Branding is marketing in disguise. It’s easy to market when you have a product or service that you offer. But if the commodity is yourself, how does branding apply to you?
In 2020, personal branding is an essential tool. People love to know who you are and what you do, sometimes more than they are interested to know about your company. Creating a strong personal brand can help you win clients, jobs, projects and whatnot.
Influencers and social media personalities make lakhs of money from assignments and brand deals. Thanks to their strong personal brand that they have created with the help of social media.
Before we dive into the knowledge on how to create a personal brand on social media, let’s have a quick comparison on how personal branding differs from branding of a product or an agency. Or does it?
Companies create an identity depending on what they do. For example an e-learning service for kids will be put up very differently than another company that deals with, say, online coupons.
Here are 2 quick examples of great branding.
Analysis:
The ‘O’ is a major part of the names of both: the company that provides coupons and deals – GrabOn, and Academons, an e-learning platform. Both the companies use the symbol as an icon logo. Although it’s the same element, the appeal of each one is very different from the other. Academons has a pop of bright color and fun elements imbibed into the ‘O’. On the other hand, GrabOn’s design is much more subtle or minimal, without compromise on the fun element that it creates with the little hair type extension at the top
Both of them are very unique but are very appealing to their group of audience.
Personal Brand in Social Media = Your Voice + Your Tone
The audience is a major factor for Personal branding too. You may or may not need a logo. But what you do and how you portray it through social media is the key factor for personal branding.
The first question to ask is ‘What type of Social image you want to create?’.
This question cannot be answered without answering ‘Why you want to create the personal brand?’.
The answer to these 2 questions will make your fairly clear about which road you want to take and in turn will help you decide your tone. Let me break it down for you. Here are the 7 steps following which you would be able to create a stunning persona that your audience would like, and one which could also convert.
1. Choose your social platforms
The very first step is to decide which social media platforms suit you. The options of social media accounts are plenty but not every one will meet your needs. Where a travel blogger can use Instagram to its fullest, a corporate influencer or a CEO of a company might find much more advantage in LinkedIn. Carefully decide which medium you want to create your accounts in. Instagram is the best option to grow your business of other social media.
2. Optimize your social accounts
Your social account is your voice without you actually having to speak. Your profile picture, the cover picture (if applicable), the account description is who you are to your viewers. Keep it simple. But make sure that your profile picture and other images that you upload are very clear and easy to comprehend.
3. Create Content
The next step is to decide what posts you will do. Here comes your content strategy. A content strategy is very important to make it big on Social Media. Your content revolves around what message you have for your followers. You do not only have to post but also will have to measure how your audience reacts to your content. Based up on your analysis, you can modify and keep on changing your content to suit the best needs of your followers.
For personal branding, it is essential to show who you are through your posts. People connect with you when they get to know you. Feel free to express yourself. Take the filter off your personality when you post on Social Media. Focus on your content. Provide value to your viewers through the Social channels. Write about what you feel. Strong opinions that can make a difference matter. Or you can have a humorous side to your profile by sharing funny content. It all boils back to what your followers enjoy receiving from you.
4.Maintain Consistency
This is the key! People on social media who are consistent have more chances of increasing their reach into new groups than those who post once in a while but still hope to make a great brand on Social. Another aspect of consistency is to have similar elements in all of your posts. This will decide your tone. A constant tone creates a brand recall value that your audiences will identify you with.
Avoid going off topic too. Continue your expression of life and give the user at the other end something to remember better than the last time. Share experiences with your followers. Nobody can provide to your followers what you can provide. So stay true to yourself and give your them stunning bites of your life. That’s important.
The more often people see you the more they can get to know you. And the more they know you, chances are that they’d like you even more through the online medium. One of the most important things for social media personalities are loyal followers.
5.Engage with your followers
This one cannot wait to be in this list any further. DMs, comments and any form of interaction that your audience want to have with you should be acknowledged and responded to. It’s a duty of a social media influencer. Especially if you are a new one. Engaging with your audience has two benefits.
- Your audience feels taken care of, and
- Better engagement rates indicate social media platforms that you have good quality content. Such indications make social platforms take your account activity in front of new users
Ignoring people who like to engage with you is a fatal mistake.
With your posts, users create an image of how you would be in real life. Don’t break the bubble. Maintain your overall tone even when you talk to them personally.
Most importantly, try to find our ways to engage with them more often than you can. Now every channel from Instagram to LinkedIn has the option to go live. You can leverage that and many other cool features on the social network apps.
6.Give a clear Call to Action
Do you have a website where your users can find out more about you? Do you sell something? Or you are just engaging with your audience? In all cases the importance of a Call to action cannot be undermined. A CTA could be anything from ‘visit my website’ to ‘comment on post’. Although cliche, people are more likely to do something when you proactively ask them to.
7.Promote
Once you have good content, a decent follower base, a promising message and a good call to action, it’s alright to promote your page through ads. Paid promotions can get you reach much more than organic in very short time. You can choose the people who you want to promote your content to. The right selection of the audience will also drive many people to take action.
Final Thought
Social Media influencers have the power and the responsibility that comes along with it. They can share experiences and learnings with the world, but they can also shape a thinking with their actions. Personalities who have created a strong brand for themselves have a great platform to share their stories, inspire people, and voice their opinions to make a difference.
In the current times social media is saturated with influencers and people trying to make it big. A unique voice that’s authentic can stand out. It takes time and effort to create an empire on social Media. So, wear your hat of patience and start working one step at a time.
