WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING?

Branding isn’t just about having a logo and a pretty Facebook cover. 
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Branding is who you are to the core of your being. It includes things like the tone of your social media posts, what you talk about in them, the photos you take, the things you talk about and the things that people associate you with, the people you are trying to reach with your posts and so much more...

I am all about attraction marketing. If you’re not familiar with it - it’s about curating your social media posts around your life, your ‘brand’. We want to show up online and get people to know, like, and trust us. This is how we build relationships online. This is how we attract people to our business… by not posting about our business ALL THE TIME. You will not be for everyone - and that is okay. You don’t want to try to be for everyone or you will LOSE yourself. Stay in the lanes you’ve made for yourself! You will attract the right people to you. 

People don’t go on Facebook or Instagram to purchase things. People go on social media to be entertained and to find out information. Entertainment can include anything from reading inspiring stories (about you), looking for funny memes (about things you love, like makeup and skincare), to watching videos whether they are live or prerecorded (like makeup lives). They’re also seeking out information! What’s the best shampoo, what are people recommending? Who had the best dress at the Oscars? 

The point of having a brand is to make your posts entertaining, inspiring and valuable so that people get to know you, in turn, liking you, then trusting you. That way, once you recommend a product to them, they will TRUST your judgment as they already see you as an expert in what you do from your informational, valuable and entertaining posts. There is a huge difference between only posting products on your newsfeed or posting related content about YOU (nobody really cares unless they care about YOU!) 

So what is your PERSONAL BRAND? What makes up the parts of your life. What are the 4 - 5 things that you can be real about, things that people will relate to, things that people will love that you’re sharing. You will not be for everyone - and that is okay. You don’t want to try to be for everyone or you will LOSE yourself. Stay in the lanes you’ve made for yourself! You will attract the right people to you. 

Family, hobbies, collections, fashion… ANYTHING.

Do you love and drink gourmet coffee… show us what you got, what do you think is the best coffee so far, what is your favorite, what are you reading while you’re drinking your coffee, show me your favorite mug, tell me where you got it. Did you get a new mug? Show it to us! Post a coffee meme. Show me what you look like before you have your coffee in the morning, and then post an after when you’re all done getting ready for the day and after your coffee! Post another coffee meme. Or even a quote! People LOVE quotes. Where did you get that one? What travel mug do you recommend to keep your coffee hot? 

There is everything in there from valuable information, recommendations, and entertainment!
PEOPLE WILL LOVE SEEING YOUR STUFF!!

So this is NETWORK marketing. Where does NETWORKING come in? It’s all fine and nice to be posting to the same crowd of friends online. Most of the people you already know probably won’t make a purchase from you. AND THAT’S SO FINE!! You want to meet new people, create relationships with them and let them decide if what you have to offer is for them. So many people struggle with expanding their network because they either don’t know how and they feel uncomfortable and FEAR new conversations, or they are approaching the relationship in the wrong way. This goes back to cold messaging. If you add a new friend to Facebook, you don’t immediately message them and tell them “Hey girl, you’d be so good at what I do. Do you want to know more?” I’ve had this message sent to me SO OFTEN and it’s such a turn-off. Most of the time it was for something I already knew about or had someone to purchase from, but they would have known that had they wanted to have a conversation with me first. 

Start by joining groups on Facebook about things you love. Join that gourmet coffee group. Make posts, comment on people's posts. Make some friends and add them! They WILL LOVE YOUR COFFEE POSTS ON YOUR WALL! You’ll connect and create that relationship. They’ll see your occasional post about Farmasi and a few things will happen:
They keep watching these posts and do not say anything
They’ll be curious and you’ll get to talk about it with them and why it’s great and how much you love it.

Ultimately, it’s important to post often, be consistent, and be intentional about what you’re posting. Having a personal brand laid out that you can refer back to for post ideas will help you stay consistent while still being engaging, fun, and informative with your audience and community. Whichever social media platform you choose to use, you should be posting as well as engaging with others. You don’t want to be one-sided. JUST posting isn’t enough. 

Set aside time every day to be intentional about what you post online, and where you are spending your time online. This is great practice for setting time aside to WORK YOUR BUSINESS EVERY DAY! (posting, going live, putting content in your stories etc.)

Figure out what YOUR brand is and make a content plan from there. Need help? Ask your audience what they know you for and start from there! Someone should be able to scroll through your feed and know exactly what kind of things you are about.

xoxo Christina