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Ever since the Kardashians burst onto the social media scene, it seems like everyone has been trying to emulate their example of how to build a personal brand. It might look effortless to outsiders, but ask anyone who has successfully built a personal brand on social media, and they’ll tell you that it’s hard work.
Social media is not about “me” – it’s about “team”
First of all, while social media might seem to be all about “me” – it’s really all about building a team of people who can help you keep up with all your fans and followers. For example, consider the various people who need to be part of this social media team:
- A writer who gets your “brand voice” and can generate content for different platforms
- A video producer who can film you (and then edit it later)
- A graphic designer who can take care of all the pictures, quotes and images that comprise your personal brand
- An audio person who can manage your busy podcast schedule
- A product manager to come up with – and then manage – new products
- A sales and marketing professional to help sell advertising or product placement
When this team comes together, that’s when the fabulousness can start. If you’re a future titan of the business world, that frees you up to work on your next great idea that will change the world while your social media team helps to transform all of your ideas into a viable social media presence. If you’re a future entertainment or show biz personality, then having a social media team means that you can focus on showing up at glam events and looking fabulous on the red carpet rather than laboriously updating your social media profiles.
Social media is a two-way medium
Next, you need to consider how you will interact with your followers, fans and friends. While you can largely outsource all the video, audio and text creation to your team, you will probably want to take responsibility for responding directly with your growing fan base.
And, indeed, most social media influencers and other who have hit it big with a personal brand seem to delight in interacting with their fans. Think of Beyoncé and her “Beyhive” (beehive), or Lady Gaga and her “little monsters.” Heck, you can probably lump President Donald Trump in there. The reason why he’s so addicted to Twitter is because he feeds off the energy. It enables him to control the message, at least to his loyal base.
Start small and scale big
Obviously, a lot of work needs to go into building up a personal brand. It’s best to start with 1-2 social media platforms first, master them, and then scale up from there. Thus, you might want to start with Facebook and Instagram, develop your brand voice, and from there, scale up into regular podcasts and video shows for your fans.
As long as you’re constantly interacting with and engaging with your growing fan base, you’ll get plenty of ideas and insights of what resonates with your fans, and will quickly learn how to make little tweaks to your personal brand that will prepare you for long-term success.
Read More: How Gary Vaynerchuk Is Winning With Social Media, Podcast And Video
