Social Media Personal Branding
Developing a Personal Brand using Social Media
The concept of branding and personal branding.
The idea/concept of branding according to (“Branding Definition – Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia”, 2018) your brand is your vow to your customer or potential customer. Telling them exactly what they will get from your services and products, which entails whatever you articulate/verbalize, you must stand behind. You must trust it and follow through with it. Show them in what way(s) you stand out from your competitors services and/or products. Branding arise from who you are, who you aspire to be and who people recognize you to be. Personal branding according to (2018) is the contemporary record that measures a leader’s central communication technique, their professional existence/presence in person and online, and their devotion/commitment of foundational beliefs equally in and out of the office, which if done successfully will in turn open endless opportunities professionally.
One’s personal brand is like a person’s preview of their own personal movie. A preview that everyone gets to see and determine if they think your movie is worth watching or not. In this case the preview of the movie is you, your image, and what you stand for. All the things you use on a regular basis to try to sell /market yourself. The preview/image that you want to be seen when someone decides to look you up. How you want people to think of you when they are looking to fill a job opening, mentor, or a partner. The image that people see and think of you matters a lot, and the stronger your brand is the higher the frequency of opportunities being presented/offered to you in today’s business world. Currently, I presently am on LinkedIn and plan to join Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and YouTube soon.
I am currently utilizing LinkedIn and soon to be utilizing the other platforms to continue to create a brand that others can see who I am exactly, and how I stand out from others by what I can offer them. I will be sure to connect all the platforms through an app that allows me to cross platform post and change settings. I will join some groups to expand and grow my personal brand.
Methods I will use to create my personal brand
- Build a great portfolio is the first method I plan on executing to create my personal brand. I will let past experiences/projects and the results from them to speak for me. Being able to showcase what I am capable of will put emphasis on the quality of my work will help highlight my skills and why I stand out. I will be using Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn platforms to build my portfolio.
- Just by being myself is the second method I plan on executing to help shape my personal brand. I believe many people try too hard to be like others who are successful and its hard to differentiate or stand out when you do that.
- Build up Credibility according to (2018) It is crucial to have reliable, intuitive and original feedback on social media platforms channels. Be certain of the contents quality prior to posting it.
- Put emphasis on always providing only high-end work. By doing this will only emphasize noticeable consistency while making my brand stronger.
- Seek feedback. According to (“11 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand”, 2018) It’s essential to continue assess the worth/value of your brand. This can be performed by conventional means for example 360 feedback or, going on job interviews even if you don’t plan on leaving your current job it can still help gauge your value on the market.
- Create a marketing network and help it grow exponentially.
Starting with those closest to me family, friends, then customers and prospects. This is the people who will say the things who determines your brands worth. Grow the network through podcasting and blogging.
A detailed marketing plan to increase your personal social media presence.
| Vision statement | My vision is to create a flawless way for people to experience my brand |
| Mission statement | To construct, maintain and promote the best impression of myself socially. |
| Goals/objectives | Become an expert leader in business world through networking and building up my brand |
Updating my present social media pages/channels is crucial in not following behind with the times. Because social media is always changing and by updating my pages/channels and staying up-to-date will allow my brand to grow stronger.
I need to add some content including pictures to my social media accounts. The current state of my social media accounts are bland at best. With some unique research and targeting which groups to join will allow for me to increase my brand awareness. Through this brand awareness increase it will also allow me to network professionally and come across employment opportunities and make new friends along the way. Part of adding content to my bland social media pages will consist of positioning links correctly too I know doing all of the changes and updates needed to my pages/channels and joining targeted groups won’t instantly make my brand skyrocket. If I stick with it, it will help no doubt.
While strengthening my brand I will not only update my pages and target groups to join. I will also be putting some effort towards blogging in addition to the social media sites where I will be taking advantage of hashtags and links. Making it easier to see me through my brand. Engagement will be my biggest tool to strengthening my brand by receiving direct feedback from people which will allow me to step my game up almost in real time by seeing my brand through the eyes of others.
Each strategy that I come up with to increase my brand awareness, I will be sure to promote building networks of people that can be mutually beneficial to each other. This network building will no doubt show who I am and what I am capable of by following me and simply clicking on available links. Strengthening my brand isn’t a single exercise I know I won’t do just one time. It will be a constant evolving activity that will never end in the pursuit of perfection.
Measurement
When I have the research and strategies I plan to use in place ready to be executed I will have to have a surefire way to gauge my failures and successes. The true measuring stick to success is the return on investment of time and effort put in to maintain and grow my brand.
To be able to track success won’t be too hard to do, simply by looking at the numbers. The numbers in relation to job offers, the followers, comments, likes, shares, hashtracking and number of people you grow to network with. All these numbers will tell you of how well people are becoming aware of your brand. Another way to measure is through free analysis tools like google analytics.
References Used
Branding Definition – Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding
11 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand. (2018). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/03/11-ways-to-build-your-personal
(2018). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/12/21/building-a-personal-brand-16-simple-tips-for-todays-executives/#373063b727bb
