How to Market Yourself on Social Media
Are you a model, writer, singer, travel blogger, or a filmmaker? Social networks can provide you with an excellent opportunity to connect with your target audience. As such, it’s important that you know how to market yourself on social media.
Almost everyone, including your mom and dad, perhaps spends hours checking their social media channels every day. According to DataReportal, there are more than 4.5 billion people currently using the internet. A 2019 report claimed that people spend an average of two hours and 23 minutes on social media platforms every day.
There’s no argument against these staggering statistics that demonstrate social networks can be useful tools if you want to build your personal brand.
If you put your personal brand on social media, you can improve your career reputation and open doors of opportunities with your broadened network. To help you come up with an excellent branding strategy, we’ve written a few tips on how to market yourself on social media.
5 Top Tips on How to Market Yourself on Social Media
1. Choose the Right Social Media Platforms
Keep in mind that not all social media platforms work for everyone. This is because major social networks have different target markets.
While you can always be creative and experimental, you should always consider your target audience. Always ask yourself: What is the demographic profile of my intended audience?
You must create social profiles on the exact platforms that your target audience uses. This will enable them to easily connect to you — or the other way around.
To get started, determine the websites or applications your audience uses. You can accomplish this by creating an online survey or carrying out simple desk research.
Next, consider the type of product or service you offer. For example, you may want to use YouTube or Facebook instead of Twitter if you are a filmmaker. But if you are a career expert, LinkedIn may be your top choice. For models and influencers Instagram can be the ideal platform.
Start creating a media marketing plan based on the data you have gathered. Keep in mind that you can always mix up different platforms. Just be consistent with your branding strategy approach.
2. Be Consistent With Your Brand Voice
After selecting the right platforms to use, decide how to sound online. Successful brands use specific themes to create a permanent voice that will stick in their target audience’s minds.
Your brand voice is the one you use to communicate with your audience. It defines your brand’s overall identity — from the texts you use for posts to the colors you use on your infographics.
Take for example Old Spice. The brand’s voice is consistently masculine. Plus, they use plenty of humor in their online and offline advertisements. And they consistently use the colors red and blue.
Once you have decided on your brand voice, you have to use it regularly. By doing so, you will own a specific style, and people will better remember you.
Have you seen Coca-Cola consistently use the color blue in their ads? No. Blue is Pepsi’s color. Inconsistent branding can have numerous negative repercussions for your brand: misperception, exasperation, or absolute rejection.
If you follow specific guidelines for your brand, you can control the perception people have about you. Posting something that’s entirely off-brand may only damage your otherwise unblemished reputation.
You can always change your brand voice if you want to. If you think your current voice doesn’t work, you can create an in-depth plan to rebrand.
3. Create Share-Worthy Content
While direct marketing allows you to generate responses from your target audience, you may want to be subtle on social media. If you want to build your personal brand on social media, you have to plan the type of content you will use.
Remember that social media platforms are not directly created for business. For instance, Facebook was created to connect people with friends and stay updated on recent happenings.
In addition, note that share-worthy content is more than the typical blog post or infomercial. It must inspire viewers or readers to click, engage, and share your content with friends and family.
Good content drives traffic to your platforms from prospects or leads. Moreover, it helps establish your brand’s authority in a specific niche. The more likes or shares you get, the more comprehensive your exposure will be.
4. Keep It Personal
Building your personal brand has to be “personal.” This means that you may need to engage with your fans or followers so their experience will be personal. You don’t want to regard your followers as mere “followers.”
Putting a bit of you into the content you share is essential. The more you engage with your followers or subscribers, the less aloof they will be. Added to that, you are able to show them that their opinions matter.
5. Keep Your Social Media Platforms Updated
If you’re serious about building social media brand you have to devote time and effort. You don’t necessarily have to post content every hour to engage your target audience continuously. You can schedule your postings in advance.
What’s important is to take an active role on your social channels. According to a study about Twitter followers, those who tweet more acquire more followers.
Final Takeaway: Know Yourself
Knowing how to market yourself on social media and establish your brand is not as simple as ABC. It would be best to equip yourself with a series of research results and plans to successfully market yourself.
The final advice that we can give is to know yourself. Personal branding should be about you and how you want others to see you. If you have a clear blueprint of what you want to become in the future, the rest will follow.
