Companies have long devoted enormous amounts of energy and dollars into creating their brand, those qualities that people will associate with their name. With the advent of social media, each of us now have those exact same capabilities but this time it is for ourselves. We all have a product to sell and a brand to market and that brand is … BRAND YOU.

Brands are funny. The feelings that a brand name can evoke range from the good to the bad and from the serious to the whimsical. When I hear the name “General Motors”, my thoughts turn to “My wife’s Saturn is a p.o.s.”. My wife associates “Budweiser” with Clydesdales. Google may have its detractors but, I associate that name with “easy integration”. The real question is … what does your brand say about you?

What do you want to be known for?

Before we get started, we need to step back to the #1 rule of social media:

“Social media will not make you something that you are not. It merely amplifies that which you already are”

In other words, you already have some sort of a brand. All we are doing is polishing it up and promoting it. However, if your existing brand stinks … stop reading now and consider what you will need to do about that before going any further. Seriously. Promoting a bad brand on social media is akin to shooting yourself in the head.

Where do you get started?

Start with your profiles on the social networks and, if you are B2B, you need to begin with your LinkedIn headline (that area directly below your name). There are probably three schools of thought on what your headline should convey …

Your title and company name
Your skills
The value and services that you bring to others

Some people will choose a combination of the three (within the 120 character limitation). LinkedIn will even show you examples and/or take you to a search where you can look at headlines that are being used by other professionals within your industry.

There are two things that you should know about your headline …

Words found in your headline are searchable by LinkedIn’s search engine.
Your headline follows your name around in a number of different areas of LinkedIn including groups and email notifications and group digests.

These things being true, your brand (via your headline) is making the rounds on LinkedIn and is doing so repeatedly. This creates a “top of mind” effect where people will associate your brand with your headline.

Your headline is also the first thing that people will look at when they are considering extending you an invitation to connect, thinking about accepting your invitation to connect, or they are looking for someone who offers your products or services so … make it good and make it count! Also pay attention to your photo. You dressed as Wonder Woman may play well on Facebook but, not on LinkedIn.

Most of these rules will hold true with your other social networks. Repeat this same branding exercise with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any other appropriate network.

What else should you be doing?

I would suggest that, if you are not already doing this, you really need to consider starting a blog. A blog is your absolute best way (IMHO) to establish and display your brand and its values. The best news is, it is quite easy to do and there are several free options out there …

WordPress.com
Blogger
Tumblr

This site is built on WordPress.org which is also a free service but, you will need to purchase a domain name and pay to have your blog hosted and both should cost you less than $75.00 per year. Some people even label their sites with their own names i.e., craigmjamieson.com.

Not only can you display your brand, and your expertise, on your blog, people will also arrive there on all their own. It is the gift that keeps on giving even when you are away!

How do you promote your brand?

Before you start promoting your brand, please be sure that you are living it. It’s great to tell folks all these wonderful things about yourself but, if you are not prepared to back those claims up with verifiable actions then, well, you can come to your own conclusions about that.

Of course, social media is one of the key areas that we can promote our brand and that should be done on the networks that are appropriate and that are frequented by your target market. Let’s look at both elements of this statement …

Appropriate – What works on Facebook does not necessarily work on LinkedIn and vice versa. Facebook has a much more personal feel and business updates should be limited to 20% or less. The opposite is true for LinkedIn.
Target market – There is little use, at least from a business standpoint, for you to invest your valuable time and resources on social networks that are not being frequented by your target market (people who either will buy from you, refer you to others, or will provide you with some other perceived business benefit).

In terms of what to share on the social networks, while at the same time promoting your brand, consider these suggested rules …

I am 100%, in my DNA, a B2B salesperson yet, I do very little actual selling on the social networks. I prefer to position myself as someone who can provide good information, regardless of who has created it, that is related to my field of expertise. I become a resource for my clients and my prospective clients.
Remember that social media is the law of attractions vs. interruption. We draw others to us as opposed to knocking them over the head with a club..
Promote others before yourself. Would you rather hang with somebody who does nothing except talk about himself or with somebody who shares with you what a valuable connection Fred would be?
If you are sharing your brand, your field of expertise, on the social networks … is your brand message on target? In other words, my brand is social selling, If I post updates on quilting, what does that say about my brand? Not much. It’s a waste of time, a waste of real estate, and it creates confusion regarding my message.

How will I know if it is working?

If you are ready to get started, then get started today. Take the time needed to get it right. Feel free to experiment and then gauge the results and, in order to do that, you will first want to establish some benchmarks. We’ll use LinkedIn. Go to your LinkedIn home page (image below) write down the following:

How many connections do you have?
How many people have viewed your profile is the past 30 days (with a free LinkedIn account you may be limited to the last 7 days)?
How often has your profile turned up in search and what keywords were used?
How many people are viewing your updates and what updates are being viewed the most?

Now, start your new branding program and check these numbers again in 30 days. You should see improvements in each area and these improvements should actually increase (as a percentage increase) as time goes on. If your numbers are going down, or even if they are flat, you have some work to do so get to it! Good luck and good hunting!

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!