You started your blog, recorded a few podcasts, even attended an event or two. Yet people are still not 100% sure who you are.
Kinda hurts, right?
In today’s very digital world, giving out your card during networking events isn’t enough. But creating a social media following is the ultimate branding tool.
To get you started, I wanted to give you a starter pack to personal branding on Twitter. So, without further ado, here are the first 5 steps to start your Twitter empire by building your personal brand on Twitter.
1. Choose Your Twitter Handle Carefully
You may be a great chef and a fun comic book fanatic, but handles like @Cooking4Life or @GimmeComics123 won’t fly.
However, if you started a cooking blog and you want your brand to revolve around that, something like @JeffTheChef is both straightforward and memorable.
It’s ok to play around with something funky, but it’s not okay to create a cryptic handle of a middle schooler.
This is a great solution for bloggers. For inspiration, here are two bloggers that took their URL and made it their handle:
Now, if you’re not a blogger, or an advocate for your business (or place of work) like someone like Ann Handley, you can simply use your name. It’s the easiest way for people to find and recognize you.
One last thing to remember about Twitter handles, is that although you can change them as you please, it’s better not to change it up too often. Once people start to recognize your handle, it won’t be easy to let every follow know that it’s changed.
A strong personal brand needs to be consistent and recognizable, and that includes your usernames.
Our Twitter Username Generator can help you create memorable and recognizable usernames.
2. Choose Your Brand’s Imaging
Your profile is like an online business card of sorts. People need to see who you are (not what coat your cat has), and what you’re all about. Use your profile picture and header photo accordingly.
You can have a fancy business-professional picture, a simple selfie, or a funny photoshoot-style picture (Chris Goward nailed this one.) But, as far as covers go, there are a few different approaches:
Promotional
This one is for those who are more advanced in building your personal brand, since you need to have something to promote. You could also promote your blog or the company you work for.
If you have a book coming out, are speaking at an event, or have any other kind of ‘gig’ coming up, make sure that you let your followers know via your cover photo.
Not everyone will see your tweet (remember that they have a very short lifespan on Twitter), but more will check your profile, or hover on your handle to see your info.
Take a look at Marsha Wright’s cover photo:
Do “Your Thing”
Do you have a catchphrase, a signature color (Joe Pulizzi sure does), or a specific place/event that relates to you?
If you’re just starting out, think of something that you’d like people to associate with you.
Every influencer has their own “it” thing. Whatever you choose, put it to work on Twitter! One of my favorite examples is Andrew Davis and his famous “You’ve been Drewed!” phrase:
Simple
Sometimes less is more.
Branding doesn’t necessarily mean promoting yourself in every aspect of the word. Whether you’re just starting out or are more established on Twitter – a simple photo will do.
The main rule for this strategy is to post something relevant, but not overly splashy. Kittens or ponies may not necessarily work, unless that’s you and your brand (Seth Godin’s Twitter profile is pretty catchy.)
All in all, give it a vibe that portrays your professional environment. Learn from Guy Kawasaki:
3. Find Your Brand’s Voice
Don’t make a professional branding tool all about what you ate for lunch. There are a couple of questions that you need to answer before you click that tweet button:
- Is this relevant to my followers?
- Does this piece of content promote your values or business ideals?
- Does this help your followers get to know you better?
It’s okay to post a panda video here and there, but keep it occasional.
For most of us, just one profile will do. However, I’ve noticed a trend of influencers with two profiles. One just to post content, and another profile that’s professional, but still engages people and showcases their personality.
I’ve already mentioned Ann Handley, but take a look how she’s created two profiles:
Her second, more personal, profile shows how great of a communicator Ann is – which brings me to my next point.
4. Start Building Connections and Influence
The point of building a personal brand is to become someone that has the answer.
You want to be the guy that marketers, social media mavens, and CEOs look to for inspiration? Then you need to roll up your sleeves and find the time to get involved.
From observation, and personal experience, there are a couple things you can do to stay engaged:
Twitter Chats
Chats are an extraordinary way to meet new people, attract new followers, and gain more information about what’s going on your field. Most Twitter chats take place weekly on the same day, at the same time.
My personal favorite is The Content Marketing Institute’s #CMWorld chat. The people I’ve tweeted with during these chats ended up being the people I got coffee with during conferences, later on leading to professional relationships and coop projects.
Respond to Mentions and Shares
This one seems obvious, but a lot of people forget about it. After a couple of years on Twitter, I’ve noticed that nothing strengthens professional relationships and loyalty like a little love here and there.
I could once again throw in an Ann Handley example (can you tell I’m a big fan?) but I won’t. Instead, I’ll encourage you to check out her profile and take a look at how engaged Rick Short was during CMWorld 2015:
I really liked Rick’s session, so I tweeted a quote (remembering to give credit by tagging) and I got a response from the author himself. Be like Rick – respond and converse to create loyalty.
Share, Tag, Talk
If the author of an article you’re sharing is on Twitter, tag them in your tweet. Ask other people what they think. Don’t be afraid to start conversations by mentioning someone. It’s good to ask and engage.
5. Become a Master Tweeter
Now that you know what you need to build your personal brand, it’s time to share some tools to help you tweet better.
Save Time with Scheduling
Yes, the tool no one wants to admit to but everyone uses. There are dozens of great scheduling tools that will help you choose the date and time of each tweet.
Social scheduling tools, such as Mention’s Publish Feature, is a great way to plan out your content in advance, to make sure you are sharing high quality pieces of content. Plus, you can schedule up to 1 month in advance, on multiple social media channels.
Find Conversations to Join
Monitoring and listening to what’s happening on and around your brand is a great way to stay ahead and interact with your Twitter Followers. Mention is an awesome tool to find conversations happening around (and about) you, and you can also respond to them directly from your Mention account – another great time saver.
Hand Out Your Handle
Having social media buttons (in this case, Twitter) in your email signature, on your business cards, and in all your bios are important. People are more likely to log on and follow you if you plant the idea in their head first.
Mention has a free email signature generator that will help you create yours.
Mention also has a free Twitter Bio Generator that can help you create the perfect Twitter bio for your personal or professional profile.
Conclusion
The reality is that if you know how Twitter works, what your goals are, and who you want to reach – you’ll be able to build a brand.
Jump in the deep end, and start connecting, engaging, and sharing your opinions on social media platforms. With some time and consistency, you’ll find what works best for your personal brand, and what to stray away from.
Stay true to who you are, but just like with any branding, you need to think about what your audience wants.
Once you have the hang of things, try creating a campaign around influencer outreach.
Working with like-minded colleagues will help you establish your position and set a seal on your Twitter personal brand. Happy tweeting!
