Individuals are Using Pinterest to Showcase their Personal Brands

Pinterest

A lot of small business owners use Pinterest mainly as a tool to socialize while getting creative, not realizing that the social media site also offers a lot in terms of positive business exposure that can help them expose their creative talents to the world. Much has been said about the commercial potential of Pinterest for the small business owner. In most cases, business owners use the site as a virtual gallery for products and services. However, Pinterest can also be used on a more personal level, as a way for you to expose your brand to potential customers. It is easy for small business owners to showcase their personal sides through their talents. While these talents may be unrelated to the business, they can reveal a brand’s deeper side that may be attractive to potential customers and even investors. Pinterest serves as a great platform for artwork, crafts, and other interests that reveal to customers another side of your creativity. Marketing in the internet always … [Read more...]

Market the Solution Called You

Build your personal brand

Reaching people is one thing but what do you say when you have their attention?  Focus on discovering and communicating your personal brand so you’ll know what and how to market yourself as an individual. Your reputation determines what people think about you and whether they like you or not. If you can get people to like you, then eventually they will begin to trust you as a person, and your expertise in a certain area. Build a personal brand The concept of building a personal brand may sound a bit weird at the beginning - after all, people usually frown upon a person who likes to extol his own virtues. Give the matter some deeper thought, and you will recognize that personal branding is an integral part of many influential sectors of society, like politics, show business, sports, and so on. Actors, singers, politicians, and activists are people who have managed to create a phenomenal brand image of themselves. These people play pivotal roles in the affairs of the world and … [Read more...]

International Bestselling Author, CC Chapman, Makes Amazing Things Happen at Reach Interview

CC Chapman Reach Interview

Stuck in neutral and feeling unfulfilled, you find yourself rummaging through the self-help section at your local bookstore. Suddenly a book title catches your attention and you pull it off the shelf as though you were handling a new born baby. Could this be it? Could this self-help book actually help you, help you? If that book is entitled Amazing Things Will Happen then the answer is yes! Although the international bestselling author, C.C. Chapman never really set out to populate the shelves of the "self-help" section, he managed to package some modern wisdom into a modest sized publication sure to inspire positive change in your life. Indeed, the self-help section is the last place C.C. ever wanted to find someone reading his book. The project actually started out as a way for him to pass down some fatherly wisdom to his kids. To be honest, when I found out my favorite content marketing strategist was writing a self-help book, I cringed. After publishing the wildly … [Read more...]

Permission Marketing and Building a Band of Supporters

email marketing

First off, permission marketing pertains to delivering relevant and personal messages to people who actually wish to receive them. Marketers realize that getting an individual’s close attention is a rare and precious opportunity, and thus when it happens should not be wasted. Permission is usually not obtained easily and takes time as the target person has to be won over bit by bit. Once a business has the attention of its target audience, one thing that the business will notice is that permission is cost effective. You can use email and RSS feeds to deliver your message to the people who have agreed to listen to you. Subscriptions ensure you have a loyal and valuable audience. However, getting to such a level where you have an audience of loyal customers takes patience and humility. If you’re an entrepreneur, how you conduct your business will reflect even more so on your personal brand. Permission Email Marketing Tips to Help Exude Your Personal Brand The … [Read more...]

The F-Bomb Loses More than it Gains

How profanity affects your personal brand

Have you ever been tempted to use the “f” word in the office, a meeting, or in a presentation? Even if a select few think you're cool or entertaining because you dropped the f-bomb, it’s guaranteed that the majority of onlookers will judge you harshly. Here are just four reasons why you should never use the f-bomb in a business environment. You come across as inarticulate A good number people use profane words when they can't think of a suitable word or sentence to express their point. When you drop the f-bomb, people may assume that you cussed because you have a limited vocabulary. If your colleagues or boss label you as inarticulate, they'll be unlikely to trust higher level work to you or let you give important presentations. People label you as immature If you think dropping the f-bomb is cool, people will think that you have an immature sense of humor and don't take your career seriously. Remember, you're not a teenager anymore and swearing in a business … [Read more...]

Turning Negatives into Positives

negatives to positives

Experience negative situations is a challenge for all of us. We focus on what could go wrong rather than looking at what will go right. This tends to break the focus from working to achieve a goal to trying to avoid failure. Unfortunately, this is exactly what leads to failure. Consider yourself driving down the road. Off to the side, a plastic bag floats by and offers a distraction from the road. More often than not if you follow the plastic bag, you start subconsciously drifting towards it rather than keeping your eyes on the road ahead. The same applies to life and business; focusing on what could go wrong will lead you off the road to success. Negative thinking Seeing or anticipating the worst in every situation, leads you to focus on what needs to happen for a project to fail. Small issues that lie ahead could pose a threat, but how you handle them makes all the difference. Often, a negative individual will complain about the problem. Perhaps there’s too much to do and … [Read more...]

Keeping Yourself Top of Mind

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One of the greatest challenges faced is constantly being able to keep yourself top of mind to those you would like to connect with, work with or do business with. Due to the vastness of the online world, keeping your personal brand on the minds of your audience takes great skill and employing the right techniques. Get under the spotlight First of all, you need to know where the limelight is at the moment, because that’s where you want to be. The ideal method is to utilize keyword searches to uncover new trends, primarily through social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+. These sites constantly update the latest information and the hottest topics being discussed. You’ll have to do a round-up of the news from around the web. After that, consider what topics the industry leaders are covering at the moment and how you fit into those emerging trends. Consider what unique experiences you have that would blend with such trends. Can you apply your brand to … [Read more...]

Video – Your Personal Brand’s Killer-App

  In number 10 of my 10 Personal Branding Trends for 2013  I share with you how easy it has become to build your brand with moving pictures. In my new book, Ditch. Dare. Do! with Deb Dib, we devoted an entire chapter to video (video bios, thought-leadership videos, video proposals, etc.). If you have attended any of my keynotes, you’ve heard me expound the virtues of video. In case you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan of video!!! That’s because it allows you to deliver a complete, compelling communication while making your message stand out. Have you incorporated video into your personal branding strategy? VideoBio, a Reach partner and an amazing company headed by a great CEO, Catharine Fennell is having a 50% off sale – so if you’re thinking about video, now’s the time for your close-up! www.videobio.com for more info. Here's a link to the motion graphic video VideoBio created for Reach for the launch of 360Reach R6.0: … [Read more...]

People Do Business with People – Still

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With all the technological advances the modern world has to offer (mobile Internet, social networking, and even the classic email list), brands often find themselves focused on a power screen, working to improve their online statistic numbers- rather than the people and individuals that make up those statistics. What businesses should realize though, is that each one of those individuals in the online world is a person, and it is with people that you do business with, regardless of the medium chosen to deliver the message to them. Connecting with business relationships First of all, it’s essential that any brand focus its efforts on making connections with the right networks. With social and other online networking tools, it’s easy to get caught up talking with just about everyone. However, most of those conversations don’t offer the valuable connections your brand needs to succeed. Focusing your efforts on specific groups and individuals will allow you to develop … [Read more...]

Trend #10: Video – Personal Branding Trends for 2013

picture of a movie set clapboard

I have been touting the importance of video as a personal branding tool non-stop for the last three years, and its time has come. Creating, posting, sharing, and promoting your videos has become extremely easy. For example, until just a few weeks ago, it was a challenge getting video into your LinkedIn profile using SlideShare (owned by LinkedIN) or Behance. Now, you can just click on the video symbol while editing your profile, provide the web address of your video and presto: embedded video. Every aspect of creating and using video has become much easier! Whether real-time, ad-hoc, or studio produced, there was always some roadblock to using video. That’s no longer the case. Virtually every computer and tablet comes with a video camera. Google+ Hangouts make real-time group video conferences a snap. Services from videoBIO allow you to quickly create, edit and post professional videos from your home or office. They also offer a service that enables you to produce videos and embed … [Read more...]