Personal branding is a hot topic for entrepreneurs and solo bloggers alike, but it is often misconstrued. Some even call it self-absorbed and over-indulgent.
But when it comes down to it, building a brand around your name is really about creating a reputation and an image that will resonate with your audience and help you stand out in your industry.
In fact, it’s one of the most important aspects of marketing and can be the one thing that catapults you to success.
And in today’s digital world, the best place to build your personal brand is on social media. But how do you do it?
In this post, we’ll cover the top ways to build your brand on social media, as well as share some of the best personal branding examples to inspire you.
1. Define your brand
Before you start creating your personal branding on social media, you need to define it. This is the foundation of your strategy and will guide everything you do.
Start by asking yourself what you want to be known for. This is the value you provide and what people should expect when they come across your profile.
Next, define your target audience. This is the group of people you want to connect with, and it will also guide how you position your brand.
Finally, define your brand’s voice. This is how you communicate with your audience and is the personality of your brand.
2. Create a consistent voice
One of the most important things you can do to build your personal brand on social media is to create a consistent voice.
In other words, you should be able to recognize your brand’s voice in any post, whether it’s on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Are you funny? Are you serious? Are you a little bit of both?
Whatever your voice is, make sure it comes through in all of your content.
Not only will this help you stand out, but it will also help you build trust with your audience.
3. Share your expertise
You can also use social media to share your expertise and help your followers solve problems.
If you’re a real estate agent, for example, you could use social media to share tips on how to buy a house, how to sell a house, and how to stage a house for a showing.
If you’re a fitness coach, you could use social media to share workout tips, virtual sessions, healthy recipes, and other health and fitness advice.
By sharing your expertise and helping your followers solve problems, you’ll position yourself as an expert in your field and you’ll build trust with your followers.
4. Create and share content
Once you have a clear understanding of your brand and target audience, you can begin to create and share content that will resonate with your followers.
The key to creating great content is to provide value. Your content should educate, entertain or inspire your audience. Utilizing the best online content generators can streamline your content creation process and ensure consistency in quality.
You should also focus on quality over quantity. It’s better to post one great piece of content than to post five pieces of mediocre content.
When it comes to sharing content, you should aim to strike a balance between your own content and other people’s content. Sharing other people’s content is a great way to build relationships with other influencers in your niche, and it can also help you to provide more value to your audience.
Pro tip: Use Sprout Social’s social listening tools to monitor conversations happening on social media. This can help you to identify trending topics and pain points within your target audience, which you can then use to create content that will resonate with them.
5. Be authentic
Last but not least, be authentic. This is the most important thing you can do to build your personal brand on social media.
Share content that’s true to you and your values. Be yourself and be proud of it. The more authentic you are, the more you’ll be able to connect with your audience.
And, the more you connect with your audience, the more success you’ll have in building your personal brand on social media.
6. Engage with your audience
One of the most important things you can do to build your personal brand on social media is to engage with your audience.
This means responding to comments, answering questions and even reaching out to people who follow you.
Engaging with your audience is a great way to build trust and loyalty. It also shows that you care about your followers and that you’re not just using social media to promote yourself.
7. Ask for recommendations and endorsements
People trust the opinions of their friends and family members. This is why word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful. And, in a way, recommendations and endorsements are a form of word-of-mouth marketing on social media.
LinkedIn is a great place to ask for recommendations and endorsements. You can ask your colleagues, clients, vendors, business partners and even friends and family members to write a brief recommendation of your work.
You can also ask them to endorse your skills. LinkedIn allows you to list your top skills on your profile, and your connections can endorse those skills with the click of a button.
The more recommendations and endorsements you have, the more credible you will appear to potential employers, clients and business partners.
8. Keep your personal profiles clean
While it’s okay to get a little more personal on your business profiles, you should keep your personal profiles clean and professional.
After all, potential clients or employers may come across your personal profiles if they’re considering working with you.
This doesn’t mean you have to share the same type of content you do on your business profiles, but you should make an effort to keep your profiles professional.
Conclusion
Personal branding is an important part of establishing yourself online. Your reputation can be either one your building yourself, or one that’s being built for you. When you have the opportunity to create your own narrative, you should take it. Use these tips to help you build a personal brand online.
