Brand building takes time.  Whatever you may have been told, there aren’t short cuts.  It takes a lot of effort and getting in front of people again and again.  However, things are a little different when brand building using social media…

Time and effort are still very much required, but unlike traditional branding where you’re simply broadcasting your brand into the world, social media branding is of course much more interactive, with you starting out as a follower, then becoming part of the conversation, and finally graduating to thought leader where others closely follow you, and refer others to you as you’re considered an expert in your market.  Here’s the process involved:

Step 1: Claim Your Accounts

If you don’t already have all the social accounts required, the main ones being of course Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook, and many lesser and also more niche specific accounts like Pinterest, then claim them.

If you can’t get exactly the account name you want as someone else has already taken it, a bit of creative thinking may be required to get a Twitter account with a great name, for example.

And there’s hundreds of potential social platforms for you to claim your accounts on, and of course you’re not going to develop all of them.  But securing your name on each one and filling out your details, can be a laborious process but worth doing just to protect your brand in the future.

Step 2: Start as a Follower

You’ll start your business life on social media as a follower.  You’ll follow the most prominent accounts in your market, see what they’re saying, see how people are interacting with them, see what the hot topics, and also evergreen topics are in your market, so you really start immersing yourself in the conversation that’s happening in your market, but not quite yet making yourself part of that conversation.

Step 3: Become Part of the Conversation

Once you’ve been a follower for a while, really understand what’s being talked about in your market, and can offer value by becoming part of the conversation, then it’s time to start interacting.  Perhaps answer questions, give your opinions, publish and share great content.

The more prolific the better, but you must offer real value at every step and show yourself to be the expert that you are by really helping people, without asking anything in return.  In time, people will come to think of you as an expert in your market, and that’s where you become…

Step 4: A Thought Leader

When others in your market closely follow what you say, share what you say, and recommend to others that they follow you and pay particular attention to your content, you’ll be considered an expert in your field.  And that level of prominence and credibility has really made you a brand in your market, and can generate huge amounts of incoming business for you.

So it’s vital to have realistic expectations about how long it takes to brand yourself through social media, and the amount of work involved, but by really embedding yourself into your market, and over time becoming considered a leader, the financial rewards for you and your business can be considerable.