Last week, we talked about why a personal brand can be valuable — especially as part of building a company!

This week, we’re going to break it down into small, simple steps that even a busy startup founder can handle!

Of course, your personal brand is more than an online presence.

Your “brand” is already happening. It’s how you treat people, the emails you write, what you say and do at events, what you’re known for at your company.

Being intentional about expanding that personal brand into the digital realm is a great multiplier of what you’re already doing!

You reach more people and it’s “evergreen” — it spans space and time. You can be you 24/7 without staying up past your bedtime (oh, just me? 😴🤓).

Sounds amazing, right?

But maybe overwhelming?

Never fear!

The first goal is to start small.

You can add on, do more, and further optimize as it gets easier and you have more confidence.

For now — here are the 5 simple steps to start building your personal brand!

1. Set a bite-sized activity goal.

Best way to start is to get started. Let’s set a goal and get going!

Examples:

• 1 LinkedIn post/wk

• 3 Tweets/wk

• 1 TikTok video/wk

• 1 300-word blog/wk

• 1 newsletter/mo

Make it small but doable. Some people do best with “I do it every day” goals like Lauren Goodell and Jermaine Brown who post every day on their respective channels.

For the rest of us mere mortals, we are trying to develop a habit that we can build on over time like we did at Rigor with strategic planning.

Weekly or 2x weekly is a good starting frequency for most channels.

VERY IMPORTANT: focus on the activity over outcome.

You may want more followers. That’s great. Definitely keep tabs on your follower count.

But the consistent posting is what brings followers.

Focus on process and systems over goals — just like David Cummings and Nick Saban!

2. Pick your platform.

LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Substack, Threads, X, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit…there’s many great options.

What’s the *right* one to start with?

It depends!

I think about it as a Venn diagram of “what platform do you know” and “where is your customer” → start where these overlap!

Where are you most comfortable?

• Are you already on one or two platforms as a “lurker”? (Don’t act like you don’t know, you scroller-but-never-poster!) Or maybe you used to do more, you already have a profile, or you use it personally? Start there!

• Platforms these days have a lot of features and nuance. If you’re familiar with a style, interface, and tone of certain platform, keep it easy. Don’t add “learn brand new technology and platform-specific social media etiquette” to your to-dos if you don’t have to.

Where are your customers or target audience?

• Facebook to attract GenZ buyers…might not get the ROI you’re hoping 🥴😆🙃

• Business content on LinkedIn, consumer products on TikTok and Instagram, snarky comments on X, and saying hi to my mom and former teachers on Facebook.

• If you don’t know where your target audience is…find them! Search related terms, look up key contacts, see who else is creating content, run a few tests.

What about a niche?

• It may make sense to double down on a small, specific community — like be a top poster and commenter in a subReddit of your ideal customers or blog on Paragraph.xyz to attract Web3/Blockchain users or investors.

You can always expand to other platforms later. Start with one!

3. Start with short, easy content.

When in doubt…

• Keep it short.

• Post a picture of an event, tag people at the event.

• Share a blog, podcast, book that you loved and say why.

• Reuse a line from an email, newsletter, or internal communication you wrote.

• Still too hard? Reshare someone else’s content with a short blurb.

• STILL too hard? Comment on other people’s content. Be the #1 fan! Add your thoughts or advice to the comment. Keep it positive!

Create a doc with a running list of content ideas or snippets to use. Ask your team for ideas too.

Don’t worry about your style or tone, just get started!

You can’t figure out what works for you without trying things in real life.

Remember — you will suck at first, and that’s okay!

4. Get help.

Virtual assistants, ChatGPT, your co-worker’s teenager — are all better at social media than you. 😂

And would be happy to help for a relatively small amount of money!

You say, “Hard and boring.”

They say, “Easy and interesting!”

Plus, it’s great learning and resume-building. (Those LLMs aren’t going to train themselves, ya know!)

If nothing else, it adds accountability to the process.

They can suggest photos, proofread, give you content ideas, do a first draft — all things that save you valuable minutes.

(I work with Evie Lutz of Confetti Social and she’s amazing!!!)

5. Create and schedule ahead.

I’ve HEARD that some people block time, create a bunch of content at once, then schedule several weeks ahead (e.g. LinkedIn has a “schedule posts” feature).

Seems like a great idea that I highly recommend…if you like that sort of prepared, low stress, well-organized thing.

Personally, I like to scramble at the last minute, force myself to “just get it done”, berate myself for procrastinating, promise to batch content next time, and repeat this vicious cycle weekly.

Both methods seem to work, so whichever one feels more your style! 🙃

Congratulations!

You’re now minutes away from starting your social media empire.

It will start with a small, consistent habit and grow over time. A 10 year overnight success!

Since you probably already have ideas for your goal, platform, and initial content after reading this — take ONE STEP right meow that will turn your personal brand ambitions into a reality:

• Create a recurring calendar block for a weekly post

• Go to ChatGPT to generate 1 piece of content

• Login to a platform and post something quick and easy

• Send an email to someone who could help you start or manage social posting

• Something else that comes to mind!

In a few weeks, we’ll talk about “the anatomy of great content” — specific strategies from social media experts that apply to any platform to help you get more engagement as you’re learning and improving!

What step did you take??? What helped you get started being consistent with your personal brand goals? Any other advice for founders?