Leveraging Social Media: Creating A Personal Brand

By Lea Woodford

Leveraging social media to create an effective personal brand.

Social Media Branding is one of the most effective and cost efficient ways to convey your message to the masses. Social Media Branding is available to everyone, unlike traditional marketing and PR services. You can now build your personal brand online without breaking the bank. You get to decide what you want to be known for and you get to control how people perceive you.

Here are some tips about building your personal brand with social media branding:

• Brand consistently both on and offline. Be authentic and be the person you are representing online. Good news spreads fast but bad news spreads faster so walk your talk and always be authentic.
• Have a strategy before embarking on social media branding and know what your goals are and what your end result should be.
• Go beyond corporate branding. Social Media can be especially beneficial for realtors, financial planners, insurance agents and anyone else who is being overshadowed by their parent company or franchise’s corporate branding.
• Social Media Kharma is powerful and can really help you build your personal brand. Endorse and praise others on social media by sharing their content and promoting their posts. This goes a long way in building your online relationships and endears people to want to support you in return. Kharma works both ways so avoid being negative on social media.
• Connect with social media influencers in your industry and build genuine relationships with them. Your influencers are valuable people to know. They will connect you with other valuable people.
• Remember that people are looking at your online connections. Being associated with your industry experts will enhance your personal brand.
• Find your voice! Become a great resource and original content provider so that your ideas are noticed and shared. Sharing your original content ideas online not only enhances your search engine optimization but it also positions you as an industry expert.
• Remember social media is social and meant to be just that so don’t turn off your followers with constant pitching and selling. A good rule of thumb is 80% social and 20% marketing.
• Stay connected! Don’t build a following and then ignore them. Your personal brand needs to connect and engage with them on a regular basis.
• Your attitude determines your altitude so keep your posts positive. Do not allow yourself to be drawn in to negative posts. Remember you have an audience that is engaged and is watching you so play nice!
• Flexibility is important because social media changes frequently. As soon as you think you have everything down, Facebook will change their algorithms or another new social media platform is introduced
• Educate yourself on the various social media platforms and how to use them. Start small and master those before adding too many to the mix. Consistency is the key to all successful social media branding and marketing campaigns.

Social media branding has evened the playing fields for everyone. You too can have a strong personal brand. Invest the resources necessary to developing and crafting your personal brand and message.

People always prefer to do business with those they know and trust so your social media branding is the perfect tool to connect with people and earn their trust.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lea Woodford is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of the SmartFem Media Group, a full service digital marketing and advertising company.  When it comes to speaking, Lea is a breath of fresh air, focusing on leadership, innovation and change to drive business. Her inspirational stories and humor will engage audiences to start thinking bigger. Lea speaks from experience as she shares her stories on making her online magazine into a full service digital marketing and advertising company. She encourages her audience to think bigger and bolder about their own business. Lea motivates her audience in the same manner she motivates her team, “find your voice.” Lea shares her ups and downs as well as her successes and failures – to give your audience a fresh perspective on marketing, leadership, innovation and customer service. An online marketing, and social media expert, Lea shares the latest trends to help companies move to the next level in the ever changing digital space. Lea is an expert and a top speaker. She walks her talk. She will impart valuable information in a fun and entertaining way and will leave your audience wanting more.