Personal Brand Tip 6 - Using Your Personal Social Media For Your Business & Career Benefit

blog 2017
Written By Andrew Ford

When you are starting out in small business or in a service-based industry where the product you sell is your time and advice, you are the main attractor of new clients. Like it or not, people want to know about the person delivering the service, not just about the product and price. They care just as much about your personality as your qualifications. Who you are and what you stand for is important in the age of digital transparency. More and more, prospects want to dig behind the business facade to really see who is running the operation. The more you show them, the more they can trust you and the more likely they will buy from you.

Social media is a great forum to showcase various parts of your life that you are comfortable sharing. I’m not talking about super personal matters you wouldn’t want to share online, I’m talking about your hobbies and activities that showcase your character, personality and values.

What to share online?

There are two parameters that you need to review which will assist you in deciding what to share online.

The first is the formality of the industry. The more formal, the less personal content, the less formal the more personal content.

The second element is how open you are to sharing yourself online. Rank both of these on a scale of 1-10 and this will assist you in deciding what you are comfortable sharing and what is appropriate in for your clients. Use the graphic below to help your choices.

  • Informal industries

Think about the small talk you have with prospects when you first met them. You ask about their weekend, where they grew up, their family, holidays they have had, sports teams they follow, causes they are interested in. All of these chats are a way to establish rapport and build some bridges before you talk business. Forming trust with another person hasn’t changed, but the medium has. 

In today's digital world, prospects can easily find your information, see your activities and hobby through your Facebook and Instagram before meeting you. Chances are they are more likely to like you and do business with you if you share a common activity or hobby. Seeing your activities over time also makes them feel like they know you, just like when we talk about celebrities like we know and understand them despite having never met them. That’s why big companies hire people like George Clooney to advertise coffee because we like and trust him through repeated exposure to his brand.

A previous client of ours was a sales manager for high-end software that is looking for new prospects. He didn’t have a presence on social media and was finding it tough to break into new industries. After reviewing his personality and values, we realised that he is most passionate about surfing. He goes every weekend and loves talking about it. We suggest he uses that hobby for business and joins Surfers in Suits - a networking group for business people who surf. He attends and has an amazing time. Not only does he get to talk surfing with equally passionate people, they want to do business with him because they have a shared passion. Now when prospecting online, he can use his surfing credibility to link up with others who share his interest.

  • Formal Industries

If you don’t like sharing non-business content and your industry is very formal, another way to use social media is to focus on blogging on your industry using LinkedIn Publishing. By writing longer articles about your experience in the industry, your beliefs on certain topics and sharing your opinions, you start to reveal what you are like to deal with to your prospects.

You are not revealing the social side of your personality, more your character and knowledge. Over time people will get to know your style and resonate and agree with your opinions or not. Building rapport and trust which has the dual benefits of speeding up the sales process and disqualifying non-matching clients who wouldn't buy from you once you met. It's simply more efficient. 

I’m sure you can see the benefits of warming up cold prospects with your online content before they start the sales process with you. But what happens if you have staff? This is the biggest untapped resource in business. Staff all have friends and networks that could benefit your business and they are the best people to recommend your services. If you support them in building their own personal brands and sharing appropriate content, you can save huge amounts from your marketing budget. The key is to ensure it is a win for the staff member, their friends and the business.

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our “E-ttractive Personal Brand Calculator” to measure how e-ttractive your current brand is and how to improve it.

Andrew Ford
Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.
http://www.andrewford.com.au/
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