Social Media Strategy for Personal Brands

A few weeks ago I changed my Twitter username from '@nickwestergaard' to '@westerad.' (If you would like step-by-step instructions on doing this check out Rick Butts' post here.) It all went very smoothly but I did have some ask me if the change meant that my Twitter voice would be changing. I was taken aback by this at first but in the end this prompts a larger discussion of what happens when a person becomes a brand and how this impacts the increasingly social and personal nature of online media.

Truthfully there was no greater thought to it other than this — I was going to a have a custom Twitter shirt made and I applied our old in-house style rule of trying not to require folks to spell out 'Westergaard' so I truncated my username to our URL de plume 'westerad.'

The question of where the person ends and the brand begins can often seem like a tricky one. How do I answer my business phone that is also my cell phone? "This is Nick." I thought that over waaaay too long. Questions like these are further exacerbated by social media where you have even more opportunities to expose your brand to the online community. However, most of these tools have either personal applications, professional applications, or some combination thereof. You need a strategy on how to tackle all of this and what voice to use. As a brand working through this as well, I will share our strategy with you on the off chance that it may help you define a strategy of your own:

Facebook — My profile is for me personally, not so much Business Nick. Same goes for our other team members that are on here. To have a calculated WA presence here, we have created a Facebook fan page.
MySpace — Nothing for WA here yet. I can't get a gauge on the on-going value of MySpace especially as it relates to business use and professional networking. For artists or bands, no contest. But business ...? Thoughts?
LinkedIn — Individual team members can create their own profiles with links from the bio pages of our website.
Twitter — Right now I straddle the line of tweeting both for our business and for me personally from the aforementioned @westerad account. I try to make it a mix of article forwards, insights, retweets, personal notes, etc.
YouTube — We have a WA channel showcasing our video, radio, and TV work.
Flickr — We have a WA photostream showcasing our branding, print, and online work.

I'm not saying this is cast in stone for us or even that this is a prescription for success for your personal brand. But rather, that defining your personal/professional brand's roles as they apply to social media is paramount to success in this new space.

P.S. Soon we're going to launch a redesigned WA website that better ties together all pieces of social media outlined above — including this blog. More later.

Photo credit Matt Hamm via Flickr