Learn how to leverage social media management to help you boost your personal brand in these 7 steps.
Social media management is going to play an essential role in building your personal brand. When creating your business, personal branding is everything. Your social media pages have the potential to transform your company into a trustworthy brand that clients come back to again and again. Fortunately, everyone already has a personal brand, whether they realize it or not. You don’t have to start from scratch, but you do have to pay attention to it. The process of growing your personal brand is really a matter of honing your story and values to connect with your audience.
Of course, building a personal brand is no simple feat. It takes a lot of thought and intention to execute effectively. Luckily, there are many tools to help you achieve a personal brand that draws a community that will support your business. One of these essential tools is social media management. If you’ve ever tried growing a social media following, you know it’s not always as easy as influencers make it look. Building a personal brand that works for you takes time. But with these 7 tips, you will have a social media presence set up to feed your personal brand and help you convert followers into clients.
Table of Contents
Why social media management is a key factor in personal branding
How social media management can boost your personal brand
Why personal branding is not optional
What can social media management do for your personal brand?
How to build your personal brand using social media management
- Be authentic
- Be consistent
- Cover your bases
- Connect with your community
- Build your expertise
- Learn from others
- Engage your audience
Why personal branding is not optional
Starting a personal brand sounds a little intimidating, but it’s not only for influencers. Building your personal brand is integral to your growth whether you run a small business or a large company. Even if you are looking for a job, you should put some effort into your personal brand. It all comes down to telling your story and how your audience perceives you. When your story is heard and resonates with your audience, the benefits are invaluable. Here are just a couple of ways personal branding can help elevate your business or career.
1. Attract your ideal clients
Part of building your personal brand is homing in on your story in a way that will help you connect with your ideal clients. When you present yourself so that your values match your ideal client, you will be able to work on projects that are fulfilling. Clients can tell when you are doing something you are passionate about. They will be more likely to bring their business to you if they can see that you care about them and what they are trying to achieve.
2. Establish leadership and credibility
Branding yourself is an integral part of establishing your credibility and expertise in your field. Through social media management, you can set yourself up as a leader in the field. When your audience has a question, they will know that they can turn to you for help. Then, on your profile, you should have an answer ready and easily accessible. Not only does this help your brand, but it can also create opportunities for your business.
3. Increase your perceived value
One of the best ways to stay on top of your competition is with your personal brand. Not only will it set you apart from the competition, but it will also raise clients’ perception of your value. You know your value; now you need to build your brand so that clients see it too. When clients see the worth of your work, you are empowered to earn more doing what you love. When you couple quality works with a stunning brand, you will be unstoppable.
What can social media management do for your personal brand?
When establishing your personal brand, social media management will be a key tool in your arsenal. Using sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to your advantage is essential to your personal brand. No matter who your audience is, you will be able to find them somewhere on social media. The trick is to figure out where. Depending on your audience, you might tweak your strategy to meet them where they spend their time. Cultivating your image is an important aspect of your personal brand, but social media can do more than that. It will help you establish trust in your brand to assure customers that their business is safe with you.
Building trust between your customers and your company is essential to your business’ success. When a company’s senior executives have a presence on social media, potential customers are 82% more likely to trust them. When executed well, social media management will help your business connect with customers in a more personal way so that your customers know that their values align with yours.
How to build your personal brand using social media management
It’s not easy to build a brand that works to your advantage. The important thing is to get started. Even if it’s not perfect, you will learn from it and improve as you find out more about your niche and your target audience. Now that you understand why building a personal brand with social media is essential to your business’ success, let’s take a look at how exactly you are going to pull it off.
1. Be authentic
Using social media management effectively isn’t just about posting eye-catching photos or showing your aesthetic. It’s really about telling your story and showing your audience who you are. When building your personal brand, it is important to be yourself. Not only will your audience be able to tell if you aren’t staying true to yourself, but it is also difficult to manage two or more versions of yourself regularly.
It can be tempting to try and emulate other influencers or brands that you admire. It’s alright to take inspiration from them, but you should never copy someone else. Not only is it unethical, but it won’t help you grow your brand. Why would someone want to buy a copy when they can get the real deal? Here’s the thing, we all have something unique about us. Let your uniqueness shine through your work. Your audience will appreciate that they can get something original from you that they can’t find anywhere else. Yes, there might be similar products or services out there, but when you put your twist on it, it will show your audience your personality and flare.
2. Be consistent
You’ll hear it again and again: consistency is key, but you may wonder why it’s so important. People are inundated with information and profiles on social media vying for their attention. It is possible to make your mark amongst the competition, but it usually takes 5 to 7 instances of being exposed to a brand to make it stick in someone’s mind. If you are consistent, you are more likely to get that chance. If you post sporadically, then you will fall off your audience’s radar, and it’s hard to get that opportunity back.
Consistency isn’t just about posting at the right time every day. It’s also about aesthetics, voice, and strategy. Your audience should be able to pick you out of an influencer lineup. You can achieve this by staying consistent with your brand voice, using the same aesthetic and materials across all of your social media platforms, and using the same name so that people can find you with ease. Remember, a confused mind says no. So, if you think there would be any doubt in someone’s mind that they are looking at your account, then you need to take a look at your accounts to be sure there is no confusion.
3. Cover your bases
When developing a social media strategy for your personal brand, you have to make sure that your audience can find you. If you have a small business, it might be a good idea to start with one or two platforms that cater to your audience to begin your social media strategy. However, if you have a company with the resources to conquer social media from all sides, then you should go for it. Potential customers will see you as more reliable if you have a wider social media presence across multiple platforms. You will at least want to have an active profile on the big-name platforms. However, some niches will have different ways of tackling social media management than others.
4. Connect with your community
It really does take a village. Nowadays, our communities are growing online rather than in person. The good thing is it is easier than ever to find the people that will appreciate all the hard work you are putting into your brand. Perhaps one of the best parts of social media management for your personal brand is connecting with others in your community. It can be so rewarding to meet other people in the same boat as you. On social media, you can find the people that will lift you up. By teaming up with other influencers and setting up collaborations with people that compliment your values, you can tackle the world of social media management together.
However, be sure you aren’t spending all of your time engaging with accounts that are similar to yours. You should be spending most of your time engaging with your followers by responding to comments and messages. Even though it might be impossible to respond to every comment and message you receive, it’s important to reply to as much as possible. Brands that stay responsive to their followers build a sense of community and followers are more likely to stick around if they feel a connection with you and your brand.
5. Build your expertise
Your clients and potential customers are likely to have questions about your product or services. More and more people are looking to social media platforms like Instagram for answers. If you take this into account when tackling your social media strategy, your audience will turn to you as an authority to answer all of their questions regarding your niche. When they have a question, you want them to turn to you. If they can easily find the answers to their questions, they will be more likely to trust you with handling their business because they will see you as the expert in your field.
6. Learn from others
Though social media management and building a loyal following can seem like a mystery, there are plenty of people you can learn from at your fingertips. If you are still unsure where to start in your niche, do a little research and see what other influencers do. Again, be sure you do not copy their ideas. This will be sure to hurt you and your brand more than it could ever help. However, you can learn from them and see what their audience responds to.
For example, if you run a small business selling handmade scrunchies, you will probably have a younger audience that frequents social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. It would be wise to check out other pages selling handmade products to see what audios are trending in their videos and which types of videos got the most traction with their audience. You could then use those audio clips to create reels or TikTok’s that fit your brand with a new message that will appeal to your target audience.
7. Engage your audience
Once you post something to your social media profiles, you can’t just call it a day. There is still much more work to do. For your brand to succeed, it is absolutely vital that you engage with your audience. This means that you respond to comments and post quality content. To create a successful personal brand through social media management, you have to make sure your posts are engaging. If your aesthetic is stunning, but your content isn’t solid, then you’ll lose followers faster than you can blink. If your audience doesn’t get something valuable out of every post, you have to rethink your strategy.
Conclusion
Boosting your business takes more than a killer product. Marketing yourself and showing your audience the person behind the product is essential to building trust with potential customers and growing your following. By taking control of your personal brand, you have the opportunity to clarify your values and hone your business strategy. Social media management will help you boost your personal brand to connect with customers and clients that you love to work with.
About the Author
Claire Bahn is a 4-time serial entrepreneur who currently is the CEO and Founder of Claire Bahn Group.
She has been helping high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors, founders, and executives create their best personal brand for over 10 years. As an entrepreneur and influencer with over 70k+ followers on social media, she has learned the importance of creating and maintaining your personal brand. She helps everyone from entrepreneurs to business executives leverage their personal brand to develop the authority, influence, and trust they need to exceed their business goals.
She’s been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis, MarketWatch, and Ticker Australia to name a few.
Claire is also a former model and actress with major national commercials and feature-length film credits. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two adorable miniature pinschers named Beau and Trixie.
The Claire Bahn Group is a registered Delaware holding company that includes Stratus Branding, Online Profile Pros, Biz with Claire and Claire Bahn Personal Brand Consulting
