Social Media & Your Personal Brand

We all have a personal brand, whether we choose to strategically manage it or not. And more and more of our impressions are made online.

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There’s no question:

Social media is a fantastic opportunity
to cultivate our personal brand!

Last week I introduced you to my friend, social media expert Andrew Jenkins, and I highlighted 3 ways to be more strategic (avoiding “auto-pilot”!) with social media. We need to be conscious of:

WHERE we’re engaging
HOW we’re engaging
WHAT we’re saying

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This week we dig a little deeper. Read on to learn:

➡️ CONTENT options: original vs. curated 📃
➡️ The significance of COMMENTING on social media 💬
➡️ How to get people to STOP THE SCROLL 🛑
➡️ Andrea’s TOP 2 POSTS on LinkedIn! 👍

Let’s do this!

CONTENT Options: Original vs. Curated

Most of us think of engaging on social media in two ways: sharing ORIGINAL content and sharing CURATED content.

And although it may not look like it on the surface, BOTH options allow you to communicate your Personal Brand.

Let’s start with #1: Original Content

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Here are some ideas for generating ORIGINAL CONTENT, using a variety of media:

WRITE short thought leadership or POV posts, helpful tips, or suggestions
Share meaningful QUOTES
Create an INFOGRAPHIC
Create a short VIDEO or AUDIOGRAM (and don’t forget to add captions!)
Ask QUESTIONS or create POLLS
REPURPOSE your existing content, like newsletters, podcasts, or blog posts
RE-SHARE your previous posts that are still relevant

“But Andrea, what if I don’t like being on camera?
What if I don’t have time to write a blog?“

Don’t worry, you still have the opportunity to communicate your Personal Brand when you share CURATED CONTENT – created by others.A great way to do this is by sharing an article or a post with your own brief commentary… Like what I did after I saw this short film produced by Dove.

This video resonated with me so much that I just had to share it. So I did. With two simple sentences:

“Talk About… leaving me SPEECHLESS.
Please watch this.”

That’s it. Two sentences. And those two sentences yielded a ton of engagement: 1000s of views, and tons of re-shares, likes, and comments.

Speaking of COMMENTS…

According to Andrew, COMMENTING on posts is an under-leveraged opportunity to engage, network, and demonstrate your THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.So go beyond the thumbs up 👍 and leave a comment!

Your goal is to STOP the scroll!

Something I often recommend to my clients in our coaching sessions to use social media as an opportunity to demonstrate THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.

This can certainly be achieved with a larger piece of content like a white paper or milestone report. But remember, your goal is to get people to STOP scrolling.

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Andrew recommends creating bite-sized content like an attention-grabbing infographic, or a short video, to accompany any larger reports you may want to share.

Before you post anything, ask yourself:
Why would someone stop to look at this?
Is it helpful? Is it compelling?

This reminds me of another one of my LinkedIn experiences.

Do you remember that horrific comment about women made by the head of the Tokyo Olympic Committee? The one based on ridiculous gender stereotypes, where he bemoaned women’s inability to be succinct?

This was my response. I’d say I was succinct. 😆

This post became my most viewed LinkedIn post ever!

So my advice is, post about things that RESONATE WITH YOU. Chances are they will resonate with the people in your network.

That’s it for this week! Once again, THANK YOU to my guest, Andrew Jenkins. I hope you enjoyed our conversation, and I hope you feel EMPOWERED to engage on social media in a strategic and meaningful way!

Enjoy the podcast!

Please forward to your friends who might like help with their communication skills and social media. Thank you.

Have a great week.

Talk soon,