Personal Branding Mistake #58: DON'T BE A BULLY

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. Poor behavior on social media means a poor perception of your personal brand. Don’t be rude, play nice.

Your online reputation is critical to building your brand. Using inappropriate language, making rude comments or posting opinions on highly sensitive topics can hurt your brand. 35% of recruiters have rejected a candidate because of online slander. 26% of employers react negatively to overly religious posts and 18% react negatively to political posts. Keep your online presence professional and appropriate. Your brand will thank you for it.

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Personal Branding Mistake #59: YOU'RE HOGGING THE FEED

Sharing content is always encouraged. Drowning the feed in posts is not. Try to find the happy medium. If you get the sense you’re over posting chances are your intuition is right. 

While regular posting is helpful to building your brand, drowning your audience in content is not. 59% feel that over sharing on social media sites is a huge no-no. 53% of social media visitors say they dislike those who share information that they consider private. LinkedIn recommends 5 posts per week. Consider creating a posting schedule to help monitor your activity. HootSuite is a great way to distribute and monitor your posts.

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Personal Branding Mistake #60: BE MORE VISIBLE

Want people to know you’re checking them out on LinkedIn? Make sure to change your visibility settings so people can see who you are and what you’re about when you view their profile.

Make your online presence more visible by actively searching for connections and checking out their profiles. Social networking sites were created for users to see and be seen. Use the publish post and activity feature on LinkedIn to allow your audience to view your activity. 75.7% of LinkedIn users have found the “Who Viewed Your Profile” feature to be the most helpful. Make yourself more visible by using industry specific keywords in your profile. Adding keywords helps your audience find you.

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Personal Branding Mistake #61: NOT WEEDING OUT YOUR NETWORK

Keep expanding your network, but make sure it’s the right kind of network! Don’t simply establish new connections – weed out the weak and remove any unwanted connections.

The number of your connections matters only if they are relevant to your brand. While LinkedIn recommends you invite connections that you know and trust, having a network strictly made up of your closest contacts may not be enough. Most optimized LinkedIn users have between 500-999 first degree connections. Don’t make connections and build your network just for size, but do search for connections that positively impact your brand.  

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Personal Branding Mistake #62: BE MORE SNEAKY

If you’re looking into jobs or prospective clients and you don’t want either to know that you’re looking for them, make sure to switch your visibility settings to anonymous. This allows you to look at other profiles without being seen – very sneaky!

LinkedIn includes the anonymous feature for a reason. Recruiters are able to check out prospects prior to contacting them without blowing their cover. Recruiters use InMail as the primary way to contact passive candidates so make sure you regularly check InMail. Just like recruiters, if you’re checking out prospects and companies make yourself anonymous so they don’t see you coming.

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Personal Branding Mistake #63: YOU DON'T CONGRATULATE YOUR CONNECTIONS

LinkedIn notifies you when a connection lists a new job. Use proper social media manners, don’t forget to congratulate your connections and wish them the best with new endeavors.

There are many ways to engage with your audience. Congratulating connections on their accomplishments is one of them. And when you do send congrats by all means avoid generic messages. Make it personal to best support your personal brand. While LinkedIn does pre-populate message fields, take the time to personalize your message. Your connections are one of your brand’s strongest assets so make sure to recognize their updates and milestones. Don’t connect and forget.

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Personal Branding Mistake #64: THE BIGGER THE BETTER

Did you know that if you upgrade to premium LinkedIn your profile picture gets 30% larger? Greater visibility can mean more business for you and your personal brand. 

Visuals are key to maintaining a strong brand presence. The vast majority of online users are visual learners processing visuals 6,000 times faster than text. Upgrading your LinkedIn subscription increases your visibility and visitor engagement. Background and other imagery also add to engagement. So use visuals to compliment text throughout your brand profile.

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Personal Branding Mistake #65: NO LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

If you’re using InMail, focus on commonalities and try to sell a meeting or call, not your service or product. Don’t bombard LinkedIn members, ease into it and let them get to know you and your personal brand first.

InMail is an extremely effective tool for communicating and forming new connections. InMail messages have an 85% better open rate over regular email. InMail should be highly personalized and not viewed as a broadcast messaging tool. Overselling your brand and offer turns people off with this tool. Keep content personal, showcase your personality and find commonalities to discuss. Don’t overwhelm your connections with InMail, be thoughtful about both the message and the recipient.

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Personal Branding Mistake #66: GETTING SUCKED INTO THE VIRTUAL VOID

Use your social pages to connect, but try to do business in person. Go belly to belly with your network to increase the depth of your connections. Whether it’s coffee, lunch or drinks, be sure to put a face to your brand.

Connecting with fellow professionals via LinkedIn is one thing but forming meaningful relationships with your connections is another. Meeting with connections in person adds a lot to your relationship. LinkedIn members who connect outside the platform tend to be more successful than members who operate exclusively online. Take the lead to create long lasting relationships with your connections. Invite them to interesting events, coffee, lunch or drinks. Your brand will thank you for it.

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Personal Branding Mistake #67: GET GROUNDED

You want to communicate your personal brand on a spectrum of social sites but make sure you’re doing it consistently! Pick a home platform like LinkedIn for content development then turn your other pages into social media mirrors.

Each social media platform offers different ways to connect. Develop you brand on LinkedIn and mirror that content on your other social outlets. A survey conducted with 900 social media users identified consistency as one of the most important factors that determines whether people continue to follow a person or brand on social media.

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Personal Branding Mistake #68: FINDING YOUR SOCIAL SWEET SPOT

You already know not to post too much professional content. So how should you post? When you’re building posts think value-oriented content. This mindset fosters new relationships and gets to the heart of you and your personal brand.

The content you post online should be brand driven. Post interesting content that supports your brand promise and story. Try to post content that evokes awe. According to LinkedIn, out of the top 10,000 shared articles and posts on the web, approximately 25% evoked awe from viewers. Content containing video, lists and infographics receive more than average views than other content types. Don’t be afraid to mix and match, integrate visuals with your text and show your audience your value in an engaging format.

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Personal Branding Mistake #69: YOU THOUGHT WRONG!

Thought LinkedIn and Twitter were enough? Think again! The business powerhouse is your website; your social platforms should point towards it. 

There is only so much you can control online, particularly when it comes to your branding. While your social media outlets are important, your website is your most important online platform. 75% of people are likely to share content they find interesting online with colleagues and friends. The chances are high that a strong website page will be shared and recommended to others. Cross-link your site to all of your social media platforms. Be consistent with your branding on your website and social media platforms.

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Personal Branding Mistake #70: HOW COULD YOU NOT?

Take advantage of our free personal branding assessment! Visit our Watermelon Social page to see what’s keeping you from building new opportunities on the web. Then talk to us and we’ll talk to you about your brand – and how we can help you tell your story. 

It’s easy to get a complimentary branding assessment from Watermelon Social. We’ll evaluate your brand promise and competitive environment in an initial meeting. In addition, we’ll do a technical evaluation of your online platforms including branding, imagery, copy, content etc. The assessment is free so take action and don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

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Personal Branding Mistake #71: YOU'RE LETTING YOURSELF GO

Keep posting and keep updating your social pages. It’s easy to get lazy about your personal brand but patience is a virtue. Good things don’t come to those who simply wait; good things come to those who act.

Regularly posting and updating your social pages increases your visibility and drives more engagement from your audience. Just because you posted a few times last week doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post this week. An estimated 75 million Americans check their social sites several times a day so keep your pages fresh and engaging. When search engine spiders look at your site for changes, they report back to Google with data that says “Yes, this website is important because it’s constantly updated with fresh and quality content”. This means that your website will rank higher for important keyword searches. Don’t be lazy. Never underestimate the power of activity to bring more visibility to your brand.

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Personal Branding Mistake #72: IT'S TIME FOR SOME SPRING CLEANING

Let spring inspire you – and your social pages. Tidy up, be clear, and bring your profile up to speed. Don’t let your personal brand get stale.

Allowing your profile to get stale due to lack to time, inspiration or plain old effort is a mistake. 41.4% of LinkedIn users say that keeping a fresh profile helped them uncover potential job opportunities. 69% of Twitter users stay active following others based on recommendations from friends. Keep socially busy with new and engaging content. Have that content point to your brand promise in a way that encourages your audience to want to learn more. Active users get above average marks for their brand.

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Personal Branding Mistake #73: LINK IT UP

There’s no better incentive to read a post than a catchy link. Paste links to interesting articles, personal sites and blogs. Make your readers stop scrolling and start clicking.

Great links are essential to audience engagement and action. Including a link in your update can increase engagement by 84%. The top 50 most engaging updates on LinkedIn include a link, image or video. Capitalize on audience curiosity and make this a best business practice. 50,000 links are shared every minute on Facebook. Actively engage your audience by prompting them with call to action links! Links will take your brand much further than text only posts.

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Personal Branding Mistake #74: ZZZZZZZZ...

No one wants to open an InMail beginning with a generic subject line. Spice it up, get to the heart of why you’re reaching out, and put yourself in your connections shoes – what would make you open an InMail? 

Make your purpose clear and give your audience a reason to get involved. Keep the subject line under 6 words (thinking mobile, roughly 25-30 characters will fit in the subject line on their mobile browser). A short subject line ensures that mobile users see the entire line. Grab your audience’s attention by putting something in the subject line that relates to them. Use questions, lists and other engaging lines. Do your homework and make the message personalized to break through the clutter.

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Personal Branding Mistake #75: YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN

Before executing your social media strategy, make sure you have a plan and specific goals. Aimless posting won’t help tailor your personal branding message. 

Identify measureable social media objectives for your personal brand. Start by asking the question: where do I want to be professionally in two years and how can social media help me get there? Engage an expert to develop, manage and execute your plan. Make sure your plan can deliver on your goals. Test and re-test tactics to move towards those goals.

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Personal Branding Mistake #76: YOU'RE TAKING ON TOO MUCH

It isn’t easy to create and maintain a social presence. Take all the help you can get. Use tools like Hootsuite or Edgar to better manage content and schedule posts.

Hootsuite is an incredibly useful application for managing social media networks. Often referred to as a social media management system or tool, it enables you to view multiple streams at once and monitor what your audience is saying. Hootsuite has more than 10 million users around the world and is the most widely used social media relationship platform. Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social media networks in one place, schedule posts in advance, share information easily across the web with your followers, view analytical data and engage in social media listening.

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Personal Branding Mistake #77: NOT HAVING A PERSONAL BRAND!

Believe it or not, most senior professionals don’t have a brand promise. Big opportunity lost.

A personal brand is not a portrait or a tagline (although it may include these). A brand is not a biography or a website (although it may be expressed in these). A brand is a promise you can keep … a benefit to your audience that is understandable, believable, delivers superior value and differentiates you from your peers. Whatever your current branding efforts are intending to do, they are perceived by your audience as making a promise. And if that promise is not what you want to communicate, then you’re in trouble. So consider doing research with your audience to find out what they think: what your brand really is, what people perceive of you as promising. And discover if you’re standing out … in the way you want.

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