This is one of my more favourite changes in the social media world.
In essence, personal branding is basically like what every top social media team does for the company they’re a part of. Thing is, the ‘company’ is you.
Let me explain …
It surrounds the concept that everyone has a journey.
This can be around something you’re working on, some personal development progress you’ve made (and are proud of) – basically, something you’d like to share.
I suppose that’s the ‘personal’ part of ‘personal branding’.
The ‘branding’ comes through the big ‘C’.
No, not that one – I’m talking about content!
Referring briefly to that thing you might be working on, or the journey you wish to share, the content you make around that needs to be personal, far-reaching and brandished all over your social media pages to maximise the reach.
Here’s an example I can give you wish my own personal branding journey:
I’m working on: building Twelfth & writing my new book.
And my two favourite social networks are Twitter and Linkedin.
Now, the two platforms are very different, don’t usually attract the same crowd and would generally require a different tone to get your message across.
For one thing – Twitter has a character limit in a tweet, Linkedin is limit-less
You can ‘invite’ people to connect with you, Twitter has a one-stop follow policy.
Oh, and Twitter is usually more visceral than Linkedin.
Especially football twitter – that place is ridiculous on matchdays.
Therefore, when making content for Twitter, I’d think of bite-size, more incendiary topics that people can like and Retweet, whereas I may put a little more thought in a Linkedin post, because I want people to think I’m smart and worth following.
It all depends on the audience and what the trend limitations are.
Helps to build a very strong personal branding strategy.
Oh, and if you’re struggling for new content ideas – try repurposing old stuff.
Paraphrasing the brilliant Amelia Sordell (founder of personal branding agency, ‘Klowt’), choosing not to repurpose your best content is like buying your perfect outfit, and “only ever wearing it once”.
Doesn’t make sense, does it?
Take our podcast as a pretty decent example.
We will always have the long-form, full-length episodes, but they can be divided into smaller, 10-minute videos for YouTube focusing on a specific topic (which can have a fun title and tailored description to boost the organic reach).
Then, you can divide those further into minute-long TikTok edits.
Whack some subtitles in it, and you have some malleable, engaging content than includes everybody scrolling through their feed who may come across it.
Embed some hashtags in the post and it can go great-guns.
Oh, and stay consistent – that’s the key to personal branding.
Don’t get me wrong, personal branding isn’t easy but it’s very beneficial.
First off, you set the rules and they can always change.
Provided you’re consistent and have a good content strategy (based on some of our earlier steps), the organic reach on places like Linkedin absolutely batter their other social media equivalents – with posts having a generally longer shelf life on those feeds.
It’s also a great way of generating in-bound leads.
All around a specific project / focus you’re working on at the time.
Plus, by sharing the journey, you’ll be able to help other people who may be in a similar spot to yourself. Again, there’s a wider community there to engage with which can open up a whole wealth of possibilities for your career moving forward.
What’s not to love!
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