4 Tips on Social Media Branding: A Guide to Building Your Brand Identity
Due to hiring freezes during COVID-19, I decided to try something I’ve always thought of in the marketing and social media field: freelancing. I was stuck in that awkward position of needing more experience to acquire the positions in companies I desired, but not having the opportunity to do so due to the pandemic. I studied marketing and psychology in school but never felt that I was able to apply my pre-existing knowledge in a professional manner, regardless of the marketing and social media positions I held after graduating. After doing quite a bit of research about the social media space and digital marketing, I started networking like crazy — something I highly recommend to every professional regardless of where you are in your career journey.
I had been following Afshan Nasseri, @lifesforliving on Instagram, for years. Afshan is a blogger sharing experience as a young Indian-Iranian-American-Canadian woman navigating her way through life through storytelling, fashion and culture. I knew she had experience under her belt from running her Instagram page and starting LifesforSocial, her new digital marketing company.
I reached out to Afshan via email, and we scheduled a video call for the following week. We hit it off, and now 3 months later, I’m working alongside Afshan at LifesforSocial as Digital Marketing Coordinator and Account Manager. Everyday we’re helping our clients in various industries build their personal brands or their company’s brand on social media, analyzing insights, making strategic marketing decisions, building relationships and conducting outreach through PR.
As someone that’s relatively new to the digital marketing world, I can now say that building your personal brand is absolutely essential. It truly has the potential to open up many doors you thought were closed shut.
Although they may serve different purposes, we can approach the social media of a brand or organization, and your own personal brand in the same manner. Personal branding on social media is important to you if you are trying to reach a large number of people and make a difference- regardless if you are an individual or a start up. If you’re a small business, how will you grow clientele and increase margins if your community doesn’t know you exist? If you are an individual, how will you reach your audience without a relatable voice and strong visuals?
Think of your personal brand as a sentence that serves as your own mission statement. What are YOU trying to do with your social media platform? You don’t need to be a pre-existing public figure to begin building your brand. Start with your existing audience, and speak to them.
Here are four tips to help you get started on branding yourself or your organization:
1. Find Your Voice and Content Themes
Find your voice and be original. I found my place on social media by learning from others while also reflecting on what I thought was missing. As someone that’s interested in many (maybe too many) different things, I want my Instagram to reflect this. As much as I love taking cute pictures when I feel confident, I’m also deeply passionate about using marketing and social media for good, raising awareness to race issues in the US as well as sharing my experiences as a woman of color and second-generation American. Building a bridge and balancing my two worlds has been a process, and I think it’s worth talking about.
Think of three to four main things you want to talk about consistently on your platform. With any strong brand (regardless of them being an individual or business) you’ll be able to distinguish the main “themes” of their social media. Think about the values you are bringing to your audience; do you want them to feel inspired? Do you want to share tips via tutorials? Or do you want to create movement? Anyone looking at your page should be able to summarize what your platform is about in about a sentence — that’s your personal brand.
If you are an individual trying to build your personal brand, use a more casual, conversational tone with your audience as if they’re your friend. Share your personal experiences and be as raw as you’re comfortable with. Not every image you post needs a long caption, but your audience should feel connected with you.
If you’re building a business, analyze if you want to showcase your expertise, grow your community on social media, expand your clientele or share your promotions and special deals. Use language and jargon relevant to your industry and audience. Share your expertise in an easy to digest manner.
Some of my favorite Instagram pages include @simran,@biddy, @lifesforliving (slightly biased) and @seemahari. These strong and inspirational women always have me leaving their page feeling inspired, slightly more knowledgeable on various world issues and comforted in knowing that Indian women (like me) are empowering others through their confidence and their stories.
2. Engage with Your Audience and Create Conversation
Ensure that you are engaging with your audience: reply to DMs, comments and questions in a timely fashion. It matters. Trust builds loyalty towards your business or personal brand. Trust is essential to any relationship, right? Think of your social media platforms as a vehicle to create relationships with your future audience and nourish relationships with your current audience.
Trust will build your community. If you’re a makeup artist, provide them with tutorials. If you work full-time while writing to blog on the side, share your time management tips and ask your audience how they manage their time. If you are a business, share your FAQs and expert-backed tips in your industry.
Provide your audience with valuable content. The more relevant and shareable your content is, the better. Provide your audience with insights on yourself and any tips on topics you are an expert in.
Ask your audience what they’d like to see and learn from you. As a content creator, you should have a good understanding on why your audience comes to your page.
3. Be Consistent
Consistency is key. When branding yourself on social media, be sure to stick to your brand tone, voice, image, messaging and visuals.
If you have a logo or website, make sure the same branding is displayed on your Instagram page.
Once you’ve decided on the main topics you’ll discuss on your page, implement a content calendar schedule that hits all of the topics in a rotation. If you post graphic templates, ask yourself if the color scheme and font matches that of your logo and overall branding. You want your audience to be able to recognize your posts while they are scrolling through their feed and make them stop for a few seconds and engage with your post.
4. Authenticity is Essential
Don’t try to be someone else you follow on Instagram. Your personal brand should reflect the real you. Don’t try to be like your favorite influencer — they already have their platform for a reason! The most important thing while building your brand is to value and share what is important to you. What do you find missing on social media? If there’s something that you wish was on social media, try and create that. Derive inspiration from your favorite accounts, but be yourself.
Authenticity ties closely with finding your voice. If your best friend reads your posts and feels that it’s not “you,” reflect on what you’re trying to do with your page. Post content YOU care about. Although growth and engagement is important, you should be creating and posting content that you genuinely love and are proud to create. If you are passionate about social issues, discuss them. If there’s a trend on social media that you don’t necessarily love, don’t hop on the bandwagon just to do it. People can see through ingenuine accounts quite easily.
People will find you relatable. Don’t overthink it! Develop genuine relationships with your audience. Building trust will create brand loyalty, and increase your audience. When your personal brand is strong and true to who you are, you’ll have the power to share your story and inspire others.
Differentiate yourself on social media and consider what value you’re bringing to your audience. There is room for everyone on social media. Prioritize narrowing down your passions, voice and how you’ll create content to share with others and you’ll surely build your personal brand. Social media is available for everyone. If you put in the effort, your platform has the potential to reach a large audience and create impact.
Written by Nivita Sriram
Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash
