Social media performs as a platform for anyone, anywhere, to show themselves to the world. You can have your personal brand, business, or idea seen across the world in a matter of seconds without spending much or anything at all. This alone makes it so easy for your potential or existing business to finally get the recognition it needs.
Now it’s time to get creative by posting on social media in the form of posts, videos, or a mixture of the two (highly recommended!). These posts create lasting impressions that others have of you and should be crafted to represent your experience, expertise, capabilities, actions, lifestyles, and accomplishments. Your personal brand is the response people get when someone asks who you are; it’s the image that comes to a person’s mind when your name is mentioned and it's the last thoughts someone has about you after talking about your brand. It could be the determining factor for that job you’re being considered for, that client you’re trying to close, the product or service you’re trying to sell, that loan you’re trying to get or even that person you’re trying to get to know.
Building a brand is like building a house; the better the material, the stronger it is. It is crucial that you make smart decisions that allow your brand to evolve as you curate it over time. Successfully building your brand can build your business and keep it successful.
Your brand should speak for itself; it should express your message without you saying a word. Creating your social media presence should include everything from your personal life to the behind-the-scenes of your business, which allows your customers to feel like they know you which will ultimately build trust then the sales/ opportunities will follow.
In today’s world, our personal brands have arguably become an online resume. Paper resumes and business cards are definitely still relevant, but most people like to search for you before making their decisions. Let’s be honest, your social media presence can say so much that your written resume won’t. Now we’ll break down a few pointers for turning your Instagram into a digital resume.
1. Define your “brand”
Defining your brand is the most important part and when done correctly, sets the tone for relationships to be developed. Selecting a target audience and tailoring your content to meet the wants, needs, and expectations of that audience is the best place to start. The posts on your Instagram feed should be a direct reflection of what you think would make people want to engage or learn from. Now, I challenge you to think about the initial perception people have after viewing your profile. What are they thinking? How are they going to remember you? You can also do some research by browsing through the Instagram profiles of other successful people in your field to see what resonates with their audience. What are they posting? Is there a noticeable pattern or message? What is the visual representation of their Instagram feed? You don’t have to mimic everything they do (in fact, I encourage you not to), but you can get inspiration on how to create your content and overall brand image.
2. Don't just post your highlights
Your internet presence shouldn’t just be your highlight reel. Yes, you should have content that increases your credibility but people need to know that you’re human too. Yes, in a resume you would leave out irrelevant information to make yourself look more professional but social media is for more of a personal experience. People enjoy seeing the struggles you go through to reach your goals and dreams because now they have the opportunity to relate to you and you have the opportunity to inspire them. Usually, when people inspire us, we want to continue tuning into their lives and follow them to keep us motivated.
3. Remove all noise
The attention span of the average person is about eight seconds. Short right? Most likely Instagram users will only look at your first nine photos before creating an opinion about you. In that same eight seconds, they will decide if they want to continue scrolling through your profile. You should delete or archive all the noise. Noise means anything that diverts people away from the parts of the brand you’ve defined and is about something completely opposite of what you’re trying to promote. This also means you have to create content that makes people STOP scrolling. So you have to start analyzing what that is. You also need to think about what this means in relation to your industry. For example, if you’re a photographer, your image most likely needs to be high quality and sometimes unusual compared to a basic selfie. Anything posted on Instagram becomes public information, so make sure it’s something that you want others to see. Having your brand represented correctly on social media, as well as a Google search is very important.
Your brand is the first thing that people are going to see when they look you up and the last thing they’ll remember when they’re done searching. Every post sends a message, every message tells a story and every story builds a brand. Make sure that your brand is built to last.