Sharing content online allows you to craft an online persona that reflects your own personal values and professional skills (particularly with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence).
Even if you only use social media occasionally, what you create, react to, or share feeds into this public narrative. How you conduct yourself online is now just as important as your behavior offline, especially when it comes to your digital marketing career.
The study titled “Using Social Media in the Recruitment Process” found that 64% of hiring managers have viewed a candidate’s social network profile (such as LinkedIn) at some point for this purpose, and fifty percent of employers are prepared to conduct research on job seeker candidates using personal social media profiles. Building your personal brand on social media takes some work.
However, if done correctly, it can help you advance your career, establish valuable connections, become a thought leader, express yourself, and leave a legacy. We’ll go over ten important steps to help you establish a social media presence in this blog. Additionally, we’ll investigate which social media platform is ideal for personal branding.
1. Make Changes to Your Social Media Profiles
There are estimated to be over 5 billion social media users globally and the average person uses 6.7 different social networks every month, according to Datareportal.
Those figures show that people of all ages and locations use social media. But not every account will help build your presence online and with so many networks to keep on top of, how useful is each one to social greatness?
So, conduct an audit and decide which social media channels to focus on. Then delete any old accounts that you no longer use or are serving you no purpose.
Verify that all of your information is accurate and complete for the networks you will use. You’ll be able to direct and increase traffic to the networks that will feature you and your work thanks to this.
2. Identify Your Area of Expertise
Everyone is an expert in something, whether it’s making and distributing great content or knowing everything there is to know about your favorite TV show. Think of the experts in the field of digital marketing who are frequently cited in publications and articles, not to mention who have impressive LinkedIn profiles. Neil Patel, who is the authority on search marketing, Rand Fishkin, who specializes in audience listening, Steve Bartlett, an author, Dragon’s Den participant, and podcast host. Is it time for you to try something new? Consider the kinds of content you’ve produced that have received the most responses from your followers. Can you duplicate this with content that is similar to it or repurpose something that has worked well to re-engage users? The more unique and engaging content you create on your chosen topic of expertise, the more your followers will start to think of you as a thought leader in your chosen field.
3. Utilize AI Tools for Social Media
Building a personal brand has gotten even easier with the advancement of artificial intelligence. You can create an identity that reflects your values, expertise, and goals by utilizing AI tools. It can be used for a number of things, including: Content creation – Use writing tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT to perform research and help get ideas to create content for platforms. And tools like Feedly or Pocket use AI to suggest relevant articles and news that align with your brand so you can share valuable content with your audience.
Management of social media: AI is used by platforms like Sprout, Buffer, and Hootsuite to schedule posts and automate tasks. AI, on the other hand, can assist you in determining what content is most important to your audience by analyzing metrics like engagement.
SEO: AI is used by tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to find popular keywords and phrases, analyze content for readability, and calculate keyword density in order to optimize content for search engines. Additionally, since TikTok is now a search engine, it pays to be strategic when posting using keywords and phrases. Market research – You can use AI to conduct a competitive analysis and get insights into market trends and customer behavior. Ahrefs, Similarweb, and Brand24 are tools that can do this. Email marketing – Personalization is key to driving click-through in your email marketing so use AI to analyze subscriber data and optimize and test key elements such as subject lines, CTAs, and content.
Visuals – There are loads of great tools you can use for creating visuals such as Canva AI or Midjourney. AI is used to create professional images and videos with Adobe Spark and Lumen5. Optimization of landing pages: WordPress, Godaddy, and Wix provide AI-driven optimizations for the design, content, and layout of a website that can aid in user engagement and search engine optimization (SEO). Top tip: Kerry Harrison, an AI educator and copywriter, hosts an excellent webinar on “How to Use AI for Your Copywriting.”
4. Frequently Distribute Content
In the early days of social media, the more posts you made, the more people would be interested in your content. Today, however, excessive posting causes exhaustion and annoyance. You want to keep the lines of communication open with your audience, but you also don’t want to overshare so much that you look desperate. For large businesses, the optimal number of social media posts is 3-5 per week on Instagram, 1 to 2 per day on LinkedIn, and 3 to 5 per day on TikTok (more information can be found in the Hootsuite graphic below), but it is less clear for small businesses or personal branding. The optimal number of social media posts depends on your industry, audience, number of followers, and your resources.
Aim for a sustainable number of posts in your social media strategy across the networks that work for you — a number you can accommodate without putting yourself under too much pressure or suffering burnout.
We believe that posting three to four times per week is the ideal frequency for individuals. As Michael Noice, founder of Entrepreneur Coach, explains, “A once-weekly X post or monthly Instagram photo are not going to accomplish much, if anything. For this reason, it’s best to focus on two or three carefully chosen social networks and try to be active on them, rather than posting sporadically to a half-dozen.”
It is perfectly acceptable for you to not post on certain days. Identify the best social media metrics to focus on, analyze the data associated with your posts and identify a pattern that works.
Use an AI tool like AnswerthePublic, use news aggregator sites like Feedly, sign up for Google Alerts, or search for hashtags on social media if you’re having trouble finding content to share.
5. Import Your Contacts
You might be amazed to see how many people you already know on the social media networks you’re using. There may be tens, or even hundreds, of people with whom you haven’t yet connected with.
Because of this, you shouldn’t waste any of your current or potential connections. Import your email contacts from Gmail or Outlook, or contacts from your phonebook, into your social networks to find out how many connections you’re missing.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and X all provide free importation of a predetermined number of contacts. You can also sync your phone contacts to your TikTok account.
6. Be Positive, Engaging & Authentic
While your goal may be to create an unstoppable personal brand online, make sure it reflects you and your values. While you now know some of the things you should be doing on social media, are you aware of what not to do to make sure your social impression is positive?
Think of your interactions and content as a resume of your work, and a reflection of your professional attitude and personality. Reposting others’ content or curating content is a smart thing to do, but it’s not all you should be doing. To demonstrate your industry expertise, you must also share written content. Taking a new approach to the types of updates you share with your network is necessary for creating engaging content. Don’t be afraid to talk about your accomplishments or add interesting details about your personal life (such as hobbies and travel are appropriate). For example, if you work as a digital nomad, there’s no shame in showing you working on a beach or giving some insight into what it’s like to travel and work. After all, social media is about individuals first.
If you have concerns about not being able to voice your opinions, consider creating two sets of social media accounts: one for private use (say whatever you want), and one for public use (in which your responses and shares are heavily considered). Use your professional accounts to create new connections and career opportunities while keeping your personal pages private from close friends and family. Before discussing your employer on the internet, make sure you have read your employer’s social media policies.
7. Join and Find Social Groups
Joining groups devoted to specific industries or subjects is a fantastic option on Facebook and LinkedIn. Just use the search bar on each platform to find groups that are linked to your specific area of expertise. Then you’ll be able to share your insights and build authority around your personal brand.
However, they aren’t the only platforms with group or community-building opportunities. X Communities replaced X Circles in 2023 and was created to give people a place to connect, share, and discuss. People on the platform start and run these communities, which keep the rules in place and keep the conversations interesting, relevant, and fun. The newcomer to the social media block, Threads (launched by Meta as a rival to X) has accrued a lot of users since its launch in 2023. Because it is a text-based platform, its purpose is community sharing, allowing it to assist you in expanding your audience and promoting yourself. On Instagram, you can also cross-post links, photos, videos, and carousels.
