Recently, a few of us at Buchanan PR had the opportunity to travel to one of our client’s offices in Pittsburgh to perform a LinkedIn training session. We spent countless hours analyzing employees’ existing profiles and preparing customized guides for each profile to become fully optimized. But why is taking the time to enhance a social media profile so important? Because it’s part of your personal brand.
Using social media is just one example of an easy (and often free) way to build a brand around your expertise. As professionals, we so often get caught up in bettering the company or the client that it’s easy to forget the importance of the people who make up those organizations.
Your personal brand can be a powerful tool in building or establishing trust with existing and potential clients, reporters, competitors, future employers, acquaintances, and more. It’s also an important aspect of building credibility for your business; why wouldn’t you use tools that showcase that the company is comprised of the best people in your field?
Here are five quick tips on how to make the most of it:
1. Put a face to a name. Use a headshot whenever possible – on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and in contributed articles and biographies. This is often the first thing people notice, so a headshot taken from the shoulders up with a warm smile can immediately create a sense of comfort and familiarity. Plus, profiles and content accompanied by a photo always tend to perform better and receive more online views than they would have without a photo.
2. Network, network, network. We all know how important it is to network. Attend as many industry and regional business events as possible, and add your social media profiles to your business cards so your new contacts can easily connect with you.
3. Public speaking is your friend. Speaking opportunities are an excellent way to increase visibility and add to your credibility. Industry conferences and webinars offer tons of opportunities to speak about a variety of topics. And remember, when participating as a speaker at an event, share that news on your professional social networks.
4. Put pen to paper. Contributed articles and columns can position you as an expert in your field. Choose a topic on which you’re especially knowledgeable. If you’re stumped for a topic, think of current events or changes within the industry that are keeping you, your colleagues or your clients up at night.
5. Optimize your social media profiles. This is a biggie. It’s so easy to look up a contact on Twitter, so it’s important to position yourself as not only a professional, but also as a human with a personality. Share relevant industry articles on Twitter, fully flesh out your LinkedIn profile and remain active on all platforms – even if it means sharing the occasional dog (or cats – we don’t discriminate here) article.
Building your own brand can help further both your personal and business goals in the long run. If you’re interested in learning more about how your company can optimize its employees’ social media profiles, drop us a line to see how we can help.