By Claire Martindale
Whether your girl-boss aspiration is influencing other brands or successfully building your own, creating a strong presence for yourself on social media is a must for professional success in today’s digital age. Here are some tried and true tips to improving your personal brand and growing your audience on today’s most-used platforms:
Colors, Typography and Imagery
Popularity on social platforms such as Instagram comes down to aesthetic appeal, and what better way to please your audience's eyes through color and text! The use of signature colors tie together your brand aesthetic while adding a sense of continuity and personal flair to your social feeds. For example, the D’Amelio sisters Charli and Dixie utilize lots of cool tones in both their outfits and on their social pages, while you can spot Addison Rae sporting warm tones (Her new makeup line Item Beauty features all orange packaging and branding!) A way you can pick brand colors is through your personality and interests. If you love nature, try utilizing blue and greens for tones, borders and texts, or pink if you aim to symbolize and promote all things girly. The fonts you choose for your online presence on your company site or personal blogs can also portray a theme and persona; if you are an avid writer, consider utilizing fonts such as Baskersville and American Typewriter, or if you are a budding software engineer, utilize modern fonts like Roboto. Imagery also has a role to play in building your personal brand. Consider drafting up a personal and creative logo to use as a watermark on your Pinterest photos and display picture, or design uniform symbols for different stories on your social pages and blog.
Be Your Own Publicist
Visuals aside, another key to success on digital platforms is transparency and passion. Be sure to ask yourself if the content you are sharing matches your personal morals and interests. For example, if you value animal-rights and are a vegan, make sure the dish you are sharing or the chic new coat you just bought are cruelty-free! If you are a photographer, make sure your content mainly consists of your work as opposed to pictures of your new car—sounds straightforward, right? You would be surprised to know that many of today's influencers have lost their audience by straying too far from what brought them a following in the first place; others have suffered the same fate via contradicting their own morals. In today's world, your thoughts, ideas and opinions can be shared with millions with the click of a button, thus why it is especially important to act as your own publicist on social media. Being your own publicist entails being transparent with your audience and mindful in what you share. By humanizing yourself to your followers, you will become more likeable and stand out amongst the crowd of filters, facetune, and dishonest promotion.
Know Your Audience
So you have found your personal brand complete with a killer media kit and loyal audience. What now? Once you have gathered a fan-base or customer-base it is important to identify their demographic, preferences and location in order to further expand your following while keeping your current ones. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have built-in analytics features that can track the age, gender and location of your followers as well as what kind of posts get the most likes and reshares. Utilizing informational tools as valuable as this can help you succeed in tailoring your content so that it is met with both success and praise.
Do you have any tips for personal branding? Whether it be online or in-person? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!
Claire Martindale is an editorial intern who is knowledgeable in all things fashion, sustainability, and social media.