When we talked about personal brand a few articles back, we mentioned that social media was a large part of your brand. Depending on who you ask, they might even say that it’s the most important part of your brand! It’s how you communicate with your audience, connect with new followers, and meet other people in your industry. However you look at it, social media is essential to building your brand.
In this article, we’ll be talking about how you can use social media (and Clapper) to develop your personal brand. From setting up your profile to opening a Shop, we’ll show you how to stand out and make your social media the ultimate branding tool. But first, a refresher.
What is a Personal Brand? 🤔
Simply put, your personal brand is how you present yourself on social media. Your entire digital presence is your brand. It’s a more distilled, but still authentic, version of yourself. Everything from your business cards and profile picture to your content and how you communicate with fans is part of your personal brand. It might sound a little overwhelming, but think of it like one big art project. You’re taking everything you love and using it to paint a cohesive picture of who you are and what your content is.
Building Your Personal Brand 🛠️
Social media is an incredible branding tool for a couple of reasons. One, it’s customizable, allowing you to create a corner of the internet that best represents you. Two, it easily pushes out your content to be seen by millions of people. And three, it’s an easy way to show off your skills and establish some credibility.
Step One: Your Profile 🪪
Using social media to build your personal brand starts with your profile. Your content is an important piece, and we’ll get to it in a little bit, but your profile is a snapshot of who you are. If you’re looking for an easy place to start, auditing and updating your profile is great!
Profile Picture 🖼️
Take a good look at your profile picture. Does it give off the “energy” you want it to? If you make educational content, you may want something more professional, like a headshot. If you’re a lifestyle creator hoping to be the next big influencer, use a cute selfie that captures your “vibe”. It’s important to pick a profile picture that represents you and your content. Whatever represents you and your content the best is what you should go with. Consider your profile picture your first impression: you want to make it a good one!
Your Bio 📰
In your bio, you have up to 150 characters to tell viewers about you and your content. You can list your interests and niches, write a catchphrase you use often, or summarize your content. Something like “Here to help Creators & Businesses succeed on Clapper” and “Educational content creator” would both work; just find the one that’s right for you.
Clapper Exclusive: Profile Tags ⭐
On Clapper, you can add up to 20 customizable Profile Tags to your profile. These tags can represent the kinds of content you create, what you’re passionate about, or communities you’re part of. Instead of summarizing yourself and your content in under 150 characters, you can tell your audience about everything you’re into.
Step Two: Your Content
Videos 🎥
The content you create is probably the most important piece of your personal brand. It’s what people are most likely to see and interact with. You want to make sure that the content you’re creating is a representation of you. If you’re an author trying to sell your books, you’ll want your content to mostly focus on your books and their content. A fantasy author could introduce a new series where they talk about different fantasy creatures, or a mystery author could talk about unsolved mysteries.
While you can deviate from your usual content, we recommend mostly focusing on your niche. When people come ot your profile looking for whatever you’ve branded yourself as, you want it to be front and center, easy for them to find, and consistent. This is especially true for creators looking to educate or sell a service.
Style ✂️
The videos you create are important, but don’t forget to consider how they look. You don’t need a fancy editor to add your personal brand to your videos. Your personal brand could be anything from the sounds and music you use to the filters you apply. What are the hallmarks of how your videos look, sound, or feel? Maybe there’s a catchphrase you open your video with, or a specific background people expect.
If you don’t have anything consistent yet, don’t force them. They’ll develop naturally if you let them! Start with the types of sounds and editing you do on your videos. You can also create a new series to establish your brand. And no matter your brand, your niche, or how long you’ve been on socials, it’s a smart idea to create your own hashtag! This can be your name, the name of your series, or even that fun catchphrase you started using.
Livestreams or Radios 🎙️
Start hosting a regular Livestream or Radio to connect with your audience! Make it something related to your niche and give it a fun name. A makeup creator could do fun makeup on Fridays, an educational content creator could give a mini lesson during the week, and a chef could workshop some recipes. This further establishes your brand and helps you connect with your audience. Plus, the new format will help you connect with different kinds of viewers.
Clapper Exclusive: Paid Multi Live 💸
Does your personal brand involve giving advice, answering questions, or somehow teaching people? Try a Paid Multi Live! With Paid Multi Live, creators can pay an entry fee to be brought onto your Livestream. You determine whether they can just come up and ask questions, or if there’ll be more interaction. If you’re a witchy creator looking to do more tarot readings or a health and wellness creator wanting to share some healthy food ideas, a Paid Multi Live could be a great option for you!
For more information on Paid Multi Lives (also called Spotlights), check out this video.
Clapper Exclusives ⭐
Clapper isn’t the only social media platform you can use to build your brand – far from it! But there are a few features that make it an ideal place to start.
Group Chats 💬
On Clapper, you can create up to ten Group chats on your profile! To help solidify your brand, we recommend creating at least one Group chat and giving it a fun name. How could it tie into your niche, your content, or your fun catchphrase?
A Group chat might not seem like a personal brand necessity, but it’s more useful than you think! A Group chat allows you to connect with followers in real time, whenever you want. You can share exclusive tips and tricks, share sneak peeks of your latest videos, and get their feedback on what you should create next. If your chat is engaging enough, you may have some followers whose first encounter with you is your Group chat.
Shop 🛒
This one is a little advanced, but still a great option for established creators! We recommend opening a Clapper Shop and selling products you create. These could be digital products for followers to use, stickers and t-shirts from your merch line, and even art that you create in your content! You can open a Shop on your very first day, without dealing with any fees. So you can set up a Shop and slowly add items to it as you grow your personal brand.
Why So Many Things? 🫨
For one, we want to give you a wide variety of things to do to best match your style, content, and interests. For another, a personal brand is all about positioning yourself in as many places as possible. You want other creators to be able to easily find and connect with you.
Now, do you have to do everything we list here? No! Some creators are interested in going Live, and others wouldn’t know what to sell in an online store. Personal brand is still personal; you can customize it to suit your needs and your interests.
Do I Need to Be On Every Platform? 📳
Not necessarily! While we do recommend creating an account to claim your username, you don’t have to create content on every social media platform. Pick one or two that best suit your content and your audience and focus on them. Once you’re comfortable managing a few platforms, you can start expanding. But don’t think you have to dive in and start trying to create on every platform right away. As long as you have your username, you’re good to go!
Need a crash course in personal branding? Check out this article on building your brand! For those of you wanting to expand your brand and post on other platforms, check out this article.
The Clapper app is a short-form video and Livestream app for creators 17+. Our goal is to give creators a platform to build communities and express themselves freely without judgment and censorship. To learn more, download the app or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.