Enhance Your Online Presence

As a business leader or service professional, one of the most lucrative skills you can develop is balancing your brand across your online accounts. On your professional social media, this means providing information about your business’s mission and values while also offering a glimpse into who you are as an individual. And on the personal side, it involves sharing family updates and staying abreast of relevant news while also promoting your professional activities to your followers.

To utilize social media in your work and personal spheres more effectively, formulate a plan for maximizing the content on each. Use the following guide to help you better determine what constitutes a professional post, what to reserve for your personal account, and what you can comfortably share on both.

Strategize your professional profile

If you haven’t done so already, create a distinct business account on all major platforms, including TikTok and Instagram. Note, however, that you can’t simply pop your doors open on social media. When setting up a professional Instagram account, for example, you must access the site’s settings and define your profile as a business page before you can start posting.

But navigating these steps is more than just cutting through the red tape. Making a business Instagram profile grants you access to professional services like ad builders, detailed analytics, and data about trending hashtags. Using tools such as these on the various platforms can help you broadcast your business accounts to your target consumers and make lead conversion a breeze.

Once you have your accounts set up, you can begin posting optimal, industry-relevant content. Implement these strategies to ensure you position yourself as the expert customers should turn to.

Apply the 3 Es

Professional social media is a key tool for directing the public down the lead funnel, so your accounts should primarily feature content your audience may want to engage with. To accelerate growth, focus on posts that incorporate the three Es of good marketing: education, entertainment, and endearment.

• Educational: A real estate agent shares links to the latest data on local market activity.
• Entertaining: A financial professional posts a video touring their office and introducing their colleagues with a fun icebreaker.
• Endearing: A med spa owner uploads photos from their recent beach trip and explains the health benefits of moderate sun exposure.

Posting these types of content on dedicated business pages can boost your appeal to visitors and drive user interaction.

Filter personal content

For the most part, you should streamline your professional accounts to appeal to your target consumers’ wants and needs. An individual interested in your services would likely find it irritating to have to scroll through excessive posts about your personal life to find ones that pertain to them.

However, you may still want to include some content from your personal accounts on your business ones. People don’t necessarily connect with facts and figures but with individuals. So if you can build a virtual bond with leads who organically scroll through your professional accounts, you may potentially land new clients. Did you attend an annual event like an art festival in your town? Did you recently take a scenic hike with your partner? Share this personal content with your professional audience to endear yourself to them.

Establish your brand identity

As strategic business advisor Bernard Marr writes in Forbes, “Personal branding means taking control of your online reputation and shaping it so people see you in the way you want to be seen.” When you post daily—yes, daily—always remember to keep branding in mind. Every post on your professional accounts should help curate the unique story of what you do, how you assist people, and what defines your company culture. This goes for subject matter from your personal accounts as well: only borrow posts that suit your professional brand. For example, a wellness spa owner might share instances of them living a healthy, active life with a positive mindset. Reposting this content on their business profiles can appeal to potential leads and get them within striking distance of signing a deal.

Optimize personal pages

After work, you can dive into the refuge of your personal accounts to follow your friends, entertainment, memes, and any other content that satiates you in your downtime. Unlike your business accounts, these pages are where you can be yourself. This doesn’t mean, though, that they are completely exempt from professional promotion. Follow these tips to maximize your casual accounts for business purposes, even when you’re posting off the clock.

Mind your manners

First of all, don’t go too wild. Because your clients may hop over to your personal social media, you should avoid posting content that is overtly lewd, offensive, or politically polarizing. Existing patrons and leads who locate these posts may develop a negative view of you—and, therefore, of your professional services.

Mine your personal network

While you could always play it safe by making your personal accounts private, doing so would mean losing out on followers of your professional accounts who may take interest in your nonwork life as well. If your personal profiles include humorous posts, images of you living an exciting lifestyle, and other entertaining content, you may organically gain a larger following there. So it may serve you to link to your personal accounts in your business pages, and vice versa, to potentially increase your following on all.

This will also position you to easily promote your professional services within a large social circle. Remember, networking isn’t just a workplace activity; in fact, the most impactful lead conversion may occur within your extended family, friend groups, and other personal contacts. Share major business updates on your personal accounts—if you expanded to a new storefront or have taken on new staff, for example. Just make sure to limit yourself to making occasional updates, such as once every Sunday, or only releasing major news that your casual contacts will appreciate.

Working in harmony

Armed with these tactics, you can boost engagement with consumers in both spheres of your life: your professional and personal worlds. Though you may maintain separate social media accounts for each, they ultimately work better when synchronized. By sharing the appropriate content across both pages, you may mine even greater benefits for your business.

TAKE ACTION:
Open dedicated professional accounts on several platforms, then assess which content will optimize your online presence.