Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs | The Personal Branding Blog

Do You Make These 5 Social Media Mistakes?

January 19, 2012 By Maria Elena Duron 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: maria elena duron, personal branding, social media mistakes

How to End Brand Confusion

January 12, 2012 By Maria Elena Duron 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.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: brand confusion, maria elena duron, personal branding

Persistent and Consistent Action

January 5, 2012 By Maria Elena Duron 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.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: maria elena duron, personal branding, relationships

Are You Really Linking On LinkedIn?

December 29, 2011 By Maria Elena Duron 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.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: LinkedIn, maria elena duron, personal branding

Guest Blog Your Personal Brand

December 22, 2011 By Maria Elena Duron 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.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: guest blogging, maria elena duron, personal branding

Twitter Face Time

December 15, 2011 By Maria Elena Duron 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.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: maria elena duron, personal branding blog, Twitter

Do Personal Brands Rebrand?

December 8, 2011 By Maria Elena Duron 6 Comments

With so many people in the world, it’s become quite important for you to stand out among the rest and show people what you’re all about. This is what’s called personal branding, and it’s a way for people to distinguish themselves from others, even those who have the same set of talents and skills. Why should a business get your services? Why should a company hire you? What makes you so special? Think of yourself as a product that you’re marketing to an audience – why should they buy you?

Though you may have defined your personal brand earlier on, having decided on the niche or industry you want to pursue and built an image around it, it shouldn’t mean that you should feel confined to that particular image. On the contrary, most people have realized that there first attempts at personal branding aren’t very successful, and so they have continually adapted and evolved until they finally find the image that really suits them. Products actually do this a lot as well – changing or evolving for the better (or sometimes worse) in order to cater to their chosen clientele better.

Is this what rebranding is all about?

So you may have started with a personal brand that you soon realized doesn’t exactly fit the image you want to portray now. You’ve already exerted a lot of effort in this branding campaign, only to find out that it just doesn’t click. So does this mean you need to rebrand yourself?

Actually, when you think about, your personal brand is still all about you. Maybe you want to change your focus, redefine your message, or you want to target a niche that’s more specific, but in the end, it’s still your story, your ideals, your values. That doesn’t change – and so as a personal brand, you don’t really have to rebrand per se, but you grow, evolve and blossom as you find a better focus on what you really want to stand for.

Let’s face it – brands, whether they’re personal or business ones, constantly need to adapt to the changing times to survive. Brands who remain stagnant, those who are unwilling or unable to budge from their current focus even as the rest of the world evolves, are the ones who gradually die out and lose their customers, because they are unable to adapt.

People continually reinvent themselves as they take on new challenges, get new jobs, or find better pastures in other fields. There are times when the changes are small, while some also have to make major changes in their lives so they can fully embrace what’s about to come.

But as your brand changes and evolves, how do you ensure that the transition is smooth and hassle-free? How do you keep your current audience while opening yourself up to new ones in your evolved personal brand?

Take small steps

You don’t have to do a complete 360-degree turn from your current personal brand. Actually, as you adapt to your newfound focus, it’s a lot better to take small steps and gradually change aspects of your brand one by one until you finally get to where you want to be.

First, make sure to define where exactly you want to focus your energies. Do your research, take classes, talk to people, make sure you understand the industry, and look for mentors within it. Ask yourself what you need to know, and what you can do to learn it. Then go from there.

Let your audience know what you’re doing

Though you may want to surprise your audience with the change in your personal brand, that may not be the best way of retaining their attention. Some of them may not take it well, especially if you’re really moving away from your current focus. The best way to ensure that you don’t alienate your audience is to let them know what you’re doing. Let them know that there’s going to be a change, but that it’s going to be for the better, and you hope that they stick around for it. They’ll surely be curious enough to wait around for the change in your personal brand.

It’s not about abandoning your old brand, but making sure it adapts to what you picture it to be

Truly, it’s not like shedding off your skin for a new one; it’s simply about making sure that your personal brand is what you really want it to be. Honestly, it’s not really about rebranding, but evolving and transitioning to an image that better represents you and what you do. The previous experiences you have can actually enhance what you can offer in the future, so make sure to use that to your advantage.

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: maria elena duron, personal branding, rebranding

Personal Branding Resources

December 1, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

These resources are brought to you by William Arruda as part of the Reach 10th Anniversary Celebration …

10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Reach Personal Branding
Top 10 Videos from Personal Branding TV
Top 10 Social Media Dos for A Successful Job Search
10 Ways to Give to Your Network

10 Days to Establishing and Achieving Your Goals
Top 10 Ways to Unearth The Brand Called YOU
Top 10 Most Viewed Commercial Breaks
10 Days to Understanding Your Professional Reputation
10 Ways to Build and Maintain Your Professional Network

10 Days to Writing a Compelling Branded Bio
10 Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career
Ten Most-Read Blog Posts from The Personal Branding Blog
10 Days to a Perfect Linkedin Profile
10 Tools For Creating a Website That Exudes Your Personal Brand

Ten Days to Creating Your Personal Brand Identity System
The Ten Most Re-Tweeted Tweets
Ten Tips Towards Career Reinvention
Ten Days to Positioning You and Your Brand
How Not to Build Your Personal Brand

Ten Most Listened-to Audios from the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series
Ten Reasons to Make 2012 The Year of Your Brand
Top Ten Willisms – William Arruda’s thoughts on Personal Branding

Filed Under: Discovering Your Brand, Employee Brand Activation, Employees Are The Brand, Everything is a Brand, Executive Branding, Expressing Your Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: branding, job search, LinkedIn, online identity, personal branding trends, social networking, Twitter, William Arruda

Ten Most Listened-to Audios from the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series

November 28, 2011 By William Arruda Leave a Comment

The Ten Most Listened-to Audios from the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series:

1. Daniel Pink Interview – DRIVE: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

2. Seth Godin Interview – Poke The Box

3. Jordan Friedman Interview – Leadership Is Stress Management

4. Marshall Goldsmith Interview – Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, author of MOJO: A New Approach to Increasing Engagement at Work and at Home

5. Stever Robbins Interview – Stever Robbins, author of Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More

6. Deb Dib & Susan Whitcomb Interview – Twitter Does Job Search: Reinventing Branded Career Communication, Twitter-Style

7. Gretchen Rubin Interview – The Happiness Project Revisited: The Social Engagement Journey

8. Stever Robbins Interview – Stever Robbins – Be More Productive While Working Less

9. Tony Beshara Interview – The Changing World of Resumes

10. Ken Blanchard Interview – Leading at a Higher Level

Filed Under: Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Personal Branding Trends, Reach 10th Anniversary Celebration Tagged With: personal branding, William Arruda

When You Are The Brand

November 24, 2011 By Maria Elena Duron 1 Comment

The marketplace is constantly changing. Though direct selling has been around for a very long time, direct sellers have to continually adapt to the changes and challenges of the current market in order to give high quality service to their customers and continue getting those sales.

As a direct seller, you have the unique challenge of representing both your company brand as well as your own. Even though you are selling your company’s products, you are the one who knows your customer, and you are the one that your customers trust. What makes you different from other direct sellers who sell the same products is the value you add to your customer interaction. And this is basically what is known as your personal brand.

Though customers nowadays place a lot of value in quality products that are low-priced and are convenient to order, they also place a lot of importance in the person they interact with in order to obtain those products. They are not convinced by advertising gimmicks or promotions anymore – they only buy from brands and people they know and trust.

That’s why as a direct seller, you can’t just represent your company brand. You need to be in charge of your personal brand as well, in order for people to know, like and trust you, in order for them to specifically buy from you and not from others. You are the one who needs to build a connection with your consumers, so you can enjoy a mutually satisfying relationship.

So how do you do this? Here are some tips to help you with your personal branding.

1. Make it a priority to help your customers

When it comes to direct selling, your customers should be your priority. So when you always prioritize helping your customers, even just by answering any questions they have and being honest and truthful with them, it really helps your personal brand. The more you add value to your interaction with them, the better it is for you.

You may encounter your share of dissatisfied customers, but it’s best not to see this as a problem. Instead, look at it as an opportunity for you to make things right for them. The worst thing you can do is ignore their concerns, since this will only ruin both your personal brand and your company’s. Address these problems as soon as possible, so that your consumers will see that you’re really looking out for them.

2. Put up your own website or blog

Though you can refer your customers to the company website or blog, it would be much better if you offer them your own take on the products you’re selling by putting up your own website or blog. This is your chance to promote your personal brand, to highlight why potential prospects should partner with you and not with others. It’s a way to connect with others by giving your own personal touch to your company’s products, since your website or blog is all about the brand that is you.

You may think that you don’t have anything to say, but once you get started, you may be surprised at the information that you can impart out there. Make sure to regularly post, and increase your visibility by commenting on related blogs and sharing your blog with your social network. You’ll be surprised that a little effort in blogging could go a long way in helping you build consumer trust and getting your sales up.

3. Always be ready to adapt to the changing times

Part of being a successful direct seller is the ability to adapt to change. You need to be open and ready to make changes in order for your personal brand to grow. You need to be open to new opportunities that come up so that you can give your customers better value.

As a direct seller, you can’t simply remain stagnant. You have to be quick at learning, and adapt to the new technologies of today so that you can reach more people. You should also pay attention to the market so that you know what your consumers need and want, and so you can adjust your offer accordingly.

You have to always perform at your best, because this is the hallmark of the direct selling business. Put emphasis on maintaining relationships with your customers, because you want to enjoy a mutually satisfying long-term relationship, not a short one. Always be ready to adapt to the changing times, and know how to utilize the new technologies effectively so that you can keep up with your consumers and become a more established personal brand.

As a direct seller, you are your own brand. Though you represent the company brand, it’s still up to you to utilize your skills and talents to get those customers and get those sales. So make your customers and your brand your priority, so that you can give the highest value and service to your consumers.

Filed Under: Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: direct sellers, maria elena duron, personal branding

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