In this blog, I share my Top tips to use Social Media to create a strong Personal Brand.Before we dive into the content I want to make sure you’ve done the work. If you haven’t set the foundation for your brand nothing I share below will matter. The reality is you need to understand your brand as a whole before you can add the vehicle that is social media.
I love this quote from marketing guru Seth Godin, that I believe explains branding perfectly.
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
So how do we do it? How do we use social media for personal branding?
That’s exactly what today’s blog is about.
If you haven’t set the foundation for your brand nothing I share below will matter. The reality is you need to understand your brand as a whole before you can add the element of Social Media to it.
1. Personal Branding Tip #1: Share Your Story on Social Media
There is no better way to tell people the memories and stories of your brand than through social media. How lucky are we today that we have this free tool at our fingertips to attract the correct audience for our businesses.
Yet, so many brands are missing this crucial step…storytelling. The reality is when you incorporate storytelling into your content on social media you’re posts are far more memorable to your audience.The human brain is hard wired for listening to STORIES.
Since, we now have the attention spans of goldfish, this is an important piece! You want your audience to remember you and nothing does this better than story.
Actionable Step: Include micro stories into your social media content. These can be as few as 1-2 sentences that you interweave into your content that tell a story. Paint a picture for your audience and invite them in by using the power of story
2. Personal Branding Tip #2: Position Yourself as an Expert
The first step is to nail down your niche. If you don’t know what you do or what you specialize in, no one else will !!
If EVERYBODY is your Audience,NOBODY actually is ! Take the time to nail down your niche so you can carve out your own little place in the market.
Actionable Step: Share your expertise within your content for social media. Create videos and posts that share very specific tips and tools for your audience to get them closer to their desire.
This not only positions you as an expert, it gives your audience valuable information and carves out a very specific niche I desire to create, “brand storytelling.”
3. Personal Branding Tip #3: Invite Others into Your Mission.
A very powerful part of the branding process is identifying your mission. It’s such a powerful and beautiful piece that they use to build community.
More brands and businesses need to focus on this piece. You can use your brand mission to connect your community, bring people in for a bigger purpose and create an audience of people who are invested in your long-term vision.
Actionable Step: Create a mission statement for your brand. For example, my mission is:
“To help Doctors & Professionals reach their patients through harnessing the power of social media, branding & Marketing.”
4. Personal Branding Tip #4: Connect Deeper with Your Audience.
Brand emotions are powerful.
The idea behind brand emotions is that you connect on a deeper level with your audience, pulling them in and making them feel something when they think of your brand.
This is important because people buy based on emotion! If your brand is lacking emotion, my guess it’s lacking a community and sales.
Using social media, you can play to these emotions by including them in your content, your images, your stories and more.
5. Personal Branding Tip #5: Create Better Connection through Content
Social media only works if your content is relevant and irresistible to your audience. In order to do this – Look and Listen.
Seriously, people tell you exactly what they want you to create content around, if you’re willing to pay attention. Carve out time on social media to look at other brands and influencers in your space and see what people are asking of them. Then create content around that to grow your own tribe.
In addition, if you have your own community, make it a point to regularly ask them what they would like you to create. Trust me…they will tell you.
Brands that listen to their audience and create content that speaks specifically to their audience create a better connection and trust.
Actionable Step: Schedule 15 minutes every week to brainstorm topic ideas from what you’re seeing online and/or create a poll.
Social media can be one of the greatest assets to build your personal brand if you’re willing to focus on community and fans over follower count.
Feel free to reach out,if you are ready to start this journey….