#OAP101 Using Social Media to grow your Personal Brand as an OAP

Today I would like to speak a little about using social media for your benefit, as a way to help you build, maintain and grow your brand as a media personality.

The first thing to ask yourself is which platforms should I be on?
To answer that, you need to be clear on
- what your interests are
- where your audience is

A sportscaster for example will definitely enjoy twitter because it offers a great opportunity to talk about games and players, give real-time news and analysis, and have that immediate connection with your audience.

Radio hosts do well on most platforms, and I daresay, Facebook and Twitter are a must.
Television hosts on the other hand should not neglect their Instagram as that is the best tool for them.

Now a brand in Nigeria or that wants to speak to Nigerians should not neglect the big three as I like to call them- Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
This is because Facebook is still one of the most popular platforms as it is easily accessible, and there is a big percentage of Nigerians on the other two as well.

Having clarified that, the next thing to think about is your UserName.
If you do not want to be easily found, by all means, use hard to identify or search for names. If you do want to use your social media for your brand though, ensure the name is a name you are known as, whether it is a Nickname or your Real Name.
Whether or not you use your real or a nickname, ensure you have your real name in the profile so that when people search for your name, your account will still pop up.

Your Profile should state what you want people to know about you clearly and simply.
I have checked quite a few celebrity profiles and there does not seem to be any agreement as to things like, number of lines or whether or not you should have a bio at all. What is clear is everyone keeps it simple and tells you who they are.
You can try something as short and direct as 'Official Page of Your Name', or tell us what you do like 'Radio and TV Host'.
See Steve Harvey's, Dotun's, and Mine.


Your content is of course the main thing as no matter how cute your description is, if there is no content on your page, you may have followers but no engagement.
How often should you post? The jury is out on that. What everyone does agree on however is that being consistent is the key. The quality of posts is also crucial so keep your pictures and captions classy and distinct.

In my next post, I will go into a bit more detail with examples, as regards content types.

In the meantime, if you have comments and questions, do leave them below, reach me via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or send me an Email.