However, being on social media doesn’t come naturally to all founders. Being passionate and knowledgeable about your brand is one thing, but getting in front of a camera to live stream on social media, or create reels and videos, is a completely different skill. However, mastering this and building a genuine connection with your followers is a gamechanger in terms of building your authority, profile and awareness. And with an estimated 5.17billion total social media users worldwide in 2024, the potential impact is huge.

At Social Amour we have helped grow the personal social media accounts of many founders, small business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as celebrities. Although everyone has a different story to tell, there are five golden rules that are always relevant.

#1. Define your personal brand identity: You have to absolutely nail what sets you apart from others in your field. This could be anything from your expertise, your values or a particular personality trait. There are lots of good examples – Amelia Sordell, a personal branding strategist – does this brilliantly.

When you know what your identity is, keep it at the centre of all your content on social media so your messaging, tone and visuals are consistent across all platforms – whether that’s Instagram, Facebook, X, or TikTok. The consistency will help create a recognisable and trustworthy brand.

When it comes to personal brand identity, keep in mind it’s different to a typical brand. It’s meant to be personal, and so it doesn’t need to be picture perfect. That doesn’t mean it’s ok to post badly taken pictures or pixellated videos that are difficult to see, but it means you can be genuine. If you’ve had a difficult day, share it. If you’re struggling to decide something, ask your followers for their input. Real users, giving real life updates, is what people are increasingly wanting to see, not a perfectly polished human.

#2. Share your story: People connect with the journey. So, if you’ve just launched your product in a retailer, or you’ve just successfully raised investment for your business, don’t just share the success itself, but share how you got there. How long did the process take, what stages did you go through, what were the hurdles, did you make any mistakes, how did it feel when you knew you’d done it and so on. ‘Day in the life of’ content also works really well. People love getting a glimpse behind the scenes of what goes on in your life and with the brand. All of this detail reminds people that you’re human and helps them form a much deeper connection with you.

#3. Engage with your audience: Don’t post and run! Act as you do when you engage with people face-to-face; you don’t just blurt out a sentence and walk away, you have a conversation. The whole point in posting content is to connect and engage with your followers. When you post, if you get any comments or messages, reply to them, encourage the chat, and ask questions back. It makes people feel valued.

#4. Showcase your expertise: A great way to do this is by collaborating with other experts or influencers in your field. This benefits both of you as it elevates both of your profiles. Don’t be scared to team up with others; there is sometimes a feeling of not wanting to partner up in case they end up getting the lion’s share of results, but there is enough cake to go round. As long as they are a suitable fit for you and your brand, it’s a good thing.

#5. Measure your results: Are there certain types of posts that go down really well with your audience? What are your followers asking you about and what do they want to see more of? Really look at how your content is performing and use that knowledge to fuel what you do the following month.

There are lots of tools that can help with analysing results. For small businesses, Meta Business Suite is free, so a very cost-effective option. This is available to anyone with a Facebook account. You can not only analyse content, but schedule content and set up ads via this platform. There are also some social listening tools, such as Sprout Social and Later, which are really useful too, but both cost.