How much time (as founders) do you spend on social media to build your personal brand?
I've noticed that more and more founders are building their personal brand and prioritising it over building their company's brand (the company account then just reposts the founder's thoughts).
I notice this especially with solo founders.
So I was wondering if you, as founders, are also building your brand. If so:
Which platform is key for you?
How much time do you actually spend on social media vs. creating a product?
What are your proven hacks for building a personal brand?
As for me, it helps a lot to reply often, but then I spend less time creating something. And on socials, I am around 3 hours. :D OK, maybe more.
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For us, the most important platforms are LinkedIn (where almost all B2B businesses hang out) and obviously, PH :)
Here, we're focusing more on building a community around our product, but on LinkedIn, it feels like people need to see who you are to trust you, so my partner is working every day to build connections on his personal profile. And he spends around 2/3 hours per day creating new content, answering messages, commenting on others' posts, sending requests, etc.
Managing social media can be really tedious (and I think you agree with that ahah), so my partner focuses on talking about things he enjoys that are in some way related to NiceJourney and his work as a designer.
He reviews products and apps he uses for his work, shares his personal opinion on industry-related facts, and so on. But tries to avoid generic posts such as "what is branding?" 'cause it's just too boring for him lol
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@pamela_arienti We both know that it takes so much time (and they you receive 3 likes). 😭 It is a long-term game, I feel your partner :D
Triforce Todos
Haha, same here. “Just 3 hours” turns into half the day sometimes 😅
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@abod_rehman Yeah, we know that is more than 3 hrs :D
Meet-Ting
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@dbul Which posts performed quite well for you?
Meet-Ting
@busmark_w_nika Anything with an actual lesson or value add tied to it!
Wepost
I love this topic, i actually think about it every day as i am building @Wepost for exactly this use-case. So really love your take. We are four people in our startup + our company account that posts every day mainly on LinkedIn and X, but also try to be active on other channels like Instagram and Facebook.
My rule of thumb is that every time i have a meeting with someone i remember to take a photo with them. That usually creates great content from that meeting, but also enhances the personal relationship you have to the person you took the photo with. So i highly recommend for anyone struggling with what to post.
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@benjaminbekken Does FB bring you any good results?
Wepost
@busmark_w_nika No it's really bad, 10-20 impressions and 1-5 impressions per post. So its horrible. Mostly do it for SEO, which seems to be good!
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@benjaminbekken TBH, I quit FB because I cannot find valuable content there. Only arguments about politics.
I'm spending near 30 min per day, but I want to make it like half day.
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@vladsiu Be careful – it is like an addiction.
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@vladsiu partially yes, but you can make something controversial so people will talk about you for a long time and you will save more time :D
Querri
There is always going to be the tussle between building your product and building your brand. But when you start, in the very early days, it's the personal brand that will carry you farther, more than any advertising or fancy PR. You can build a successful company just with your personal brand because humans still are emotional beings who would rather follow, listen, talk and interact with another human being than with a product.
Having said that, which platform you adopt for your brand building depends on where your ideal customers are. If you are a B2C company targeting younger generation, you are of course going to be on TikTok, IG, etc. for older maybe Facebook and for B2b LI, X, etc. Of if your customer is not tech savvy, not social medial savvy, then maybe in-person communities such as schools, places of worship will be where you promote your brand
I am 100% on LI because thats where my target audience is. I am not a big fan of X, so stay away.
Proven hacks? This shouldn't be a hack, instead tell personal stories, don't make your relationship purely transactional. Share your wins, but also failures. Be authentic, funny, kind, smart, and helpful. Have a POV about something you believe in, and you will build a long-lasting brand,
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@querri "Don't make your relationship purely transactional. Share your wins, but also failures." This applies to me. I have many DMs and people asking for something without prior building a relationship, and to be honest, it feels so fake when they only reach out to get a quick upvote, like or so.
The number one is to build trust, relationships and authority!
0 right now.
What do you recommend to start building personal brand?
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@danielhrdez If you want to have B2B and better paid clients – LinkedIn, if you want to have B2C – Instagram, for building a reputation – LinkedIn, to have a good dev community support (esp. when you feel lonely) – X.
Dad Reply
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@prmack That's why people on X and LI started to be cringe :)
Alai
Curious if Threads has been working for anyone?
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@krishna_gupta51 Not for me :D
Its difficult to find time while building product. But im trying to post something every free minute I have. I don't think I spend more than 30-60 minutes a day.
Best for me is Threads, Reddit, TikTok. Twitter can't give me even 1% of what treads give for same posts. And I just joined PH so now I will spend some time here also.
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@sergey_kondukov Have fingers crossed for you and your Product Hunt effort. When it comes to X – I think you can have many builder fellows, but fewer customers. Still cannot figure out their algo.