Building and growing a brand – personal or business – is not terribly complicated. In fact, I laid out the four steps every brand must follow to build and grow their brand in my first book, CareerKred. What is difficult is implementing the steps required to build your brand.

Even with the steps defined (that’s a step), not everyone will follow them, but even for you who do, there are three key things you need to do and ensure you establish authority and credibility in your space.

The 3 C’s to establish credibility and authority

When someone learns about you or your company, the first thing they do is look you up online. What they find must connect them to you, your brand, and your business, so one day, they might connect to your bank account as well. To do that, you must practice the 3 C’s.

Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness is defined as “the quality of forming a united whole.” For us, this means when someone reviews your online presence, it should come across as one single brand. Cohesiveness is a feeling, or the perception others get when they take in your brand for the first time. You can help people (prospects) understand your brand faster if it is clear, meaning people can quickly see (feel) what you are all about.

For example, a quick Google search on me would show you I’m kind of passionate about brand messaging. If you are making a transition from one role to another or from one area of expertise to a new one, you should be curating and creating cohesiveness for your new direction more than your old direction. Over time, you will become known for the new thing, especially if you follow the second C.

Congruency

Not just a cool math word, congruency means things are “in agreement or harmony.” From a brand standpoint, this means everything is aligned, from your posts to tweets to images to your website or LinkedIn profile. Everything must be in harmony.

When your brand is not congruent, people (prospects) will begin to doubt your brand. For example, if you want to be known for thing X, but you tweet or post about thing C much more, the clarity of your brand will be confusing.

To prevent this, especially as you transition from one area to another, I recommend the 80/20 rule – 80% of the time, post about the new direction. For the remaining 20%, post about has led you from the old path to the new. Utilize personal stories to talk about the shift.

For the new direction, make sure you are posting about two key things:

• Who you are becoming (or are now) to answer the question – Why should I care?
• The problems you solve, i.e., How do you help?

If you want to transition faster in the new direction or accelerate your business and brand’s growth, skip the 80/20 rule and go straight to 100% posts about the new thing. Either way, it’s the final C that makes everything happen.

Consistency

Woody Allen once said:

“80% of success is showing up.”

Consistency is exactly that, showing up. So many entrepreneurs get hung up on things like – when should I post or how often should I post. Rather than posting, they overthink. They analyze analytics, looking for “the perfect” time to post. I know. I used to do the same thing.

But here’s the thing – If you want to establish your authority and credibility, just hit publish already. Forget about the timing. Forget about the trending hashtags. Forget about the trending hashtags. Instead, pick a day and a time that YOU can meet consistently and just hit publish.

Because in the end, if you want people (prospects) to know about your brand or business, they have to be able to find you. If you’re not publishing, they won’t. So, be like Nike and just do it.