In an industry like PR, where perception is often everything, it’s surprising how many of us put all our energy into perfecting our client’s social media accounts, while severely neglecting our own. Talk about a missed opportunity! Your online presence is your cover letter to the world, stating who you are as a business professional and why someone should hire or work with you.
If you’ve been lagging on getting your digital brand in order, it’s time to set aside some time to kick things into gear – who knows how many employment, client and partner opportunities are passing you by simply because your social media presence looks more like laundry day than the biggest presentation of your career (which it kind of is, every single day).
Here’s how you can give your personal brand a boost through social media and achieve your career goals.
It’s basic branding and advice you would provide to any client, but having a cohesive, branded social media presence starts with some branding basics, colors, fonts, tone – it’s all important.
To get into the groove, assign three colors as your signature brand colors. As fashion & lifestyle communicators, choosing a color palette can feel limiting, but a great way to help you decide is to learn a bit about color theory. Color theory will explain the meaning, mood, and even industries that certain colors evoke. Another way to see which colors are great for your brand is by researching your favorite brands, PR companies and influencers to see the color schemes they have chosen.
It’s important to choose colors that fit you, so that your image is consistent, clear, on-trend and not like everyone else. In fashion PR this means stepping away from black and pink. Pinterest has great inspiration for color themes, just search a favorite color + palette or scheme to get started.
For pretty much every social media platform, you need a profile and header image, and then you need to incorporate visuals for post content. You know how important design skills are becoming for publicists, but even if you don’t have time for a crash course in Adobe, you should be able to put together a series of design templates (or have a designer create some for you) that you can use to promote recurring types of content.
As a bonus, the days of using an expensive program like Photoshop to put some text on an image are over. I recommend using Canva, which allows you to create your own images based on social media sizing, from scratch or by using a handy template as a guide. There are a tons of fonts, designs and colors to choose from that are simple, yet sleek and professional. No one will know you didn’t create your designs from scratch!
Once you have your basic branding in place, you’ll need to set aside time each day to develop and publish content that will engage your audience and reinforce your industry expertise. To make it easy, focus on daily themes and use social media management tools so that you can batch content and schedule in advance.
With a clear visual brand identity and a strong, consistent content strategy, your professionalism and personality will shine through, ensuring that anyone who interfaces with your online presence will experience your message as you intend it to be received.
