I recently came across a very interesting write up on how ‘shy individuals can be good at personal branding’..
Most of the times, we tend to have this misconception that people who project themselves aggressively on social media, are the extroverted lot who are well versed in interacting with audiences. Well, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, people need to project themselves as ‘brands’, in order to market their respective businesses to reach their target audiences; even though their personality type may be reserved or shy.
So, in order to project oneself effectively to the right groups of people, and at the same time be comfortable at it without having to compromise one’s behaviour patterns, here are a few tips that may be taken into consideration for effective reach (if you belong to the introverted category):
1. Social media, especially Instagram or Linked In need not always have your pictures. One can engage people, by putting images, or content in a video format. There are a lot of apps (free and paid) which help you make creatives
2. You can always use a pen name if you don’t want your name out there
3. There are different ways to inform your clients about your service updates. You can always have ‘one liners’ on the services you offer and engage these creatives on different days (You can plan your week in advance by setting days for specific updates)
4. Create exciting offers for your audiences and give a time frame for when the offer ends. People love freebies and offers!
5. Create an email list of people you know, which could be friends, acquaintances or anybody you would’ve met somewhere (with whom you would’ve exchanged cards).
The email list would enable you to create and send out newsletters on a regular basis to keep your group of known people informed
6. Work towards improving your skills sets. Added knowledge related to your field (by undertaking technical online courses) would always be an advantage; the certificate of which you could project on Linked In. This would add to your credibility as well as understanding of related fields better
7. Project your certificates in business networking sites like Linked In, to make people aware of your qualifications
8. By frequently uploading updates, you would be retaining in people’s minds
Always remember that you can project yourself as a brand, even by not having to put your own pictures or videos up frequently.
To understand your personality type better, you could undergo the ‘Myers Briggs Personality Test’. This would provide insight into your personality traits as well as would give perspective on your behaviour patterns..