The Killer Marketing Sequence to Lock Down Your Personal Branding on Social Media

Devon Hennig, former VP of Demand Generation at Vendasta, summarized our marketing strategy eloquently at VendastaCon: The Local Marketing Conference of 2018. He emphasized that personal branding is no longer optional—it’s essential in today’s digital marketing landscape.

Whether you’re looking to grow your local service business, advance your career, or establish yourself as a thought leader, cultivating a strong personal brand has become a key strategy for success.

But first things first, set up the right foundation—your digital plumbing. A lot of people get hung up on the basics—what do I actually need? Do I need a Facebook page for my business, or should I focus on a personal Twitter account? The truth is, the confusion around these choices can slow you down. The key is to focus on what really moves the needle.

Laying the Foundation: Digital Plumbing

You must set up your digital plumbing—the foundation that supports your online presence.

Let’s break it down into three essential components:

1. Personal Profile – This is for your family and close connections.
2. Company Page – To represent your business professionally.
3. Public Figure Page – A must for personal branding.

The public figure page is key for building authority and expanding your reach. Once you have your digital plumbing in place, you’re ready to focus on creating content.

The Topic Wheel: Defining What You Stand For

Now that you’ve got your digital plumbing in place, the next step is figuring out what content to create. And to do that, you need to define what you stand for.

This is where the Topic Wheel comes in. Here’s how it works:

• Put your name in the center of a piece of paper.
• Draw six bubbles around it, listing the topics you care about most (e.g., public speaking, fitness, entrepreneurship).
• For each topic, write down three people you admire or are influenced by.

This simple exercise reveals your focus areas and identifies the people who can help amplify your brand.

Remember, “You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Content Strategy: Create, Test, and Refine

Now, the next question is, of course: What do I do for content? And more importantly, what content works best?

 My approach is straightforward but incredibly effective:

• Create videos for each topic.
• Use the Dollar-a-Day strategy to promote these videos on Facebook.
• Test them for seven days to identify your winners.

Here’s the thing: humans are terrible at predicting which content will perform best, so you need to test as much as possible. The goal is to build a list of ‘greatest hits’.

By running small-budget ads, You’re going to end up scrapping 90% of your videos because they just didn’t work—but that’s fine. The key is that the 10% (or even just 2%) will be your unicorns. These are the videos that will continue to work for you over time and deliver consistent value.

Measuring Your Results

How do you know if your efforts are paying off? Compare your results against standards of excellence. For example:

• Are you generating leads for $3 or less?
• Are your likes costing under $0.67 each?

If your metrics don’t align, you’ll know it’s time to adjust your strategy. And that’s exactly the point of producing a lot of content and testing over time—because only about 2% of your content is going to truly succeed.

Interested in learning more about personal branding and how it can drive conversions?

Read this article to discover more insights on building a powerful digital presence.:
Personal Branding: The Bridge to Increased Conversions