This is the fourth part of a series about personal branding.
Find the first part here:  What is a Personal Brand?
The second part here: Who Needs a Personal Brand?
And the third part is here: How Personal Branding Attracts Your Dream Audience

How to leverage social media to build a personal brand?

Social media.

It’s leveled the playing field for small businesses being able to market and grow your business.

It changed the game from the old ways of shoving money into expensive ad campaigns. Social media allows us to start up the business that lights us up. Allows us to attract an audience, and help people without (in theory) having to spend a dime.

And, like all businesses, Instagram has made it harder to get the reach that once was available with a post.

But the ability to connect with our audience and attract the attention of the people we can help is still there.

We just need to be intentional about it.

I think that maybe my word of the quarter: intentional.

Have you noticed how much I’ve been using it?

Well, it’s because that is what your personal brand is. It’s being intentional and crafting what people see and hear from your business.

The goal is that they see you, they hear your passion and how you can help. Then they like what they are seeing enough to keep hanging out.

But, people have short attention spans.

If you want to grow your business and leverage social media to do it, you want to create a plan.

Here are my top tips for leveraging social media to build your personal brand.

1 – Show photos of you.

The whole thing about social media is that it is social.

And yes, people want to know WHO they are listening to.

Share photos of you on your feed. And do it a lot.

No one is seeing that you look 5 years older than you used to… because to them, you are brand new! They see a smiling face ready to help them!

The fear you may be feeling is that it will feel very self-centered to share photos of yourself.

But that is fear and ego talking. 

As long as your message is about how you can help and you are focused on your audience…. the photo you used in the post helps humanize the message.

It makes people feel like they are standing alongside you as you’ve told them the message.

It makes you familiar. And once you are familiar, then the next step is being trusted.

2- Share your voice, personality and sense of humor in your captions and images.

When you are a personal brand, people are connecting with you. They then trusting you to help them with their problems.

So, your messaging, captions and any copy you use should be conversational.

If you don’t know how to do this yet, then talk to text and edit to make that work.

Honestly, no one wants stuffy corporate feeling messaging from a personal brand.

There are plenty of stuffy corporate messages they can get from real corporations.

Talk about things about why you are in business.  Stories of how you’ve helped others, or overcome the issues that your audience is facing. 

Talk about how you understand where they are and how you can help them move forward.

People want to know who you are and your stories.

But at the same time, they only care about what it does for them.  Keep this in mind as you craft your messaging and you’ll grab the attention of your dream audience.

3 – Show up consistently

We are a culture with very short attention spans. To build the connection and relationships with people, you need to be in their feed regularly.

Thankfully there are scheduling apps that allow you to plan in advance. And reminders you can put on your phone to hop on stories so that you are always top of mind.

So you don’t have that excuse any more. Sit down and schedule out your posts for the month. This way you can focus on engaging instead of wondering what to post.

4- Keep it about them

I mentioned this a bit in #2, but it is important enough to say it again.

You want to always keep in mind what your content is doing for your audience.

Because if it’s a “look at me and hear all about me cuz I’m so amazing” people will unfollow.

Your messaging and content should be about how you can help your audience.

Tips, insights, stories, caution tales, case studies, etc. 

Your photos should work alongside your message. Grab their attention and make them want to read more from you.

Before you hit the post on any social media, ask yourself this “why do they care?”

If you don’t have a clear answer, you may need to adjust your messaging!

5- Share behind the scenes

Behind the scenes photos, videos and explain what is going on. What seems like normal everyday stuff to you is new and novel to your audience!

It helps give them that VIP feeling that they get to see what is actually happening and how it all works together.

Which in turn gets them more invested in what you do!

6- Pair your photos to your messaging

The photos you choose are powerful in helping attract attention as well as keep info on what they read. But only when those photos actually feel like they are connected to the message in some way.

So many people look for the photo and then think of something to say afterward.  I challenge you to change up your thinking.

Decide on your MESSAGE first, and then choose what your photo will be that PAIRS well with your message.

If you struggle with having the right photos at your fingertips….  I suggest reading about my Image Bank practice.

If you struggle with having photos at all, but know that stock photos are not helping your business (cuz evverrrrryyboody else is also using them, then you should hop on the waitlist for The Brand Photography System .   This is my ourse that teaches you how to build a personal brand through the photos  created on your smartphone.

7- Lead with value

How do you help people?

What transformations do you provide?

Make sure you are talking about how you can help them solve their problems.

Seeing the behind the scenes, and learning more about you only matter if they know you can help them.

So make sure to lead with value!

8- Tell them what you want them to do next.

At the end of each of your posts, share a CTA. A call to action.

What do you want them to do next?  How can they continue the conversation?

Do you want them to send you a DM? Hop on your email list? Download a free guide? What is the next step and make sure they know what you want them to do next.

Because the more actions they take on your profile, and the more time they spend on your content, the more you will show up in their feed!

There you go, 8 strategies to leverage social media to build your personal brand!

And now what should you do next? Well, you should definitely sign up for my personal branding checklist to start strategizing your brand today! (see what I did there? I good ol fashioned CTA to end with)

Click the photo below to grab your free checklist.

Now how do you plan to leverage social media to build your personal brand?