Building a personal brand on social media is more crucial than ever. With billions of active users across multiple platforms, having a strong and consistent presence can be the key to standing out and achieving your professional goals. Below are 10 essential steps to building and strengthening your personal brand on social media in 2024.
There are an estimated 5 billion social media users worldwide and the average person uses 6.7 different social networks each month, according to Datareportal.
These numbers demonstrate the adoption of social platforms across all age groups and locations. But not every account will help you build your online presence, and with so many networks to manage, you can’t go wrong.
Conduct an audit and decide which social media channels to focus on. Then, delete any old accounts that you no longer use or that don’t serve you well.
For the networks you will be using, make sure all of your information is accurate and complete. This will help you drive and increase traffic to the networks that will showcase who you are and your work.
2. Identify your Area of Expertise
We’re all experts at something, whether it’s how to create and distribute great content or having an encyclopedic knowledge of your favorite TV show.
In the digital marketing area, think about the experts that people and articles always refer to, and who also have impressive LinkedIn profiles.
Think about what type of content you’ve created that has resonated most with your followers. Can you replicate this with similar content or repurpose something that’s worked well to re-engage?
The more unique and engaging content you create about your topic of expertise, the more your followers will begin to see you as a thought leader in your chosen field.
Building a personal brand has become even easier with the advancement of artificial intelligence. By using AI tools, you can create an identity that reflects your values, experience, and aspirations.
You can use it for a variety of tasks such as:
Content Creation: Use writing tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT to conduct research and get ideas to create content for platforms.
Social media management : Platforms like Sprout, Buffer, and Hootsuite use AI to schedule posts and automate tasks.
SEO: Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush use AI to identify trending keywords and phrases, along with analyzing content for readability and keyword density, so you can optimize content for search engines.
Market research: You can use AI to perform competitive analysis and gain insights into market trends and customer behavior. Tools that can do this include Ahrefs, Similarweb, and Brand24.
Email Marketing: Personalization is key to increasing CTR in your email marketing, so use AI to analyze subscriber data and optimize and test key elements like subject lines, CTAs, and content.
Visuals: There are a lot of great tools you can use to create visuals like Canva AI or Midjourney. Adobe Spark and Lumen5 use AI to create professional images and videos.
In the early days of social media, the more you posted, the more engagement you could generate. However, today, over-posting leads to user fatigue and annoyance.
While there are guidelines on the optimal number of social media posts for large businesses, such as 3-5 posts a week on Instagram, 1-2 posts a day on LinkedIn, and 3-5 posts a day on TikTok, it’s not as clear-cut for small businesses or personal brands.
The optimal number of social media posts depends on your industry, audience, number of followers, and your resources.
Aim for a sustainable number of posts in your social media strategy on the networks that work for you, a number that you can manage without putting too much pressure on yourself or suffering burnout.
5. Import your Contacts
You’ll be surprised at how many people you already know on the social networks you’re using. There may be dozens or even hundreds of people you haven’t connected with yet.
That’s why you shouldn’t waste those existing or potential connections. Import your Gmail or Outlook email contacts, or contacts from your phone book, into your social networks to find out how many connections you’re missing.
LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and X allow you to import a certain number of contacts for free. You can also sync your phone contacts with your TikTok account.
6. Be Positive, Attractive and Authentic
While your goal may be to create an unstoppable personal brand online, make sure it reflects who you are and your values. Now that you know some of the do’s and don’ts on social media, you should be aware of what you shouldn’t do to ensure a positive social impression.
Think of your interactions and content as a resume of your work and a reflection of your professional attitude and personality. Reposting other people’s content or curating content is smart, but it’s not all you should be doing. You also need to share content that you’ve written to demonstrate your industry expertise.
Creating engaging content means taking a fresh approach to the types of updates you share with your network. Don’t be afraid to talk about your accomplishments or add engaging details about your personal life (for example, travel and hobbies are fine).
Facebook and LinkedIn are ideal platforms for joining groups specializing in specific industries or topics, allowing you to share knowledge and build authority in your area of expertise. Using the search bar, you can find relevant groups and contribute your knowledge. However, they are not the only options for building an online community.
Other platforms like X Communities, Threads, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Patreon, and Discord also offer opportunities to connect with people of similar interests. Each of these platforms has a different focus, from text-based discussions and exclusive content posts to real-time interaction and chat in safe environments. These tools can help you reach a wider audience and strengthen your personal brand in a variety of digital spaces.
8. Keep Your Voice, Image and Tone Consistent
Finding the tone of voice that works best for your brand can take trial and error. It’s not just about deciding whether you want to be funny or inspirational, you need to figure out what style works for you.
While you don’t need a graphic design degree to create amazing graphics, you do need an understanding of design fundamentals to provide a seamless user experience and communicate using visuals or text.
This includes color, imagery, typography, and composition. By mastering each of these aspects for your brand, you can create a brand style guide that will help you create a consistent image across digital channels, from your website or blog to social media and even email.
While your brand voice is the content of what you say, tone is how you say it. What this means is that your messaging should change depending on the audience and platform.
Just think about the type of content and tone of posts on LinkedIn. Now compare it to TikTok. Both cater to a different audience and a different purpose, so the tone has to change to connect with the user base on each.
Your tone will also change depending on what you’re communicating or responding to. For example, sharing a post about loving a new product will differ from one responding to a negative comment.
9. Study the Influencers
Connecting and collaborating with influencers is a great way to get your brand out there, but it can take time. You need to put in the time and effort to find the right one and then develop a relationship before they see you as an expert.
Influencer marketing has changed in recent years. It is no longer just about celebrities or big figures on Instagram or TikTok, small content creators and influencers can play a key role.
According to Meltwater’s State of Social Media report, micro-influencers inspire up to 60% more engagement than other influencers and have an average engagement rate of 3.86% compared to mega-influencers at just 1.21%.
Next, you should reach out to the influencer, preferably on the social channel they use. Be clear and honest about what you’re looking for and include an action like setting up a meeting or call.
Once you’ve secured a partnership or collaboration, use our influencer marketing brief template to share the goals, terms, and details of the project. This helps ensure you’re both on the same page and there are no surprises in the delivery.
The best way to build your personal brand on social media is to understand the fundamentals. It’s never just about posting and then wishing for the best scenario – you need to tailor your content for each platform so that it connects with your existing and future followers.
There are many areas in which you must have knowledge and experience to succeed on the social platform, such as:
- Social investigation
- Customer service on social media
- Social applications
- Analytics
- Social content
- Social strategy
- Social commerce
- Affiliate Marketing
Additionally, you need to know the characteristics of each of the key platforms, such as Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and the others, to know how to best leverage them and optimize content for each platform to get the best engagement rate.
With some practice, you’ll soon learn which channel works best and how to measure success. Luckily, our certified Social Media Marketing course will help you learn all of this and more. Plus, you can learn from industry experts who can give you advanced tips and insights! Check it out to see what you can learn.
