Personal Branding: Your Social Media Strategy

1) Start by identifying your objectives. What do you hope to accomplish through your social media presence? Are you hoping to directly sell products and services? (Note: in-your-face sales tactics are rarely successful via social media.) Are you hoping to spread awareness amongst your market? Are you seeking to build stronger relationships with current clients? Or are you simply trying to drive traffic to your website? As you see, there are a variety of ways in which social media can be approached. Define your objectives before jumping in!

2) Look to build relationships and form community. Social media is a fantastic forum to strengthen existing relationships and to develop new ones. It is easy to plug yourself in to communities of people that share the same line of work, the same geographic location, or even the same hobbies as you. Start conversations, pursue relationships, and work to integrate yourself into various communities. You will find that these relationships often lead to productive collaboration and are well worth the time you invest.

3) Use Facebook and Twitter to share more about yourself, your interests, and your personal life. Whether it is sharing photos of your family or keeping your followers informed of your latest travels, social media platforms represent a great opportunity to "open up" and let your connections get to know you even better. This is an excellent way to build trust, as well-as it gives your audience a chance to see the "real" you. As you probably know, consumers prefer to do business with people that they trust-so take advantage of the opportunity!

4) Remember to stay true to your brand across all platforms. Whether it is Facebook, your blog, or even your latest TV appearance, it is always important to stay consistent with your brand. The ease and frequency with which you can communicate via social media makes it easy to stray off course, so discipline is important.

Social media is a powerful tool for personal branding. Thanks to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, today you have the ability to reach a massive audience in real-time and for virtually no cost. Thirty years ago, marketers would have stood in line for days and paid untold sums of money for this type of reach. The only question is%u2026 will you take advantage? And it all starts with a strategy-contact us today if you'd like to learn more!