How to start with a personal branding strategy using social media

At its most basic level, social media is a medium that facilitates social behaviour and connects you with friends, family, and colleagues. It also provides you with the ability to meet new people anywhere in the world. It’s been around for the best part of two decades and what started as a medium for open dialogue is now also used for marketing, customer service, and personal branding.

Your digital footprint is a glimpse of your personal brand and there is nothing wrong with building it online when it’s done thoughtfully and naturally. We all have different interests, experiences, specialities and attitudes that define us, and that ability to showcase this online and express these differences physically and visually is what can separate us from the masses.

Don’t look for shortcuts

The problems start when people become infatuated with their own brands and are looking for shortcuts. Online you will find many so-called experts and gurus that are always talking about the best practices that might result in over optimised execution. Take a look at LinkedIn; there are so many so-called “expert” profiles that are only filled with keywords, which makes it very difficult to find what you are looking for.

Many people try to cut corners with personal branding online by creating little white lies and turning their accounts into over the top self-serving profiles. Maybe it starts with buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers to appear more influential, or adding a top education degree to their LinkedIn profiles when they only attended a paid seminar. Either way, in the long-term, these people will get exposed by their inability to deliver results on what they are promising online.

The challenge with personal branding

The challenge for everyone interested in personal branding is that, with the volume of content being created daily and the speed at which it is shared in real-time, it is becoming quite chaotic and difficult to separate fiction from fact.

Fortunately, there is a powerful solution that can separate you and help you stand out from all the noise online. It’s a fact that a successful brand is built on the delivery of promises by providing excellent execution and support to customers. To tie this back to your personal brand, stop selling and proclaiming everything you do to be super awesome. Start by focusing on how you can help other people succeed. This is a true form of leadership and as a result you will find that your work and personal life online will flourish.

Support the needs of your audience

Start thinking about your personal brand’s clients, which consists of your friends, family, and your online community. Support their needs and you will achieve success together with them. If these people are satisfied with your work, they will praise what you have done and their endorsement towards your brand will be much more impactful than what you could have done alone.

Start today and make all the necessary changes to take ownership of your personal brand by staying positive and true to yourself. Let your actions do all the talking for you.