1.4. Building a Personal Brand and Online Authority

Even before you consider starting a business online, you should start growing your personal social media profiles. This is a task you should start doing today. If you don’t already have personal profiles on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Linkedin, create them now and get engaged. If you don’t want to use your real name use a pen name and stop having excuses.

Your long-term personal presence in the social media is important for several reasons:

1. The activity of other people may give you excellent ideas for a business or to refine you own.
2. You can engage with other people that may become your future business partners, customers, consultants or employees.
3. You can establish authority in your field of expertise or in the field of your future business.
4. You can build a list of loyal followers ready to like/share/buy/advocate your (future) products or services.
5. You could start businesses and fail but your personal profiles will stay with you for a lifetime and they will be there for any business project you start or any now product you offer.

Creating several personal profiles on targeted social media and not being active is not enough. You should be engaged in the community by creating quality posts, sharing other peoples’ posts, liking, commenting and engaging in meaningful conversations. It is important to appear relevant, present, knowledgeable and helpful for the community, especially for your followers (or friends) regarding your expertise or in the field of your planed business. Maybe this is not the only way, but is the best way to grow your followers’ base, make them loyal and build your online authority on a long run.

Social networks to consider for building your personal brand and authority:

Facebook

Besides most popular, this network is probably the most personal too since it is used to stay in touch with friends and family. The friends and family should be the first and the most eager to share and advocate your (future) business activities and products. That’s why a personal presence here is a good idea for everyone who wants to start a business. Besides engaging your friends and family you can also utilize Facebook to build wider audience of followers based on your activity (posting, sharing, commenting) it the area of your expertise or planed future business. The Facebook groups are also excellent place where you can engage in a meaningful way when building your online authority or sharing your business ideas. (Creating a Facebook page for your business is something we will discus later).

Twitter

Twitter is the most open network of all. Twitter is all about engagement and communication and its mostly done publicly in front of wide audience. Therefore, personal profiles here work better than business  profiles. Here you can connect and engage with influencers and potential customers too, so you can learn from them but also build your reputation on a long run. If you focus your activities (tweets, retweets, commenting and following) on specific topic/industry you will eventually build large base of followers ready to consume and advocate your ideas and products.    

Linkedin

Linkedin is a network for professionals who are looking to expand their business and/or employment opportunities. If you are considering to start a business that addresses to other businesses (B2B) this network is a must. In some cases, Linedin can help even businesses who deal with the end consumers (B2C) since all professionals are humans first, and have problems, desires and needs. Take for example the stress they have.  Anyway, create a profile here if you want to connect with experienced businessman, share and find ideas and get valuable insights in any industry.

Pinterest
More than two-thirds all users on Pinterest are women, especially moms. If you are considering to target woman with your business idea than this network is a must. Most popular topics on Pinterest include: cooking, fashion, nutrition, fitness, weddings and so on. The male target group should also not be forgotten since other popular topics induce: man’s fashion, home improvements, home decor, crafts, woodworking, landscaping, gardening etc. While growing your personal presence on PInterest you can explore new ideas, see what works the best and join some group boards where you can reach your targeted audience very fast after you start your business.

Instagram

Instagram is the second largest social network right after Facebook. It seems that Instagram is reserved for the most popular brands and the so called influencers. Building a popular profile on Instagram can be challenging since you constantly need appealing photos in order to attract wider audience. Other problem with Instagram, when planning to start a business online,  is that you can’t attract visitors to your website  (with links) unless you pay for advertisement. If you have spare time and capability to constantly create appealing images try this network too.

Other social networks you could explore before starting your business are: Youtube, Redit, Quora and Tumpler.

Being active in the social media in a fruitful way is a hard work. Therefore, you should focus on one, two or the most on three different social media. This will depend on your personal preferences, your (future) business type and your target audience. You can also use some tools that will ease and automate your continuous posting on several social media, but being present and personal is an important aspect when building your personal brand.

Promoting your business (Step 6) is one of the hardest tasks for every new online (or offline) business. Authoritative personal profiles on relevant social media with substantial amount of (loyal) followers can ease spreading the word about your business and products. Such personal profiles can be an excellent starting point for your future business.