2013-10-29

 

 If you’re looking to create a stronger and more defined personal brand, then social media is certainly one of the places to start. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for a small local business or a global corporation, social increase visibility, improves connections and will help you gain more exposure. So, here’s how to do it.

Define Goals

As with any plan, the first thing you need to do is define the goal. Whether it’s to improve visibility, build connections or for the sake of future employment opportunities – you need to know what you’re aiming for. Ideally, you want to showcase yourself in the best possible light and portray your abilities positively.

Real Life is Online Life

Like a real life relationship, you can’t expect to gain from social on a personal level unless you invest in it first. A lot of people tend to be put off by social media’s effort requirement and many will simply proclaim it won’t work. However, if you only want to take and not make any effort in real life you will also find it hard to benefit positively. In short, it’s hard to draw benefits from something you haven’t put any effort into.

Everyone Likes to be Liked

It’s nice to be liked and social media’s rules are the same as real life. Making effort with people, being light hearted, sharing and being helpful and kind all benefit personal brands on and offline. Of course, you still have to keep the professional side of friendly, especially online where the pace of life and sharing is lightning fast. However, generally being an amicable and caring person tends to work online. If you’re mean online then social karma will have its say eventually.

Share and Share again

Sharing with other people is a great way to build your online brand. Now, we’re not suggesting that you share absolutely everything you come across – a level of content quality control is necessary. The more you share good stuff, the more people will listen to you and the more people will follow you. Here are some good ways to share:

- LinkedIn Answers

- Links and videos to useful industry material

- Slideshare slide decks

- YouTube videos and demos of your products

- Answer questions on your blog

- Q&As on Facebook or Twitter

These are all great ways to get people interested, engaged and following your personal brand and can really help you to leverage your popularity.

Popularity

Evaluating how it’s all going can be hard and there are a few ways to test and that will reasonably inform you of how things are going:

- Are your followers increasing – not an absolute sign, but it does show you’re not irritating people.

- Do you get many retweets and shares

- Can you encourage debates and comments

- Do you have any industry relevant people following you, endorsing you, contacting you? A good sign because they’re willing to attach their name to you.

It can be hard to build a personal brand but it can thoroughly pay off and significantly help with your reputation and help you meet your aims. Just remember social media can take time to build but destroyed in an instant. Keep this at the back of your mind and you shant go too far wrong.

The post 5 Tips to Improve your Personal Brand on Social Media appeared first on MySocialAgency.by Cormac Reynolds

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