With the expansion of social media and the gig economy, it has become necessary for everyone to embrace personal branding. The term “branding” used to be reserved for businesses, but with the advent of social sites, personal branding has become fundamental. Social media is a powerful tool to boost personal branding. Personal branding is about the “person” – and there’s no better way to show your personality than through social media . Like a corporate brand that represents a particular business entity, a personal brand is a manifestation of “you” on an individual level.
Personal branding is becoming very important because audiences trust individuals more than companies and organizations. People are used to seeing advertisements everywhere and they believe companies and organizations speak and take action with only sales in mind. On the other hand, personal branding allows you to establish your identity and reputation on a more personal level of interaction, which builds trust.
But before starting with anything, It is very important to define what you want to achieve with your personal brand. You have to set a goal for your branding..
For instance, let’s say you want people to recognize your professional skills and improve your chances of discovering new job opportunities in your field of work. In this case, you can focus on building your LinkedIn profile. If you want to be known by a wider audience, you should build your Twitter profile through influential tweets that can draw a huge number of followers. If you are specialized in photography, then Instagram is the place for you. In case you’re an expert in arts and crafts, Pinterest should be your ideal destination.
Hence, Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can shape how you plan on branding yourself on social media platforms accordingly. It’s important to pick the right social media networks because you want to be present on the channels where your audience is.
As you establish your personal brand, you also want to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If people consider you to be an expert, they will want to hire you. When you leverage social media to build your online authority, show your expertise and humanize your brand, you will emerge as an approachable and trusted resource that people will want to know more about. It’s just a matter of continuously crafting and curating your digital presence, networking extensively and most importantly, keeping it real!