How to hit ‘start’ on social media

PR pros often are advised to begin their social media efforts by defining an audience, their organization’s goals, etc.

Here’s a different approach to creating your personal brand using social media.

Although it may seem simple, many PR pros in various roles—including executives—have hurt their personal brands because they didn’t pay attention. If you want to launch into social media, you must do it effectively.

Before you sign on, consider these approaches:

Keep it professional

Gone are the days when social media was the new kid on the block; most platforms are now polished tools that should be used with professionalism. With more than 1 billion daily users, Facebook is not the network where you just share funny images of cats anymore.

Twitter—although in the middle of rebranding— has more than 300 million monthly active users . It’s definitely not the network where you share how bored you are or what you had for breakfast.