Ian Moyse is EMEA Sales Director for Natterbox. He was awarded the accolade of BESMA UK Sales Director of the year and in 2019 was listed in the top 50 Sales Keynote speakers by Top Sales World . He is widely published on matters of social influence, sales leadership, personal branding and cloud technologies.

Whether you know it or care to admit it, we all have a personal brand. It goes beyond marketing and promotion to the perceived influence and credibility of the person behind the name and picture.

As Jeff Bezos of Amazon famously said:

Your personal branding matters because it is the measure of your reputation and integrity.

Consumer habits have changed and now, more than ever before, your personal brand matters.

Social media has given us an inside view to what goes on behind the face of a business and it is creating a shift in consumers choosing small personal brands that are built around a product and the person behind the product.

Personal branding done right can help you stand out from the crowd and give you a platform from which you can inspire trust in your audience.

It is possible to create a personal brand without spending your life on social media.

Creating (or recreating) a personal brand can feel daunting and the common fear is that social media will forever own you.

It won’t … as long as you are strategic about it.

Here are seven steps to your personal brand:

1. Resist the urge to be on every platform simply for the sake of it. You’ll spread yourself out way too thin and not be of any value on any of the platforms.

Instead, determine which platforms your audience is hanging out on and engage with them there.

2. Get a really good grasp of the platform and become an expert on it.

3.Look good on social media and be credible. Your picture and your profile needs to look and sound relevant to what your audience would expect for what you’re representing.

4. Know your stuff and write about it. Make your content count by giving insight and value to the reader. Inspire trust in your audience.

5.Post your content on the appropriate platform. Everyone is looking for content. Aim to put content out there that will get shared by the right people.

6.Look for the influencers and follow them to get noticed in the right place by the right people. Comment on their posts like someone who knows what they are talking about. You can even comment with an opposing view by saying 'I disagree because in my experience …'

People appreciate commentary. Comment as long as you've got context and can back it up. When you leave a valid comment, you’re going to have people going to your profile to see who this person is with this added insight or with the opposing view. They’ll want to look at your profile to see if you are credible. Make them realise that you are trustworthy, you have experience and a valid opinion. Keep impressing them and they will follow you back and engage with you.

The key here to form a relationship that is genuine and authentic. Build a conversation. Get to know them and let them get to know you. It’s not about following and getting followers and doing whatever it takes to build numbers. This is about building genuine connections with people. And that takes time, but pays off in the long run.

7.Once you've got your baseline in, it's about nurturing it and tuning it as you go. Successful entrepreneurs work ad hoc. Don’t give in to “I've got to spend five hours a day”. Instead, “I'll do social now when I'm in a taxi and I've got 30 minutes or I'm early for a meeting so I'll do bits and bobs”. Share content, comment on people’s content and take part as and when you can.

A few social media hacks from Ian Moyse to get you started:

>Twitter. If you’re on Twitter create a group of the particular type of people in the particular sector you are looking for. Create a group and give it a flattering name. Reason is that everyone you add to that group will be able to see the name. Stroke their egos and get noticed in a positive way. Out of curiosity and flattery they’ll want to know more about you and who else is in the group.

> Your photo. First impressions always count. Test your photo on a site called photofeeler.com. You can choose whether the photo is for business or personal and fill in some other criteria and people can vote. Your trustworthiness is judged entirely by your photo.

> To appear at the top of the list when your name is searched for on social media platforms, simply add an icon at the end. This is especially useful if you have a common name.

> Cross link all your profiles to make it easy for your audience to see your personal brand. For example, add a link from your Linkedin profile to your Twitter profile and vice versa unless you’ve hidden it and it’s personal.

Getting your personal branding right is critical especially if you are in eCommerce. People want to know the person behind the business because they want to know who they are buying from. Personal branding that consistently represents you as a credible, reputable and relatable person will go a long way to your success.