23 November, 2022
Amanda Williams is a political and corporate communications expert and the founder and director of Yellowpanda Agency.
Before establishing Yellowpanda in 2018, Amanda spent over six years working in political communications - including for the federal government’s media team - where she was responsible for creating authentic and engaging public profiles for politicians.
As a passionate supporter of small businesses and entrepreneurship, Amanda left her career behind to start a company that specialises in building and managing the personal brands of business leaders across the country.
You started out in political communications — could you share some highlights from this time?
Perhaps the biggest highlight was working on the 2013 Federal election campaign as the local media officer for the most-watched seat in the country.
During the 6 years I worked in political communications, I developed a very broad skill-set across publicity, legislation analysis, speech writing, lobbying, social media content creation and management, website development and building local issue campaigns within the community.
One of the biggest highlights for me was visiting local businesses and industry with Ministers and organising press calls to help them tell their stories. This is where I realised I wanted to step away from politics to help raise business visibility full-time.
On Yellow Panda's website it says you are viewed as an authority in the personal branding space, and I can see you have a significant Instagram following. Where do you think personal branding on social media is headed in the next year or so? Are we moving away from Instagram, or will the platform/users adapt to new trends?
Instagram is definitely moving to be more creator-focused, which is great for personal brands. Of course, Tik Tok has made disruptive waves in social media - we can no longer ignore it! Some may even argue that Tik Tok not only celebrates storytellers but has inspired Reels and the rise of video content on Instagram, which we later saw adopted by Facebook.
In the next year or so, we will see more founders jumping in front of the camera and sharing content online to build their public profiles and audiences. I'm definitely going to be kept busy building strategies for business leaders and developing authentic content engines to amplify them.
What advice would you give to someone trying to begin building their personal brand? How do you choose what or what not to share online?
The common misconception about personal brands is that all of a sudden, you're sharing every single detail about yourself with the public - and that's not what it's about.
There is a strategy to building a content machine from beginning to end, and I always recommend identifying any topics that are sacred or off-limits.
Once you've developed this list, you can start to think about the topics and content you'd like to develop and then run those ideas through the lens of the person you are creating it for to ensure it adds value to their lives.
I also recommend not posting anything that you wouldn't feel comfortable being plastered on a very public billboard with your face on it.
Beyond that, just be yourself.
Your perspective on the world and the experiences you've had are unique, and you will always be rewarded with equalness to uniqueness online.
While the saying "no publicity is bad publicity" has been around for some time, it perhaps has new currency among the flood of digital content competing for people's attention... What are your thoughts on this?
If the old currency is no publicity is bad publicity, then the new currency would be something like, there being nothing wrong with a little click-bait. But like bad publicity, which has the potential to damage your reputation, I feel clickbait can often come off as a manipulative tool to draw attention.
It can feel deceitful, and if you're trying to earn trust and build credibility as a leader, you need to consider this to ensure you are hooking people in with value, not bait.
What are you most proud of in the work that you do?
I am really proud of the work I do in empowering entrepreneurs to become thought leaders. I know one day I will look back on my work knowing I helped create the next generation of great business leaders like Branson.
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