Optimising Your Digital Platforms: Best Practices for Websites and Social Media

In today's digital world, almost everyone has a social media account, using it to share photos and videos with friends, promote products and services, or build their expertise. This makes a quality and memorable self-presentation crucial for success and popularity. However, creating a digital personal brand can be quite challenging, especially if you don’t know where to begin.

Fortunately, we've broken down this process into clear, manageable stages. Follow the guidelines below to build a successful personal brand.

What is a personal brand? Let’s begin with a definition. A digital brand is an image of a person with unique and valuable skills and experiences. It promotes your expertise, knowledge, and principles, helping you stand out from other media personalities. A personal brand is essential for:

• increasing awareness about a person;

• growing a loyal network;

• making an impact;

• building credibility; and

• finding new opportunities for growth and development.

Here are some tips for building a personal brand:

1.Google yourself. Whether we like it or not, Google remembers everything.

If you want to build a digital personal brand and showcase your expertise, embarrassing photos and posts on Instagram, Facebook, or other platforms can damage your reputation.

That’s why the first step is to clean your profiles. Then, Google yourself again and check if that’s the image you want people to see.

Don’t take this advice lightly. Most employers and customers Google individuals and companies before deciding whether to contact them.

2. Know your goals and target audience. Once your Google image is appealing, take some time to set clear goals. Do you want to land a job, boost sales, promote a new business, or become a recognised educator?

Divide these goals into short-term and long-term ones. This makes it easier to take one step at a time and measure your progress.

It’s also important to understand who your target audience is—their age, gender, location, hobbies, and so on. Knowledge of psychology, behaviour, and social sciences can be very helpful when creating targeted digital content. Find out how to define your brand voice here.

3. Optimise your website and social media. Whether you have a blog or use Instagram reels and Facebook posts, it’s important to organise all your platforms.

Here are some of the best ways to optimise your digital personal brand resources:

• Use website templates to create a professional site without hiring anyone.

• Upload a good-looking profile photo and cover image that fit your goals and style.

• Avoid using old photos, even if you look good in them.

• Keep descriptions and personal information updated and relevant.

• Insert keywords that help users discover your website or account.

• Add contact information and location.

• Link to other profiles if you promote several platforms.

• Delete posts and pictures that look unprofessional, irrelevant, or harmful.

  4. Create unique and engaging content. Now that you have clear goals and an improved social media presence, it’s time to work on creating top vlogs, posts, and stories. Here are a few steps to help you get started:

• Make a list of topics that interest your target audience.

• Test various types of content—images, texts, infographics, and so on—to see what people like.

• Create a posting calendar to stay organised.

• Develop your personal style to keep the content consistent.

• Ensure every piece of content is well-written, original, and valuable.

• Analyse comments and track reactions to see what needs improvement.

Often, beginners struggle to find ideas and build their own voice. If this applies to you, research videos, posts, and vlog content ideas to spark your creativity.

5. Be ready to deal with mistakes. The final tip, which you will find in any entrepreneur guide, is to embrace failure.

Failure is an inevitable part of growth and success, so trying to avoid it only wastes time and energy. Moreover, the greatest minds say it is impossible to achieve outstanding results without failing a few times. This allows you to see what can happen and take steps outside your comfort zone.

The key is not only to survive mistakes but to learn from them. Take some time to reflect on failures and understand what should be done differently next time.

Conclusion Digital personal branding requires a great deal of dedication, time, and energy.

However, it is extremely rewarding, whether you want to become an influencer, educator, or promote your products and services.

With solid research, professional networking, and attentive listening to your audience, you will establish a strong media presence and achieve your goals.

Good luck!