Using Social Media to Promote Your Personal Brand

Using Social Media to Promote Your Personal Brand

Building Your Personal Brand is an essential component for online success in today's worldwide marketplace. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that a quarter of the Earth's population is using the internet. If you take the world's estimated population in 2009 at over 6.7 billion, that makes it over 1.8 billion people, as of 2009, using the internet. Looking at these numbers, you can see why today's entrepreneurial success has never been closer within your reach. You are connected to 25% of the world just by sitting down at your computer and getting on the World Wide Web. Another component on the side of entrepreneurs today is social media. Long gone are the days where you need massive amounts of capital for radio and television advertising. With 400 million active users on Facebook, Twitter clocking in 105,779,710 registered users, and YouTube the second most popular search engine on the Internet today, it's never been easier to get your ideas, opinions, thoughts, and products out to the world.

So now that you have access to millions, what do you do, where do you start? A good place to start is your personal brand. Your personal brand is going to help you to stand out from the crowd on the internet. It is going to define you and represent to people who you are. Your brand is going to give you the presence on the internet you need for people to get to know who you are, which you're absolutely going to need for online success.

Let's break it down into some basics. Yes, there are a lot of people online, and, yes, you have free access to them through social media. But let's think about social media for a second, why people are on it, and why your brand will matter there. Think about why you get on Facebook or any other social media platform. Is it to be sold something? Did you log on to get bombarded by the next big thing? Chances are, most likely not. I think most will agree they are getting onto Facebook or any other social media platform, to strengthen existing relationships or to foster new ones, whether it be family, friends, or business relationships. These are relationship building platforms. And if you're going to be successful in your entrepreneurial success using these platforms, you are going to need to understand why people are there. Your personal brand is going to help you bridge this gap. It is going to help you build these relationships, which in turn is going to build your success. By building a personal brand, people will start to learn what you are all about. Through your personal brand you can provide value to others that will help you to spark relationships with individuals in these various social platforms. Think of your own situations and this will start to ring more true and true in your mind.

For example, say you've just gotten a new puppy, your first ever. You've picked it up at the shelter, brought it home, and the first thing it does is pee on the floor. And then it dawns on you, you're probably going to need to know how to potty train your new little friend. What would you do in this situation? Two things come to my mind immediately. I'm most likely going to hop onto Facebook, or one of my other social platforms, ask the question and come back when I have another free moment to check all the responses I've gotten, knowing some of my furry-loving friends will more than gladly respond to help me out. Another thing I might do is Google it, look to find a resource online that looked well-trusted and follow their advice.

Say you've now got your puppy potty trained after following the advice from the wonderful information you received, but now your furry friend is chewing on everything and you don't know how to make him stop. Chances are you just might go back to that same friend or trusted resource that helped you the first time and look for your answer on how to solve this next problem. Let's say the advice works again. No more chewing. And I'm really starting to bond more with my puppy, and I'm realizing, you know, I really want to make sure my little guy is healthy and I'm going to go back to my same friend/trusted source who has given me such great advice over and over. Let's say this time my friend/trusted source suggests some healthy pet products that he or she is selling to solve my problem. Now I have established a relationship with this person on a particular subject that they have helped me with before. I trust this person on this subject and am much more likely to buy these products then. Not to mention, if I have a friend coming to ask me how to potty train the latest furry edition to their family, I'm going to talk about the strategies I learned and the person who shared this helpful information with me.

Start asking yourself these types of questions, and start seeing why you are making the buying decisions you are making on a day-to-day basis. You can really start to understand how building your personal brand and social media are going to come together for you. And you really start to see how building your personal brand is so important instead of trying to pitch your business or product to complete strangers you are coming across on these social media platforms.