What Does It Take To Start A Personal Brand? Guest Contributor, Ethen Ostroff
#TheGroundFloor is thrilled to welcome guest contributor, Ethen Ostroff, aka the “TikTok Lawyer”, for this week’s edition. Ethen an Associate at Ostroff Law.
I am very excited to welcome Ethen to #TheGroundFloor as he shares his story where he discusses what it takes to start a personal brand.
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Nice to meet you all and thank you to Andrew for allowing me to contribute to #TheGroundFloor.
To give a little about myself, I am a personal injury lawyer with a passion for helping people at scale. My goal is to help and reach as many people possible. Social media allows me to do that. I have known Andrew since we were teenagers. He and I started our friendship as more of a Pittsburgh Penguins – Philadelphia Flyers rivalry. One of his closest friends, Ryan Citron, and I went to summer camp together and our dads were roommates at Penn State. Andrew and I have remained friendly through social media since and now are working in the same world.
The greatest compliment that I receive from people is when they say “I was searching for days and you just explained something in 10 minutes that I needed.” I wrote this article to be as succinct and direct, but there is a lot more than just one blog article that I can explain what is needed to successfully build a brand. Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly with questions. EO@EthenOstroffLaw.com
It seems like every app you open, every third person who advertises on it tells you “I know the secret to growing your audience” …and you need to pay them for that secret.
There is no secret to building a personal brand. Nobody holds the keys to the Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin or TikTok algorithm. These are blank spaces where creators fill the air with their unique flavor.
Here are my major tips if you want to build your personal brand and help people, at scale:
1. P.O.V.
a. If you want to build your personal brand, generate more leads and provide value to your crowd, you need to think about these three letters: P.O.V. (Point of view).
b. What does your audience want to hear, read or see?
c. Once you change the tone of your content from self-serving, to providing value for others, you will start to build trust with your audience, and eventually, they will buy what you are selling.
d. Give your audience the credit they deserve. Before they buy from you, they are going to look up EVERYTHING about you. Make sure they trust you before they open their wallet.
2. Audit yourself for your content style.
a. Ask yourself these questions:
i. Am I comfortable in front of the camera for still photographs?
ii. Am I a great writer?
iii. Am I comfortable on video?
iv. Think of your personal brand as a fire. Content is the gasoline. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT KIND OF CONTENT YOU DO AS LONG AS YOU CONSISTENTLY MAKE IT!
1. I am very comfortable with any type of content, but rarely are people the “triple threat.” Some people freeze up in front of the camera, and that’s okay. The important thing is to be self-aware and to know your strengths, then lean into them.
3. Change your mantra from selling to telling.
a. I know, it seems strange that you would go into social media “marketing” and not sell your service or product. You need to change your perception of social media from a marketing platform to a value platform. The winners on social media provide the most value to people, build trust, then they monetize. If you give, but don’t ask, people will trust you. Think of social media platforms as a portal to your website where you can sell as much as you want. If people think you are another used car salesman, they won’t buy what you have to sell. If that same used car salesman advised people about the “three things to look for when buying a used car” you will help people to trust you, and eventually, they will buy from you.
4. Know the differences between the platforms and pay attention to how they change.
a. People are in a different mindset when they go onto different social media platforms. Think about all these apps as if they were living, breathing, individuals with an ever-changing identity. Today, on June 16, 2020, Facebook is for boomers connecting with old friends. Instagram is for wasting time looking at people’s highlight reel lives. LinkedIn is for professional networking. Twitter is for consuming the news. TikTok is for the younger generation to dance and have fun.
b. Five years ago, Facebook was still a place that millennials would interact with friends. Instagram was all the rage and was the up-and-coming app. LinkedIn was this strange virtual resume. Twitter was for ranting about your life. TikTok was still Music.ly and was only for lip sync.
c. These apps change every few months. If you are not aware of the changes, you will fall behind. Try your best to stay ahead of the curve and follow things as they trend, not as they are becoming “uncool.”
5. Know where the organic reach is.
a. In 2012, you could post something on Facebook and it could reach a million people. Now, Facebook is a “pay-to-play” game. It doesn’t mean it isn’t effective, but the organic reach is simply not there anymore.
b. There is a simple equation here. If there are more people consuming than there are creating on an app, you have organic reach! As soon as people are creating more than they are consuming, organic reach disappears.
c. As of May 27, 2020, these are the “pay-to-play” apps:
i. Facebook
ii. Twitter
iii. Instagram
1. Admittedly, if you are pouring content into Instagram, you can still build a following, but it is HARD to do today.
d. These are the apps with organic reach:
i. LinkedIn
1. If you have a service-based business or are good at writing, you should be HAMMERING LinkedIn with content every day.
2. There is an app that a close friend of mine made that will connect with up to 100 people a day for you and send them a sequence of three straight messages! I use this in my business and have success with it. If you want more info about this, click here.
3. Get creative with your strategy and know that people are very open minded to networking and connecting with you if you provide them with value.
ii. TikTok
1. When I started on TikTok in October of 2019, it was like buying real estate in Manhattan in 1890. Now its 1960. You can still buy a cheap plot, but it is getting harder and harder to grow organically on TikTok.
2. I was the third lawyer on the app, now there are hundreds.
3. If you want to start to do video content, this is the best place to go.
4. On your first video, you have the potential to have 1 million views. That’s how crazy the potential is on TikTok.
e. Whatever app you choose, study it, understand the trends and dive in.
6. Pick a niche and lean in.
a. I am a lawyer. I knew that there was not relevant legal information readily available to the public in my area of the law. I saw this as an opportunity to disrupt and now I have 200K+ followers because I provide value and rarely try to sell my services in my content.
b. If you are a contractor, show before, during and after of your projects. The point is, it doesn’t matter your business, just document it and post it the right way.
c. The key is to document what you do and then turn it into a story. Every professional has someone younger than us in the world who wants to do exactly what we do when they grow up. Imagine that your followers are your mentee and teach them how to do what you do best!
7. Know social media is a long play.
a. Your video will live on Youtube forever. Your blog will live on your site forever. Your future client is who you are concerned with, not short-term sales. If someone sees your Tik Tok video today, they will think of you when they are in the situation to use you five years from now.
8. Don’t worry about followers, likes, or data.
a. It is really easy to get consumed with the data of social media. You can always have more followers or likes. Keep sharing what you are passionate about and if you are producing content because you want to help people, you are achieving that goal even if you have 1 follower.
9. Last few notes.
a. Know that your friends will snicker at you. Your colleagues will make fun of you. Your network will laugh at you. You will have hate comments on your videos. You will have family members who question you.
b. Remember this: “You will never be criticized by someone doing more than you.” - Mel Robbins
c. Let go of your fear of judgement. Let go of worrying about what others will think. This is the future of marketing, so lean into it.
Feel free to check out my site at EthenOstroffLaw.com and if you ever want to get in touch with me, my email is EO@EthenOstroffLaw.com. Thank you for allowing me to contribute, Andrew! For anyone who took the time to read this, know that Andrew is a fantastic person with the kind of core values that you should want to work with. He also knows his shit!
- Ethen
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Thank you, Ethen, for being a guest contributor for #TheGroundFloor!
I am always looking to welcoming guest contributors to #TheGroundFloor! If you are interested in writing or have a specific topic you’d like discussed, please contact me!
- Andrew