At the beginning of 2019, I made a decision to finally get serious about my dream to be a bestselling author. In order to be a bestselling author in the 21st century, you first have to create a personal brand, or author platform, before you can even think of signing with a literary agent. I launched my author platform on January 1st, 2019, putting the majority of my effort into a writing instagram account, @author_angela_anne . Despite not being tech savvy, I grew this account to over 1,000 followers in three months without asking a single real-life friend to follow.
Here are the tips I used, and you can to, to develop your personal brand online:
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Discover Your Niche
The difference between a professional instagram and a personal one is that your professional social media targets a specific audience instead of friends and family. Usually, personal brands are for people who want to be entrepreneurs, writers, personal trainers, photographers, artists, etc. If you dream of going into any creative field or creating your own business, you most likely should start developing your online personal brand NOW.
Business in the 21st century is competitive and people tend to buy products and services from those that they know online. A personal brand IS a way to tell the world who you are and what products and services you offer.
Once you decide on your niche, or category of personal brand (example: fitness, travel, etc.), create SEPERATE social media accounts for that niche. My niche, for example, is writing. Your niche should be clear across the content you post, who you follow, and your username and bio. Don’t give potential followers any reason to doubt your niche!
Caption: Writing Niche Appropriate vs Not Writing Niche Appropriate
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Cultivate Your Aesthetic
Once you have decided on the content you do and don’t post, it’s time to cultivate an aesthetic. Your aesthetic should be based on a color scheme, narrative, and overall image.
For example, the color scheme for my personal brand is a light blue, salmon pink, and a burlap tan.
For my overall narrative, I create content to inspire others to finish their novels or other creative projects. The focus of my narrative is based around helping my audience live their happiest, healthiest, and most creative lives.
The image I want to project is I’m a creative professional. Image relates greatly back to what type of content you decide to post. A picture of me on St. Patrick’s Day with my friends? Not the image of a creative professional. A picture of me writing in a coffee shop? Hello, creative professional!
A good exercise to create your aesthetic is to think of four phrases that describe your personal brand. For me, it’s authentic, positive, writing-related, and creative living.
Once you develop your aesthetic, write down all the aspects related to it–colors, filters, hashtags, etc. and STICK to your aesthetic.
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Preplan your content so you always have something to post
Speaking of sticking to things, a huge part of a personal brand is consistency. If you want to have engaged followers, you need to be consistent with your posting schedule.
A good rule is to post 3-5 times a week on Instagram and then expand to other platforms once you have that down. For example, right now my posting schedule is three Instagram posts on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and daily IG story updates.
Once you have developed your posting routine, keep yourself accountable by preplanning content. A good app to schedule Instagram posts and captions ahead of time is Preview. Using Preview, I have my photos prescheduled all the way through July (although I add the captions closer to the publication date so they’re relevant). If your content is ready to go at least a month ahead of time, it’s easier to post consistently.
A personal brand is created through developing a strong aesthetic, creating niche-appropriate content, and staying consistent. While it takes more effort than you may first think, it’s an important step towards achieving your professional goals and dreams! If you want people to support your passions or business, you first have to develop a following that is listening to your story.