What is your favorite social media platform for enhancing your personal brand and why?
The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Facebook
“For us, Facebook has always had the highest level of engagement, and reaches the broadest audience. It’s also allowed us to have more personal conversations with our customers, and given us an opportunity for creating real connections with those individuals. It’s also worked as a support platform, and has helped us streamline that process tremendously.”
Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker
2. Instagram
“Visuals are the best way to connect with people and make a lasting impression. I like that I can share personal images on Instagram and a story behind the image. It’s the best platform for connecting with people on a more personal level, and giving them an inside look at who I am as a person and professional.”
Stanley Meytin, True Film Production
3. LinkedIn
“I think LinkedIn is a tremendous tool for shaping your personal brand. You can use it for basic information and experience, but then you can participate in groups, as well as publish articles and press that further define who you are as an entrepreneur or thought leader.”
Cynthia Johnson, Ipseity Media
4. Medium
“It’s hard to communicate who you are in a status update. It’s much easier to give a glimpse into who you are through a more detailed blog post. Medium is a great platform to enhance your personal brand, because content has a longer shelf life, and content is easier to discover through search. Pick a topic you’d like to brand yourself with, post consistently about the topic and enhance your brand.”
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors – Digital Marketing Company
5. Pinterest
“Pinterest has been a huge asset for our company. We know the demographics is almost all women and have been able to create content and engage with the women audience. It is easy to see what is working and what does not work based on how many saves you get.”
Chris Gronkowski, Ice Shaker
6. Podcasting
“While most people think of social media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat, you may want to look to promote your personal brand to the millions of people who listen to podcasts. Applications like iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Spotify allow you to elevate yourself above the noise of normal social media, and create a brand conveying professionalism and authority every week.”
Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
7. Snapchat
“The informality of the Snapchat channel makes for a great avenue for people to engage with their audience and enhance their personal brands. Because the Snapchat technology is designed around instant, real and transparent communication, either with photos with filters or videos, people can speak their brand effectively without over-thinking their message and coming across as “corporate.””
Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
8. Twitter
“Twitter is a great platform to share articles and content that you create. Twitter rewards those with unique, interesting content in the form of followers, which ultimately helps create a personal brand. Hashtags also make it easy to find new content to read and share.”
9. Quora
“Being active on Facebook and Twitter is basically a requirement these days. But when it comes to my favorite platform, it has to be Quora. Answering questions is great mental exercise that promotes your business and yourself. Every answer you post won’t be directly related to your business or industry, but they’ll all build your brand while helping others.”
Andrew Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings
10. YouTube
“YouTube has established itself as the place to build a personal brand with a loyal following. As long as you have good, unique content that people want to see, the subscribers will follow organically. Once you start getting traction on YouTube, you will find that the same people will search for you on your other social media channels. ”
