The power of social media is unfathomable and indisputable. No one can deny the fact that social networking sites help you connect to billions of people within seconds. However, this is a double-edged sword. It can offer you both good and bad consequences depending on how you use it.
You want to keep the negatives at bay then act prudently. First, understand what personal brand is all about and how you can build it.
What is a Personal Brand?
Let’s start with an example. Imagine you are Neil, and you have an account on Facebook. All your personal information is out there. Now, does this mean this is your Personal Brand?
The answer is both yes and no. Yes, because it is unique, and no, because you are not promoting it. Your information on social media account is just like a name and address present in a directory. What makes you different is your approach to branding yourself.
So, technically one can say that a personal brand is beyond the realms of sharing personal information on a social media platform. It is about promoting yourself positively. It is all about creating an image of yourself in the virtual world and how people see you.
Coming back to the same example of Neil. You are not the only Neil on this earth. Many people share your name. If you Google, you can find even some who have established themselves as a brand. So, what can you do to stand apart from others?
Actually, it is easier than you think. All you need is to build your personal brand on social media. It is the place where you can do personal branding organically.
How to Build your Personal Brand on Social Media? Walkthrough some of the practical ways to build your personal brand on social networking sites.
Segregate Your Personal Branding Goals
Many people believe in defining their goals. Unfortunately, they forget that personal branding goals can be of varied nature. If you handle all the goals in a similar manner, then you won’t be able to get the desired outcomes. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to separate your qualitative goals and quantitative goals.
What are Quantitative and Qualitative goals?
Qualitative goals are more of a general type. For instance, your target is to get a certain number of subscribers. It is more of a quantitative goal. It is not very specific. However, if you are operating in a niche like selling hoverboards and you want to enhance the selling of adult hoverboards then this becomes your qualitative goal.
When you define the goals like this then you can devise plans strategically on social networking sites.
Know where you stand:
Building a castle on a weak fundamental slab will be disastrous. That is why it is considered intelligent to audit your current position on social media as a personal brand. You may use the incognito window to learn more about yourself as a brand. Search engines like Bing or Google will let you know with which type of content your personal brand is getting closely associated.
Check Whether the Information is Same on Platform:
There are multiple social networking sites and all unravel to you umpteen opportunities. So having different accounts on different platforms is natural. However, sometimes you forget to delete your old or duplicate accounts. These might create confusion, which indeed is unhealthy for your personal brand image. Therefore, it is in the best interest to check that all the information on all the social media platforms is the same.
If there are inconsistencies then redeem them. Make the necessary changes and remove any unwarranted information. You cannot let your brand image come out as unprofessional. It will leave an indelible mark that will damage your brand’s popularity.
Keep an Eye on Your Target Audience:
Knowing and defining your target audience is important but keeping an eye on their movement is indispensable. You cannot be in slumber and leave all in the hands of destiny. Understand where your target audience is and on which platforms they visit frequently. For example, if you are in the business of hoverboards then your target audience can be a kid as well as an adult but not elderly people. However, if you are in the business of green tea then kids are not your target audience.
It means you have to know which social networking sites the people of these age groups are active. You can avail of this information easily online. Once you know then expand your reach on those social sites and you will get the results you expect.
Curate Good Content:
Content is King or Queen can’t say as it is difficult to define its gender. But one thing is certain that good content grabs attention, and the more you keep your target audience involved the better results can be expected. Quality content is not a one-time affair. So, you need to have consistency. In-depth research and use of multiple types of content including video clips, images, etc. can help you create top-notch content.
Build Robust Content Marketing Strategy:
Good content is worthless if you do not have a proper content marketing strategy. Crafting a plan is necessary to be a victor. You have to know when to post and when to opt for content curation. Content curation is about sharing others’ content on your social media account that you think will be valuable to your target audience. However, avoid oversharing content including videos.
Also do not forget the importance of guest posting. Reach out to other influencers/ content creators and share your content on their platforms. If your content is valuable for the users then they will notice your name and thereby you can improve your followers.
Bottom Line
Building a personal brand image is an art and if you know it then no one can stop you from achieving heights of success. Always remember people are looking for good content. If you deliver them and give importance to the comment section of your social media posts then you can improve your brand image.