Before you start thinking about content creation, your personal brand needs to have its social media marketing strategy established.
When it comes to social media platforms, these are your main options:
- YouTube
- Tik Tok
And with each social media platform, you get to decide which features you’ll utilize: Reels, IGTV, Stories, Groups, Lists, and so much more.
You can see why it’s important to first start off with figuring out your marketing tactics, then determine which social media platforms you need to be on, and then worry about content creation.
If you’re thinking your business can survive without a social media presence, you’re right.
Do you want to attract more clients and boost revenue?
But you want to be able to thrive and grow without one.
The proof is directly in the numbers. Fifty-three percent of people eliminate buying or working with a brand because of the lack of information they find online. So even if you’ve started your brand without a social media presence, it’s never too late to dive in.
Here are my 10 personal tips for a social media marketing strategy that will get you noticed!
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10. Create a USP for Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
When I first came to the realization that I needed to rebrand, I really had to think about what it is that I have to offer. Because (as I’m sure you know by now) there are thousands of online marketing coaches.
And at first, this realization made me stop in my tracks.
How was I going to cultivate a unique selling proposition to differentiate myself from all of those other experts?
The first thing I did was analyze my competition. I looked at about 25 marketing experts and tried to find where there was a gap that needed to be filled. I quickly found that there are only 1 or 2 personal branding experts (who didn’t specialize in branding design).
That niche instantly spoke to me. My business, Online Profile Pros, has been operating for over a decade. We help people develop their personal brand on their LinkedIn and dating profiles to help them land a job or to land a date. So the idea of positioning myself as a personal branding strategist made for a seamless transition.
However, I noticed that my personal branding competitors speak to the same audience: your every day Jane and John who are at the beginning stages of creating their personal brand.
What I didn’t see was a personal branding strategist who speaks to established CEOs or entrepreneurs looking for a route to that 7-figure salary.
That’s how I found my USP.
While a lot of my personal branding tips can be utilized by beginners, I make sure my content speaks to those who have the unyielding aspiration to hit that monetary goal. And with that goal usually comes the want to build their brand to become an influencer or a thought leader on par with people like Gary Vaynerchuk or Jasmine Star.
So on social media, I market myself to those people.
RELATED: THE GUIDE ON HOW TO BECOME FAMOUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
9. Set SMART Goals
When you’re really considering your personal branding social media marketing strategy, you want to be SMART about it:
Specific: What are you hoping to accomplish? More speaking gigs, a higher salary, or industry recognition?
Measurable: Now that you’ve determined your want, you need to figure out what metrics can help you see whether or not your marketing is working. You need to determine if you should track your followers, your hashtag numbers, sales, or some tangible metric that will give you a visual to your progress,
Achievable: Be realistic. You can’t ethically gain 10,000 followers in a month. Once you know what numbers you want to track, set goals for each one. Do you want to gain 2K followers in 6 months? Do you want 5 new clients every quarter? Figure out your goals and make sure they are numbers you can realistically hit.
Relevant: If your goal is to get 10k followers, ask yourself why. Will these 10K followers lead to more sales? If you buy followers or use black hat tactics like follow-for-follow, then those will just be empty numbers.
These people won’t buy from you because they aren’t engaged with your brand. If they aren’t engaged with your brand, your social media numbers will reflect that and it will hurt your Trust ranking. 10K followers and only 100 likes per post? That’s going to send instant red flags to consumers, investors, and other companies who may have looked to work with you.
Make relevant goals for your social media marketing. Remember: do not focus on vanity metrics!
Time-bound: What’s the deadline? I personally recommend sticking with a social media strategy for a minimum of 3 months.
Commit with the same posting schedule, the same groups of hashtags, and the same tactics before you determine what works and what doesn’t.
RELATED: HOW CORONAVIRUS HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE NEED FOR A STRONG PERSONAL BRAND STRATEGY
8. Research Your Audience
Once you know your personal goals, you need to determine your ideal client persona. This is a pretty standard marketing tip, but it’s a little more complicated when it comes to social media.
Your ideal client should have a:
- Name
- Age
- Job
- Annual Salary
- Fears
- Goals
- Hobbies
More importantly, you need to determine if these people are even on social media. If so, which platforms are they on the most?
For example, if you’re the founder of a digital e-commerce shop and your products sell to a younger demographic, you should be on Tik Tok. 41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24 according to Hootsuite. And if you’re looking to sell internationally, then this platform will be a game-changer for you.
On the other hand, you may be the CEO of a growing tech startup, which means you should be on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Twitter is a great social media arena for expressing your ideas and can quickly help you garner recognition as a thought leader.
LinkedIn would be a great place to market your personal brand as a tech CEO in order to make connections with an investment audience (which can really make an impact on a startup).
Knowing your audience is vital when choosing your social media platforms and for crafting content that speaks directly to them.
RELATED: HOW YOUR PERSONAL BRAND CAN FUTURE-PROOF YOUR CAREER
7. Show Up Daily
Every platform has its own 24-hour features— which means you have no excuse not to show up daily on social media.
Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube have Stories and Live features which are the secret sauce to your social media marketing strategy. The ability to stay top of mind on a daily basis is one of social media’s greatest assets.
Don’t let it go to waste.
Your personal brand is all about your persona. By neglecting to show up daily (especially in the beginning) you’re giving your competition a head start. Use Instagram Stories at least once a day to give a behind the scenes look into your life, to share a useful tip, or to showcase your success stories.
Live is a great tool for a number of reasons. You can use it as a virtual presentation (on Instagram, you create a full slideshow to show during your Live), as a way to interview fellow leaders and to simply showcase yourself as a person.
People buy from other people. If you’re not showing up on Stories or Live so that people get that face-to-face interaction with you— your social media marketing is going to fall short.
RELATED: HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BOOST YOUR CAREER
6. Be Consistent
It takes five to seven impressions for someone to remember a brand.
If you only post once about your product or service launch, chances are that only a small percentage of your social media audience is going to see it.
That’s why consistency is key. I know this strategy makes a lot of entrepreneurs uncomfortable because we’re all conditioned to feel like we need to say the right things at the right time ALL of the time.
This is especially true to people who have a personal brand. You want to make sure the content you’re putting out is relevant and timely (SMART) but then you’ll overthink whether or not it’s truly relevant or timely.
It’s a vicious cycle that almost every founder gets caught up in. It leads to “post paralysis” which results in an inconsistent social media marketing strategy.
But being consistent doesn’t mean burdening yourself with perfect content. It doesn’t even mean you have to post every single day. That’s what those bite-size social windows (Stories and Live) are for.
So instead, start off with just posting three times a week on 1-3 social media platforms. This will not only help ensure you’re consistent (because your content schedule is manageable) but it allows you time to engage with your audience.
As your social schedule becomes more routine and you start to really get to know your audience, you can bump up your posting schedule to 5 days per week to make sure your message is always being shared.
5. Quality Over Quantity
That brings me to my next point because I’m sure many of you are asking, ”How often do I need to post on social media?”
While you should show up daily through Stories or by engaging (comment, like, and share) with your ideal client, your posting schedule is about quality over quantity.
Take it slow and try to come up with 3-5 topics to talk about within your industry. Instead of spending time curating content that doesn’t bring much value (i.e. a picture of what you had for dinner) use that time to research your competitors and to put together content that actually brings value to your audience.
Think about it: wouldn’t you rather follow someone who posts a well-thought-out tip every Wednesday and a brand new IGTV every Friday than someone who posts pictures of their office 7 times a week?
4. Have a Content Calendar
Now that you know what you have to offer and what type of content your audience devours from your competition, it’s time to lay out your schedule.
First, decide on 1-3 social media platforms that your ideal client is on. Make one of those social media platforms your priority.
Again, try to not overwhelm yourself. You’ll have room to post more vigorously as you grow your team.
Right now, what’s important is that you understand what your audience wants from you. Keep a list of content ideas as you go through your USP and audience research. Then, outline a themed schedule so that you know what you’re posting and when.
For example, you may decide to do something like:
Monday: Daily motivation
Wednesday: Tip of the Week
Friday: Client Testimonials or User Generated Content
You can fill in the other days by marketing via Live or Stories. I recommend curating similarly themed content scheduled for those features.
RELATED: SIMPLE AND INGENIOUS WAYS TO BUILD BRAND AWARENESS
3. Cross-Promote and Repurpose
The great thing about social media these days is that you don’t have to be on every platform. However, I do recommend securing your personal brand handle (for example, @clairebahnbrainding) just in case you decide you want to expand your brand reach later on.
You can also save yourself some time and cross-promote and repurpose your content across various platforms.
For example, if you’re blogging,,. use your blogs for Instagram captions and emails.
If you’re on YouTube, reuse those videos to make shorter versions for IGTV.
If you’re into bite-size content, repost your Tik Tok videos to Reels. Trust me, no one will notice. And if they do, they won’t care.
You can cross-promoting your content by sharing Instagram posts to Facebook (you can do these easily within the app). Likewise, encourage your blog readers to follow you on social and tell your social media audience about your freebies and blog posts.
2. Be an Excellent Copywriter
A part of any successful marketing strategy is the copy.
Your copy is the motivating factor that drives people to like, know, and trust you.
Conversational copy is what sells right now, so don’t try to be overly-sales on your social media accounts. Just be a real person who gives away free tips and shares real experiences within their caption copy.
When it comes time to promote your product or service, use the art of storytelling to get your message across. Tell people how it will transform their daily life and genuinely express your excitement about what you’ve put together for them.
On that note, don’t use the same copy and paste captions as everyone else! I know it can be tempting because it saves you time, but people will be able to spot inauthenticity from a mile away.
1. SEO and Hashtags are a MUST for a Strong Social Media Marketing Strategy
When you’re investing your time (and money) in your social media marketing strategy, the goal is to reach more and more people.
The only way you can ensure your marketing success is to learn about SEO and to have a hashtag strategy for social media.
This takes quite a bit of research, but don’t worry! I have an entire blog on SEO on social media for you to dive into.
