Building a Personal Brand on Social Media

I have joined Pleasepay LTD. at the end of February 2020 as a Social Media and Content Manager. The company has two start-up projects that are inherently intertwined, but today I will focus on Formula.Life - a breathing technique invented by Feodor Kouznetsov.

In February, the project did not have much of a social media presence except some mentions on LinkedIn and its website was still in construction, so there was a need to develop a strategy that instills people's trust in the products that are offered (online course, private breathing sessions, app). The most effective way to do it is to build a personal brand, where through one's experience and expertise you can build customer loyalty.

With 3 products being offered under the umbrella brand of Formula.Life, we had to be strategic on how we are going to present them, in which order, and on what channels. The social media platforms chosen were Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Instagram's focus was on building a personal blog, with daily short publications on breathing techniques, but also Feodor's personal life. YouTube, naturally, is the best video platform, so it was used for small snippets of breathing exercises and taster sessions. LinkedIn, through trial and error, was decided to be a platform for longer autobiographical publications.

There are so many blogs, personal or brand profiles out there now that in order to attract a following and sell successfully you have to do extensive research on your target audience. With something as niche as breathing exercises (especially since I have never practised them myself), I had to explore the competitors' profiles, shared interests, locations, inspirations, etc in order to build a target persona. It was also crucial to realize that with the brand such as Formula.Life, one is not striving for a million following, instead one is building a community of like-minded people that will have a high conversion rate when it comes to your products. So having 3k of passionate and active followers, in this case, is definitely better than having 15k of mass followers/passive audience.

Feodor, by that point, has already written a book about his journey of self-discovery and invention of a breathing technique, which was a major bonus when thinking about instilling trust and a sense of similarity between the target audience and Feodor. Some of the book's extracts have found a great audience response on LinkedIn among the network of colleagues and have sparked interest in Feodor's persona.

A short disclaimer: this clear division of content did not come instantly. I had an initial strategy, but I to test different types of content on each of the platforms before obtaining a clear understanding of the audience's preference in each.

My next few articles will talk about each platform in detail, however, I would like to point out that up until this moment no funds were invested in social media marketing, so it is built only through the organic growth.

Overall, I must say that a personal brand is a great and relatively inexpensive way of selling a particular product. However, it requires a major investment of time and the creator's efforts. There is a need to generate content on a daily basis that is textually and visually appealing, and it is definitely a long-term investment that does not start on giving instantly.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feodorkouznetsov/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feodorkouznetsov/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpI2FvJjiXMwO-sg2T9PBUg?view_as=subscriber