Building a personal brand on social media in eight simple steps

Many of the world's largest brands have founders or CEOs whose own personal brand is at least as large as the business they're associated with. Think Virgin and Richard Branson. Elon Musk at Tesla. Or Apple and Steve Jobs.

Personal branding can be an appealing alternative to building a brand for your business. Customers often prefer to connect with the person behind the business. And when it comes to growing your business, social media will play a big part in bringing you closer to your target audience.

If you use social media the right way, you can become a brand in your own right. People will start to listen to what you have to say. You'll become an expert and a thought leader and people will seek you out for information and industry expertise. Then they'll notice your business.

But it's not easy as it sounds, and setting up a Twitter or Facebook account is only scratching the surface. In this blog, we break the whole process down, so you can begin your own successful personal branding journey today.

1. Decide whether a personal brand is what you really need

The first step is figuring out your goals and deciding what you want to be known for. What personal story do you want to share? This is important, because whether you're growing a business or a personal brand, the rule is always the same: Your messaging must be clear.

When you might need one

Maybe you're in a client-facing position, however. That might be working in a business where you deal with customers face-to-face, or where your business is focused on you and your own experiences – for example, a blogger who wants to sell their own products. If that applies, you'll definitely need a personal brand.

When you might not need one

If you run a business - an online store, for example - is there any point in building a personal brand? You might be better off boosting awareness of your company brand, as your customers won't often be dealing with you personally.

Your logo and your brand messaging are more important for customers to remember in this circumstance. The quality of your business and the products people buy from you will be more significant than who's running things behind the scenes.

It will take some hard work. But becoming the 'face' of your business can have a positive impact on sales if you're leaving potential customers with an excellent impression of you on social media.

You'll also have a huge advantage in being able to see your target audience online and make the all-important personal connection.

You could also have both a business and personal brand and keep them separate from each other. But, honestly, it's best to concentrate your efforts on one thing at a time.

2. Choose the most suitable platform for your brand

Knowing which social media platform best suits your particular brand is easy when you fully understand who makes up your target audience. Simply choose the platform that most people in your target market are using.

You'll also want to pick the social media channel that best fits your industry. For example, if you're a florist or working in fashion, it might be a good idea to choose a visual platform like Instagram.

To begin with, focus on one or two social platforms only, as you'll need to give them your full attention to make an impact. Here's a short list of the most popular social channels you can use to create a brand:

• Twitter (X): Great for connecting with influencers in your industry and sharing content.

• Facebook (Meta): A good choice for making valuable connections with potential customers, although interactions aren't as visible as Twitter.

• LinkedIn: Definitely a niche platform, and not as easy to develop meaningful relationships. But great if your business is based around professional skills or a more corporate industry, like consulting or recruitment.

• Pinterest: A great choice for building a personal brand around visual content – for example, interior design or even the food industry.

• Instagram: Another good option if you're a visual content creator, plus it's slightly easier than Pinterest to connect with a wider audience and social media influencers, and to build a following.

• YouTube: Very useful for showcasing your expertise, creativity and personality through high-quality, engaging and relevant video content.

3. Develop a personal brand strategy

What's the story behind your brand? If the ultimate goal of this venture is to drive people back to your business, how will you use social media to tempt them in? You should base your strategy around the goals you've set and the reason for creating your personal brand.

Another thing to think about is your tone of voice. This is going to help you build relationships with your potential customers, so establish your tone of voice and stick to it throughout your social media efforts to help your audience become familiar with your brand.

Connections are built on consistency. Having the social media accounts is one thing, but without planning your posts around a strong strategy, you won't be able to create the consistency you need to keep your followers engaged. When you post is just as important as what you post.

It's not always easy to fit social media posts into a busy schedule, so consider using scheduling tools or content calendars to help automate your activity. That way, there's no going silent and your audience always knows what to expect.

Social media marketing automation tools are a great way to save time and manage your social media presence by planning your posts in advance. But always remember to check your notifications so you can respond to any questions or comments in a timely way.

4. Create content

Building a brand on social media is all about content creation. Adding good-quality content to your social media profiles on a regular basis keeps your audience engaged. The more people read and share your content, the faster your online presence grows.

Your content should be a mix of articles you've written, blog posts by people whose opinion you respect or those you've found interesting and valuable.

The best way to figure out what type of content you should be posting is to observe your target audience and the material they interact with. What content types get the most likes, shares and comments?

• Comments on your posts are a good sign because they show that your material provoked a strong enough response for people to take the time to share their thoughts with you after reading.

  They also give you an opportunity to connect with your audience and collect feedback you can use to improve the original content you post in the future.

• Shares are brilliant because they help you to promote your work. They're also a very good sign that you're producing high-quality material that's making an impact - so much so that your followers feel compelled to share it with their own followers.

Of course, consistently producing content of this quality will be challenging, and there will be times where you run out of ideas. This is where content curation comes in, a good strategy to fill in the gaps and show a different side to your brand.

To get going, research the thought leaders and influencers in your industry, find the best content from them and share it with your followers. Having a mix of promotional, personal and curated content on your page helps to create a full picture of who you are and what you believe in as a brand.

Watch this webinar with marketing expert Laura Cioffi and learn the art of crafting content that will attract and captivate your target audience:

5. Be consistent

When you first start out, it might feel like you're talking and no-one is listening. And believe it or not, these are the times that you'll need to be the most active.

Even if you have no followers, keep going! When visitors land on your profile page, it's the content that's already there that will lure them in, not the content you plan to post once you've hit the follower count you're after.

Your followers need to get used to seeing your posts pop up on their timeline. With millions of people by the second posting on social media, your posts could easily get lost in a sea of activity. Leave gaps of silence and people will quickly forget about you.

Create a posts calendar so you know when you're posting what. This will give your content strategy a structure you can stick to.

You can get templates and software online, but your calendar doesn't have to be anything fancy. You could even whip one up yourself using Excel or a table in Word.

The consistency will pay off eventually, and when it does, you'll need to be ready to convert your new followers into customers. That's why a solid proportion of the content you've shared should be on your own business website. It's where you ultimately want your audience to end up.

6. Identify and engage influencers

Influencers are a crucial part of building a brand on social media. The sheer size of their reach and authority means that one retweet or share from them can get your work seen by an incredible number of people.

When you first start out, you might make it a priority to work out who has authority in your niche, follow those people and begin sharing their content. If they ask you a question, try to answer it.

Twitter (X) makes it very easy to connect and interact with strangers – in fact, it's the norm. So leaving comments on the work of influencers as well as sharing their content is a great way to put yourself on their radar.

It's good practice to thank the people who share your content. You can do that by favouriting, following or reposting (retweeting) them. It leaves a good impression, shows appreciation and helps you build connections.

7. Analyse your results

Monitoring results is the best way to see improvements. By analysing which of your posts got the highest engagement, you can repeat and continue to see results.

You can also check which social networks are driving users back to your website, so you can direct your focus to those.

Analysing results also allows you to experiment, a key part of building a personal brand. You won't know where you're going to strike gold unless you try new things and continuously refine your strategy.

Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have built-in analytics that let you review what went well. If you want to see how the traffic you directed towards your website fared, try using Google Analytics.

8. Promote yourself through paid advertising

There's no quick fix to building a personal brand on social media. You'll need patience and perseverance, but on your chosen platform you may want to take advantage of their paid advertising.

A targeted ad campaign can give your results a boost because you'll attract the right kind of audience to your brand, including your influencers. You may have to spend a little bit of money, but advertising can pay off.

Key takeaways

The process of building a personal brand on social media can be broken down into the eight simple steps we've covered in this blog. Start by figuring out your goals, choosing the right platform to build your brand and developing a strategy.

Once you have a plan of action, you can start creating content and engaging influencers by sharing and commenting on their content. Analyse the results you get using your channel's built in tools, and try out paid ads to attract the right audience to your content. And most important of all, stay consistent.

With patience and dedication to your goals, taking these steps will allow you to create a thriving personal brand.

About StartUp UK

Want to turn your good idea into a great business? Visit the StartUp UK hub to discover everything you need to know about becoming your own boss. The programme resources will offer you the education and inspiration to get started on your entrepreneurial journey.