Today working on your virtual appearance is just as important as working on your physical. In fact, how you market yourself on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media networks can directly influence how you will be perceived in the real world.

The thing about social media, is that it is on the go all the time. In this world conversation is king and content, its soap opera mistress. Building your image or your brand begins by building your engagement. Whether you are on Facebook or Twitter, what you say, how you say it and who you say it to is all monitored. Not realising this can bury you quicker than a collapsing mine. Using it to your advantage though will enhance and extend your reputation, popularity and reach in minutes.

Getting it Wrong:

An example of terrible personal branding can be seen by model Jessica Leandra and her racist rant. Yeah, she may get more followers but the reason why, is to see the next time she drops the ball. Because of one bad tweet, she will probably have a tough time securing contracts with future clients, who will be cautious about aligning themselves with her name.

Getting it Right:

One name sticks out when discussing personal branding and social media. Lady Gaga. She has a following of over 27 million fans on Twitter and 52 million likes on Facebook. One thing that makes her so successful on both these platforms is that she never stops being a presence. She is known for engaging and involving her fans in all her posts. Lady Gaga shares real life experiences with her fans that are relatable. The point here is that she connects with her audience in a personal way, making herself feel like a friend rather than an untouchable celebrity.

Take a page out of their books and learn from their mistakes and success. The power of social media is that it allows you and your brand to have a conversation with your customers. This is why it is so important to engage with people. By using social media creatively and correctly, your audience or clients get to see the personality of your company. A personality is far easier to relate to than some static front.

This open dialogue and communication between brand and customer is vital on social media. Again, by making yourself more accessible to your audience you make yourself more accessible and more relatable.

How many times, when you have been aggravated by a company, have you been unable to voice your frustration? When the brand does not care about you it is common sense that you will stop caring about the brand. Now think about those times you have been aggravated and the CEO has personally phoned you to say he will help you out. What is the difference in what you feel after these two examples?

It’s a lot easier to get angry with an inanimate object than it is with a warm personality. Your job is to present that warm personality through social media.
The lesson here is engagement. Here are some tips on how you can increase your engagement.

1. Ask questions.
2. Be useful.
3. Personalised engagement over automated engagement.
4. Join conversations that you are constructively involved in.
5. When posting, remember quality over quantity.

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