Never underestimate the power of creating a personal brand. The goal of personal branding is to get the audience to know and like you. Having your own website and using social media networks not only helps connect you with other like-minded individuals and brands, it gives your brand a human voice and personality, thereby increasing your personal following.
Currently, Twitter has 140 million active users, expressing themselves 140 characters at a time. Twitter provides one of the best platforms, allowing you to build your personal brand across a vast social network and to connect with countless people and businesses.
Here are my tips on how to successfully market yourself and your personal brand on Twitter:
1. Don’t be afraid to express your opinions, with care
If you have strong opinions about something, be it a product, television show or stance on an issue, say so, but tread lightly. Consider the impact if you mention issues that could alienate your clients or lose business. The goal is to have a conversation, not confrontation.
2. Content is key: don’t tweet sales pitches
People are on Twitter to be entertained and informed, not annoyed. Give your brand a personality by being humorous, passionate or participate in trending topics. People will want to follow you because you are engaging, and will likely start to show interest in your product or service, simply because they are interested in you. Feel free to mention new products or deals, but that shouldn’t dominate what you say.
3. Reciprocate
When you start to form relationships on Twitter, maintain them. Respond to your friends’ and new followers’ tweets and thank people who retweet your tweets, especially when they are praising your brand. Forming reciprocal relationships with other businesses can be a great way to gain a following, especially if the person or business has a strong social media presence.
Don’t forget to retweet your new friends’ and future business partners’ tweets. Showing mutual support is a great way to help recipricating brands. It’s known that more people are likely to use a familiar brand or a brand a friend recommends, so other people vouching for you can be invaluable.
4. Don’t tweet what you had for breakfast — unless it was really good, or really bad
No one cares about what you had for breakfast. However, tweeting a picture from a new restaurant and saying how wonderful the pancakes were is a great way to engage an audience, especially locally. Remember that Twitter users want to be more informed, so enlighten your followers.
5. Be yourself on Twitter
Your personal brand represents your personality and profession, so share who you are and what you know. Share links concerning your industry or profession. Express the hot topics that are facing your life, community and business. As recently noted in PRWeek, it isn’t necessary to have separate personal and professional accounts. Your tweets can embody your personality, and people like to see a human, not a robot.
Use personality and mutual relationships to brand yourself and your business on Twitter. Link to your Twitter profile on your website, Facebook page and any other social media sites you use. Tweet regularly. Like real life, Twitter relationships need to be maintained.
