Social Media For Personal Branding

Unit 2: Inbound & Social Media Marketing . Assignment 4  

What is Personal Branding ?

'Your personal brand is how you promote yourself. It is the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see you. It is the telling of your story, and how it reflects your conduct, behaviour, spoken and unspoken words, and attitudes.

You use your personal branding to differentiate yourself from other people. Done well, you can tie your personal branding in with your business in ways no corporate branding can possibly succeed. Professionally, your personal brand is the image that people see of you. It can be a combination of how they look at you in real life, how the media portrays you, and the impression that people gain from the information about you available online' (Influencer Marketing Hub, N.D)

The importance of personal branding

Personal branding is important because everyone should view themselves as the best and authentic version they can be. This is achieved through goals, strengths and characteristics creating an impression of how other people view you. 'The impression that you leave helps in finding success in jobs as well as everyday life. Before creating this brand, it is important to work out what you want to communicate, who you are talking to, as well as including your own personality' (Chritton, 2012, 4). 

'The most successful personal brands, may or may not have a special talent but often they are very good at representing and voicing their strengths in everything. It's an expression of how you want to be perceived, to achieve this, a strategy needs to be put in place' (Chritton, 2012,10). 

  

How to use social media for personal branding

It is important when first using social media for personal branding to identify where your area/ niche  is of expertise. This will help to focus on creating the right online content for your following. By using weblinks from a blog post or website to your social media channels is a great way to connect the channels together and unite the personal brand. Regularly posting relevant and engaging content for example, and asking your audience for their insights, will keep the lines of communication going without overdoing it. Content should be consistent with your tone of written words, style of imagery and video. ‘You can damage an otherwise flawless reputation if one of your profiles shows up with content that doesn't match up with your brand’s voice’ (Digital marketing institute, 2017).

'After posting content on social media it is also important to follow up how well it's doing from ‘social media analytics’ (Chen, J. 2017). This analysis will help to identify if you are receiving engagement from followers after posting. 

Good examples of using social media for personal branding

A good example of using social media for personal branding is Mo Farah. He has used his brand as an athlete to gain a large following on social media and has collaborated with other relevant brands to draw in a new wider following. 'The source of his popularity lies in his personality, which comes across from his content, from sharing experiences and opinions' (Influencer marketing hub, 2021). 

Another example of a good personal brand is Richard Branson. As well as the obvious success of the founder of Virgin, 'Branson uses humour and a clear personal branding mission to communicate an open, personal and professional profile that is very engaging' (Rocha, 2018). It could be argued that his already high profile in business encourages interest for followers into his personal brand and not the content.  

References 

Influencer Marketing Hub, (N.D) 'What is Personal Branding [Free Personal Brand Health Checker]' [online] Available at:  https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-personal-branding/   [accessed 22nd March 2021]  

Chritton, S (2012) ‘Personal Branding For Dummies’. Wiley 

Digital marketing institute (2017) ‘10 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media’ [online]. available at: 

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/10-steps-to-building-your-personal-brand-on-social-media [ accessed 15th march 2021] 

Chen, J (2017) ‘The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding’ [online] 

 available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/personal-branding/ [accessed 15th march 2021] 

Influencer marketing hub (2021) ‘17 Incredible Personal Branding Examples That Will Inspire You to Build Your Own’ [online]. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/personal-branding-examples/ [accessed 15th March] 

Rocha, A (2018) ‘8 AMAZING PERSONAL BRANDING EXAMPLES YOU CAN LEARN FROM TODAY’ [Online]. Available at: https://www.delightfulcommunications.com/blog/personal-branding-examples/  [ accessed 22nc Marck 2021]