The Subtle Art of Self-Promotion

Managing your personal brand can be, at best, a little awkward. We all know that as business owners, we are our best and first salespeople, but promoting your services on social media can still seem a little disingenuous at times. There’s a fine line between providing meaningful content and spamming your Facebook friends! It may seem counterintuitive, but hiring someone to manage to your own personal brand can help save you time, trouble and mental anguish, when executed correctly. At 98 Buck Social, we work closely with personal accounts of all kinds, from high-powered business executives, to health coaches, to artists, and we have a few tips to help you get started strong with your brand on social!

Custom Content is Required

To build a truly solid personal brand, you need custom content. This is what makes your brand look and feel like you, whether it’s you behind the posting or not! What do we mean by “custom” content? Think everything from blog posts, professional photos, videos, testimonials, and anything that is directly related to you and your work. One of the best ways to do this is to brainstorm it all in a few sessions before you launch your brand, and then slowly circulate that content into your feed in conjunction with some less time-consuming posts, such as facts, links to articles and quotes. If you’re working with 98 Buck Social, you can send all that wonderful, custom content to your account manager, who will do the posting for you!

Find Your Voice

It can be hard to find your voice in the hubbub of today’s noisy world, but as a personal brand, this is a must! First, come up with your mission statement, which you probably already have if you’ve created a business plan! Base your voice off of this central idea. Now, find a few keywords that describe the way you want to come off to your followers. Do you want to be seen as funny? Positive? A little bit edgy? Limit your keywords to 2-3 at the beginning, and let your creativity bloom as your business grows.

Sell It… But Not Too Much!

There is much debate over how much of your content should be promotional, but generally, you can feel comfortable knowing that most brands are embracing a “Rule of Thirds,” meaning that they only promote themselves 30% of the time. You can fill the rest of that space up with almost anything! One common content idea for personal brands is to use customer interactions, in the form of User Generated Content, feedback, polls or reviews.

Consider linking to partners on the “outer edges” of your business as well! This could include thought leaders, businesses not in direct competition with your own and even friends that you feel are worth highlighting. Many personal brands are hesitant (at first) to link to content that is not their own, but in reality, this is the very nature of social! Adding outside sources to your content mix helps you build more connections and bridges between businesses that may give future referrals.

Above all, if we’re managing your personal brand, be sure to communicate clearly and constructively with your account manager! When you enter this process with a clear idea of what you’re looking for, and communicate that to your manager, magic can happen! The best part? You can rest easy knowing that your message is being spread, and focus on your daily business operations! Check out what we can do for your brand–from website development, to blog posts and daily social media posting–here.