What do you want to be known for? In other words, what’s your brand?
Your Personal Brand is your Reputation
When you step into an elevator with another person — a stranger, wouldn’t it be nice if that person said, “Hey aren’t you the _____ lady/guy?”
That happened to me one day. “Aren’t you the social media lady?”
I don’t care that he didn’t remember my name. He related my face with what I’m an expert in. I answered, “Yes, I am! How do you know me?”
“I think we’re connected on LinkedIn. It’s so nice to meet you in person!”
Wow! That’s how you bring the online world into the real world.
In another case, I walked into a networking event for a new group. A guy walked up to me and said, “I’ve seen you on LinkedIn!”
I responded, “That means what I do works!”
What does it take to reach that kind of notoriety? How do you develop your online brand or persona?
Whether you like it or not, you are part of your brand. Especially if you’re a consultant, service provider, designer or professional anything.
For instance, you join a group like the chamber of commerce or an association as your business to promote your business. However, you attend networking lunches and other events as yourself. At that point, you are your brand! As you keep attending events, people start getting to know you and what you do.
In the same way, your personal profiles in the social networks play an important part.
I know some of you want to stay as incognito as possible – get over it. Nevertheless, you do want to keep business and personal separate. For example, on LinkedIn, which is predominately, a business platform, refrain from posting personal posts. On Facebook, post personal posts on your personal page and business on your business page. On X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Pinterest, you can have separate business and personal accounts. You just need different emails.
Like joining a networking organization, you get out of it what you put into it. That’s how today’s digital marketing works.
You can automate a lot of the media, but you still have to be social!
Persistence and Consistency
Branding should be consistent on all the social networks. They are like extensions of your website. People should know in seconds what you do and what you have to offer.
The average person has an attention span of 2 seconds these days.
In addition, Google indexes all the social media profiles – both personal and business.
You decide what your online brand is going to be. That’s your personal brand. Basically, it’s what you talk about the most. What article topics do you share the most? Which industry influencers do you quote, follow & connect with?
You become like those with which you hang out!
Here are some things you can do to get noticed and become known as an expert in your field…
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete. Your professional-looking head shot is there and you have a heading with your industry. (Remember, the guy in the elevator didn’t remember my name but he recognized me by my picture & title — and what I post!)
- Make sure your personal and business social media pages are complete and they all are connected and optimized with quality graphics and your industry keywords. Furthermore, it is your online image! Make it good!
- Share, share, and share some more! Find trusted sources of content in your industry or field who consistently put out good, quality content and share it regularly. Set up automatic feeds with Dlvr.it or schedule out posts on Sendible.
- Find influencers in your field. Follow, connect, share, comment, build relationships with them (that’s the social part of social media!) Hopefully, they’ll follow you back and share some of your stuff with their followers. An influencer has a lot of followers.
- Join Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Participate and get known. Moreover, when you share something in the groups, your picture, name & title appears with the post. People, that’s how you get known for what you do. Look for groups with:
- your target market
- influencers in your field
- peers or industry news
- local businesses
Social Media is No Joke!
Yes, it could be fun and entertaining and annoying at times, but if you know how to work it properly, it can be a very effective marketing tool.
Furthermore, the key is to clearly identify your target market(s) and figure out which networks they use the most (research).
Though you should have a presence in the major ones: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn, not everyone has to be on Pinterest, Snapchat or Instagram. It all depends on who you want to reach.
If you’re more B2C (Business to Consumer), you should be mastering Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. And, if you’re trying to reach the younger generation (12-24), you should check out Snapchat. B2B (Business to Business) – focus on LinkedIn and Facebook. Moreover, if you want to drive traffic to your website (and who doesn’t), then you can automate content to X. More info: B2B vs B2C.
You have a choice to make. Either hire someone who knows what they’re doing to do it for you or learn how to do it yourself.
Either way, a place to start is a free 15-minute phone consultation & analysis of your website and social media efforts. Click here to schedule.
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