Smart ways for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to use social media

Setting yourself up as an entrepreneur comes with plenty of challenges, some of which can seem almost impossible to overcome due to how much effort it requires to stay successful or even have a lucky break to get your name out into the public. However, we all have a platform that can make it easy for us to tap into global markets and really get ourselves out there; social media.

Marketing with social media is a given nowadays, but there are also plenty of smart ways to use social media in order to subtly grow your personal brand as an entrepreneur. In this article, we’re going to explain a couple of the smartest ways to use social media to help you grow your career to new heights.

Be outspoken and become an influencer

The only way to get your name out there is to quite literally get your name out there. Whenever a meaningful conversation comes up, be sure to participate in it and get your name noticed so that you get more followers and more people liking and retweeting your posts. Your attitude plays a big part in the success of this strategy, so make sure to follow these cardinal rules:

• Never engage in arguments or try to defame others.
• Don’t build your brand on “being savage”. Instead, focus on providing your audience with meaningful content and insightful opinions.
• Speak up about your personal opinions and be consistent with them.
• Don’t just chase trends and start pointless conversations out of nothing.
• Be a conversationalist and get people discussing instead of just pushing your opinions onto people.

It might sound like you’re building a boring brand, but the key is to build your name on being helpful, interesting and consistent with your opinions. You’re always going to get a negative comment or two, but it’s worth it for the positive feedback you’ll get. There are many influencers out there that will consistently get sponsorship deals that can pay the bills, so it’s a perfect start to becoming a fully-fledged entrepreneur with a diverse list of contacts.

Don’t underestimate paid services

A lot of entrepreneurs mistakenly think that they can manage their community and audience on their own to build up their brand, but the reality is that Twitter and Facebook advertising services have more power than you do. They can help you expose your brand to a wider audience across multiple platforms and they can do it with a much faster speed than you.

If you’re first starting out, we can’t recommend using paid services. However, as you grow and your name starts to get noticed, we do recommend using paid services like hiring someone to manage your social media accounts as you do practical work to grow your business or even hiring other social media influencers to give you a shout out for a product or service that you’re offering. Growing your social media accounts organically is often the best way to promote yourself, but a little helping hand can go a long way too.