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Personal branding for solopreneurs: How to become top of mind with your audience
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Discover the powerful combination of a simple tool and expert coaching with Willow.
Book a free demoUsing social media to connect with prospects through content and interactions is the new way to go. This strategy is referred to as social selling. According to Hubspot, social sellers acquire and convert more customers. There is numerous evidence: the statistics speak for themselves. Social sellers have a larger volume of new customers (65% vs 47%) and better conversion rates (46% vs 31%) compared to those who are not using social media for sales.
Especially for solopreneurs it’s an effective way to gain clients. Getting people to know you in the most authentic way possible is key in social selling. By posting about yourself and your company, people get a chance to get to know what you’re all about.
And it works. Because people love people. Engaging with potential clients is more effective through a founder’s personal profile. Some might think you’re better off posting on a business page. But this actually comes across rather impersonal.
The key to success is mixing up your content. This means alternating between educating, entertaining, inspiring and promotional content. Remember to keep it fresh when it comes to the type of content you produce. Alternate between reposts, blogs, video or a ‘slider’ PDF file. Find out more about the best performing content on LinkedIn here.
We collected a few examples of people doing it right. Here are a few true thought leaders in their industry.
LinkedIn and Sales Coach Tom Baeten
Belgian solopreneur Tom Baeten offers support and training regarding LinkedIn, Sales and Marketing, so he knows like no other how to engage with his audience. In this post he explains a new feature of LinkedIn, providing highly educating content. He does this via a video that even has the branding of his company. This is a very effective way to attract attention.
Inclusive Business Consultant Hanan Challouki
Hanan Challouki is a truly inspiring woman and top-of-mind entrepreneur when it comes to inclusive communication. In this converting post about her workshop she hits the nail on the head. Hanan even swoops Simon Sinek's Golden Circle in there like a pro. She is obviously selling something, but through her personal approach it feels natural. The solopreneur mentions a cup of coffee and her pregnancy, adding a personal touch.
Wellbeing Consultant and Keynotespeaker Ann De Bisschop
Author and keynote speaker Ann De Bisschop is a true preacher of wellbeing at work. She knows all about investing in human capital and succeeds in spreading her beliefs. You can see in this post how she uses an image with a quote to inspire her followers about the importance of wellbeing in your company.
B2B Marketing Consultant Dave Gerhardt
Dave Gerhardt entertains his audience with this entertaining and personal post. He photoshopped himself into a street with a protest sign that captivates his business. Dave uses humour to connect with the readers, and it does the trick. He is a specialist in marketing education and consulting for high growth B2B startups and this content fits his audience like a glove.
Tips to create your own personal brand
These four people might seem to invest a lot of their time in these posts, but there are some simple tips that can get results pretty fast.
Most entrepreneurs have a jam-packed schedule that they have to keep up with, so they cannot afford to spend too much time creating content.
A first way to save time is by batch-creating content. This means planning an hour full of writing multiple posts, instead of having to come up with something on the spot.
Secondly, it’s always smart to use planner tools, to schedule everything after you’ve finished writing the content. Whether our own planning tool or other tools, planning in batch is easy and efficient.
Another way is to share content from industry leaders. They say good artists copy, great artists steal. So a legit way to steal content is to share existing articles from quality sources. This will show your readers that you are following the latest trends in your field. And of course name dropping works like a charm. Read more about curating content in this article.
Apart from time, you also need to have inspiration to write compelling content. You can find inspiration in a lot of different ways. Follow a CEO on Twitter, buy a subscription to a business magazine, read newsletters… The possibilities are numerous, which can be overwhelming. So that’s why having a feed in one place will save you some trouble. The Willow platform combines multiple sources into one feed of recommended articles shared by your favorite influencers, thought leaders, topics and other sources.
So, are you also a believer in social selling, but want to keep the time you spend on writing to a minimum? We got you. With our content curation tool we’ll help you become the next thought leader.