Over the last decade, building a strong personal brand has become a hot topic in marketing.
Given the evolution of social media and the opportunities it provides, today everyone can work on their personal branding and, possibly, reach wider audiences, locally and internationally. There are many benefits for executives, the best part being it can be done with minimum financial outlay. This might be especially relevant for managers of smaller or less known organizations that are not often in the spotlight.
Even though we may find many executives on social media today, only a small fraction of them actually create content from their personal brands. The others remain invisible, losing an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and become known in their industry or to their target audience.
While some executives do not see the value of building their personal brands on social media, others do not have time, skills, and ideas – or simply do not know where to begin. Today, there is plenty of material and training that can help you get started.
How personal branding on social media will benefit executives?
The most important thing is to understand how personal branding efforts may pay off. Here are some of the key reasons:
- The executive’s content for social media may not be slanted at building awareness of a brand, organization, campaign or new product introduction to the market.
- Personal branding efforts may help strengthen the brand’s or organization’s image.
- Honest and transparent communication on social media, revealing emotions and values, may help to build a closer rapport with current and potential customers.
- Sharing interesting details about the organization’s culture may be a way for executives to win over potential employees and strengthen the internal as well as external employer brand.
- The executive’s active communication on social media may lead to his becoming an opinion leader in the industry with invitations to speak at conferences or events as well as share insights in the media.
If the above reasons are convincing enough, here are a few questions each executive should ask himself before getting started:
- What is your primary goal of building a personal strong personal brand? Does it have to do with reaching more clients, becoming an industry leader, or perhaps helping the organization to become a desirable employer locally or internationally?
- Who is your key target audience? If the first question has already been answered, this one should be relatively easy. Are they potential customers, employees or perhaps media representatives?
- Which social media channels are you going to use to communicate the value of your personal brand? These shall be chosen based on the channels where your target audience spends most of its time.
- How are you going to position yourself and what kind of content are you going to create? Remember that it must be valuable for your target audience. If you are going to get help from an assistant, make sure to discuss all the details and nuances in order to remain authentic in the eyes of the target audience.
- What kind of indicators will you choose to evaluate whether your personal branding efforts are paying off? These should be closely aligned with your primary goal.
When building a personal brand on social media, it is important to remember that results might not come in the blink of an eye. In most cases, it is a long-term project, but it’s definitely worth the time.