Branding yourself is important no matter what industry you are competing in. The better you brand yourself or your business, the more sustainability you will have. In other words, the stronger your brand, the more you value it holds. Always focus on learning how to add value to your brand.
Branding Yourself with Social media
There is an ever increasing challenge to maintain a strong brand presence in the marketplace. Sales, marketing, and advertising expertise is highly needed, especially in the entertainment industry. In addition, social media has become popular for big and small businesses and advertisers as well. Many social media consultant firms such as
Bamconcepts LLC have emerged to assist businesses and individuals with strategic branding and sales tactics to outpace their competition. Even if you do not have the budget to pay a firm to handle your social media accounts, always make sure that your posts and interactions online correspond with the brand identity you wish to uphold. Many people make social media mistakes that could elicit an adverse effect on your brand. Many artists, Dj's, and actors hire publicists or managers to assist with consultation once they make it tt a certain point in their career.
Branding Yourself on Instagram
Instagram is becoming one of the most popular social media platforms for sharing pictures and videos. Similar to Facebook (who actually purchased Instagram), advertisers are now able to pay for sponsored ads to pop up on the pages (timeline) of regular instagramers. Your timeline should reflect a positive brand for you to be able to get the optimum usage for this tool. As mentioned earlier, many errors are made often when users post content to social media.
A simple mistake that is made is when users do not post enough content. Posting content keeps your page and your brand relevant, and it increases overall traffic to your site. Think of your page as your own tv station. Give the viewers something to constantly tune in to. This is how loyal followers take part in your journey. On a flip side, posting too much content can be overwhelming to your viewers. You never want to feel like your spamming your audience with your mixtape single, or new blog site you want everyone to tune into.
Another obvious "no no" is posting irrelevant or inappropriate content. Although you are free to post whatever you like most of the times, try to narrow your post to give viewers only what they need to see in order to maintain a positive brand image. "An example would be if you were to be building your brand as celebrity fashion stylist / blogger. Post positive content relating to your love for the art, style, and culture. Its nothing wrong with revealing positive or motivating events in your life. On the flip, as a fashion blogger, it may not be wise to post
ILP Video fight to your Instagram page. Some viewers may not mind, however some of the followers that viewed your brand as positive and no nonsense may see that as unprofessional". This should also be considered before you post a negative remark about somebody, or before you engage in any form of social media conflicts. Again on the flip side, if you are an entertainer such as
Gucci Mane Laflare, and you are trying to maintain a brand as a "Goon" or "bully" you may feel that this is apart of your brand and thus engage in these types of acts.
Tips To Improve Your Brand on Instagram
1. Post only nice pictures. Sometimes we get caught up in rushing to take spur of the moment pictures and post non quality photos. Do not do this! Quantity over quantity, even if it is the president of the County. Also, take pictures that tell stories. One artist that follows this rule is
Lil Thony from Atlanta, Ga.
2. Post consistently, but do not overdue it. I recommend 5 posts per day. This is enough to entertain, but not flood your fans. You never want to look like a salesman or spammer. Some individuals such as
TBABY Queen of mean Nuradio Station, and
Dj Tokars (Mayor of The Streets) actually get paid to post content, and thus is required to post more than the average user, however I would not recommend this to the average user.
3. Use apps to create better photos. Apps such as photogrid, and flipagram are great for enhancing the moment. Dont be afraid to try using filters when posting pictures. Images are HUGE when it comes to branding. Before you post a pic, crop the photos, add text, add music, and do whatever necessary to maximize your post. Compare your profile page to that of someone you admire in your industry and adjust accordingly. I encourage musicians to get creative and use music, or video promos when releasing new music.
4. For videos, I suggest cropping to get the fit you desire. I also encourage using widescreen mode for promotion. Sometimes, it even helps to crop your videos and images so that you can have white or colored borders surrounding your pictures. Especially used by publicist and brand strategist, sometimes having white space between your posts makes your timeline look less saturated. Although your page will show one post at a time, once you have built a collage look at your entire page as a whole and find a way to improve.
5. Make great use of hashtags. When you post a picture or video, use relevant hashtags to attract new followers of similar interests and backgrounds. For instance, if you are an artist, use hashtags such as (singlerelease, musicvideo,
mtv,
xxl,
sohhdotcom, atlanticrecords) to attract more visitors to view your profile. Copy and paste other users hashtags to simplify this process.
Summary
Overall, branding is an every day challenge for every business. No one is perfect, so there are always new tools and resources available to help us improve. Consider the image you wish to maintain when branding yourself. Most of you all have to be your own publicist, so always be brand conscience. Remember that your brand influences business traffic, and the value of your product or service. Companies such as
Defient Ent,
Bamconcepts LLC, and
J Dubs Production are here to assist with branding needs.
