
• Humility and likability go hand in hand, the more humbe and down-to-earth you are, the more relatable and liked you become

Give credit where it’s due! You didn’t get here alone. That’s why it’s so important to thank people publicly and privately, and support others in return. Think of all the backlash that YouTubers get when they suddenly go viral or experiencing a dip in their career and they suddenly fire their team. What kind of message does that communicate to the fans? That now that I’m famous I don’t need you anymore? Or I’ve outgrown you? It’s important to stand by your fans, and never forget the platform they have afforded you. By staying tuned in and connected to your network, your personal brand will grow so much faster when it grows with others by your side.

Failing to Measure and Control What You Do

You simply can’t improve what you don’t measure. So many destroy their brand because they never take a step back to analyze what is and isn’t working. Learning from analytics is an important tool to keep your brand thriving. Here are some KPIs you’ll want to measure:

• Engagement rate
• Follower growth (is it trending up or down?)
• Content performance (are people actually liking the content, or just liking and scrolling?)
• Audience feedback
• Unfollow/Unsubscribe Rate

Measurement matters. It shows you directly what your audience values, what they don’t, and prevents you from repeating silly mistakes. It also helps you refine your message and keep your brand aligned. For example, if you post lifestyle content, and it’s succeeding, and the analytics support that, it’s a good sign. If you decide to branch out and try posting travel content, and it flops, you know for the future where to better align the content. It’s not hard to stay in control of measuring your brand. Again, it’s small steps instead of giant leaps, which looks like:

• Reviewing your analytics weekly or monthly
• Tracking patterns in said analytics to see what your viewers respond to
• Adjusting your content strategy accordingly
• Creating goals and monitoring your progress

Another foundation of a strong brand is being rooted in data-driven decisions.

Read: How a Firm Should Resond to a Crisis on Social Media

The Ultimate Brand Killer – Being a Jerk

Don’t be a terrible person. Nobody wants to support rude, terrible, arrogant people. Nothing is a bigger brand killer than being a jerk. Some jerk-ish behaviors include:

• Ignoring your audience
• Never responding to comments
• Acting entitled or “too good”
• Taking people for granted

Kindness is key. People follow people they like, support people who support them, and trust those who show gratitude. Don’t be “that guy,” make sure you always:

• Respond when you can
• Acknowledge your audience (they gave you that platform!!)
• Show appreciation
• Like Kendrick said, STAY HUMBLE, no matter how big you get

These days, when the world is full of so much negativity, be kind! A great example is the social media presence of both Duolingo and Wendy’s. Both, whether it’s tapping into pop culture, or coming up with the most out of pocket quip, respectively, these brands have mastered the art of branded social media. They continue to stay relevant partly because their brand is bringing a sense of happiness and fun into our culture. Kindness is a competitive advantage, so harness it to it’s fullest potential!

 Know Your Personal Brand is Built Every Day

Your personal brand isn’t a logo.. a tagline… or a social media profile. It’s the sum of your actions on the internet (and off) repeated consistently over time.

If you want to build a strong brand, use these foundations:

• Be authentic
• Be consistent
• Be intentional
• Be grateful
• And most of all, be HUMAN

Together, using the tips I gave, you’ll create personal brand that not only stands out among the rest, but also stands the test of time! Now you can confidently craft the foundation of a personal brand built to last!