While building my business, I realized that I needed to gain my customers' trust. One way to do this, other than having a robust and useful product, is through a personal branding campaign. I was able to show my personality and expertise on social media. My customers could see that, and that helped them understand what I had to offer.
While I've noticed that personal branding is becoming increasingly important, it also can take a lot of time. Personal branding activities like creating and sharing social media posts, maintaining an email list and responding to messages can take time that many professionals feel they don't have. But automation can help.
I've used automation tools to help build and grow my brand. Automation tools may seem daunting to some, but they've become relatively easy to use for those who want to develop a personal brand.
Social Media Automation
Social media is one of the top ways to build a personal brand. Many professionals don't want to post so much that they annoy followers but rather just enough so that people don't forget about them. The recommended number of posts per day varies widely, but in my experience, posting from two to 30 times a day on Twitter can be effective. While most professionals stay at the lower end of that recommendation, posting in real time can be near impossible. Since LinkedIn is the most relevant social site for my business, I post there regularly (at least daily). Inc. reported on an analysis of 10 data-driven studies to explain how often to post on each network.
I've found that social media automation tools, such as Gain or Buffer, can make it easy to schedule posts regularly. I recommend that everyone still check their accounts to measure which posts are the most popular, and to check messages, but these tools can make posting simple. Alternatively, social networks themselves have built-in scheduling capabilities. Facebook, for example, lets users schedule posts weeks or months in advance.
Over the holiday season, for example, I scheduled posts for the Facebook group I run. This allowed me to ensure that I had consistent content going live even when I took time off.
Email Marketing Automation
Many brands create email marketing campaigns, but now, due to the high demand for personalization, many professionals do as well. Many executives have personal blogs or articles that they email to their list on a regular basis, not for a sales push, but instead as a branding effort. In my industry, I find that emails from an individual rather than from a company can go further in building a brand.
While writing email copy can take time, once the emails are ready, automation tools can make it easy to get the right message to the right person at the optimal time. Such tools can split your email list into groups. Many can split your list into where your leads are in the sales funnel. Alternatively, your leads can be split according to demographics or other criteria that help you.
There are many email automation tools out there, such as Mailchimp, HubSpot and Customer.io. I prefer Mailchimp because of its easy-to-read analytics.
Listening Automation Tools
A significant part of personal branding is paying attention to what people say online. Professionals should watch for mentions of their own name and their company's name, which can be done by setting up Google Alerts. I usually review these alerts in the morning. I also set Google Alerts for my competitors. It’s helpful to see whether a competitor has been mentioned in the news so I’m aware of what’s happening in my industry.
It’s also important to track competitor mentions and what is said about them on social media so you know what they're doing and can possibly replicate their efforts. I've found that Mention is a great tool to track all of this information.
Measuring Automated Efforts
As with any marketing strategy, it’s vital to measure the results of your automated personal branding efforts. Professionals can measure automation results by calculating the increase of mentions and the conversion rates — how many of their audience members took a desired action, such as filling out a contact form — on their personal websites.
Most automation tools have analytical features, which can make it easy to see how well a personal branding effort is working. Mailchimp, for example, reports on email open rates and what people clicked on. On Facebook, users can see which posts received clicks, among other important data. With Google Analytics, you can see where website traffic came from as well as get conversion reports.
I believe that personal branding will only increase in importance, as more and more customers want to hear from the person behind the brand rather than the brand itself. Personal branding campaigns can lead to more sales for the company, as well as a better online reputation. When you're building your personal brand, consider using automation tools to save time and resources and help you create a strong voice online.
