Assignment 4 - Inbound and Social Media Marketing - Part 2

While a business will have a brand, individuals can also have an associated brand; Personal Branding is the means by which people remember individuals. It's more than a trademark; it is how you present yourself online, and offline, to potential clients and customers, and is therefore important to the success of any business. Your personal brand builds your business, but it still centres around an individual. (Lake, 2017)

The question is no longer IF you have a personal brand, but if you choose to guide and cultivate the brand or to let it be defined on your behalf. (Hyder, 2014)

The emergence of Digital Marketing has provided important additional channels for building and maintaining a brand, with channels such as blogs, social media profiles and video being very personal, where the personality of not only a business, but individuals can be clearly exposed.

There are many ways to build a brand on social media, with key factors such as: (Patel, 2016)

•       Consistency; a person only has one personality, so if different personality traits come across in messaging, followers not only find the messages unpredictable, but fail to identify and bond with the brand.
•       Regularity; personalities are easier established with regular content. Michael Noice, founder of Entrepreneur Coach. “… it's best to focus on two or three carefully chosen social networks and try to be active on them, rather than posting sporadically to a half-dozen.” (Patel, 2016)
•       Diversify Your Content; crafting a communications strategy for your personal brand that includes an editorial calendar and a diverse content plan so that you won’t resort to publishing the same types of articles every single day. (Patel, 2016)
•       Groups; If you can find groups that line up with your area of expertise, then you’ll be able to share that experience and build authority around your personal brand. (Patel, 2016)
•       Be memorable; If you want to create a memorable brand, you need to give people a reason to remember you. (Patel, 2016)
•       Ask questions; Questions are a great way to spark engagement and improve the visibility for your brand. (Patel, 2016)
•       Join discussions; Don’t be afraid to add your voice and make yourself visible in a discussion. (Patel, 2016)
•       Monitor; Set up alerts for your name, as well as branded terms and product/service-related search phrases so you won’t miss out on opportunities to respond or join discussions. (Patel, 2016)
•       Lengthier posts; platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn offer longer posts, allowing more scope for personalities to shine through. (Entrepreneur, 2014)
•       Be positive; social media can be a negative place, so be positive to not only stand out, but people are more likely to follow positive brands. (Entrepreneur, 2014)

Good examples of personal branding on social media:

Rob Beckett - https://twitter.com/robbeckettcomic

As a comedian, it is important that Rob’s humorous personality is evident in his social media activity. Rob not only joins in with regular comical conversations, but every morning he posts a ‘random’ image alongside a simple “Good morning.”, which is humorous when knowing Rob’s personality, and therefore helps maintain his brand.

Mercedes F1 - https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1

As a large international brand, the Mercedes F1 team have been able to build their own social media personality. During a race weekend they post lots of informative news, and lots of interesting content between races. However, their friendly banter with other teams shows their personality. Also, almost 100% of their posts are within the F1 ‘arena’, maintaining their authority within this group.

Entrepreneur, 2014. The 11 Must-Use Social Media Strategies to Expand Your Brand. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvMmo3GB2WM
[Accessed 16 12 2017].

Hyder, S., 2014. 7 Things You Can Do To Build An Awesome Personal Brand. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2014/08/18/7-things-you-can-do-to-build-an-awesome-personal-brand/#6fe0b48e3c3a
[Accessed 16 12 2017].

Lake, L., 2017. Personal Branding and What You Need to Know About It. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-personal-branding-4056073
[Accessed 09 12 2017].

Marion, 2017. What is branding?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/10/what-is-branding-definition/
[Accessed 09 12 2017].

Patel, S., 2016. 9 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Your Personal Brand. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sujanpatel/2016/11/12/9-ways-to-use-social-media-to-build-your-personal-brand/#5e4048303520
[Accessed 16 12 2017].

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