Personal Branding Faux Pas on Social Media

I am constantly requested to demystify the concept of Personal Branding and how one must manage their Personal Reputation across the Social Media Goliath! So, I want to take this opportunity to highlight the following critical aspects of Personal Branding for the starters, and offer a crisp action plan for you to start working on your Personal Brand Today, so you may steer clear of the given 15 Personal Branding Faux Pas, across the Social Media!

What is your Personal Brand?

Your Personal Brand is the unique brand value proposition that you offer; it is the reputation that you consciously build by consistently delivering your brand proposition-your Brand Promise.  It is a beautiful mosaic of who you are; what you do; whom you do it for; and why only YOU can do it for them.

For a Powerful Personal Brand, all that matters is the Power of Positioning.  Your Brand perception is empowered by the way you Position it in the hearts and minds of your target audience.

The Power of Positioning, Personified!

What your Personal Brand is NOT?

It is not what you say you are; it is what people say you are. Period.

It is rather defined by what you do, your brand experience: both online and offline. And Personal Branding is the process of building that reputation so people say what you want them to say about you.

What is Personal Branding?

In a nutshell, Personal Branding is the art of creating a unique brand identity and positioning for the Brand YOU and the science of building and managing the desired reputation of the Brand YOU in the Industry.

Personal Branding and the Social Media

There are multiple connotations of Personal Brand and Social Media Presence; but what some people often fail to understand is that Social Media is just a Media, after all, not the authentication of your Brand Promise; the authentication of your Brand Promise comes from the Brandtastic Experience of the Brand YOU!

Your presence across the Social Media is NOT your Personal Brand; but the experience you offer to the world across Social Media is just one of the dimensions of the Brand YOU.

However, the power of Social Media does present you with the Golden Opportunity to enlighten the world with your ICONIC Personal Brand Experience; and to do so, there are a few mandates that one must follow. There are DOs and there are DON’Ts; but it will do you much more good, if you absorb the DON’Ts earlier in Life and avoid committing these Personal Branding Faux Pas in front of the Global Audience across these networks!

15 DOs for Personal Branding across Social Media

1. Active presence across 3 major Social Media Platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook
2. A Synchronized brand identity across platforms: Clarity, Consistency, Constancy -> Credibility
3. Use a professional headshot across Platforms
4. Get relevant and sensible vanity urls on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook page; plus your own blog/website
5. Segregate your personal and professional circles
6. Get a Google profile for smart SEO management
7. Brand your profile on linked in: brand your headline with your personal brand positioning in 120 characters or less.
8. Get and maintain a blog for sharing your knowledge
9. Engage with your brand community-intra and inter industry
10. Become a guest blogger as often as possible
11. Google yourself regularly and Set up google alerts
12. Be the guardian angel of your corporate brand
13. Personify your corporate brand
14. Conceive your Brand’s Voice and be consistent in it
15. Be yourself!

Guard your Personal Brand Reputation by staying miles apart from the following 15 Personal Branding Faux Pass across the Social Media!

15 DON’Ts for Personal Branding across Social Media

1. Be the copy cat Brand: or an invariable Corporate CEO Clone
2. Be the ignorant Brand: Ignore social media because you don’t get it
3. Be the lazy Brand: update your professional profile regularly
4. Be the Mr. Invisible Brand: there, but not literally there!
5. Be the I,Me, Myself Brand: rather be the Benevolent Brand
6. Be the Preacher Brand: do walk the talk
7. Be anti-social Brand: don’t promote and push, but engage and enrich
8. Be the anti-personal Brand: personalize your invites/DMs
9. Be the wanderer Brand: have a goal plan for your Personal Brand
10. Don’t delegate your SM account management
11. Don’t underestimate the power of a bad move on the SM
12. Don’t have a chaotic brand presence across different media
13. Get Twitter-ed away/ carried away; focus on what is your tweet quotient? personal/professional/personal professional -mix/random
14. Don’t Brand yourself, without knowing your innate and authentic brand proposition
15. Don’t be the OOPS Brand: Mind this list! And avoid those OOPs moments with the world watching.

Use this list as the starter kit for your Personal Branding activities across Social Media; our next post will focus on HOW and WHERE to Brand Yourself!

Want more now? Drop in to our Website: www.panache-studio.com to discover how you can begin the Personal Branding process with a completely FREE trial of My Brand VOICE Program: India’s first Personal Brand Reputation Audit Tool!

After all, you need to know your Brand today, to grow it tomorrow!