Plus, all the top tips, news & feature updates you need on your social media journey
Hey folks👋🏽
I love it when brands give creators carte blanche to realize their creative ideas — nothing is more freeing.
Jack Appleby shared this example of a creator's user-generated ad for their Adobe Photoshop product and its AI capabilities and it had me howling it was so funny.
So to any brand-side folks reading this: let creators do their thing — they know best what works with their audience.
Let's get into it!
💌 In today's email:
🛋️ Kirsti wrote about pivoting your personal brand – check out the top tips from 6 experts.
🤖 Use this AI Assistant prompt to share your personal brand pivot
📱Mitra shares an update to last week's Capcut trend
📣 The latest social news, features, and bonus reads
And as always, all the latest and greatest content from the Buffer blog.
Have a great weekend, and we'll see you next Friday!
🖊️ Deep dive: What to do when it's time to pivot your personal brand
When Kirsti was switching careers from health and fitness to content marketing, she realized that she'd also need to pivot her personal brand. So, there was no better person to write this article on pivoting a personal brand.
She spoke to several personal branding experts and put together their advice. Here's what you need to know:
Identify what wasn't working with your old brand: Adrienne Sheares advised looking at results and your enthusiasm level to pinpoint issues. If your brand no longer serves your needs, it's time for a pivot.
Follow creators in your new niche for inspiration: Manam Iqbal recommended studying their topics, styles, formats, hooks to inform your content. Put your own spin on what you learn.
Create a content plan aligned to your new goals: Kasey Jones suggested outlining your vision, target audience, and differentiation strategy.
Consider keeping old social media accounts rather than starting new ones: Ghalib Hassam said existing followers can transition with you if there's some spill between audiences. Jack Appleby corroborated by sharing, "When I started documenting my adult basketball journey, I made a brand new TikTok for it — I didn't think my existing audience would be interested."
Look for common threads between old and new brand: Christine Gritmon advised finding themes, segments, or approaches from your old brand to build on with your new one.
Notify your audience if you want, but don't overthink it: Adrienne Sheares said give newsletter subscribers a heads up, but social followers may not notice a change.
Start slowly sharing new content, be realistic about engagement: Manam Iqbal and Adrienne Sheares advised expecting dips in engagement initially as you find your footing.
Don't let fear of change stop you from being authentic: Christine Gritmon said the impacts may be subconscious, but trust persists.
🏎️ Four creators speeding up their growth with Buffer
We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for entrepreneurs and business owners to grow on social media — and our users were more than happy to back us up.
Erik Berglund on Linkedin: "I've been able to consistently post for the last 5 months. I've never posted this frequently, and I've saved a ton of time while doing it. I likely save 4+ hours a month by using Buffer"
Onlinemarketinges: "On TikTok we went from 110k to 310k with Buffer!"
Reid on Twitter: "Doubled follower count and engagement has gone up 4x"
Marian on Instagram: "I've saved weeks of time and have increased my engagement at 50%"
Want to skyrocket your growth? Click the link below to get started with Buffer today!
11 Ways the Buffer Team and Community are Using Tags: There are few things that spark as much joy as being able to organize anything and everything by color. Hailley (with some help from the team) shared 11 ways to use our latest feature to its fullest potential.
5 Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2024 — From Scratch: The key ingredient for great social media marketing? A great social media marketing strategy. Whether you want to grow your brand or level up as a marketer, developing a social media marketing strategy is essential. Here's one way to do it — in five steps.
🤖 A prompt for Buffer's AI Assistant
Use this prompt to communicate your personal brand (or business) pivot to your audience.
The Prompt
Craft a personal brand pivot announcement for [my name] to post on [social media platforms] when transitioning from [old niche] to [new niche].
My name: Who is announcing the pivot?
Social media platforms: Where will the announcement be posted?
Old niche: What was the previous brand focus?
New niche: What is the new brand focus?
Tone: Should it be casual, professional, fun?
Message: What are the key points to communicate?
Background: Any context needed to explain the pivot?
Call to action: How can the audience engage with the new brand?
📱Social tip of the week from Mitra, Buffer's Social Media Manager
Remember last week when I shared the "confused dog" CapCut template? Well, this week I'm back with an updated version of that template that's been making waves on TikTok. Now there are TWO dogs in this template and the theme of this trend is when you're in a situation where you're awkwardly staring at someone.
This week we shared a TikTok using this template poking fun at the awkward small talk you have to make with someone while you're waiting for others to join a Zoom call. 😬 Watch it here!
What would you like to see more (or less) of in the newsletter? Give us all your feedback in this form or let us know on all our social channels @buffer!