Besides having a social media strategy and engaging content ideas, all content creators need to nurture their personal brand.
You may ask yourself why should I worry about branding?
The thing is, as you’re reading this, millions of Content Creators work actively on building and nurturing their social media presence (over 500k active content creators on Instagram alone).
No matter how talented you are, you will need to stand out with a unique identity if you want to succeed in making money on social media.
What is personal branding?
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos
It is how your audience perceives you and your entire content. Over time, building your personal brand will shape your audience’s view of anything you have to offer.
Why is that important? Because it enables people to recognize your content and make it more evocative to them, which results in better engagement and audience loyalty.
Define your social media identity with a strategic uniqueness mindset.
For example, Billie Eilish went from unknown to viral in no more than 4 years as a result of proper strategic branding. Is she loved by all? No. Is she polarizing? Absolutely, and it works.
Besides that, Billie has been insistent on being her authentic self all the way through.
It’s all about confidence and originality!
The same logic applies to businesses.
Here’s a simple but insightful example: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Both companies have very similar products, but each brand has its own identity.
Not only different colors, fonts and logos, but also different visions of the world.
The more evocative Coca-Cola’s identity is to a part of the target audience, the more likely those people will adopt Coca-Cola and not Pepsi. It can be a matter of taste to some extent, but brand engagement goes way beyond that.
The 3 fundamentals of personal branding
There are 3 main ingredients to developing a unique social media identity: originality, authenticity, and voice. Let’s take a look at each of these fundamental elements.
Originality
Point out what makes you unique. Do you have any quirks, a twisted sense of humor, or a special talent that you could leverage through your content, such as photography, dancing or acting?
Analyze the Content Creators you follow and ask yourself what makes them different from others. Why are you following them? Your answers will help you find your special ingredient(s).
Authenticity
People buy from people. Your personal brand should be a reflection of who you are and what you value. It cannot contradict you as a person.
The more authentic you are, the easier it will be for you to preserve your personal identity on social media.
Allow yourself to show your struggles, especially in the beginning. Share your challenges as a creator, and your successes too. Use your own words and idioms, and make sure that the layouts, colors, and sound effects reflect your personality.
When promoting a brand, product or service, make sure it aligns with you (and your audience’s) interests, lifestyle and values.
Voice
This is how you will leave an impactful impression on your social media audience. To find your voice, consider two things: medium and talent.
Medium is where you will communicate your message.
Talent is what you will use to seal your message and make it memorable.
Use whatever you’re best at to convey your message in a unique way, whether it’s modeling, music, drawing, dancing, humor, reporting, video editing, etc.
Presentation matters
Having your own style by which people recognize your content is a must.
Pick your colors, fonts, sounds, expressions, gestures and tone to craft a cohesive signature for your personal brand.
The more cohesive and unique your social media presence is, the greater and more engaged your audience will be over time.
Remember that there are thousands of Content Creators out there. Do your best to pick an angle that hasn’t been explored before.
With a resonating collab, a well-defined personal brand, a clear social media strategy and original content ideas, you will have all the ingredients to turn your followers into customers.
Ready? Let’s get branding!
