Social media is an invaluable resource for building your brand both online and offline. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not leveraging the platform to grow your audience, drive traffic to your website, and increase awareness around your brand/expertise. Below are 18 tips on how to build your brand or business using social media.

1. Be honest about what you want. Social media can help you reach both your personal and professional goals but first you have to know what those are.You can’t get what you want if you don’t know what you want. Do you want to showcase your work? Drive traffic back to your website? Get Leads? Engage with your audience? Position yourself as an industry authority? Boost your credibility? Knowing your objective is the foundation of social media success.

2. Find your tribe. All social networks are not created equal. Although there are many to choose from not all of them are the right fit for your brand.

You know you’ve chosen the right social media platform for your business/brand if:

• It’s where the majority of your target audience already is

• It allows you to showcase your brand/expertise in an optimal way

3. Choose the right name. Don’t make it hard for people to find you. Your social media handle should be the name that you use on job applications, the name you do business as, or the name of your business.

4. Optimize your profile bio. Think of the about section on your social media profile as your digital elevator pitch. Anyone who stumbles onto your page should be able to know who you are, what you do, where you’re located, and how they can find more information. (HINT: Insert the link to your website address).

Make your bio more impressive / memorable by including:

• One niche descriptor.

• One accomplishment.

• One hobby.

• One interesting fact or feature about yourself or business.

5. Go public. How else do you expect people to find you? Private social media profiles limit your reach. Instead of getting yourself in front of the millions of people that use [ insert name of social platform here] you’re limiting yourself to only being seen by the people who follow you.

6. Create a different experience on each platform. One size doesn’t fit all. What’s the point of following you on Facebook if you just post the same thing that you do on Twitter? Give people something special to look forward to on each platform.

7. Be consistent. Make sure the look, feel, and tone of your brand are the same across all social channels. This will help people immediately recognize who you are no matter which site or app they’re using.

PRO TIP : The first step is making sure all of your social avatars (profile photos) are the same.

8. Be authentic. Your social media profiles are an extension of your brand. When posting online you may be tempted to do or say things that you wouldn’t otherwise because “everyone else is doing it”. Behaving in a manner that is not true to who you are will damage your credibility.  

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