CEOs & Founders often stumble in a few key areas when establishing their personal brand on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok. When I audit social media accounts the most common mistakes I see:
1. Hiding Behind the Business: People don’t connect with logos or products; they connect with people. If your content is just corporate updates and product announcements, it won’t resonate. You need to show your face, your values, and your unique experiences.
2. Inconsistency in Posting: Many founders start strong, then disappear when business gets busy. Visibility isn’t about going viral once—it’s about showing up consistently so your audience knows what to expect from you. This is why many choose to get help with their content creation.
3. Using a PR or Comms Team: Whenever I see a robotic LinkedIn post, I know a PR team wrote it. At EY we had our PR Team doing our executives' Comms, I had them transfer that task to my Brand & Social team and we literally increased brand impressions by 7500% in one year with my executive personal branding program. Presenting an overly polished image can come across as inauthentic. Audiences value genuine content that reflects your true personality and values. People want real, unfiltered insights, not corporate jargon.
4. Overemphasis on Self-Promotion: I always tell my clients to put down the megaphone and put on the headphones. Personal branding isn’t about you—it’s about them (your audience). Instead of selling, focus on sharing. What have you learned? What mistakes have you made? What dialogues are you starting with your audiences?
5. Confuse Visibility with Vanity: CEOs and Founders often fixate on follower count and likes instead of real impact. Engagement means nothing if it doesn’t lead to trust, opportunities, or business growth. Prioritize relationships over social reach.
6. Not Providing a Perspective: A lot of people just repost industry news, regurgitate AI-generated content, or play it safe. You need to have a take. What do you believe that others don’t? What insights can only you provide? True thought leadership isn’t about blending in—it’s about standing out.
7. Using AI to Write: AI is a great tool for efficiency, but a terrible tool for authenticity. I wrote a blog about whether AI should be used for thought leadership, but TLDR: the biggest reason AI falls short? It lacks human stories and unique perspectives from your actual experience. Thought leadership is built on credibility and lived expertise—AI can’t replicate that. If you're struggling to turn your thoughts into words then you might want to hire a personal brand agency that can help you with that.
8. Treating Social Media Like a Billboard: The new generations are over-invasive advertising. Gen Z and Millennials are your biggest decision-makers now and they are tired of brands that just produce content and plaster it across platforms. You need to embed yourself into the platform, understand the algorithms and understand the Lexicon. You need to hire social media experts to help you understand the nuances of the platforms. Each platform has its own culture and best practices. What works on LinkedIn might not resonate on TikTok, and vice versa. Tailoring your content to fit the platform is essential.
9. Playing it too safe. I always tell clients you can't beat the competition by copying them. Here's some ways to stop playing it safe on social.
The best CEOs and Founders on social media aren’t just posting content—they’re starting conversations.
They’re showing up consistently.
They’re being real.
They’re making people think.
If you want to build a personal brand that actually matters, focus less on yourself —and more on how you show up for your audience.
Note: This blog is copyright of The Brand Audit. We would love you to share this content, but please always credit any ideas shared to Christina Minshull or The Brand Audit. Unauthorized copying is a violation of intellectual property law and may result in legal action.
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