The Power of Social Media - Practical Dissertation Essay What is social media? What are the main benefits? Personal Branding Why use social media for personal branding? Which social media platform is the best for personal branding? Tips for using social media effectively

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Practical Dissertation Essay
‘How does social media benefit personal branding, and how do the different platforms
achieve this?’
Brandon Boyd
N0703554
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Media with Practical Pathways at
Nottingham Trent University
1 May 2020

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Contents Page
Abstract
Introduction:
● What is ‘Social Media’?
● What are the main benefits?
Main Body:
● Personal Branding
● Why use social media for Personal Branding?
● Which social media platform is the best for personal branding?
● Tips for using Social Media effectively
Conclusion
Bibliography

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1. Abstract:
The use of social media is an important concept in the society we live in today. I will be
discussing a variety of social media applications (‘apps’) which enable individuals to effectively
brand and develop their product. Each app has its own characteristics which make it stands out
from the rest. I will also be exploring how social media has become a leading industry and a
popular platform which has kickstarted many careers. In addition to this, I will further explain my
initial ideas for creating my practical piece and what inspirations helped me to develop and tailor
my idea further. My main aims from creating this video were to explain how vital social media is
in today’s society, encouraging those who have negative views to re-think their approach, and
consider creating their own social channels online.
2. Introduction: what is social media and what are the main benefits?
What is social media? Social media is the use of online programmes and websites that have
been created in order to allow people to communicate with others through written, visual or
audio based content.
‘Communication is defined as the act or an instance of communicating; the imparting or
exchange of information, ideas or feelings. (Collins, 2009). Each social media platform has its
own individual characteristics and features which target different audiences and therefore
showcase a variety of content. Over the years there have been many developments and added
features to the platforms that we are lucky enough to have access to today, although not all
social media platforms go from strength to strength, some have failed. With a simple Facebook
advert, tweet or promotional video, businesses can more easily promote their own products and
the services they provide, with instant feedback from their customers and buyers. According to
(Qualman, 2009), ‘Social media touches nearly every facet of our personal and business lives.
In business, it is not just for the marketing and public relations department’. Social media is no
longer just a hobby, but a profitable, fast-moving, competitive industry. Companies need
constant refreshes of their strategies if they want their products not to get lost among the
different algorithms.
These platforms are very important today and many aspects of society are using social media in
one way or another. Research indicates that around seven-in-ten Americans use social media
on a regular basis. It’s good for creating an online presence/branding to either promote an
individual’s talent, skill set or area of interest with an audience that should regularly grow, the
more they upload content. It is a quick and effective way to spread awareness of your personal
brand, and social media is a place for everyone to upload whatever content they like. This could
include dancing, singing, acting, public speaking, photography, modelling or anything else. By
posting content on social media it allows for people to be recognised for the work they have
created, that may not have been seen if they didn’t share their work online, but it is also the
place for creators to build trust and gain audiences from anywhere around the world.

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In this written piece, different social media platforms will be explored, along with the powers of
each, and concluding which the most effective platforms are for growth.
3. Personal Branding
Personal Branding is the term applied to the practices of marketing an individual as a brand, so
that the individual stands out to prospective employers and others. This is achieved through an
individual, identifying their strengths and the ways in which their skills, knowledge and interests
can benefit themselves and others. They then use this insight to create social media profiles
among multiple platforms, showcasing themselves in their best light. Having created a personal
brand, one can then explore ways of developing the brand and exploring content opportunities.
Creating a niche brand and marketing effectively will enable you to target your content to the
right audience, specific to the platform/(s) you are creating content on. This is important for
several reasons. The target audience are the people who will use your service, purchase your
goods or engage with your online content. In addition to this, people often turn to social media
for advice on which services to use, so it is important that the content produced online, matches
the requirements of the audience. It is important that your brand is easily accessible, and one
way of achieving this is by making sure that it has a high ranking amongst different search
engines, where social media branded profiles appear in a similar way to websites. In addition,
there are also options to boost certain posts which may require payments for advertisements.
There are many advantages to creating these campaigns, ensuring the posts you are promoting
have at least 30% engagement of your total brand presence (Jessie, 2019).
It goes without saying that in order to build a credible brand, the information provided through
whichever media form must be both relevant and useful as well as being seen as a trustworthy
source. ‘It’s the content itself - not the pre-emptive call - that has to show evidence of expertise,
customer understanding and impartiality’. (Barry, 2015). This therefore will help to increase the
engagement on social media channels.
4. Why use Social Media for personal branding?
The social media tools that we now have at our fingertips, are the most significant developments
in publishing and knowledge promotion since the invention of the printing press, over 500 years
ago. (Dewar, 1998). For many people, social media is their main form of communication, and a
lot of online communities have strong, influential voices which allow information to be shared
more easily through these channels, as users are engaging directly with others, including
providers. There are a number of advantages of using social media:
Firstly, it gives you the ability to communicate with anyone and everyone in the world with a click
of a button. This is more certainly important for brands and companies who want to reach wider
audiences or are primarily working from offices in one location. Individuals and business can
also use a cost-effective method to promote the same messages they would have promoted
offline. Engaging online gives those companies a wider audience reach globally than any
traditional written communication methods such as email or letters. It can eliminate the need to

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promote the brand through other means, for example hiring an advertising company, physically
delivering leaflets or flyers; seeking publication in mainstream media. As well as this,
conversations are instinctive, immediate and two way, in contrast to traditional methods, where
you are reliant on a slower response. This allows you to get real-time feedback on your content,
through direct messages, mentions in tweets or uploads, shout outs or comments in videos or
through livestreams where a community of viewers can also speak amongst themselves.
Social media allows for individuals to make changes to their posts (such as editing captions or
deleting and re-uploading images/videos); whereas with using the traditional methods, once you
have sent an email or letter for example, the information is set in stone. As well as this, you can
delay and schedule content for social media to ensure that it is posted at the right time, and for
the right audiences. It allows you to engage with people who you may otherwise not have been
able to contact, e.g. celebrities and other content creators. In the case of Zoe Sugg for example,
she began creating content on YouTube as a teenager back in 2009 and not only made it to the
‘Top Influencers List’ for being the most influential beauty creator, but she has also collaborated
with a variety of brands such as ‘ColourPop’ and has since created her own ‘Zoella Beauty’
page and most recently a mobile photography application called ‘Filmm’ in April of 2019.
Social media campaigns can spark global public interest, generating significant publicity and
brand awareness. An example of this is the Spotify ‘Wrapped Up’ campaign which has been a
celebrated tradition since 2016. The campaign is split into two concepts. Firstly, users receive a
list of their most listened to songs from the year that has just ended. This encourages them to
share their results on social media or with friends and it becomes a trendy topic of discussion at
the end of each year. And secondly, Spotify collects data from all the users who use their app
and displays images or videos that have received a high streaming rate throughout the year. In
2017, they used artists such as Ed Sheeran, Big Shaq and Sam Smith along with comedic
phrasings of their original songs, to promote 2018 as the year to have new goals. By running
this campaign at the end of the year, Spotify creates an association between the festive season,
and their brand, meaning that listening to this playlist becomes an annual tradition.
As well as global campaigns, social media can benefit an individual’s brand exposure. An
example of this was in 2016, when Danielle Bregoli, otherwise known as ‘Bhad Bhabie’, an
unknown thirteen-year-old American girl, who had had a tough childhood appeared on the US
talk show ‘Dr Phil’, using a catchphrase ‘Cash Me Outside’. After being on the show, she went
viral, with her phrase shared on almost every social media platform, and her social media
platforms all drastically increased with popularity. She subsequently released her first EP called
‘15’ and was nominated alongside rappers Cardi B and Nicki Minaj as ‘Best Rap Female of
2018’. Since then, she has continued her career in rap music and continues to influence people
on social media.

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5. Which social media platform is the best for personal branding?
‘Best’ is a very subjective term, because it depends on what individuals want from their social
media platforms. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, as I have set out below:
Facebook is the most popular social media network with over 2.3 billion people using it every
single month. (Buffer, 2019). One of the main reasons why Facebook is a hit with the general
population, is that it allows users to upload a wide variety of content, e.g. videos, photos, GIFs
and animations. You are also able to create written posts, host livestreams and join a variety of
different communities/groups where you can network with people specific to that platform.
Facebook is also said to be the leading site due to owning WhatsApp and Instagram, and over
the recent years has seen one of the fastest growing markets in the older generation with
around 41% of them logging into a Facebook account.
Comparing Facebook to Twitter, the demographics of Twitter users show that only 23% of its
users are between the ages of 30-49 years old, whilst 36% are 18-29-year old’s. (Chen, 2020).
Although Twitter has a lower growth in new users every month, the fast-paced channels seem
to appeal more to the younger audience. Users can connect with and see content from a variety
of popular names and high-end consumers; including journalists, politicians, news reporters and
celebrities in almost every industry known, meaning that there are always new stories that will
be trending. Both apps have also overcome the barrier of ‘being just used for fun’ and are now
giving people the opportunity to get paid for being on social media. Facebook and Twitter have
developed from the standard online communities that we were aware of, to a marketplace of
jobs, work experience and available opportunities. Where Twitter is particularly attractive for
personal branding is in its ability to let anyone become part of the conversation and therefore
become an influencer, followed by others.
Apps such as Instagram and Pinterest which are popular nowadays due to the easy process of
uploading photo content, are now virtual shopping centres which allow you to search for
products just like any online company would. TikTok initially began as a social platform to post
funny videos and lip syncs, but more recently has been accessed by a variety of celebrities and
popular creators from other platforms which has increased the popularity of the app and enables
brands, individuals and businesses to promote their content and showcase their products or
services. It was the updated version of the app Vine, which was discontinued in December of
2016, an app where users could only post short 6 second clips. With the release of TikTok,
many users transferred over to this newly popular app, which uses the same concept of being
able to create short videos and is now one of the most popular social media networks
worldwide.
LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and was initially only accessible to members who paid a
subscription fee every month. In 2011, the network became public and became one of the
biggest professional social media networks. Its initial use and design, which entailed a simple
search bar and results feed, gave the impression that we would only be able to learn about
topics in the industry we wanted to go into. LinkedIn was known at this time as a platform to
share brand ideas using storytelling, and it inspired other brands to also get involved. Coca Cola

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created a video in August of 2011, explaining what their 2020 Goals were in terms of content
creation, and it was one of the first marketing companies that added storytelling as a skill on
their profile. They explained the different types of storytelling, including how one-way storytelling
needed to be developed into dynamic storytelling; ‘The development of incremental elements of
a brand idea that get dispersed systematically across multiple channels of conversation’. (Coca
Cola, 2011). Other successful campaigns that followed on from this include ‘The Scarecrow’ by
Chipotle and ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ by Dove.
There are a few apps whose popularity has fallen as others increase. Skype used to be the key
app for video conferencing etc. Although it is still used by many, its popularity has been
overtaken by applications like Zoom which was launched in 2011 and Microsoft Teams which
was launched in 2016.
6. Tips for using social media platforms effectivelyfor personal branding
Gary Vaynerchuk is a leading social media master, and a well-known keynote speaker, podcast
host and author of a variety of bestselling books on how to sell yourself on social media. When
he first began creating content, he realised how important social media was in terms of
marketing himself and his brand digitally, and therefore allowing the creation of a profitable
business model. Vaynerchuk states ‘The biggest thing I can tell you is that you have to make as
much content as possible’. I believe this is a very important concept as no matter what brand or
company you are, social media is the most effective way to build up your audience and gather
more attention towards your company’.
According to (Sensis, 2017); ‘79% of Internet users are now using social networking sites and
of that, 59% are using it daily’. This means that if you currently own a brand, business or your
full-time work is social media, you will be competing with thousands of people every day for your
content to be seen. If you want your personal brand to generate opportunities and income, it is
important to approach this professionally, rather than as a hobby. There are some tips which will
help in making the most out of your social media platforms.
Firstly, analyse why you are on your chosen platform and what your main aims and objectives
are, is a vital part of creating a successful brand and building up a loyal following. In addition to
this, time management a transferrable skill, is also involved in building a social media platform.
In addition, it shows that you’re able to plan, develop and schedule posts effectively, rather than
being reactive, rushing to take photos or create video content or upload your content in time for
it to be seen.
Secondly, focus on marketing. A lot of online creators make mind maps and write notes about
the types of posts they want to create, giving themselves a better opportunity to increase the
engagement on their profiles. An example of this is Tim Ferris, known worldwide for his best-
selling book ‘The Four-Hour Workweek’, who recognises that content marketing is a very
important element for brand growth. (Patel, 2020). Ferris says, ‘What we fear doing most is
usually what we most need to do’, explaining the importance of marketing effectively. This

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means not just using social platforms to allow you a quick swipe on a pretty picture, but creating
professional campaigns, using strategies and a variety of tools that are available for everyone to
use, in order to inspire others as well as building better workplaces in society and more
meaningful lives for the general public.
And finally, it is important to distinguish yourself from other personal brands. Keeping the same
name, profile picture, tagline and design across all your platforms gives a clean and
professional approach. Focusing on a handful of passions, or key areas, mean that your posts
are focused and will attract people with similar interests. Being genuine, being kind and
responding to posts quickly say more about your character; and will help in the extension your
brand more than anything else, and that’s what will secure regular attention to your content.
7. Conclusion
In this dissertation, I have defined personal branding, and explored why you would use social
media for personal branding. It is a cost-effective, flexible and personal way of reaching a huge
audience as well as offering a simple way of sharing messages. It is accessible to anyone,
whether they are a beginner, or whether they are building on their personal brand to generate
business opportunities. There are numerous social media platforms, which I have outlined
above, which means that there will be a platform to meet your needs, whether you want to
network professionally on LinkedIn, or engage with industry leaders and others in a more
succinct way on Twitter. Finally, there is no excuse for not making the most effective use of
social media, and my final section sets out some tips to help users do this, allowing them to
make the best use of their time. To conclude, this paper has illustrated the many options that
social media presents to help individuals develop their personal brand on a range of platforms.

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