Operating a brand via social media takes a lot of time and dedication. Your goal is to reach a lot of people while simultaneously putting a good face to your brand.
You want to grow your business in multiple facets, from your bottom line to your overall reputation. This not only takes commitment and an intelligent approach to marketing, but it also requires you to be personal in your branding.
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A humanized brand is a fan-friendly brand. Showing that there are actual people behind that page and in charge of your company will make you a lot more appealing to a lot more people. Here are some tips on how you can humanize your branding efforts.
1: Work on Engaging Material & Promote Discussion
Reaching out and engaging with your audience should be your goal if you want to come across as more personal. Influencing sharing, encouraging comments and feedback, asking people for their opinions – these are things that come across as fan-friendly, making people feel as if they’re a part of your brand. They get to know you.
2: Respond to People Directly
Folks want to engage with you, but you have to engage them back. When you respond to people directly, you’re treating them with respect and showing that your brand has a persona.
As Gary Vaynerchuk once said, “Answer every single email and every single comment on your blog for the rest of your freaking life.”
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I also make an effort to reply to nearly all my emails, though as many of you know this can not always be a reality.
3: Be Visual
Take advantage of photos (see my sidebar & about page) and videos (see my TED talk) to show people a lot more about your brand. Behind-the-scenes glimpses of office life might seem boring to you, but they’re a window into the world of your business to outsiders. The same goes with different events and gatherings.
4: Show Transparency
Figuring out what it is that your brand represents and what your business does may be interesting to your audience. Remaining transparent allows people to actually know about your brand rather than knowing of it.
5: Add a Blog
Another great way you can show a very personal side is to create a blog and link it within your network. This can be a business-based blog, but the content on it can deal with a more personal side of your dealings, such as expansions, news about employees, updates, and anything else that gives people a peek through the curtain.
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6: Participate in the Experience
Facebook & LinkedIn have different groups, events and other social features that you should join to allow the human element to show through. It doesn’t mean that you have to be an active participant in the group (though this is recommended), you just have to show your willingness to network in a social atmosphere. Others will find you if are there, not so much if you’re not!
As an example I provide a Facebook fanpage, personal profile, a LinkedIn Group and subscribe to multiple pages and groups within these platforms. I don’t participate in all of them but they do show up on my profiles as be associated with them.
7: Have a Solid Identity
Speaking with one consistent voice is something that’s important for your social media marketing strategy. When you think about a personal, humanized brand, you should be thinking about the business coming across as if an actual person is operating it, not as if there’s a system back there just churning out material based on freshly mined data.
8: Move Past the Product
Your main goal as a business is obviously to move a product or service, but you cannot allow this to be your primary focus. Once people are actually in the funnel, you can worry about advertising and sinking the hook. For branding purposes, it’s about appealing to a niche, not about selling to one.
9: Add a Personal Touch
Believe it or not, it’s very easy to add a personal touch to your advertising. You can find a lot of personal data on sites like Facebook & LinkedIn, and you can target specific users. Taking the time to send someone a personal message, or even being personal with your fans in a group message, shows a lot of character. Using names helps a lot too.
Also, if you’re going to use Facebook ads considering using Facebook ad management tools, like Qwaya and know how to optimize your images for those ads.
10: Put the Effort In
If you’re using sites like Twitter and Facebook to post a lot of content, make sure that you’re actually putting the effort in to release quality content. Content that looks like it was spewed out of an automation machine is material that’s likely to be ignored or looked at unfavorably by fans.
A personal brand is a brand that’s able to keep people around longer. Earning loyalty and having those loyal fans share your material is essential, especially for smaller brands. Allowing people to see a human side of your business can be very rewarding,
Do you have any further personal branding tips to help improve your online presence?
Image credits: freeartist, nailiaschwarz, anikasalsera of 123RF Stock Photo and Shutterstock.
Great stuff! Personal interaction is such a huge part of creating a brand that people want to be associated with. I love the piece about replying to every single email. While it could be extremely time consuming, it’s a best practice everyone should strive for. You never know when that relationship could come in handy down the road! Thanks for the article, Jacob!
So very true Callie, it really does allow you to stay at “top of mind“. Thanks for the comment Callie!
Great article, I had fun reading it. I like your work / site.
You never know when that relationship could come in handy down the road! Thanks for the article, Jacob!
My two recommendations would be to stay consistent and keep your online activity habitual. An online presence (and a brand, for that matter) isn’t created over night. Using the same recognizable elements over and over again–to the point of almost tediousness–is the only way to do it!
Keep up the good work!
Evan VanDerwerker
Consistency and persistence certainly pay off, thanks for posting!
That reminds me of a saying I read recently: “Consistently good is better than occasionally great.”
Great article; it’s very easy to fall into a complacent position while maintaining social media accounts and campaigns. This has inspired me to get back to adding to my “queue” of posts! Thanks Jacob.
Jacob,
Great tips and ideas. Thanks for the share!
Great advice! I feel none of these would be worth it if you did not put effort into it. Effort is the number one way to exceed in anything. Thanks for sharing!
Hi jacob!! the website looks very neat and i like the way you gave the images in the carousel. the logo design trends are awesome and truly inspiring. By the way i am Rehman, I am into food business, and a freelance web designer with few projects in my list. and i also did graduation in information system from ACU, Sydney with web technology as one of my subject.
I found each point of this article very useful and informative. Developing a personal brand in this day and age and the multiple tools available to market your business on line can sometimes be very overwhelming but certainly worth using.
You never know when that relationship could come in handy down the road! Thanks for the article, Jacob!
Wow Jacob, thanks a lot for these awesome tips!!!
Great tips and ideas. Thanks for the sharing…
Direct communication with users is a best way to attache with users and make them your customers.
Many thanks for that text, Jacob! All those advices are really interesting and helpful. Cheers 🙂
Great tips, these are some important things to consider for professional branding. It’s not enough to just create a website and wait for the customers to find you. There are a lot of effective ways to engage your audience everyday and be proactive. The hard work will pay off for sure if these are followed.
Thank you for the great article.
Let’s face it, engaging online presence that draws customers in and encourages customer interaction takes a lot of effort and skill. But if done correctly, you should reap the rewards within weeks.
What a GREAT article! to the point, and all valid points 🙂
I found each point of this article very useful and informative. Developing a personal brand in this day and age and the multiple tools available to market your business on line can sometimes be very overwhelming but certainly worth using.
Folks, really loving these tips!!!
I like your Consistency and persistence, the way you put up this whole site justcreative, i had to re-read the articles again, branding matters alot…thanks for sharing
To create online or offline presence personal interaction is must.
Great tips Jacob. It takes a lot of time and consistent effort to develop a good personal brand. But even adding to it a few times a month can make a difference in the long run.
The brand only exists in the minds of your audience. It’s not who you are it’s who they think you are.
Great article some really worthwhile advice here you have done a great job in promoting yourself through your online presence, so these tips are obviously borne out of genuine experience.
My own blog has never been enough of a priority due to the time constraints of balancing it against paid work.
I do realise that it has to become a priority in order to become successful, but I always wonder how successful bloggers like yourself manage the time within your workload.
Hi James,
Good question and time management is certainly a tough thing with a full time position. These days I have less time to blog and have guest contributors instead. I also only take on a select number of clients so I can focus on their jobs. Gluck with the personal branding.
Thanks for sharing these tips, Jacob. Being consistent on interacting is at the front of my mind!
Thanks for posting this article. Found some new ideas for branding.
I think apart reaching out to your customers, one should also make it easier for customers to find you and also find out what other people are saying about you. This is why it’s strongly advisable to increase your online presence as much as possible. One website I strongly suggest for business services is TheWorkster.com. It’s a completely free website which allows you to post your business services along with description, photos, contact details and other details. You can check out a sample posting here: http://theworkster.com/services/business/nyc-sightsseing-air-tours/
Hi Jacob, Great article, I fully agree about you wrote,