Why you should be building a personal brand and be more human on social media.

Once you have your content pillars and topics outlined, creating the rest of your social media content based on your personal experiences will be easy. 

Here are some starting points for what to share to build your personal brand – 

1. ·Share your back story – talk about how you got to where you are today, and lessons learned along the way. People are nosey and love stories! 
2. Re-introduce yourself to your new connections – don’t assume they know everything about you yet. A video can work well to introduce yourself (see my recent example here).
3. Talk about relevant industry topics – be honest if you have opinions or niggles about certain things. We’d recommend avoiding any strong views on politics or religion, though. 
4. Share examples of things your industry is doing well – praising competitors can work in your favour, so explain why you liked their product/ad/content. 
5. Post behind the scenes photos or videos of you working – people love to see what happens before the finished product. Share you and your team prepping for events, meetings, developing new products/courses, and new office updates. 
6. Ask your audience’s advice on something you’re working on – opening yourself up to receive feedback can not only help with product/service development, but also shows you’re human. 
7. Share brand photography of yourself so people recognise your face – if you haven’t already, get some new photos taken that are not too corporate. Read more about how personal brand photography can elevate your social media marketing. 
8. Open a Q&A session for your connections – let people ask their burning questions and share answers from your team members.
9. Start a podcast or live video series – create interview opportunities with guests and showcase your industry knowledge.
10. Raise money or volunteer for charities that are close to your heart – explain why the cause is important and what you’re doing to help. Share fundraising progress, the run-up to any events, and any sponsorship opportunities. 
11. Use topical awareness days to create fun campaigns – read more about why it’s great to use topical awareness days and how to create good social media content from them. 

You will find your own perfect mix of content when building a personal brand that feels right to you. 

Remember that social media platforms are controlled by an algorithm, so you should be mindful to share a mix of content types. Try photos, videos, text-only, PDF files (also known as carousels on LinkedIn), or GIFs/animations (multiple static images together). See what media works best for you and how your audience responds to it. 

Don’t worry if it doesn’t feel like it’s ‘working’ straight away – creating good social media content takes some trial and error, as does finding out about your audience. It’s a long-term strategy that works best when you’re consistent… learning how to analyse your social media metrics means you can improve your future content plans. 

Another helpful tip is to make your content accessible for all. Add alt-text to image files (a description of what’s happening for people with vision impairments) and captions to videos (for people who are watching without sound or have hearing difficulties). 



Be more human in your social media content  - DO YOU!

Overall, the most important thing is to be honest. Stay true to your company and personal values when building a personal brand, and you’ll attract the right kinds of people. If you’re part of a team, encourage others to do the same.

Don’t forget to share your sense of humour. If there’s something that’s a little bit silly but you’d happily say it to clients in real life, don’t stop yourself from posting it on social media. Share your team members’ personalities and quirks, too! 

People buy from people and social media at its core is made to build meaningful connections. Having a focused approach to building a personal brand is simply a tool to make your efforts more effective. That way, you’ll be presented with more relevant business opportunities and propel yourself as an industry leader quicker. 

For more personal support on building a personal brand and using LinkedIn to generate business opportunities, check out my NEW course ‘LINGO’.   It takes just 30 minutes, for five days to turn your opinion of, and success on, LinkedIn around with LINGO.

Don't just take my word for it, here are a few recent LINGO reviews