These days, lots of people are talking about personal branding. Including me.

And for good reason. Building a personal brand sets you apart and sets you up for better job opportunities, more clients, and more income.

But there is a trap that’s easy to fall into: Focusing too much on yourself.

Don’t be (too) Self-Centered

The idea behind building a personal brand is that you want your people to associate you with a certain area of expertise or skillset. That will naturally lead you to want to talk about yourself a lot in your social media content, telling your audience that you’re good at your field.

That’s fine.

The problem is it’s easy to do it too much. Before too long your audience will grow tired of you talking about yourself all the time. If you’re not careful, your feed gets full of humble brags and empty corporate speak.

No one likes that.

But there is a solution.

Focus on Others

The easiest way to avoid this trap is to focus a good chunk of your content on other people.

Celebrate your customers, clients, and/or employees. Show the world what makes them special and how they’re changing the world. Tell their stories.

Why does this work? Because nobody likes to hear people talk about themselves. But when you talk about others, it makes you look genuine, grateful, and humble.

And it makes your content more interesting.

As a result, your audience will give you more of their attention, they’ll like you more. And they’ll trust you.

Then, when you need to beat your own drum occasionally, you’ve built up enough goodwill for it to be well-received.