As discussed in my previous posts, I believe that the brand of an entrepreneur can be very valuable to a startup – especially in the early stages.
Why?
Because an entrepreneur’s brand (especially if they are viewed as an expert in the industry that the startup is in) can provide comfort to potential new customers and investors. A startup’s technology is never perfect or complete at the start of day one. And in most cases, the technology isn’t perfect or fully complete after a year of existence.
So how does a potential customer/investor still place their faith with startup with a half complete product? Or one with the promise of “new and improved features coming soon”. It’s because of the people behind it. If the customers/investors know the people behind the technology are experts in their field, they can truly believe the startup when it claims “new and improved features coming soon”.
But how do they know? It’s because of the personal brand built around the management team/entrepreneurs. Besides the general branding/marketing text on an “About us” or “Management team” section of a corporate website, a personal social media profile will help further increase the entrepreneur’s brand that is associated with their startup.
For reference, here are some of my previous posts on making a social media profile for entrepreneurs:
http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/difference-between-branded-profile-and-personal-profile/
http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/the-entrepreneurs-linkedin-profile/
http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/using-facebook-to-help-build-an-entrepreneurs-brand/
http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/which-social-networking-platform-should-an-entrepreneur-brand-themself-on/
Personal social media for a start-up
So this all goes back to the title of my post – personal social media profiles on a corporate website. Here are the ways I would integrate the personal social media profiles on a corporate/”about us” section of a startup’s website:
1) Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn links next to the name of each management team member. Wherever on your website you list your management team members, list all of their social media profiles. If you are listing their contact information, why not include their social media profiles?
2) Make a “social media” section on your site. Don’t just link to Twitter/Facebook directly from your homepage. Make a page about your social media initiatives. Use the page to detail the type of content posted on the social media profiles, how the company is involved with social media and list the profiles for each team member.
3) Add to your corporate blog. If you have a corporate blog that offers longer, detailed thoughts on the industry, why not promote your social media profiles (which provide quicker and shorter briefs on the industry.
4) Add your social media profiles to the “contact us” section of your website. You are already encouraging your visitors to contact you via email/phone/web form, why not encourage them to contact you via social media (especially if that is their preferred method of contacting people)?
Happy branding!
