What are some creative ways to use Instagram for personal branding?

Before embarking on your Personal Branding journey, it's essential to do the inner work, connecting with your most authentic self. Understand who you are, what you represent, what your unique (brand) voice is, and most importantly: what is your WHY. This inner work is the compass guiding your content. Next, define your connection goals with your audience – not just what you want to achieve but how you aim to resonate and create meaningful engagement with YOUR people. Your niche becomes a reflection of your authentic self, and your goals transform into a roadmap for building genuine connections through your Personal Brand.

Your bio should show your personality but not include “insider” language. This space is to help new potential followers get to know you so make sure to hit the key points. Including emojis is a great way to showcase topics with fewer characters and show off personality for some brands. Double check your links - you only get a few chances to capture clicks so don’t waste them on broken or outdated links!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER: and that's your IG/Tiktok/LinkedIn bio. Your bio needs to: 1. Tell us who you are 2. Tell us what you do + who you work with (with a lil' personality! Throw in an emoji, your tagline, something sassy!) 3. Have a CTA to connect further/off socials- think intro call, application, mailing list, mass market course offering, etc - make sure you're collecting those email addresses! And p.s. never use special characters/lettering, or emojis as the first character of the line: it hurts your search optimisation.

Who wants a feed that's just meh? Your Instagram isn't about sharing photos and graphics, it should tell a story and give your audience a feel for who you are. First off, nail your brand aesthetic. Colours, taglines, and themes – make sure they resonate with you and your brand. This also means steering away from the basic bland beige comfort zone of many brands. You can have a cohesive aesthetic without it being beige and boring! Captions, hashtags, and tags are also just as important as your feed! Ensuring your brand voice and tone resonates with your imagery is something that's often overlooked.

No one likes the account that follows 1 person (the founder) and never engages with anyone... but expects engagement. You have to give some to get some, and creating connections with not only your audience and potential consumers/clients, but also industry peers, is KEY to increasing engagement on socials. Starting with your target audience: follow your dream clients and start engaging. Your dream clients will not magically find you, cut right to the chase and put yourself right in front of them. Reply to comments on your posts and DM's! This establishes a sense of community and trust between you and your audience - and is GREAT for the algorithm!