Your personal brand is shaped by your experiences, how you present yourself, and the skills you’ve acquired throughout your career. In today’s competitive professional environment, it’s important that you build a strong personal brand to ensure you can advance in your career and build a stronger professional future.  Your online presence is a huge factor in gaining new opportunities and valuable connections. So, even if you don’t use your social media accounts often, they still play a massive role in how others see your brand.  Since social media success isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to building your personal brand, you’ll have to do some work and make some smart decisions to ensure you are projecting the correct image of your personal brand through social media.

5 solid strategies for using social media to build your brand

When creating a personal brand, you are essentially developing a reputation centered around your unique name and career. Your goal is to market yourself as an expert in your niche to earn the trust and respect of others in your industry.  Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are excellent tools for establishing and growing your personal brand because it allows you to reach more of your target audience. It also allows you to control your brand’s narrative, so when others look you up, you know exactly what they will find.   Let’s look at five expert strategies you can use to help build social media engagement around your brand and attract the opportunities and partnerships that will propel your career forward. 

1. Maintain a unique consistent brand image and voice across all social media profiles

Consistency is critical when it comes to personal branding. It’s essential to maintain a defined persona across your social media accounts. This will ensure that you’re trustworthy and memorable to your followers.  Finding the right tone and image may take some trial and error, but you should update all of your social media profiles to reflect consistent branding once established. Here are some ways to maintain your brand image on multiple platforms: 

• Establish Brand Guidelines: Identify a focus and goal for the digital world and ensure all social media posts revolve around the guidelines you set. 
• Integrate Multiple Channels: Take the time to integrate all your social media profiles. This will allow you to post content in various places to maintain a consistent presence and voice. 
• Use The Same Profile Photo And Color Scheme: Visual consistency will allow users to identify you across various social media accounts quickly. This will build personal brand recognition and make it easy for them to follow you across multiple channels. 
• Be Present In Relevant Groups And Forums: Lend your voice to various conversations happening in your industry. Be sure to keep a positive, uplifting tone to ensure your brand maintains a good reputation. 

By ensuring the personal branding on your LinkedIn profile and Twitter account is consistent, you’ll be able to control others’ perceptions of your brand. It’s easy to damage your entire personal brand if one account is inconsistent with your brand voice. 

2. Study influencers and take their lead in your area of expertise

Influencers, such as bloggers, podcast hosts, and TikTok creators, have succeeded in building their own brands. Being a social media influencer opens up doors for influencer marketing and small business opportunities, so figure out how to leverage your personal brand by taking a page from their book.  Search social media platforms for a notable influencer and thought leader in your industry. Once you’ve identified the prominent influencers you’d like to emulate, take the time to analyze their posting habits, social networks, and content to see what you could improve upon.  Study how their followers respond to their content and learn best practices from their self-branding techniques. Take what you observe and test it on your own social media networks.  Follow the same companies and hashtags these influencers engage with to keep your fingers on the pulse of social media marketing trends that you can apply to your own brand. 

3. Design a lucrative content and social media posting schedule

Content marketing is a great way to build your brand persona and capture the attention of your target audience. In the past, content creation was all about volume: the more you posted, the more engagement you drummed up.  However, in today’s market, over-posting often annoys your followers and causes them to tune out anything you share. So you’ll need to find the sweet spot when it comes to sharing content.  Typically, 3 or 4 times a week is great for individuals looking to build their brand. Additionally, you’ll need to do some research to identify the peak times when your target audience is active on social media. This will allow you to post when it’s more likely your content will be directly in front of your followers. Once you know when your target audience is expected to be scrolling their feed, devise a content posting calendar to track when and where you share your posts.  You can also find content on popular topics via social media hashtags or news aggregator sites like Google Alerts. Be sure to only share content and news that is relevant to your niche and supports the personal branding you are trying to maintain on social media. 

4. Make engaging and uplifting posts part of your personal branding strategy

To create a personal brand that helps you meet your career goals, you’ll need to make sure it accurately reflects who you are and what you want to achieve. This means you need to know what to do and what not to do online to keep your social media persona positive.  Your interactions and shared content act as a resume of what you stand for and reflect your personality. This is why it’s essential to generate original content that demonstrates your professional attitude and knowledge.  On days where you don’t post, focus on generating the type of content your followers want to see, such as a shareable infographic, podcast link, or a post about a valuable webinar you attended. You can also use this time to comment on the posts that appear on your own feed.  Aim to keep your comments and conversations on topic. Avoid discussing sensitive personal topics, like finances, religion, or politics. You can talk about your achievements and add interesting information about your personal life, but remember that infusing too much of your personal opinions may isolate your target audience.  If you crave a forum to share your thoughts and feelings, consider maintaining a private, personal social media account for only close friends and family so you can voice your opinions in a safe space. Your public social media platforms should include calculated shares and strategic responses.  Always maintain a positive tone and don’t participate in conversations that involve speaking negatively about a person or business. This could tarnish your carefully curated personal branding and have severe repercussions in the professional realm. 

5. Get active on social media groups and forums

Social media platforms offer countless opportunities to join groups that attract people from a specific industry or are interested in a particular topic. To leverage LinkedIn and Facebook in order to grow your brand, you’ll need to be active in relevant groups and forums. This will help establish you as a leader in the industry and give you a platform to connect with others as you increase brand awareness.  Use the search function to find groups that reflect our area of expertise. You’ll have a platform to share your insights and build authority for your personal brand. There are many benefits to engaging in social media groups, such as: 

• The ability to help others 
• Build valuable connections in your industry
• Motivation to achieve your goals 
• Accountability 
• Expand your knowledge and skill set 
• Obtain critical feedback 
• Find new professional opportunities 
• Develop communication and leadership skills 

Once you join some social media groups, don’t be afraid to jump right in and add your unique insights to ongoing discussions. After all, social media is about socializing! If you join groups and don’t participate, you’ll miss out on the key benefits this area of social media has to offer.  Remember that industry groups will have your competition present. Smaller groups that focus on a specific topic may be a better way to reach your target audience and offer a better platform for your social media marketing efforts. 

Build a strong personal brand using social media management

Maintaining a consistent presence across all of your chosen social media sites is a great way to build your brand and make new connections that will help you grow as a professional.  The best way to maintain a consistent presence across all social media platforms is to enlist the help of a social media management service. Metigy offers recommendations and insights you can use to make intelligent choices as you manage your personal brand on social media. This is a great way to grow your unique digital marketing strategy and ensure your personal branding remains consistent and effective.  Interested in giving Metigy a try? Reach out for a free trial and see how easy it is to build your personal brand on social media with the help of our experts. 

FAQs

Do I need to edit images for social media?

Yes, you should edit your social media images to maintain consistent branding, increase your engagement metrics, and capture the attention of your target audience. 

Should I shorten links before posting to social media?

Yes, using a URL shortener in social media is crucial because it makes your links look better and encourages social sharing. 

Which social media is best for personal branding?

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the best social media platforms to build your personal brand.