Being a titleholder comes with many responsibilities, but perhaps the most important is maintaining your presence with a strong brand as a public figure. Public figures can easily fade into the background unless they are actively marketing themselves to the community and taking hold of their personal brand. It’s easy to fall into some bad branding habits that could seriously impact your ability to connect with appearances, gain sponsors, and potentially impact your interview strength. But, it’s even easier to fix these three mistakes!

1. Phantom Pages
   • Bad Branding: Last year you were Miss Local County, and had a Facebook page to share pictures and updates. This year you are Miss Regional. You make a new page, but instead of naming it after your new title you name it after your name. 2 points! But what happens to your Miss Local County Page? It fades away but never goes away. It is social media litter.
   • How to Fix It: First, recruit your followers to your new page. Make a post on the old page, and tag the new one. Another great tip is to change your old page’s default picture or cover photo to a graphic that has the name of your new page. Finally, invite your friends to like and share your page. If possible, share your page to your pageant’s local org page or group.
   • Delete your Phantom Pages:
2. Miscellaneous Pictures
   • Bad Branding: Every weekend you are at an event. You are constantly serving the community, visiting schools, and speaking with politicians. And you never forget to take a picture to document the occasion. But when you post it on Facebook, every picture winds up in the Timeline Pictures album. This makes it impossible to sort out photos based on the event. The community may not know what the picture is from, or the event hosts may not be able to find the photos as easily to use on their marketing tools. The pictures are no better than they’d be in a box in the closet.
   • How to Fix it: Go into your page’s “timeline photos” or “mobile uploads”. One by one, open a photo and assign it to a designated album.
   • Moving Pictures into Albums:
3. Inconsistent Handles
   • Bad Branding:
   • How To Fix It: Changing your Twitter and Instagram handles is incredibly easy. Choose a handle that you want to use for all of your accounts. Before changing one account, check the availability on all sources.
   • Changing Your Twitter Handle: 

Having a flawless personal brand isn’t easy, but fixing these three mistakes will improve it by leaps and bounds. The importance of a strong social media presence is often the tipping point in the interview room, can impact your stage presence, and ensures you are fulfilling the job you were hired for.