Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter

Abstract

Although most people are consumers of social media, few understand how to leverage it to build a brand—whether it is their own brand or a firm's brand. Just as Wal-Mart customers are not experts at marketing the retailer, consumers of social media are not yet skilled at utilizing it from a business-building perspective. This note is designed to help you think about social media from a brand manager's perspective; specifically, you will: (1) learn how to begin building your own social and professional brand; (2) understand the critical link between insight, strategy, and implementation; and (3) gain an appreciation for the difficulty associated with consistently behaving in concert with your desired brand. Excerpt UVA-M-0913 Aug. 26, 2016 Build Your Brand with Social Media: How to Get Started Using Twitter Although most people are consumers of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat), few understand how to leverage it to build a brand—whether it is their own brand or a firm's brand. Just as Wal-Mart customers are not experts at marketing the retailer, consumers of social media are not yet skilled at utilizing it from a business-building perspective. This note is designed to help you think about social media from a brand manager's perspective; specifically, you will: (1) learn how to begin building your own social and professional brand; (2) understand the critical link between insight, strategy, and implementation; and (3) gain an appreciation for the difficulty associated with consistently behaving in concert with your desired brand (i.e., delivering your brand). The following is an approach to getting started using Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms for business professionals. To make it easier practice building a brand, the content is focused on implementing your professional brand rather than a company's brand. Besides being the most important brand you will build over the course of your career, having a strong professional brand can benefit you in many ways: . . .