How to promote your personal brand on social media

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As a business leader, chances are you’ve heard the words “personal branding” tossed around like motivational quotes at a leadership conference.  

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But as true meaningful personal branding can do wonders for your business growth, it might be time to dust off your profile and get back out there.  

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Need a few refresher tips on how to get started, or how to get back into it? Here’s how to market your personal brand on social media…  

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‍Prepare before you share

Before you do anything online, check in with yourself on your reasons for posting. Make sure you answer the following questions:

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• What are your personal branding goals?

• How do you want to present yourself online?

• What unique perspective can you share with your network that no one else can?

• What value do you want to create for your customers and potential customers?

• Which platforms do I want to target?  

• Or more specifically, where will my target audience be the most active?  

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Having a clear idea of your values and how you want to put your personality across is important. But it’s equally important not to force it: if you’re a laid-back person, be laid-back; if you’re in a more professional market, stay professional. Round hole, square peg personal branding (where the individual tries to be something they’re not) doesn’t have a high success rate.

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Find your voice

Finding your voice before you start posting is key to a strong personal branding strategy. This takes us back to one of the most important questions to ask yourself: “What’s my unique point of view?”

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A common trap people fall into when they start out in personal branding is thinking they have to post similar content to everyone else. But that’s one way to blend in, when really you need to stand out.  

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For the more introverted among us, this can be daunting at first. But identifying your unique perspective will help you to attract your ideal client or customer.

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Equally, make sure you set yourself boundaries. Ask yourself, “Which parts of my life am I willing to share, and which parts do I want to keep private.” That way, it will be easier to share your thoughts, opinions, insights and personal anecdotes without feeling like you’re oversharing.  

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Create a winning profile

Next, make sure your profile is in good shape before you start posting. This way anyone who lands on your profile will see the best possible personal and professional version of you.  

Not only will improving your profile be useful when people click on it, but getting the right keywords in your bio will help people find you. For example, prospects looking for IT software will be far more likely to land on your page if it says CEO and IT software expert.  

Before you start personal branding, your profile needs:  

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• A professional headshot and header image (no, that blurry picture of you at the pub doesn’t count).  

• A well-written bio that showcases your experience and skills.  

• A profile headline that stands out and states your level and skills.  

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If you’re posting on multiple platforms, it’s important to tailor your strategy. LinkedIn might be more about sharing longer thought leadership pieces, whereas if your audience is primarily on Instagram and TikTok video content is preferred.  

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Be yourself

When it comes to personal branding marketing—it’s all about being authentically you and creating content you know will resonate with your customers and prospects.  

If you’ve been working in your industry for a while, chances are you share many of the same interests with your potential buyers. For example, if you’re the CEO of a fitness clothing company, you’re likely to be interested in athletics and sports yourself. Sharing your views and interests often attracts exactly the clientele you’re looking for, so there’s no need to fake it.  

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Do your research

‍Many leaders get into the industry they’re in from, well, industry roles—so they understand the pain points of their target market. If you’re not one of them, make sure you take time to do your research. This way, you’ll build trust with your audience and the kind of content you want to distribute will be attractive to them.  

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Be consistent

Personal branding on social media isn’t about likes. It’s about consistency.

It’s ultimately a long-term strategy that centres on consistent and measured content distribution. Creating a content calendar can help you stay on track, better align your posts with your goals, and stick to your brand.

Best practice is to post around 3 times a week, but this isn’t an exact science. As long as you’re posting high-quality and well-thought-out content on a regular basis, you should start seeing the results you want over time.

Additionally, good personal branding takes practice as well as optimisation in approach. Posting a funny pet picture might get you more likes than an in-depth blog or industry infographic, but unless you’re promoting a doggy day care business, one is 100% more likely to generate more active leads for your business than the other...

Good things take time, and the goal of personal branding isn’t to become an internet sensation—it's to start a conversation with the right people.

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A/B test and measure your success

It’s a bit of a marketing term but A/B testing essentially means to compare two different versions to determine which is better and it’s crucial for any good personal branding strategy.

Analysing what kind of content is working for you, and what kind of content isn’t, helps you optimise your content and better connect with your target audience.

People crave variety—your job is to give it to them. That’s why it’s important to boost the success of your personal brand by testing a mix of different content types. From video to in-depth guides, infographics and thought leadership articles—the possibilities are endless. Just don’t forget to keep it human and relatable by sharing some personal or fun news occasionally if you’re comfortable.

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Join the conversation  

Despite its sightly narcissistic name, good personal branding isn’t just about you or self-promotion.  As important as it is to post, you also need to engage with what the people in your network are saying. Responding to comments, starting a conversation with other professionals—it's all part of building an authentic and relatable brand people trust.

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‍Need help leveraging the power of your personal brand?   

AXD Agency is a leading sales & content marketing agency specialising in sales enablement and personal branding services. We help business leaders stand out with impactful and high-quality content that positions you as a thought leader and the go-to expert in your industry.  

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Your voice, our expertise  

To find out more, visit www.axd.agency or book a discovery call with our team.

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