6 Ways to Brand Yourself on Social Media

It is not surprising that brands leverage social media endlessly to market their business and boost their online visibility. Of course, they want more clicks, likes, and shares and ultimately more sales.

But, modern customers want to know the people behind the brands these days. They expect a human touch and a trustworthy brand to do business with. So, it is time for business owners to build their brand on social media and market themselves rather than solely marketing their businesses.

Yes, gone are those days when personal branding was reserved only for celebrities, sportspersons, or musicians. Today, entrepreneurs can build their brand online from scratch and show themselves as credible business owners.

However, building a brand for yourself is different from building a brand for your products or company. Personal brand means letting the world know who you really are and what you stand for. In short, it’s about influencing people’s perception of yourself and establishing your credibility as an expert or industry leader.

Sharing online enables you to create an online persona that reflects your professional skills and personal values. The content you create, share or react to will add up to your personality. So, how you conduct yourself online is as crucial as your behavior offline.

If you invest time and put in the appropriate efforts, you can become a brand that attracts customers with ease. Here are 6 effective ways to convert your name into a leading and reputable brand.

1 — Choose Your Area of Expertise

It is not that you log on to your social media profiles and start posting randomly about any topics. You have to decide what you want to be known for before sharing any content online.

When the internet has full of entrepreneurs already competing with each other by flooding content, you have to be unique to stand out. So, avoid choosing more generic terms like marketing or human resources. Instead, showcase yourself in a more specific niche.

When you prefer a niche you know more about, you can prove yourself as an expert as you already know what you are saying. Though your potential audience might be smaller, they will be more relevant. Thus, they can connect with you instantly and start seeing you as an expert in your industry.

That way, you can create a loyal community of social media followers. Furthermore, they are the ones who will become your brand ambassadors, introducing you and your brand to their fellow friends and acquaintances.

2 — Be Consistent Across All Social Media Platforms

As an entrepreneur, you are your brand in personal branding. People should recognize and identify your brand name just by seeing your name, profile or picture. So, you have to be consistent with your name, profile picture, logo, headline, or slogans across all social media platforms.

Furthermore, always make sure you maintain the same tone, values, and voice on all your content across multiple platforms. If you contradict your own messages, people can’t accept you as a credible business. Thus, stay consistent and maintain your brand voice and values on all your social media posts.

However, it doesn’t mean you have to post the same content on all platforms. You can always change content depending on the platform’s needs and usage. For instance, Twitter demands you to be short with your posts, while you can post long posts on Facebook and image-centered posts on Instagram. That is alright, but what I emphasize here is maintaining consistency in your tone across all messages.

3— Be Regular with Your Social Media Posts

Again, if you don’t post content regularly and be erratic with your posts, your branding journey will suffer ultimately. No, it is not that you should post two blogs or videos or articles daily.

But, you have to be consistent with the content you share. Say, two articles per week or three videos in 10 days, etc. That will allow your audience to predict your schedule, and hence they will know what to expect from you.

Sharing valuable content that benefits your audience will, in turn, add value to your business. You can share your industry knowledge, your life experiences, your entrepreneurial journey, or anything that will be beneficial to your audience. The audience will feel the genuineness in your posts, and often they will start relying on you for more such inspiring/motivating/credible information.

Ultimately, when your posts help your audience in some ways, that will again build your credibility. Also, the more posts from you, the more familiar your brand will become for them. Hence, they will prefer your brand over your competitors whenever the need for your products/services arises in the future.

4 — Find and Join the Right Groups

Social media networks like Facebook or professional networks like LinkedIn offer many opportunities to join groups focused on specific industries or topics. You can search for such groups and share your insights and build authority towards your brand.

Also, there will be many industry groups jammed with your competitors. You can choose to ignore such groups and focus on smaller and topic-based groups instead. That way, you can engage with your target audience more personally.

Once you join your preferred social media groups, be initiative and participate in all discussions. Never hesitate to start conversations or give your views on other people’s questions.

Yes, if you just join groups and do not stay active in the group, you may miss all the benefits. So, initiate discussions, and be responsive to other people’s posts. That way, you can build your own empire(personal brand) among a larger community.

5 — Diversify Your Content

Posting the same type of content, like only blog posts, or infographics can make your profile look boring. Also, social media is full of various audiences with diverse content needs. Some may prefer long-form informative posts, while others may want video content, and a few others may choose visual content.

Thus, diversifying the content is mandatory to satisfy all of your audiences. It can be overwhelming to come with fresh ideas and new content regularly. So, I highly recommend you to have a communications strategy to avoid oversharing the same type of content.

Maintaining an editorial calendar with a diverse content plan can help you publish different posts. Also, make sure to include images, videos, graphics, and even questions to keep your posts more interactive.

That way, you can have two-way communication with your social media audience rather than you alone posting articles.

6 — Keep Offering Value to Your Audience

People are clever enough, and they can quickly make out if you are mere sales-oriented. So, do not try to sell or pitch anything when you are in the venture of personal branding. Try developing a personal connection and make the customers feel that you care about them.

The idea is that you need to give reasons for people to remember you and your brand. Invest time and give your advice or any other resources to help your connections. When you make genuine bonding with your audience, they will automatically prefer your brand over others.

However, sales are only a by-product and never must be your primary goal while building a personal brand.

Final Thoughts

In 2021, starting a business is easier than it was a decade ago. But running a successful business now is more complicated than ever. With so much competition, people have started expecting more from brands than ever before.

Audiences want to do business with people and not with brands anymore. Yes, customers want an approachable, humanized brand rather than a sales-oriented brand. Hence, more and more entrepreneurs are leveraging social media to connect with their potential audience and building a brand for themselves rather than for their companies.

Personal branding is altogether a different ball game than corporate branding. No, neither pitching nor sales. It is all about building a healthy relationship with your audience and encouraging them to remember you and your brand in a good way.

But, it need not be a challenging journey either. You can build a brand while enjoying the process of fostering relationships with your audiences. Follow the simple ways discussed in the blog and build a reputable brand for yourself and your business.