It seems like in this day and age, everyone wants to build an online presence. Last August 1 and 2, we got to absorb wisdom from social media and branding experts at the Philippine Social Media Week. The two-day affair gave us a lot of insight as to how regular people could build their brand and make a name for themselves on social media. Whether if it’s for your company or yourself, here are some tips that will guide you towards success in the online sphere:
Photo by Eaters Collective | Unsplash
6. Pick a Platform and Stick With It
When you’re starting out with your social media venture, you don’t have to do everything all at once. You might see online brands and influencers having more than a handful of social media accounts and that’s totally fine, but if you’re just starting out, you can stick with one or two and build your audience from there.
5. Know Your Audience
Now that you’ve established some sort of home base online, you need to figure out what kind of people are drawn to your work. An audience is different for each individual. You might be a graphic artist, a film critic, or a photographer. All of these have different target audiences. If you learn which kinds of people are drawn to you, you’ll be able to learn which content they would prefer. In the end, building a relationship with your audience is key.
4. Learn From Your Peers
It’s so easy to read posts online that claim to tell you how to do things but observing your peers is one of the best things you can do. I’m not saying to copy anybody, but learn how they do things and apply it with your own twist. If you’re someone who is running a fashion blog, perhaps check out how top fashion bloggers do their thing and take notes. It won’t hurt to learn from established people. Eventually, you’ll develop your own methods!
Photo by Marvin Meyer | Unsplash
3. Localize
Let’s take that example of being a fashion blogger here too. If you’re a blogger based in Manila, it would help you to reach out to your immediate audience which would be Filipinos. You can even hyper-localize and target Manileños. This makes you not only relevant to people in that particular locale but also relatable.
2. Make Sure What You’re Producing Has Value
If you’re doing something just because of money and fame then you won’t get that far. One of the things we learned during PSMW is that producing content that is valuable to other people would lead you to success. Being passionate about your craft, whether it be entertaining or enriching, could take you far in this road to success. On the flip side, posting things that aren’t necessarily of value to your audience would lead you nowhere.
1. Be Authentic
Audiences are smarter these days. They can see right through BS a lot of ‘influencers’ are throwing their ‘fans’. When a person is being inauthentic, it disconnects them from their audience and thus makes them irrelevant. They’ll hit that unfollow button in 0.5 seconds! Being yourself is the best thing you can do for your personal brand. Stop trying to curate every little thing on your social media accounts and show your audience that you’re a real person who they could connect with.
While I can’t tell you specifically how to run your show, I hope these tips help you become a well-rounded person of influence! Just remember that, as with anything, getting into this whole social media thing is full of trial and error and it’s constantly evolving. Talk to the people who are consuming your content and learn from them. If you fail at something, pick yourself back up and learn from that, too. If you believe in what you’re doing, you should never give up on it.
[ALSO READ: Is Social Media Changing How Pinoys View Art?]
Do you have dreams of becoming an influencer? Share your story with us!
