TikTok content has a degree of rawness and an intentional lack of polish that comes from people picking up their phones, “yapping,” and letting their followers behind the curtain.
This makes TikTok an invaluable channel for personal brand development. If you are building a cross-platform personal brand like I am, TikTok can be a channel where you let loose a bit, care less about making everything perfect, and prioritize connecting with your audience.
To help you do that, I’ve analyzed five creators who have struck an incredible balance of authenticity and value in their content.
Not only do these creators teach the art of personal branding, they also walk the walk in the way they craft their own personal brands.
First up is Alyssa Chan-Evangelista and her business Inspired Media Co. Alyssa has built an impressive social following across channels. This includes her TikTok account, where she has amassed over 80,000 followers and teaches people her proven social media strategies.
One of Alyssa’s key teachings is her “lifestyle pillars” personal branding framework, which is an approach to organically and strategically showcase your real personality and elements of your personal life in your content.
The premise behind this strategy is that in every niche, creators are creating content on the same topics and selling similar products and services.
In that landscape, our differentiator is who we really are. People follow and buy from the creators they connect with on a personal level.
Using Alyssa’s social media strategies and lifestyle pillars framework, her followers and coaching clients learn how to show up as themselves on social media, building personal brands that are actually personal.
The predominant theme in Alyssa’s content is tangible social media advice. I like how her posts are not just about high level strategy. They go a step further to offer actionable tips with real-life examples people can follow.
Whether she is showcasing a specific content creation format or doing case studies on successful creators, Alyssa’s content is a flowing river of tips and frameworks we can follow to improve our own content creation and personal brands on social media.
Related: Personal Brand vs Business Brand - What’s the Difference? [Comparison + Examples]
Justin Schuman is a personal branding thought leader, social media coach, and prominent TikTok creator.
Justin’s content leans into the “show up as the real you” style of content creation he teaches his followers and clients.
From his tagline “human is in my name” to his mission “teaching you how to be yourself,” Justin helps people discover their voice on social media and get comfortable with the style of raw authenticity that leads to building strong communities online.
Justin showcases this approach in his own content creation style.
Watching Justin’s content and learning from him feels effortless.
In addition to the example his own brand offers, Justin’s content delivers specific tips for creating more engaging content and overcoming the imposter syndrome or constraints you may feel creating content online.
The way Justin blends tactical social media marketing advice with advice about the mental aspects of content creation, like confidence building and self-discovery, makes him one of my favorite creators to learn from.
Related: What Components Make Up a Personal Brand?
Dulma is a creator and entrepreneur who turned her TikTok presence into a significant personal brand and a full-time business.
Dulma’s TikTok following has grown to over 100,000 followers, attesting to the quality of her content and the value her brand offers.
Dulma gained popularity on TikTok via her business brand breakdown videos. In these videos, she teaches people business strategies and conducts brand case studies in an easy-to-consume format.
In addition to her business school-style videos (she brands her TikTok account as “TikTok B-School”), she also publishes content on the topics of social media growth and personal development.
Dulma’s content creation has an organic feel to it because of the “this is what worked for me” nature of the way she creates. You don’t feel like you are reading a business book that you can’t relate to. Rather, her content feels like you are learning from someone sharing their lived experience.
As someone who joined one of Dulma’s content creation cohorts, I can attest to the fact that she presents her teachings in relatable, transparent manner.
She openly shares her failures alongside her successes, advocating for a mindset of action and experimentation — even when you feel uncertain or inexperienced. Her advice stems from personal experience, having learned valuable lessons through her own journey of trial and error.
Dulma rapidly grew her following through two key factors:
Another awesome element of Dulma’s content is the way she unapologetically creates content about the topics she cares about.
You can tell she is passionate about the businesses she covers and the stories she tells about her own personal development. This is an approach we can emulate as we create content about our passions and share our stories in our content.
Related: Personal Branding Case Study: A Look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s Brand
Courtney Johnson is a social media, career, and marketing strategist who creates content about topics ranging from how to invoice for your time to how to sell digital products on LinkedIn.
Her TikTok account has grown to more than 220,000 followers thanks to a combination of tangible advice and the transparent, unapologetically real way she shows up in her content.
Courtney’s social media channels offer a wealth of advice that feels like a master class in leveling up your career game.
Whether you want to learn how to build a side hustle with full-time income potential or how to make confident career moves, she has something for you.
Not only does Courtney deliver actionable tips, like how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and how to start a ghost writing business, she also covers the mental aspects of career growth. These topics include helping people overcome imposter syndrome and confidence building.
In addition to the personal branding and social media growth advice presented in her content, Courtney exemplifies excellent personal branding in the approach she takes with her own brand.
Courtney presents her content with a “no BS” delivery full of hard truths and the advice people really need to hear. Her followers flock to that authenticity because they know they’re getting real value.
Courtney also posts content in a variety of formats and isn’t picky about camera setups. Whether it’s a green screen video with her iPhone notes in the background or recording from the floor in her home, Courtney is focused on delivering real value.
Related: Personal Branding Checklist - Essentials Every Personal Brand Needs [Free Guide + Examples]
Next is Sammie Ellard-King, the creator behind Up the Gains Money. Sammie is a marketing professional turned finance influencer who has created an awesome blueprint for what personal branding and creator success can look like.
Sammie scaled his personal finance blog Up the Gains and then expanded his brand across channels. This includes a building an audience of over 100,000 followers on Instagram and 12K followers on TikTok.
Sammie’s brand evolution has been fun to watch. He started out focused on his personal finance niche and has since expanded to teach marketing and personal branding. The latter topics come from a combination of his background in marketing and his lived experience scaling his brand.
Sammie breaks down complex topics into digestible content that his audience loves. He presents information in a charismatic tone with a clever delivery and a clear passion for teaching people finance and marketing.
Sammie exemplifies the way people can learn content creation and personal branding as an avenue for building a brand focused on their passions.
Another thing I like about Sammie’s personal brand is the way he organically monetized it. Sammie’s products, like his finance courses and ebooks, feel like a natural extension of the impressive value he gives away in his content.
His followers are already getting so much free information and strategy that purchasing a knowledge product feels like a natural extension of a journey. This comes in contrast to social media monetization practices that sometimes come off as being salesy or taking advantage of a community.
Sammie’s personal brand presents as an approachable expert in his craft. People continue to show up for his that friendly advice and expertise in a big way.
Related: 10 Instagram Personal Branding Content Ideas
When you analyze the content and personal brands these creators put forth, a few key themes emerge that we can emulate in our brands.
These creators teach us that being ourselves on social media is a strength and a differentiator.
This advice is in contrast to the misconception that personal brands need to look and feel a certain way. Rather, embracing what makes us unique and not being afraid to showcase it leads to social media success.
In a social landscape full of gurus and a saturation of similar content, courses, products, etc., the best way to differentiate yourself is less about what you say, and more about how you say it.
Presenting yourself in an unfiltered manner, letting your personality shine through, and offering unique perspectives grounded in your story are the keys to making your content standout.
Let your dog join you on camera, record from your kitchen while you cook, or take us with you to your favorite coffee shop.
Those unique elements are your supporting cast, or “lifestyle pillars” as Alyssa calls them. They are what matter most in your personal brand.
From the locations where you record content to the props you feature, there are plenty of little things you can do to make your content more engaging and authentic.
These creators deploy this strategy:
Deploy this subtle strategy in your own content. Try filming in different locations and filming before or after other activities. Discover the camera setup and recording style that makes it easiest to feel like yourself on camera.
Homing in on the way you like to create will help you establish your own content style that will tie your content together and signal your personal brand.
If you are looking for creators who can teach you tangible personal branding skills while simultaneously demonstrating the quality of their own personal brands, Alyssa, Justin, Dulma, Courtney, and Sammie are great people to follow.
These creators are wonderful teachers and some of my favorite people to learn from on social media. The way they show up in a raw, authentic manner represents a boldness that is equal parts inspiring and strategic in a social media landscape that increasingly rewards authenticity.
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Hi, I'm Justin and I write Brand Credential.
I started Brand Credential as a resource to help share expertise from my 10-year brand building journey.
I currently serve as the VP of Marketing for a tech company where I oversee all go-to-market functions. Throughout my career I've helped companies scale revenue to millions of dollars, helped executives build personal brands, and created hundreds of pieces of content since starting to write online in 2012.
As always, thank you so much for reading. If you’d like more personal branding and marketing tips, here are more ways I can help in the meantime:
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