No matter what kind of business you run, it’s important to start building a strong personal brand. A personal brand builds trust with your audience and can even help increase your sales. Here are the five best sites for building your personal brand online.
If you’re trying to build your professional network, then you absolutely must be on LinkedIn. When you sign up, LinkedIn prompts you to add your existing contacts to your network.
To help grow your influence, you can reach out and start connecting with other professionals in your industry. You can share your professional knowledge with your LinkedIn network by writing articles or creating videos.
But while it’s important to share relevant content, it’s equally important to engage with other people and comment on the things they post. Make a point to consistently engage with your network. Joining LinkedIn groups is another great way to continue meeting new people.
[Read more: LinkedIn Marketing Guide for Small Business]
Facebook has over two billion daily active users, so no matter who you are trying to reach, it’s almost guaranteed that they are on Facebook. You can set up a Facebook Business Page and invite your personal contacts and customers to like your page.
Once your page is up and running, you can begin sharing relevant content with your subscribers. Facebook is great for brand awareness, lead generation and building a relationship with your followers.
If you have the budget, you can maximize your reach by using targeted Facebook ads. Facebook ads let you target your ideal demographic by age, gender, location and interests.
However, it’s important to keep building that personal connection with your followers. Make sure to regularly like and respond to their comments — after all, that’s what they’re showing up for.
Posting consistently, using hashtags and engaging with other people’s content is the best way to grow your Instagram following.
If you’re used to LinkedIn and Facebook, then Instagram may throw you for a bit of a loop. While the other two platforms focus on sharing a lot of written content, Instagram is a very visual platform.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use Instagram to build your brand and share your expertise. It’s just going to require a little more creativity on your part.
The best way to do this is by sharing photos and videos with text captions. Posting consistently, using hashtags and engaging with other people’s content is the best way to grow your Instagram following.
[Read more: How to Use Social Media for Public Relations]
YouTube
You may think of YouTube as a platform for 14-year-old gamers but the truth is, YouTube is one of the best places to grow your personal brand. According to Hubspot, 48% of marketers plan to use YouTube as part of their marketing strategy.
Unlike other social media sites, YouTube is a search engine. If you share a video on Instagram, there’s nothing you can really do with that content later.
Whereas by strategically incorporating keywords, your YouTube videos can be discovered over and over again. If you want to be successful on YouTube, then it’s important to have a clearly defined niche and to stay very consistent with producing new content.
Building a personal brand on Twitter can feel more challenging, since you’re limited to 280 characters per tweet. But Twitter can be a powerful branding tool for business owners.
Twitter also has a strong influence on customer’s buying habits, with 40% of usersadmitting to purchasing something they had seen on the platform.
The best way to grow your influence on Twitter is by regularly following new people in your industry. Participating in Twitter chats can also be another good way to find new followers.
Regardless of the social media channel you choose to use, you should focus on providing value and showing up consistently.
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