Personal Branding with Social Media

When it comes to building a high profile positive personal brand, social media is a really powerful tool, letting you explain your core messages with text, images, slideshares and video to a local or global audience.

What’s more, as well as providing free visibility, it also provides a fantastic mechanism for you to interact with people who value what you do and start building  a loyal tribe of followers – something that was impossible to do with a static, dull and dusty “corporate brochure” website that got a tiny trickle of one-time visitors – if you were lucky!

I believe social media has emerged from the basic human need of wanting to feel part of a community. Which means what works in real life for you right now also works well in social media land, but with wider distribution and quick results.

I wish I had a pound for every time people say to me that “social media does not work”. What they really mean is they tried to extract value before they contributed anything valuable. It takes time to build trust and become likeable, just like it does in real life.

If you’re expecting to get massive benefits without giving any back in return, you’re heading for trouble. Social media doesn’t work for the selfish – it works for those who share and support and nurture others. Just like a bank account, you can’t withdraw money without putting some in first. Have a think about what you can share that is low or zero cost for you to provide and a massive benefit for your followers - that’s a great way to build up good will in a quick and easy way.

When you want to position yourself as an expert - share what you know. Imagine a TV Chef shares a recipe. The bookings for the restaurant don’t suddenly drop off and the guests magically start cook for themselves at home. You can convert prospects into customers by sharing your knowledge.

It isn’t rocket science. The more you share good stuff, the more people will want to listen to you. Even better, if you mix your expertise with quality information from other people or companies mi, it proves you’re generous and have your followers’ best interests at heart rather than pure self-promotion. Always make an effort when you’ve learned something useful from someone else to mention that to your followers too.

As well as the sharing strategy, you can answer LinkedIn questions, which provides specific help to a small, tightly focused community of professional people. Before answering, make sure the people who are reading the answer are in your target market, and that is another great way to look helpful with a large number of prospects.

Another less used but powerful technique is to upload your presentation slides to websites like www.slideshare.net and add a voiceover. It’s like giving a personal presentation to a group of people, but without all the hassle of fixing an appointment and traveling to their office to make a pitch.

Always treat your followers well and give them a positive experience when they interact with you. You must be consistently thought of as a good person to know if you’re going get your brand message across. Reply in good time when someone takes the trouble to interact with you. Thank your followers for taking an interest in you – there are millions of other people out there they could be listening to.

Use light humour. Be compassionate.  Share more than just your work.  Include your interests so people can connect with you on a human level as well as a business and technical level. Remember, ultimately people buy from people, so if you come across with integrity and honesty on a personal level, that helps generate more sales down the line.

Use common sense on the sharing front – if you’re looking forward to a friend’s 50^th birthday party celebrations at the weekend say so. Steer clear of topics that will make readers wince and mutter “Too much information”. It’s not big or clever. Never do something that could cause emotional or professional upset! Social karma works positively as well as negatively and many people have long memories when they are upset by someone!

If your worrying – don’t. I am 100% sure that when you share good, valuable, positive information that’s when you will achieve the best results. People can’t help but listen to experts they get the most value from, be that business, entertainment or education because they feel the best connection with them.

I know some people struggle and end up over-complicating social media, but when you have what’s best for your community in mind, you will not go far wrong.