You Are The Product

February 16, 2012 By 5 Comments
In today’s highly competitive world, everyone claims to be the go-to person in their chosen niche. So-called “gurus” are a dime a dozen. This is why it can be tricky to stand out among all the competition. As a personal brand, you need to understand and utilize different platforms well in order to separate yourself from the crowd.

Social media is definitely one of the things that you need to use effectively in order to position yourself as the expert in your niche. Establishing a presence there is not enough – you need to know how to communicate and engage with your audience well.

Simply put, it is not enough to simply be yourself. You need to realize that you are the product – you need to be able to sell yourself to people, to keep them coming back for more. Otherwise, you are just going to be another faceless, nameless voice in social media, trying to get yourself heard over all the other noise.

So how do you become the product? What are the things you can do to engage your audience and keep them interested?

1.   Know your audience

In order to effectively sell yourself, you need to know and understand your audience. You have to find out what they like and what interests them, and then figure out how to build a relationship with them through the things you’ve discovered.

A simple thing you can do is to ask questions. People in social media enjoy answering questions, especially when it’s relevant to them. The more answers you get, the more you understand your audience and what you can do to engage them. Social media has really made things easier since it lets you communicate with your audience directly and get inspiration from them.

2.    Get the conversation going

True product engagement means that people are talking, debating and arguing about you. In social media, the more people who are talking about your brand, the more that they will attract other people who are likely to be interested in following you as well.

How exactly do you do this? Create polls, host contests, get your audience’s opinion, and always remember to reply to comments and mentions of your brand. Basically, you need to pay attention to your audience and communicate with them through social media. Don’t let any response to your brand be ignored. Even a mere thank you or show of appreciation can help the conversation get started about your brand.

3.   Remember to include a “call to action”

Sometimes, your audience needs a little nudge to start commenting and participating in your social media discussions, so don’t be afraid to ask them to like, re-tweet or comment on your posts if they enjoyed it.  Of course, remember not to do this on every little post of yours, since that can become annoying. But occasionally, it really helps to tell people to comment or like what you’ve written to get things going.

4.   “A picture equals a thousand words”

There’s a reason why this saying exists, and it’s because the majority of people are more drawn to visual images as compared to written words. Think of Facebook and how people who post interesting, intriguing or even shocking pictures get the most number of comments and likes. Of course, as a personal brand, it’s important to stay away from posting anything offensive. But the point is, pictures typically evoke a sharper reaction from people as opposed to written words.

Since you are the product in social media, posting interesting pictures that represent you and your brand can help you stand out and be noticed. Remember to make sure that they’re relevant to your niche – don’t simply post things that are intriguing but have nothing to do with you, since this wouldn’t help your personal brand.

It’s all about engagement

When it comes to social media and personal branding, it’s not just about you. There has to be something about what you do that makes people connect and relate with you.

The key here is engagement. As a personal brand, you are the product – so you have to offer your audience something that makes them want to “buy” you or listen to you.

Think of the well-known personal brands out there. What makes them stand out? What makes them so special? These people know how to sell. They know how to convince others of their expertise. Their personal brand has become a product that people want.

So make sure you know your audience, get the conversation going about your brand, contribute with value in a meaningful way, include a call to action, and utilize visual images to engage your audience. By always remembering that you’re the product, you can learn how to sell yourself so that people will stand up and listen.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Does Your Brand Suffer From These 5 Email Mistakes?

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Email is an extension of your brand.  It counts as a conversation.  Sometimes people even refer to it as “having a conversation” with someone.

As the manager of our personal brand, we must be diligent in insuring that this tool shows our best side and gives that great first and lasting impression.

Are you guilty of….

Long and unclear messages – with the volume of emails that people are receiving these days, we have one chance to get their attention. When they open their mail and see that it’s long, there’s a big chance that they’ll scan it a little before deciding to save it for later reading. This is fine but there’s also a great chance that they’ll never get back to it. What you can do is make it clear and concise. Use bullet points to highlight your ideas to make your message easier to understand. Make it short and direct to the point.

I’m personally guilty of this. It comes from many years writing formal letters. Email is such different animal. I recently read a recommendation that we need keep emails to three sentences – anything more than that then we need to pick up the phone. There’s a challenge!

Sending without checking for errors – it is important that we check and double check our message before sending it out. Readers are taking their time to know us; we don’t want bad grammar and misused words to get in the way because this will reflect back on our brand. Tt makes us unreliable. Take that extra time to reread the message before sending it out because once you hit send, there’s no way to get it back for corrections.

Inaccurate and unclear subject lines –this is important because this line is responsible for attracting our readers to open our message. If we give them generic and a poorly worded subject line, there’s a big chance that they won’t open the email. The subject line should be a sentence that describes your message, like a teaser and what to expect when they open their email. Writing specific subjects will also save your message from being marked as spam.

Shortcuts and abbreviations – never use shortcuts or abbreviated words for business messages. Not everyone can understand abbreviated words or shortcuts, like those that are used for text messaging. Use of such a style is also too informal and can be misinterpreted as unprofessional or unreliable. Make sure that you spell all words out correctly and eliminate grammatical errors. Any email message that has no shortcuts or abbreviated words is more appealing to readers because it displays professionalism and makes our brand trustworthy.

Not being careful with your content – it is important that we review our message and think about the content that we are going to include. If we are going to include links in our message, let’s make sure that we link our customers to the right site. If we are going to attach an image or video, let’s make sure that it will greatly benefit the receiver.  And, leave the animated images off of any email.

These five common email mistakes can be avoided if we take the time to review our messages properly before sending them out. Ask someone how you can simplify your message so that readers will have an easier time understanding it. Then make use of bullet points to make your ideas clear. Read and reread your message.  Use your Twitter skills to make the message even more concise!

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Media Trends and Your Personal Brand

February 2, 2012 By 4 Comments

Media is changing and it is changing fast. Just when you get the hang of using one tool to use for your marketing strategy and to get you closer to your customers, a new one is introduced. Consumers like media and when something new is introduced they get into it.  As a business owner, you are sometimes pressured to try the latest as well, to catch up with consumer trends. If you want to get consumers, you have to be where they are.

Here are some media trends that will hit big this 2012. Take a look at how these media types are going to help your business:

SMS – people like being mobile, we prey on convenience. In the last decade, mobile phones changed the way people communicate and because most consumers have mobile phones, text messaging as a marketing strategy is going to be big this year. By texting, you reach out to your consumers faster. When they hear the beep, they read your message. As per email, it might take a while before they can read your message, especially when they don’t open their emails on a regular basis.

Mobile compatibility – if you have a website, you want to make sure that it is mobile compatible. A lot of people are jumping into using smartphones. They want to be able to access their social media accounts even when they are on the go. They want to be able to read their emails and browse websites without having to pull up their computers. When your website is mobile compatible, this means that you are not giving your customers a hard time accessing your website. Again, convenience. You also increase your chances of making a sale.

Facebook – Facebook is not going anywhere, as a matter of fact it’s still growing. It’s still a great place to connect with your audience and a chance to convert them into customers. Make sure to strategize on how you can make the site work for your business needs.

Pinterest – this is a new site that has great potential for businesses. The concept is to “Pin” images that interests you. Your followers can see what you are pinning and they can like, comment, and “Repin” your image. You can even organize your interests into “Boards”. The “Board” is where you can pin images depending on each board topic. It’s a place where you can post images of your products or services and let your customers see what you are offering.

Gamification – consumers like to participate in games and if you gamify your business, you have more customers getting involved. The concept of gamifying is earning something, like points and prizes. FourSquare is a good example. Companies are integrating FourSquare into their business by rewarding those who checked-in with points and badges. When you reach a certain number of points or a certain badge, you get discounts on products or services.

Using video – videos can help your business in a lot of ways. You can use them to educate and train, and as a means to communicate with your customers. Learn how to make use of videos as web content. Instead of articles, why not make short videos to give out tips? They don’thave to be long; you can do something instructional in less than 3 minutes. Consumers like watching how things are done. This is also their way of seeing you and getting to know you more.

You don’t have to be on everything but you can try to mix these options up and see which combinations give you the most benefits.

What combos are you using?

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

You Are What You Text

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Everything we say or do represents our brand. We make an impression on others when we communicate with them, whatever way we do that. When you post your contact details on your webpage or people find them on your social media site, they will try to reach you personally. Some customers would prefer to text message you to ask about basic things. Your reply is going to be crucial because it may be the only chance you have with that person. You want to make a strong first impression even when it’s through text messaging.

When you decide to place your mobile number out there for your customers, you have to be ready to communicate with them effectively. Keep in mind that all those who reach you are potential customers. A mobile phone is different from a computer – it’s harder to write messages on smaller devices, especially without the keyboard. Make sure to use it wisely.

Here are some tips on how you can make an impression through text messaging:

Turn off your auto correct – all phones come with auto correct; it’s a feature that is supposed to help a user text faster because of the predefined words saved on the phone. However, auto correct jokes are becoming a form of entertainment today because of how wrongly the words are placed in the text. Since you are doing business, it’s better to turn your auto correct off so you don’t risk saying the wrong things to your recipient. But be sure to still spell your words correctly, no shortcuts because this can be really annoying to someone who is isn’t especially experienced in using “text language”.

Keep it short and simple – typing is hard, and since your auto correct is turned off, keep your message short and simple. It will save you and your recipient time and energy. Give them what they need, or you can ask them if you can call to further explain your answer. Make sure to review your message before you hit send. You don’t want your customer to be misled in any way.

Check the recipient – after checking your message and you’re ready to send it, check the recipient. Sometimes we’re busy thinking about other things that we send messages to wrong recipients. It’s an easy away to keep a good impression with everyone you’re connected with especially when you have numbers of your customer saved on your phone. You don’t want them getting the wrong message. If you are the one who receives a wrong message, respond to that message to inform him/her that they sent a message to the wrong person.

Be courteous – at all times. Take note of your tone when you are composing a text message, make sure that your recipient doesn’t get a chance to misinterpret it. When you know that they don’t have your number, do introduce yourself before proceeding with your message. Also, when you’re in a face-to-face conversation with someone, text messaging is as rude as taking a voice call. Choose a proper time to respond.

Time of response – Watch the time you respond to a text message. Waking someone up or texting late comes with a lasting impression on who you are as a person.

Don’t depend on text messages – text messaging is informal. And, don’t deliver bad news using text. Or, anything that could be misinterpreted – the smartphone can still be used as a phone.

Be patient – when you send text messages, don’t expect your recipient to receive your message right away. Just like you, your recipient might be busy with their daily tasks. There are a lot of factors that can prevent them from responding to you quickly. It’s either they haven’t received the message because of their carrier, or they are out of coverage, or it’s your network that’s not pushing the message to your phone. If it’s an urgent matter, try other means.

Texting and forms of it will be here for a while.  Master it so that your brand expression matches your brand.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Do You Make These 5 Social Media Mistakes?

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Personal Brands are taking their brands online as a marketing strategy. It’s easy to set up and is designed to be user friendly. The space is really enticing but there are hazards when taking your brand on social media sites.  If you have social media sites, check out this five common social media mistakes that businesses are committing when taking their business online.

Flooding/Spamming – it’s great that you are sending out helpful messages but don’t overdo it. Customers hate it when you flood their emails about promos, or flood your Twitter or Facebook account about everything and anything.  We don’t need another quotable quote.

Often, the mistake is not purposeful spamming, rather it’s that we get so busy and then remember our social networks and flood them with a series of posts that occur all in the same day, or worse yet, within the same hour!    Avoid posting them all in a day and then being idle for days at a time. Create a calendar to schedule your posts if you have to. This will make your social media site active at all times and your connections will see you as consistent and engaging.

Posting inappropriate content – this is common sense. You wouldn’t want your customers, clients, supervisors or colleagues to see things that can destroy your brand reputation. However, there are things that may arise like a colleague posting a video about the crazy things they do at work or post comments on Twitter that other connections might not get (like inside jokes with other employees). Keep a forever vigilant “brand listening station” set up so that you’ll be aware of any posts that show up with your name associated with it.

No social media presence – it’s great that you now have social media accounts and you did well in gaining followers – now what? A common mistake is to  get into the social media platform just because others are doing it. Posting on Twitter or Facebook every once in a while is alright depending on the purpose and strategy that you have in utilizing the social network,  but being idle and posting once a month is not. Before getting a social media account, plan how you’re going to use it and what you would like to gain from additional brand awareness.

Deleting comments – social media sites are a good place to get feedback and ideas on how you can improve your brand. If someone voices a sincere dislike or concern about something you are doing or you are associated with, as long as it doesn’t infringe upon privacy,  do not delete their comments.

Mismanagement of site – remember that your social media site is a platform for your brand. Whatever is posted or talked about there reflects your brand. If you are going to let someone handle your Twitter or Facebook account, make sure that you train them well. Teach them how to use the sites and let them read about good customer service practices (even if you’re not online to gain customers – customer service principals deliver vital communication and listening skills that will be an asset).  Educate them that it’s not just about posting anything to make your site active. They must know how to address connections when interacting with them.

Your online first impression is even more lasting than your offline first impression.  What do you do to ensure that you manage it well?

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

How to End Brand Confusion

January 12, 2012 By 4 Comments

Building your brand is not easy. If your business or profession has a lot of competition, it is up to you to communicate effectively what is  unique to your brand that will make it stand out from the rest. Recently speaking at a conference for realtors, I asked a realtor what made her different from the others in the room.  Her answer, “We can all pretty much do the same thing.”

Customers will slip away just because they think you are the same as the others around or in your profession.   In order to find that unique identity, your niche, you have to know who your target market is. Knowing who your customers are will give you an idea of what works best for them. It will help you fine tune your message so you can even visualize that you are speaking directly to one specific person.  This will allow you to concentrate on one thing – that one thing that will give your brand an edge.

Define your brand

For your business to stand out, you have to create and define your brand. If you already have one and you think it’s time for some change, add something new to your menu or to your services. You want your customers to experience something new to them. So even if you’re just another business around town, you’ll be the first choice when they think about something that your business offers.

Here are a few things that you can do to avoid brand confusion:

Make your customers feel welcome – when a customer comes into your establishment, make them feel that they are welcome. This applies also to when they visit your online establishment or online social media pages.  This is your chance to make a lasting impression about your brand. When a customer feels that they are welcome from the time they enter your establishment up until they step out, they will definitely think of you again. Find ways you can uniquely make your customers feel welcome, something that is appropriate in your business. Take a risk and try new things!

Excellent customer service – no less. Without customers, our businesses are nothing. Always provide excellent customer service because this aspect is what makes the sale. If your customer feels that you are doing everything that is expected from you and more, they will feel that they are taken care of. Even if you charge a bit higher than the rest, you’ll be surprised at how much customers are willing to pay to experience excellent customer service. Take more initiative and ask them what they need before they approach and ask you.

Consistency – once you find your niche, you want to do it consistently. (For definition:  Niche is what you do so well and is uniquely you; Target Market is who you do it to or for).  Now that you’ve made a good impression, stay engaged with your connections. With every interaction, you are either building up your relationship or tearing it down.

Extras – because the little things add up. There are a lot of ways to give your customers an excellent experience. You can ask for and use their names when you’re serving them, adding a personal touch to the experience. You can also create a customer database and gather your customers’ contact details. With a database, you can send emails or cards to your customers for birthdays or holidays. You can send them information about new promos or the latest on your menu. Doing the little extras to make your customers feel that you appreciate them will not only set you apart from the others, but will give you a chance to gain loyal customers.

Now thrive!

Ending brand confusion is important if we want our business  or profession to survive and succeed. If we give our customers something great to differentiate our business from the rest and consistently provide that, we are positioning our brand at the top of their list. That’s why it’s important to keep innovating, to keep working on how our customers can add value and attach meaning to our personal brand and our business products and services.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Persistent and Consistent Action

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Let’s not forget “auld acquaintances” as we start 2012.   Let’s vow to stay connected and more deeply engaged. After all, it’s with the people that are already connected and sold on who we are that we will find better conversations and better referrals.

The challenge is how to do this on a consistent basis. Relationships are built on interaction and developing trust, and part of having that is being involved in some type of action that’s persistent so you are not forgotten (nor they)!

Rekindle old connections – Facebook is a great place to find old friends. Sometimes, our tendency is to just add them, but we never find the time to get in touch with them, even via the chat feature. Get in touch with someone you haven’t spoken to in years. Ask them how they are and what they’re doing these days. It’s about making connections because there is always someone out there who is willing to help your business. Why not an old friend?

Cull your database – Even though I don’t use the database customer relationship management tool, Goldmine, I appreciate the name because in one word it speaks the truth – there’s a Goldmine in your database if you will spend time in there.

Did you know that 67% of the people in your database neither live in the same place they used to, work at the same place, have the same phone number or email address, or are “dead” (yes, they are deceased)?  It’s time to cull through your database and see who you really know.  What may seem like “I just spoke to him yesterday,” may in actuality show that you haven’t spoken to him in two years.  Over time, when a relationship ceases to be mutually beneficial to both people involved, somebody leaves.  It’s just a fact of life – for businesses, marriages and friendships.

Sadly, this is where most people become lost in the task rather thea in the doing. When you encounter that you don’t have the correct or updated information on someone, then we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to update and find that information that we lose the passion behind the prompting to connect or reach out to them.

Identify what you need to find out and update, and then plan 15 minutes every day to gather that information.  Even if it’s a quick phone call, email or contact another person who might know the updated information (or perhaps it’s just you checking the emails where people sent you updates and plugging it into your database), find and take the time to do it.  It will make a remarkable difference to your year!

Send a personal note – a part of great interaction, relationships development or customer service is making your contacts and customers feel that they are special, and what better way to do this but by sending them handwritten thank you notes. It is personalized and it’s random. And, sadly, it rarely happens so you will stand out uniquely over anyone else they interact with.

These are simple tips but they will make a difference in the way you do business. It will add a unique taste to how you approach your connections and customers and this adds more value to you, your company, your products and services.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Are You Really Linking On LinkedIn?

December 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

Setting up a LinkedIn group offers great advantages to any business person, if done right. Some of the advantages of starting a group include building thought leadership, connecting to a community, driving traffic to own website, the ability to send personalized messages to the group and subgroup, and helping others. If groups are managed right, member count can grow up to hundreds of thousands. Having this many members in a group already gives you a place where you can market a product or service, depending on your goals.

Once you have created a group and you are gaining members, you want to have continuous interaction happening inside the community you just built. A lot of groups on LinkedIn start off strong then slowly die because of inactivity. You do not want this to happen to your group. Every leader should find ways to keep a group active.

Here are some ways to stimulate interaction in your LinkedIn group:

Interesting articles – create and post interesting articles that you think your members will find helpful, engaging, and entertaining. Think of at least 30 topics, and let your content send a message that tells something about your group. You can write the articles or ask someone to write them for you. You can also link articles from other blogs that you think will be of interest to your members. Posting articles in your group will create interaction when your members start commenting on your posts.

Post questions in the Discussions – make use of this space as a chance to interact with your members. In addition to your articles, create questions that will engage your members to participate in your group. Be creative and add interesting news for your members and encourage them to comment on it.

Encourage members to also post questions in the Discussions. When they do, make sure to take the time to personally answer these questions. This ensures your members that you are always there to provide them with what they need. You can also ask experts to answer questions posted on the Discussions board or write the name of an expert that is a member of your group if they can answer a question. This will serve as public praise, a way to make members feel that they are important.

Seek expert advice – in your group, find and ask experts to guest post in your group or look for an external guest speaker for an event set for your group. Be resourceful. You can try connecting with a foreigner and invite them to talk at your event.

Write about group events – If you organized a coming event for you group, write about it and entice your members to participate. After an event, write a review and ask members to comment on the review. This will give you feedback and let other members know what is happening in your community.

Send messages to members – this is a fast way to encourage members to participate in discussions. Make sure to do this when you have a really interesting discussion going on under a topic.

Manage Discussions – there may be times that members will post “inappropriate” messages in your Discussions. You can manage them by explaining that Discussions is not the place for such messages. Managing undesirable messages will make your group a more productive one and will make your members happy.

Help build connections – help members connect with other members. If you meet someone, offline or online, introduce them to a member that you think will be interested in using Magic Mail. This will leave your group with happy members that keep renewing their membership.
You can also introduce your members to other groups by suggesting them as experts in LinkedIn’s “Answers” tab.

Periodic announcement – as the leader of your group, you are allowed to send an email to the group once a week. Doing this might serve as encouragement to those members who no longer frequent the group. But be cautious about the content because you might be marked as a spammer if your content already appears in your weekly digest.

Take advantage of News Feeds – make use of the RSS functionality of blogs and websites that fit your group. Setting up the feeds will allow a stream of content from these sites to appear to your group. You can set this up by going to the “Manage” tab.

Feature interesting topics from your Discussion – as a group leader, you can select discussion topics and feature them as Manager’s Choice. Your chosen topic will appear on the group home page. It is one way of attracting your members to join discussions.

Organize events – if you have the time and resources, organize events where members can get a chance to meet each other. This will strengthen the bond of your group, and at the same time will increase your network’s value.

Market your LinkedIn group – spread the word that you are managing a LinkedIn group. You can do this by integrating the group to your website or include the group link on your other social media sites. Doing this will show group discussions on your sites and will attract interested individuals to join the discussion.

Ask members to help out with the group – you can give official roles to willing members. Ask them if they want to help out in maintaining continuous interaction within the community. Members who feel more involved have higher chances of contributing to the group.

These are just a few ways to keep your group alive. If there is continuous interaction in your group, the more ideas you will gather from your members. This could lead to the possibility of membership growth. Useful information will keep flowing, helping you and your members learn something new each day. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s features to connect with possible customers. Create a group, build, and take care of it because your network will play a big part in achieving your business goals.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Guest Blog Your Personal Brand

December 22, 2011 By 4 Comments

Having a business is about creating products and services, generating sales, striving to get customers at all times, and making your customers happy with what you are offering. Having a business means the need for a good marketing strategy to spread awareness and generate sales. The online market is a great place where you can build your brand and reach out to millions of consumers worldwide.

Businesses are creating websites with blogs as a place to talk about their products and services. As a marketing strategy, they expose brands on social media sites to get connected with customers and get feedback from them. With a well planned blog, you can generate search engine traffic, products and services exposure, and a way to connect with others that are interested in your business.

A good blog has to have great content in order to attract an audience. Keep them entertained while giving practical advice and something that will help them. Create content with great value, content that talks about your business and passions. Write about the things that you learned and share them with your audience.

As part of maintaining a blog for your audience, you want to give them variety. You can do this by guest blogging your personal brand or asking others to guest blog for you. You can ask other blogs, those who share your interests and can help your business, with a large following, to write for you or feature your article on their site. Build a network with other blogs to help you generate traffic to your site. Post quality content as a way to reach out to consumers and build brand awareness. Guest blogging is about building relationships with possible benefits of generating traffic, getting quality backlinks, and gaining brand exposure.

Guest blogging is a marketing strategy and here are some reasons why you should guest blog your personal brand:

Great search marketing – guest blogging will give you lots of high quality links and high quality content. This will increase your brand value and will generate quality traffic to your blog. If you can hold your visitors’ interest, there is the possibility of converting them to subscribers. Guest blogging is also the easiest way to build quality backlinks to your blog.

Gain exposure – if you create quality content and blogs and others find your work interesting, they might publish it on their website and this will gain you exposure. If your article gains a lot of recognition, then you are already building your brand. Use your articles to make an impression and a chance to gain more subscribers to your blog.

Gain credibility – once you have gained exposure and prove that your content is credible, you increase your chances of getting shared with others. If bigger blogs find your work helpful, and see that they can trust and count on you, they will surely help you promote your blog.
Building relationships – guest blogging or getting guest bloggers for your site builds relationship. It also increases your network and your audience.

As part of a marketing strategy, you want to guest blog on sites that have high traffic and large followings. This increases your chances of directing others to your blog and getting your brand known. As a tip, target media sites and associations, find blogs who you like and would like to know. If you want to ask a blogger to guest at your site, start building a relationship with the blog by commenting on their articles or sharing links to your site to let them know that you share their interest or that they might find something of the same nature in your blog. Connect with other blogs by promoting them on social media sites. Get them to guest blog for you by asking them politely.

Guest blogging is a beneficial marketing strategy. Even though you are doing it for free, you are building something more important that will come of value to your business in the long run. Like anything else in the business industry, it takes time and proper planning to execute such strategies. If you target the right blogs, you have a higher chance of spreading the word about your brand. Invest your time in writing high quality content to help build credibility. Keep your blog up-to-date and build a mailing list. Get on your Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep in touch with your subscribers. Give them what they want, something that will be useful to them, keep them interested and you will gain their loyalty and expand your audience.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,

Twitter Face Time

December 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

Social media has quickly become one of the most popular platforms for brands to reach out to their consumers. More and more brands are scrambling to ensure that they have a social media presence, so they can get ahead of their competitors and get their share of the market.

The thing about social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is the fact that it’s so easy for brands to create their accounts there and start getting likes and followers. But the question is, do consumers really want to engage with brands via social media?

According to a recent global study done by TNS Digital Life, 57% of people in mature markets are just not interested in connecting with brands through social media. Americans (60%) and Britons (61%) are particularly disinterested in having brands occupy their social space – so should brands continue using these platforms to connect with consumers?

The answer is yes, of course, but the challenge for brands is to offer social networking users value and engagement, not just simply adding to the vast noise that can be found online. When you simply add to the digital waste that can be found on the Internet, it’s not really going to help your campaign in promoting your brand and increasing your sales.

Social media is slowly becoming a congested market, where brands are jockeying for position to ensure that the content they offer is seen by consumers. But the problem is, many brands are treating social media like traditional media even though the platform is completely different. They think of social media as a place to broadcast content and promote their products, but these aren’t what users are looking for when they follow your brand.

You need to ask yourself why people are using social media. And that’s why you need to go beyond broadcasting and marketing to connecting and engaging. You want to communicate with your consumers, understand what they want, and view your offerings from their perspective. You have to learn to identify what tickles their emotions, what starts the conversation going, and what makes them respond with conviction and passion.

One of the very simple ways you can do this is to make sure that your brand doesn’t hide behind a logo – nowadays, consumers want to know with whom they’re interacting with. They don’t want to talk to a faceless, nameless entity on Twitter or Facebook. They want to see the face behind who’s talking, they want to like and get to know you, not just interact with a business. This may be a bit impossible to do with large, multinational brands, but SMBs can definitely utilize this effectively to help consumers identify with their brand better.

This is because people enjoy forming personal connections in these social networks. This is the main reason they sign up – to connect with friends, families, colleagues, meet new people and get to know them, etc. Having a friendly, smiling face in your Twitter profile is definitely going to be a lot more personal than a logo.

Brands need to be authentic in social media. They need to offer value first before even attempting to sell something. Though many people may be disenchanted with connecting with brands through social media, it is interesting to note that TNS Digital Life also reported that 47% of people comment about brands online. Consumers are open to talking about brands in social networking sites and they enjoy sharing their opinions. The key thing to note here is that people want to be heard – they’re tired of the monologue of traditional media. Social media allows them to engage brands in meaningful, two-way conversations.

So stop hiding behind your logo, and stop adding to the endless barrage of noise on the Internet that doesn’t really resonate with consumers and simply adds to the digital waste online. Be personal and interactive – listen and collaborate with your audience. Encourage the building of a community around your brand where people can share their opinions and be heard.

Award your most loyal followers and brand advocates with rewards and special offers. These are the people who can really influence others through their personal interactions with them.

Make sure that your social media pages offer your audience something that’s mutually beneficial to you both, not just simply what’s best for your brand. You need to celebrate what people are doing, and collaborate with them about content to be shared in your pages. Truly, the more personal you are with your interactions via social media, the better for your brand.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , ,
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