Three paths to a personal branding content strategy, one truth

I’m working on a very new and revised edition of my personal branding book “KNOWN” and collecting case studies. Two interviews revealed radically different perspectives on personal branding content strategy. In fact, they were SO different that it made me think I should comment on it.

Let’s compare the apporaches and see what you think:

Story One: Algorithmic Optimization

Shawn Van Dyke is a construction business expert. He is featured in the first edition of KNOWN with an inspiring tale of how a family tragedy propelled his personal branding work.

He has been an incredible success and is now an author, consultant, and speaker. Shawn is a student of the algorithmic game and has optimized his content to cut through the competitive noise. Because he has consistently delivered his content for 10 years, he is earning referrals from AI in a very crowded industry.

But it’s a challenge to adjust to the changing world. He told me, “I have a hard time keeping up with the algorithms and trends. The content that gets seen and shared needs to conform to certain algorithmic and cultural expectations. If you don’t keep up with the memes, you fall short.”

Story Two: Emotional connection

Dr. Jules Morris is a university professor but is building her brand by using her small farm to inspire people and help them flourish in a chaotic world. Her video content from Sweet BombDiggity Farms is building an engaged new audience. Her fans are creating a deep emotional bond to her unvarnished content from the farm.

She told me: “Here’s what I don’t do: chase trends, trending audio, transitions, dances, what I privately call the ‘fancy stuff.’ My rule is simple: be useful, be entertaining, be honest about what I know. I share the wins, the fails, and other people’s wins, too. I show up every single day with a piece of content, no exceptions. That discipline is the engine — It’s the real strategy.”

Two legitimate strategies

Although these stories seem to be contradictory, they are both legitimate paths to success.

Shawn is a numbers guy and an expert in performance marketing. He can see a cause and effect when he tweaks his content to catch the wave of the latest trend. He is optimizing his content for maximum effect.

Jules is a human-centered brand marketer showing restraint when it comes to the algorithms. By being more focused on the brand, her numbers might go up or down day to day, but through her uplifting daily content, her audience grows slowly but steadily.

The strategy you choose matters far less than whether you can keep doing it.

A third content path

My own personal branding content strategy is a hybrid approach.

• I don’t write for SEO, but I don’t ignore it.
• I might look at the numbers week-to-week, but I only care about the numbers year-to-year.
• I don’t respond to trends, but I write about timely subjects.
• I am not as lovable as Jules’ farm filled with rescue animals, but I think people respect my honesty and non-performative vulnerability. I would like to be as lovable as her ducklings one day!
• Most important, I’m consistent. With a little break for COVID, I think I’ve published more than a thousand weeks in a row.

There’s no single right way to build a personal brand. But there’s one wrong way — starting something you can’t sustain.

Choose the path you can still be walking a thousand weeks from now. Everything else is a detail.

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