How to Build Your Personal Brand on Social Media in 7 Steps!
It’s All About Presentation
Social media apps are more than just platforms for entertainment and interacting with friends. In fact, they can be useful tools for creating a strong personal brand online, which is integral if you’re looking for a job or you simply want to expand your professional network.
Whether you’re revamping your current profiles or creating new ones from scratch, building your brand on social media can help you reach a wider audience. It will require you to put in a lot of time and effort – and patience! – into this endeavour, but it can guarantee you opening doors to new opportunities.
Laying The Foundation
To get started, you need to adhere to the following seven steps:
1. Define Your Identity
Who are you? What are your values, your strengths, your interests and skills? What are the things that make you tick in a specific field of expertise? These are the kind of questions you should ask yourself when you formulate your personal brand.
For example, you’re a small-business owner who owns a coffee shop. Naturally, you have a passion for coffee. From a business perspective, that’s important, but you also strive for sustainability and community engagement through your business. As such, you prioritise eco-friendly practices and working with local suppliers.
This introspection can form the foundation of your brand, and it’s up to you to articulate it clearly across the social media platforms that you use.
2. Choose The Right Platforms
Social media platforms offer different tools for their users. For example, Instagram has a heavy visual focus, so sharing videos and photos may be ideal if you’re looking to appeal to audiences with visual content. On the other hand, Facebook allows users to create text posts, photo galleries and videos, and it supports a variety of content formats including live videos, events and short stories.
There are tons of platforms/apps out there (YouTube, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, etc), but ultimately, you want to pick the ones that showcase who you are authentically, what you aim to achieve and allows you to engage with your target audience.
3. Clean Up Your Profiles
Once you have chosen the appropriate platform(s), now you need to make sure that your profile exudes a polished, professional image. If you’re using an old or current account, you can start by reviewing your previous posts and photos; if they don’t represent your current brand message or values, then delete them immediately (or, if the option is available, you can hide them from certain users).
Next, choose a high-quality image that reflects your brand identity, such as a professional headshot of yourself or your business/product’s logo. When it comes to your bio, make sure it concisely describes who you are, what you do and what value you offer. Be sure to incorporate relevant keywords that your target audience might search for.
It’s also important to include links to your website, blog or other social media profiles. That way, it can help drive traffic and create a cohesive online presence.
4. Create And Upload Content
To best show off your strengths, skills and personality, it’s crucial to create and upload content that align with your brand.
For example, you are a major partner in an architecture firm. You might want to write articles about insights into your career, opinions on the latest architectural trends, etc. Perhaps you want to share videos or photos that showcase your current projects or events with your colleague (for the relatable side of things, you might even want to share snippets of your day-to-day work routine, from the first cup of coffee you make to your evening workout).
You can also engage your followers to share their thoughts or start a conversation when you post things like polls and infographics. Remember to tag all your content with the relevant hashtags and keywords so that you can boost your presence further and reach a wider audience.
5. Begin Networking
Share, like, retweet and comment on quotes, articles, photos, videos, opinions and other related content from professionals and leading companies in your chosen industry. Join groups and pages that share your interests. If you’re savvy enough to find a gap, you can create groups or pages from scratch, then invite your peers to join and engage with your content – in time, you will be managing and contributing to a thriving community of like-minded individuals.
In short, networking can open the door to getting hired or collaborating with others! Just remember to always be respectful, polite and helpful when it comes to interacting with others, whether it be answering questions or having a casual conversation.
6. Be Consistent
Managing your online presence can be time-consuming, but it does require you to regularly update your accounts and stay engaged with your audience. Decide how often you want to post, then try to stick to your schedule as closely as possible – for example, if you have a TikTok page, consider posting videos at least once or twice a week. Any more than that will not only cause your audience fatigue, but it can also burn you out as well.
Plan your posts ahead of time, from ensuring that you have a content calendar to organising your ideas into themes or topics. This can help streamline the creative process and establish a consistent flow of brand-cohesive content. It can also help if you’re planning to take a small break from social media, which means you can schedule posts in advance.
Remember to track the performance of your content, from checking your engagement rate, or using tools like Google Analytics to monitor your audience and see where your traffic is coming from.
7. Be Yourself
While it’s important to cultivate a personal brand, you should never lose sight of your true self. Be genuine and authentic in all your interactions; whether you’re sharing your thoughts or replying to comments, your audience will appreciate your honesty and relatability.
Make Your Mark NOW!
By following these steps, you can now get started on creating and sustaining your personal brand online. It’s hard work, but if it means attaining your dream career or elevating your current career to new heights, then it’s totally worth the effort. Good luck!