Humanize to Power Word of Mouth Marketing

Humanize your brand for word of mouth marketing

When it comes to interacting with your audience, what is it that makes them feel comfortable with you? Is it your thorough reserves of knowledge? Perhaps it could be the unique service your brand provides. What many audiences truly desire is to do business with someone they can relate to.

This isn’t always the first consideration of many brands and is often overlooked. But the true fact remains: humanizing your brand creates a unique authenticity. So, how can you humanize your brand and really develop a loyal following? 

Five (5) Ways to Humanize Your Brand

1. Be Interactive 

How interactive are you with your audience? Do you interact through social content and blog comments? What do you say to them? How you respond to your audience will ultimately determine how approachable your brand is. Does your audience feel comfortable communicating with you? More importantly, does your audience enjoy communicating with you? Engaging the audience is more than just answering their questions; it’s about getting them to ask in the first place. 

2. Develop relatable and entertaining contents

Content is the backbone of your brand. What you say and how you say things affect your brand’s authenticity and visibility. But, there is something to consider when creating content if you are going to generate relatable content. Don’t focus on making your titles search-friendly. They often sound unnatural and more like you’re appealing to a search engine rather than humans. Though it might improve Google results, readers will quickly spot this particular “strictly business” approach (and they won’t likely relate to your content).

Additionally, laughter is contagious and often most likely to be shared (even if it’s just a quote or reference). Add a little humor into your content to entice the audience to share with others who could relate to it. Just be sure to keep it appropriate and relevant to your topic.

3. Create a great “About Us” page

This is one area where brands can either define themselves as mechanical or human operated. An “about us” page has a lot to say, whether it’s said or unsaid. Take some time to really develop this portion of your social sites and website. 

The best practice is to tell your brand’s story. How did it come to be? How has it developed?

[tweet this].

Simple as it may sound, it works far more effectively than simply listing out a few features of your brand. This will give your brand character that the audience can relate to.

4. Post personalized photos 

With social networks enabling brands to show off their best qualities, make your brand relatable with authentic pictures. Avoid pictures that look more like examples of a store’s stock or merchandise. Personalize it with photos of you, preferably interacting and networking with the audience. 

5. Maintain a good reputation

Above all, always be honest. When developing the relatable aspect of your brand’s image, always keep in mind that the audience’s perception will ultimately determine how authentic you truly are. Give them a reason to believe in you and what you can do for them. 

Social Word of Mouth Marketing for Your Small Business

Word of Mouth Marketing for your small business

The online industry of social networking has become one of the primary windows by which businesses of all sizes can effectively mesh with their audience. When it comes to the small business owner who is first entering the industry, the online world has the greatest host of advantages if they can be harnessed properly.

Therein lies the key, because unless social networks are utilized properly, they won’t provide the desired results. For the business owner, word of mouth through social interaction is both efficient and effective, providing the ideal opportunity and possibly one of the best places to start building your brand image.

Social network sites are great places to start

First of all, social word of mouth has the lowest price tag - the biggest investment cost is actually time. And that is what is important, because time is money. So, one must be willing to invest one’s time in these social networks in order to locate new contacts and potential clientele.

Initially, social networks are ideal because they already have a widely established network. By simply joining in, you are exposed to a large network of people who are waiting to meet you. But, your task is to get out there and meet them, or they may never even know you exist.

You must make it easy for your audience to find you. Use keywords and phrases that are trending or popular at the moment. Link back to your websites and other networks through your postings and blogs, so that readers can easily find you and can conduct their own research about your business or brand.

You make social networking effective

Overall, it’s incredibly easy to communicate through social networks, but you need to be sure you do it properly. In particular, there are certain methods that will get the results you desire. Many first-time users have a large list of ideas and creative thoughts, many of which include talking only about themselves. Remember, that is what a bio is for. Pictures might be posted pertaining to merchandise or services offered - but that is selling yourself short. As a business owner and your own boss, you have far more to offer the audience than just sales pitches. What is it that makes your business special? What motivates you? How do you relate to the audience? These are questions that the audience will ask themselves when they view your networks. This is why, it is important to answer such questions.

There is also the importance of listening and responding to your audience. One of the worst things you can do is generate post after post without reviewing the discussions and interacting with the audience. This is the prime opportunity to develop social word of mouth marketing because they are talking to you- and talking amongst themselves about you.

When it comes to customer service, these social networks are quite effective at generating word of mouth. When a client interacts with you, it may be positive or negative. Regardless, during and after this interaction, others will inevitably hear about your customer service abilities.

In many cases, it is ideal to present this situation through live feeds, so that you can display your expertise to a wide audience. This is a great opportunity to build a social site based on recommendations made by the audience.

Additionally, social networking is a great opportunity to get effective feedback. If your social strategies are getting positive results, then you’re doing well. If you’re not getting results (views or comments), then it’s time to reconsider your methods.

In order to generate quality content, you must know who you are talking to. Research and understand your target audience so that you can deliver content that they want to view. What do they enjoy? Generate interest through postings that they are already talking about and relate them to your business. Trends and holidays are often hot topics and can be utilized quite easily.

As we interact through social networks and discover new methods and practices, we will be able to develop more sophisticated means of communication. We need to be forever changing and adapting to new advances in technology. The social networks of today link individuals together and make interaction easier than ever before. For those who operate small businesses, social word of mouth marketing strategies are perhaps the most effective and efficient way to build success.

Brands and Challenges

Overcome personal branding challenges

As trends progress and change with the demands of our audiences, brands must be able to adapt and evolve to accommodate in order to not only survive but thrive as well. Questions on a recent brandchat discussion brought up some very good points of how a company handles the challenges of building their image effectively.

Product innovation

Consider some of the best practices of a brand that reinvents their product. What must they do to accomplish this and how does it ultimately affect their image? Soda companies have been around for a very long time, but have always managed to keep their image and products current. While the brand is the same, it is the fact that there is always constant improvement and evolution of these products. The goal is to adapt and apply their brand to popular trend rather than trying to change their brand to match the trend. Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple reinvented their products and how they applied to the current demands of the generation. The brand was the same, but the image changed from simply producing technology to producing technology that was desirable to its audience. At the same time, they worked to enforce the purpose of the brand, which is ultimately what this challenge must overcome.

Timing the changes

What key advice would you give a client as to the "timing" of reinventing or fixing their product and promotion? This is a unique question in that it is incredibly difficult to answer broadly. Depending on the product’s trend cycle, you would have to consider that what is popular today may slip away tomorrow. You must know your audience well, especially their demands and desires. You should only change as a response to customers, not as a response to competition or personal desire. Rebrand because you need to in order to appeal to your audience. Lois Martin once stated, “Carefully consider and plan. Is it a reinvention or simply an update? An expansion? An invite to a new market?” When reinventing and innovating, you must take into consideration what your goal is. Are you upgrading a format, fixing an issue (patching programs or promotions)? Or are you introducing a new line that will draw a new audience? 

Defining a spokesperson

A spokesperson is one of the most beneficial tools to creating audience appeal. How can a brand handle their spokesperson that is created, not a celebrity, and their rise to celebrity status? There is something unique about a created character because while you can make them do what you want, you also have to work to build their image, which means that it’s up to you how successful your spokesperson will be. The primary priority should be to align their values with those of the target audience. The task is to create a personality that your audience can relate to, not just speak to. When an audience can relate to someone, they begin to develop a relationship and word of mouth marketing takes place. People talk about characters they can relate with. Though there is always the other side of the coin which asks at what point a spokesperson-character would begin to draw attention away from a brand; when presented improperly, you can end up with an audience that recognizes a spokesperson but can’t relate them to the brand. That is the other task of developing a character. They must not only relate to the audience but will directly relate your audience to your brand. 

Brand image controversy

What are the best practices of brands on how they handle controversy around their brand? Perhaps the most prominently renowned brand image that had to overcome their controversy was BP and how they handled the gulf oil spill. They acknowledged the accident and quickly became involved in cleanup efforts. The best practices would include avoiding any hesitation and to be direct. Be personable. You never know when controversy will take place, so it’s good to have a personable image that people already enjoy doing business with. You shouldn’t wait for a problem to arise before you address it. Always admit controversy, don’t hide it. This is the first step to turning it around to your advantage. However, you must also be entirely transparent about the situation. An audience will want to know how your brand is addressing the issue and what is being done to prevent it in the future. 

Brands are often challenged with keeping their image current with the audiences’ desires and trends, but at the same time they must also hold on to what defines their brand. Ultimately, the task is to create a brand that is renowned for delivering products and services that customers want. 

How to Survive as a Little Fish in a Big Pond

Use free social marketing tools for your small business

In today's economy, it seems like it might be more difficult than ever for a small business to get noticed on a large scale. The omnipresence of global corporations makes it harder and harder for small businesses to get a foothold in the marketplace. And the size of some companies allows them to offer such a wide array of products that some smaller businesses feel overwhelmed and not able to compete. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The universality of the internet levels the playing field for businesses of all sorts, and by taking advantage of this unique marketing tool you can succeed no matter how small your business is.

1) Know your niche

A small business will not be able to compete with the diversity of products offered on Amazon.com. That is okay, but it's important that as a business owner, you recognize that and find out where you can compete with the big boys. Usually there is something you can do with the individual flair of a small business that larger companies cannot. It may be that you sell a product other companies sell, but you provide stellar customer service. Accentuate that unique aspect of your company, whatever it is. Also, use feedback from your customers to help determine what your strong points are. Then make sure that when you design your website, you emphasize those points.

2) Promote, promote, promote

This is what makes the internet the great equalizer in today's economy: free promotion. No longer do you have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on advertising, you can drum up a great deal of attention just by spreading new internet content. After you've identified your niche, promote your services through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Also, take the time to write a blog. You can include links to this on your website as well as on social media sites. Your blog can take many forms. For example, it can provide helpful hints to potential customers to assist them with buying decisions, do-it-yourself projects, etc. As long as readers find it useful and it's well-written, it will serve as good promotion for your business.

3) Pay attention to your customers

As a small business, one area that you will always be able to outperform your larger competition in will be customer service and your adaptability to customer's needs. Use your website to get feedback from your customers - about their experiences with your company, desire for future products, etc. Then, use that feedback to improve your company. This ability to quickly obtain information then utilize it to improve your product is not something a company with thousands of employees can do. They have to develop a plan for change, then slowly implement it. You can send out a few emails and get the ball rolling right away.

4) Develop a brand

One of the reasons it's difficult to compete with large companies is because they have very well-established brands. It's been proven time and time again that people prefer to buy from companies they recognize, even if they know nothing about the product that the company actually sells. While you may not be able to achieve the same saturation as a large company, it still helps to have a well-developed logo and slogan (if applicable). Invest some time into devising these things, then use social media sites to promote them. The more people see your logo, the more likely they are to buy from you.

5) Remember why you started

Sure, it sounds corny, but one thing that often separates small businesses from larger ones is that smaller companies are closer to their founding ideals. These tend to get diluted and lost as a company gets larger, so focusing on them may help you to remember what makes your product great and helps it stand out from the rest.

Succeeding as a small business in today's marketplace doesn't have to be an inordinately daunting task. Small businesses have advantages that larger companies don't, it just takes some redirection of focus to recognize them. Remember that even the largest company in the world once started off as a small business. Success for small businesses is out there for the taking, you just have to know how to look.

Your Picture and Your Brand

Pictures and your word of mouth marketing

Never has it been more important than it is today to be a social brand. More and more people are spending a lot of their time in social networking sites, connecting and interacting with other people and brands. If you want to engage and reach more consumers, then it’s essential for your brand to have social media presence.

As a small business owner, your personal brand as well as those of the people who work with you or for you can greatly affect your business. This is because people don’t just buy from brands anymore. They want to buy from real people, people they know and like. This is why word of mouth marketing continues to work so well, since it’s based on people’s relationships and referrals through mouth to mouth communication.

Word of mouth marketing still powerful

There are certainly a lot of advantages to having a social media presence for your brand. You can connect with hundreds or even thousands of people with just a click. You can send your message to people all over the world. Information can spread virally throughout social networking sites, so your message gets repeated over and over. It’s easy to offer promotions and discounts, and you can even gain insights and other information about the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Perhaps best of all, it’s easy to offer personalized customer service, since people really get to connect and interact with you in these platforms.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to having a social media presence. Being “social” basically means putting yourself out there, exposing yourself to the public. And this exposure could result in negative comments and feedback about your personal and small business brand.

Pictures and impressions

A picture says a thousand words, and even the pictures you post in your different social media accounts can affect your brand. Customers, hiring managers, job recruiters, and clients are now Googling you, checking out your social media profiles, in order to gain insights regarding your brand. Because of this, the pictures you post can definitely affect the way they view you and your small business.

Pictures of partying or drunken pictures, religious or political slogans, scantily clad images, photos of illegal activities… these may seem funny at the time you posted them, but once clients, customers or hiring managers see them, then you won’t be laughing anymore.

Does the tag spell doom?

This is why it’s essential for you and the people you work with to take the time to check the pictures you’ve uploaded and see if there are any that other people may view in a wrong way. Another even more important thing – you also need to check the pictures that people “tag” you in, especially in Facebook, since it can greatly affect your brand. Some of these pictures may be ones that you don’t want people to see – such as the one where you’re puking your guts out on the toilet – can be uploaded by your friends and then seen by other people when your friends “tag” you.

If you’ve been on Facebook for a long time now, it may be difficult for you to go through all the information and pictures you have in order to filter out the bad things while keeping the good things. If you don’t have the time, you might consider using the Esselte created Pendaflex Tag Tamer, a Facebook app that has been designed to help you find and remove all those unwanted pictures from your Facebook Timeline.

Tag tamer helps look for you

Pendaflex Tag Tamer uses an advanced search function that is easy to use and saves you time so you can quickly search and remove all those unwanted photos. Typically, you would have to manually scroll down your timeline and one by one remove the photos you don’t want as well as the tags you received. With this app, people who have hundreds or thousands of photos can quickly filter their Facebook Timeline so that no unwanted photos are revealed.

In today’s world, what is known about you can negatively affect you, even if it was just a silly picture taken on a crazy night. Make sure that your social media accounts are free and clear of anything that can ruin or put a negative light on your personal or small business brand. If you have people working with you or for you, you should also help them understand the importance of this.

With the Pendaflex Tag Tamer, quickly and easily remove all those unwanted photos from your Facebook Timeline, so you don’t have to worry about pics from the past clouding your future with clients, customers and hiring managers.

Your Personal Brand is Always On

Personal branding even while on vacation

Personal branding has become essential in our changing world. It’s because the competition today is incredibly fierce – you really have to ensure that you stand out from the crowd and that you are invaluable in the current market. You can’t let your knowledge and skills get stagnant, or else you’ll be left behind, forgotten and obsolete.

Wherever you are – whether you’re at work, on a meeting, eating out with friends, even on vacation – remember that your personal brand is always on. Everything you do says something about you, Don't forget that you’re always being assessed and evaluated by the people around you.

We all need some time off, some time for ourselves. We get exhausted from all our work and we get burned out. When this happens we really need some time to relax and build ourselves up again. This is why many people enjoy taking time off to have some vacation – it’s a way to clear our minds from all the problems and troubles at work, and to spend time with our family and friends.

Some people think that going on vacation is something private and does not affect our personal branding, but they are wrong. even what we do on our vacation tells something about us.

Vacations enhance personal brands

Though many may doubt this, our vacations actually enhance our personal brands at work. What you do during vacation says a lot about you, and affects the perceptions of your boss, colleagues, clients and customers.

People form opinions about you based on what you say and what you do. If you go on a family trip with your loved ones, people may see you as a family person – nice and dependable. Or if you like exploring new places and doing new things such as mountain climbing during vacation, people may view you as someone who’s adventurous and willing to take risks. Or maybe you enjoy giving back, helping out at charities and shelters during vacation – people will see you as an altruistic person, someone who really wants to give back to the world.

Truly, where you go and what you do during vacation offers an insight into who you really are. It is able to enhance your personal brand, so people don’t see you as just a one-dimensional person who only concentrates on work, work and more work. You’re now a multifaceted person with different layers, interesting and unique.

Vacations help your personal brand stand out

Your vacations also help you stand out in the sea of competitors, colleagues and similar professionals. It helps people remember and recall you – you’re not just another random working colleague or employee who works well but never stands out.

Typically, the question that people will typically ask you before you go is, “Where are you going on vacation?” Then when you return they will ask you, “How was your vacation?” How you answer really helps people remember you.

Of course, if you’re the type who goes to the same place every time you go on vacation, or simply stays at home and wiles away the time watching TV, then that isn’t going to help you stand out. It may even be detrimental to your brand since people may view you as someone who resists change, and who’ll probably remain in the same position until retirement. Your vacations can make you stand out not only in a good way, but also in a bad way.

Social marketing during vacation

As a personal brand, you can actually continue to update your followers and audience even when you’re on vacation by using social media. Wherever you are, you can just log onto your account, post a quick picture or status update in order to update everyone. Staying in touch with your audience has never been so easy.

Of course, some people would consider that social marketing during vacation is a bit too much work. After all, how can you enjoy the moment when you’re busy updating your Twitter, Facebook page or blog? But for others, keeping in touch regularly with their audience is essential. For them, it’s critical that they express their life through social media, updating regularly even when on vacation.

Personal branding even on vacation

The important thing to remember is that your personal brand never goes on vacation. Even when you’re relaxing and enjoying yourself in the Caribbean Islands, remember that your personal brand is always on. Balance in life is important, so make sure that you show your boss, colleagues, clients, customers and audience that your life is balanced – you enjoy your work as well as your vacation, and consider taking advantage of your vacations to enhance your personal brand.

The Difference between Wants, Needs and Strategy

Your social marketing strategy matters

It’s essential that you know how to market yourself. You need to be able to stand out from among the crowd and differentiate yourself from all the other applicants. You need to be able to convince someone that you’re the right person for the job. You need to sell yourself effectively in order to get that sale, that project, or that customer.

The competition is fierce. You don’t want to be someone who’s just average and easy to forget. In order to be a cut above, you need to utilize some effective marketing strategies, with social and word of mouth marketing being one of the most popular types today.

Today most people spend a lot of time on social media sites, so it’s important that you establish your presence in some of these social media platforms. Don't jump in too quickly, however! Before you start this type of marketing, it’s important that you identify your objectives and plan out your strategy.

It’s easy to say that you want a thousand followers in one week, or that you aim to establish a presence in all the social networking sites in just a month. But these aren’t strategies – these are goals that you want to fulfill. In order to meet these goals and be successful in your social marketing, you need to formulate a strategy that cuts through the clutter and helps you to reach your objectives within the time frame that you have in mind.

What are some of the things you need to think about in order to create an effective social marketing strategy for your brand?

     1. Create goals and objectives

A ship needs a destination, or else it will just go around in circles. Just like a ship, when it comes to creating a personal brand you need to have some goals and objectives so that you can map out how to achieve them. Otherwise you’ll simply be flailing around, wondering where the shore is. Make these goals concrete by writing them down and putting them in a place where you can see them regularly.

     2. Focus on needs, not wants

Sure, everyone wants a million followers on Facebook, and hundreds of people signing up for their newsletter, but if you’re just starting out, these “wants” may not exactly be feasible and can only discourage you when you don’t achieve them. Focus on what you need in order to be successful in your social marketing. Even if you have thousands of followers, does it really mean that all of them are actively engaged and connected with your brand? Not really. Seeing that you have 3,000 likes on your Facebook page may be remarkable, but if no one is commenting on your posts and updates, then that’s still a red flag that can alert you to problems with your social media marketing strategies.

     3. Identify your target audience

Who is your target audience? If you want to attract new clients, employers and customers, it’s important that you do some research in order to discover how to gain their attention. It’s important to describe your target audience in detail, their demographics, locality, etc., so you know how to identify them and reach them.

     4. Be creative and innovative

Though there are tried and tested strategies for succeeding in social marketing, you should also put some creativity to your plans so that people won’t think that it’s just the same old marketing all over again. Check out your competition and see what kind of approach they’re taking. Encourage active participation in your social media accounts through polls, questions, contests and giveaways, and make sure to add some multimedia to spark conversation.

     5. Listen and respond to your audience

One of the best things about social media is that it really allows you to interact effectively with your audience. It’s not like advertising, which is a one-way broadcasting to the people. Social media allows a two-way conversation to happen, enabling you to really connect and engage your followers. As you advertise in this way, be sure to listen to your fans, take their suggestions into consideration, don’t dismiss their feedback, and always respond to them. This is a great way to spread the word of mouth about your brand, encouraging communication and participation within social media.

Yes, you want to fulfill your social marketing wants. But it’s very important to focus first and foremost on what’s important, on the needs of your personal brand. Once you have concrete goals and objectives, only then can you really create the best strategy in order to achieve these goals.

Focus on what’s feasible and attainable. As a personal brand, you must be grounded and focused on your strategy and goals.

Small Brands Up Against Big Brands

Social media marketing for your small business

As a small business owner, you’re probably happy about where you currently are. You’re chugging along like a slow train, targeting mostly your family and friends and the local community, and you’re happy with the small amount of success your brand is getting. You don’t really want to make it big. You just want to relax and enjoy having a small business…

Or maybe not. As a small business owner, you probably dream about making it big. You want to be able to compete with the big brands, to become as well known as they are. Perhaps you want to become a big brand as well…

But you’re disheartened. How can you compete with the big corporations? How can your small business brand compare with these giants? They have unlimited capital, unlimited resources, and unlimited manpower. You’re practically a one-man (or woman) show, with maybe one or two employees. You’re up to the neck in debt since you borrowed money to start your small business.  Do you even have a chance of competing against these big brands?

The fact is, no matter what you do, you simply can’t compete with these big corporations on the same terms. As a small business brand, you aren’t capable of doing that because you just don’t have the means. But don’t lose hope, because there are other ways you can compete with them – it’s all about planning and strategy.

Here are some tips to help go up against the big brands:

     1. Offer value

Honestly, you can’t compete with the big guns in terms of price. You’ll just end up burying yourself, since people may think that the products and services you offer are not up to par with the big brands. Instead, always offer value – sure, your products and services may be a bit more expensive, but it’s because you’re offering something unique, worthwhile, and valuable to the consumers.

     2. Focus on what you do best

Maybe it’s customer service, maybe it’s storytelling, maybe it’s social media… but as a small business brand, you need to focus on what you do best in order to shine and be noticed. Don’t just copy what other businesses are doing. Focus on what makes you unique and the things you can best offer to people.

Providing excellent customer service is one of the best ways to reach consumers effectively. As a small business brand, you can ensure that someone always checks your email and answers your telephone line in order to address any customer’s concerns.

Storytelling on social media sites is another way you can stand out and be noticed. People love rooting for the underdog, and if you’re going up against a big brand, then you’re definitely one—so tell them the stories that will give them cause to sympathize or cheer. In short, tell them whatever will help them identify with you and wish for your success.

     3. Be more personable

As a small business owner, you can really represent your brand in a personal way that big corporations cannot. Show off your personality, put a face behind the name, go the extra mile for your customers. This really makes your small business brand stand out. Remember that people enjoy connecting and engaging with real people, not businesses. They want to know you, and become friends with you. They want to like and trust you.

People don’t just buy from anybody anymore. They’re a lot more vigilant when it comes to evaluating businesses, and they either love a brand or they hate it. When you become personable and likeable as a small business owner, you can really connect with your customers – they will definitely prefer talking to you over a big brand. After all when they contact a big brand, they usually just talk to a random, faceless,  nameless person.

     4. Utilize social media wisely

Social media is a great equalizer – it’s really changed the way people connect with brands, which is why both small and big business brands seem to have an equal chance in this regard. Sure, big brands may have the big bucks, but most social media platforms allow you to engage with your fans and followers for free – all you need to do is devote time and effort to your page.

Maintain a blog, create a Facebook and Twitter account, and don’t forget to update them regularly and interact with your audience using these platforms. Social media marketing is an excellent way to promote your small business brand, since a single update can spread like wildfire through these sites if it’s interesting enough.

Concluding Thoughts 

As you consider how to get ahead as a small business, don’t even try to compete with big corporations on their own turf… Without their money and resources, you can never win. Instead, offer value on the products and services that you sell, focus on what you do best, be more personable, and remember to use social media wisely. These are the simple ways small business brands can compete with the big guns.

Pinterest When You're a Service Provider

Lately, everyone seems to be on Pinterest. It’s really becoming one of the most popular social networking sites, as more and more people sign up to create virtual pinboards, share them with their network, as well as check out all the lovely creations of other Pinterest users.

Since more and more people are using Pinterest, this definitely puts pressure on personal and small business brands to learn the platform and use it to their advantage. Nowadays, it’s all about word of mouth marketing, as well as connecting and engaging with your clients and customers. So brands need to be where the people are, and right now, Pinterest is where many people are spending their time on.

Many personal and small business brands who sell products are taking advantage of Pinterest by creating pinboards that feature the items they sell. They host contests, interact with their followers, and basically create buzz marketing for their brand.

But what if you’re a service provider? What if your personal or small business brand doesn’t sell products, but offers services? Should you still use Pinterest in your small business marketing mix?

Before you can decide on that, here are some things you should ask yourself:

     1. Are you willing to devote time on this?
     2. Are you willing to share more about yourself?
     3. Are you willing to become a more “visual” brand?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you should definitely consider using Pinterest to market your brand. But how exactly do you do this? Here are some tips:

Show off your personality visually

Most people aren’t one-dimensional creatures. You may be a lawyer, an accountant, or a doctor, but it doesn’t mean that that’s your only interest. You may also be a great cook, an avid reader, or a music enthusiast. And you can definitely share these interests of yours on Pinterest.

Before you can sell your brand on Pinterest, you need to connect with the users there, which is why it’s a good idea to show off your personality and the things you like in order to create a good following. Create boards that are creative, inspiring and beautiful. Show off the things you like and love. Then once you have a good number of followers, you can start creating boards that are related to the service you provide so you can promote what you do and drive traffic to your site.

But of course, you need to utilize Pinterest on its terms first before you branch out to what Pinterest can do for your brand.

Consider your target audience

Who is your target audience? What are they most interested in? These are two important things you need to ask yourself so you can effectively promote your brand on Pinterest. You want to create pinboards that your target audience will be interested in, so that they can be directed to your website and avail of your services.

For example, as a cardiologist, your clients are likely to be people who are very concerned about managing their weight and maintaining a healthy heart, so you can create boards that are dedicated to helping people maintain their ideal weight and be heart-healthy.  One board could be about heart-healthy foods, while another board could be about exercises that are good for people with heart disease.

By becoming a good resource for your target audience, you can effectively promote your brand and sell your services.

Be active

Truly, the best way to market yourself on Pinterest as a service provider is to be active on the site. You need to regularly create boards, comment and re-pin other people’s images, encourage people to like and re-pin what you’ve posted, and so on. If you aren’t willing to devote your time to maintaining your Pinterest page, then it’s far better to just utilize other social networking sites that may help you connect and interact with your audience better.

Just like any other social networking site, time and effort needs to be devoted to Pinterest in order to successfully use it to sell your service brand.

Personal and small business brands can definitely utilize Pinterest in order to promote awareness of their brand and create buzz. Though brands who sell products definitely have the advantage since their brands are more “visual,” as a service provider, you can still create interest in your brand by showing off your personality, considering your target audience, and maintaining an active account on the site.

So don’t be afraid of using Pinterest to market your brand. Show off the things you like and love, and you can create a good following that directs traffic to your website as well as the services you offer.

Best Practices in Using Pinterest Contests

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. According to reports, it is now the third most popular social networking site, with Facebook and Twitter ranking as first and second. This virtual pinboard is truly making waves in the online world as more and more people have been signing up. It currently boasts 11 million registered users, and many of these people are logging onto the site everyday and creating the most beautiful pinboards.

Whether you’re a business or personal brand, you should definitely pay attention to Pinterest. It’s an excellent way to engage and interact with others as you create beautiful collections and share the things that you love and that inspire you. Through creating lovely pinboards that other people enjoy, you can create a buzz that encourages a good following and can promote brand awareness.

One of the best ways to create brand buzz in Pinterest is by hosting a contest. Most people enjoy contests as they are fun and challenging, and it’s always nice to win a prize. So if you want to promote your brand in Pinterest, creating a fun contest is a good idea.

So what are the best practices in using Pinterest contests? Here are some great ideas you should consider:

     1. Create the Best Pinboard Contest

One of the most challenging and creative contests you can host on Pinterest is one that asks people to create the best pinboards. You can require them to create pinboards that include pictures of your products, as well as other items that relate or look well with the products you’re offering. Then ask them to post it on their pinboard and tag you so that their followers can see the pinboard they’ve created. This really helps in creating buzz around your brand. You can judge the winner of the contest yourself, or you can judge the winner by the number of likes and repins the pinboard has.

     2. Most Repins and Likes Contest

With this contest, you can ask your audience to repin their favorite products from your collection and then ask them to solicit votes through repins and likes. The winner of this contest is the board with the most likes and repins.

Though this is a fun contest, it can also seem a bit like spam as the people who enter your contest solicit votes using different social networking sites. But it can be very effective in promoting brand awareness as people share their boards to their network of friends.

     3. Utilize other social media platforms

You can incorporate other social networking sites to your Pinterest contest to help promote better brand awareness. Facebook and Twitter are excellent social media platforms that you can require the contestants to use. This way, even their followers who are active in other sites will be able to learn about your brand and may even start following you as well.

Some good ideas for doing this include: asking contestants to share their pinboards that they’ve created about your brand in their Facebook wall, asking them to Tweet links to their pinboard, or asking them to blog about the pinboard they’ve created.

     4. Raffling off the winner

You can also simply ask your audience to create a pinboard of your brand, share it on their Pinterest pages, and then post the link to your wall. People can only enter once, and then you draw a random winner from the list of entries. The downside of this type of contest is that it is not very engaging, but at least it gives everyone a fair chance of winning the contest.

Pinterest contests are truly an excellent way to promote brand awareness, generate great content for your feed, and get links back to your pages and site. Remember though to review the Pinterest’s user guide to ensure that you are not violating any rules by hosting your contest.

If you want to host a contest but are not sure where to start, you can also observe some of the ongoing contests at Pinterests and learn what works and what doesn’t. Watch and observe how other brands create buzz using Pinterest contests.

Truly, there’s still a world of things you can do on Pinterest to help you promote brand awareness and create brand buzz. So why not host a Pinterest contest that lets people show off their creativity and enjoy as well? The reward you offer is just a little bit of an incentive that can help you gain a slew of new followers that can translate to potential customers and clients.

What You Need to Do to Make YouTube Work for You

Though you may think that YouTube is full of homemade videos of people who are hoping to become famous, utilizing YouTube in your marketing campaign can actually help you promote your brand. It is the largest video sharing site in the world, with over 800 million viewers per month. Videos are very powerful branding tools since they help you connect more intimately with your audience. With the use of video, you can reveal more of yourself or your surroundings, and it really helps people connect with you better.

Of course, it isn’t enough to simply create a channel in YouTube for your brand, upload videos there, and hope that they effectively promote your brand. YouTube doesn’t work for everyone, but it can work for you if you use it wisely. Here are some tips to help you do this:

     1. Make sure to brand your YouTube channel

You want to ensure that your channel represents you and your brand, so it’s essential that you brand it. If it’s your personal brand, make sure that you use your full name in your channel. If it’s your small business brand, then you should use the name of your company.

Set up your profile properly – ensure that all the details are filled up so that people can find you. You want to link your personal or business website to your YouTube so that people who watch your video can learn more information about you or your business.

Also, the overall feel and theme of your channel should reflect your brand. Make sure to put up your picture or company logo, then use colors or designs that are associated with your brand so that people will remember you whenever they visit your channel.

Don’t forget to change the title of your channel! You should put a title that really represents you and what your brand is about so that people will know what to expect when they watch your videos.

     2. Create interesting, remarkable and short videos

To effectively promote your brand on YouTube, it’s essential that you create videos that people are going to watch, of course. So you have to create interesting and remarkable videos that are preferably short and sweet, since most people have short attention spans. You want to keep them engaged and then direct them to your website at the right time; you don’t want to bore them to tears with a long, rambling video. Keep it short, sweet and simple. Or short, quick and amazing. That will get people’s attention.

     3. Promote your channel

The great thing about YouTube is the fact that it easily integrates with many social media platforms, so you can easily promote the videos you upload. So if you want to make YouTube work for you, you need to get the traffic up in your channel. Specifically, you want more subscribers so that whenever you upload new content, you will have viewers.

So what you can do is promote your YouTube channel in your different social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also promote it in your blog. Make sure to encourage your audience to subscribe to your channel, not just watch your videos and leave.

Also, you should utilize SEO techniques so that your YouTube channel and videos come up in search engines when people search for keywords related to your brand.

     4. Interact with your audience

The comment section in your channel as well as each video allows you to interact with your audience on YouTube. You have the option of allowing all comments to be immediately published, moderating them before they’re published, or disabling them.

If you plan to allow comments, you should make sure that you monitor them regularly so that you can respond to your audience as well as moderate content.

     5. Monitor Analytics

A great feature of YouTube is the free analytics that come with it, so you can monitor your channel and learn what videos are particularly popular among your audience, as well as understand who your main viewers are. By knowing the demographics of your audience, you can create better videos that are focused and targeted towards them.

Making YouTube work for you isn’t that difficult. But it’s important that you understand the site you’re using, brand your channel so that it represents you, create videos that people will want to watch, promote your channel in your network, interact with your audience, and monitor your analytics. Videos are truly a powerful medium for promoting your brand, so make sure you use it effectively.

You are Your Business Brand

If you want to attract customers, you have to have a good marketing strategy. As a small business, especially when you are only starting out, you have to carefully monitor every step. You also have to monitor whether your efforts and strategies are working at attracting and gaining customers.

With small business owners, your business brand often assumes everything that the owner’s personal brand has – the good and the bad.

How do you marry the two so that it’s sustainable and duplicatable by others (team members, assistants) who come to represent your business?

Here are a few tips on how you can start building your own brand:

Your business values – You can only start building your brand when you know what impression you want to make on your customers. Setting your company values is always a good place to start. You can shape your brand based on how you want your customers to remember you. If you have employees, train them in how to act and do business the way your brand does it. Keep in mind that whatever you or your employees do or say gives people an impression of your brand. As a small business with a relatively small workforce, it’s easier for you to control your employees so take advantage of this.

As part of your marketing campaign, choose a simple branding message. This message should convey who you are and should attract consumers to try your products or services. It should be aligned with your products or services so that when consumers try it out, they will trust that you are someone who does good business.

Set the right tone – Your company voice should have the right tone when communicating with your customers. Your company “voice” should always be aligned with your business values and your brand. This adds consistency to your branding strategies. So whether you are physically or virtually interacting with customers, you should be sending your brand message in a consistent manner. This alone will help you stand out from the rest and it will help your customers distinguish you from the market.

A brand logo – People are quite visual beings and there is nothing more impressive than sending out a consistent message along with a logo or image that represents that message well. Having a good logo that complements your message will add consistency to your marketing strategy. This will also make it harder for consumers to forget you because they have something to associate their great experiences with.

Trial and error – Branding does not happen overnight which is why you have to be patient. You should be ready to try and mix things up until you can get the right tone, message, and logo to truly show who you are as a brand. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. If you have a social media account, use it to listen to what other people are saying about your business. Interact with your customers, whether online or offline. Take the feedback and use it to tweak your message, tone, or logo in order to satisfy your customers better.

Take care of your customers – Consumers can make you successful in so many ways. While it may be true that you were the one who came up with an innovation, your customers can help you shape it so as to attract even more consumers. If you know how to take care of your customers, even in the smallest way, you can become successful. Pay attention to their needs and they will keep coming back to you. Watch out for consumers trends and you will attract even more.

The toughest part of any relationship is the people. Isn’t that the truth!  Help yourself by connecting the dots on how you express your personal brand and how that translates to you business brand.  Share that with new team members and help them connect the dots from their personal brand to your business brand.  The ideal situation is when a person can express your business brand in their own style and voice – nothing is more genuine and powerful!

Get Ahead with Other People's Experience

Content marketing is important in building a brand. Content is mainly what attracts and engages readers. If you effectively engage the right readers, you have a higher chance of developing relationships that could result in friendship, resource sharing, recommendations and even business.   It is not always so easy coming up with good content. In the beginning, it may be easier because ideas are fresh and everyone still has a lot of enthusiasm. After a while though, ideas usually start slowing down. 

This is the reality of content marketing; it is not always that easy coming up with content that you can share to your audience.

Part of maintaining good online presence is through a constant flow of content in your website. Businesses are faced with the challenge of constantly coming up with ideas that can help and engage their readers. Whether it’s in writing, video or image form, it’s important that valuable information is shared to audiences. 

We normally get our ideas based on what we know and on our own experiences, but these eventually run out after some time. The best way to get a constant flow of content is by deriving ideas from other people’s experiences. There is a never-ending wealth of information that can be learned from other people. An intelligent content writer can use such experiences to create fresh and relevant content for their readers. Many people can probably be able to relate to such experiences.

Here are some ways on how to get ideas from other people for content:

Reach out to others – This is why it pays to have professionals in your network. Do some research about your niche and reach out to professionals who are experts in the field that you are interested in. You can either talk to them on the phone or connect with them in the most convenient way for the both of you. This way, you can write about what you know and also write about what other people know concerning a certain topic. Sometimes you don’t even have to look very far. Just constantly try to seek ideas for interesting things to write whenever you interact with customers, colleagues and friends. 

Get ideas from your readers – It’s quite likely that you will have readers who are going to comment on your content. Interact with these people because sometimes they come up with questions that can open you up to ideas. You can also do the same when you yourself read articles. Leave comments or read about what other people think regarding the topic. Watch out for trends and see if you can get ideas from what others think about a certain topic. 

Monitor your social media sites – Tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite and other social media monitoring tools can help you gather ideas for content creation. Readers like to share their opinions online. If you have social media sites, carefully monitoring them can help you get ideas from your customers, readers, or anyone who is talking about your brand. When you monitor your social media sites, you can get ideas on which types of content best engage your readers. Discovering such factors can help you create content that is sure to capture your readers’ attention. 

Through your content, you build your reputation and gain readers’ trust in your brand. Give your readers something valuable and they will value your brand in return. 

Create Effective Content to Market Your Business

As a solopreneur or small business owner, you may think that content marketing is a huge undertaking and that there are better things you can do with your time. You should realize, however, that putting out great content is an excellent marketing tool for building your brand and establishing customer loyalty.

In recent years, there has been a shift in marketing campaigns. Advertisements have lost their power over customers. Nowadays, people buy from brands they like and trust. But where does this trust come from? Through engaging and building relationships with your consumers using effective content. This is essentially known as content marketing.

You want people to subscribe to your blog updates, follow you on Twitter, opt-in to your email campaign, and subscribe to your page in Facebook. Through the repeated exposure of your content to an audience, you effectively build a relationship with them, giving you opportunities to get them to convert.

The tricky part though, is creating excellent content that can connect and engage with your audience. How do you create a social marketing buzz around your brand? Here are some tips:

     1. Know your audience

Before you can create effective content, you must know your audience. What are their likes and dislikes? What makes them happy? What pains them? What are they looking for?

For example, if you’re a small business owner with an online business selling mom and baby products, then it’s important that you understand what moms like. What do they look for, what problems do they suffer from? What kind of content would get them excited?

By knowing your audience, you can create content that’s relevant and focused, and effectively promote and market your business. Keep in mind that you must inform your audience as well as entertain them.

     2. Be unique and creative

Although it’s easier to simply copy what others have done before you, duplicating content is not really going to effectively capture your audience’s attention. Your audience will simply think “been there, done that,” and you’re left feeling discouraged and wondering why it didn’t work for you.

In today’s world, you need to be creative and unique. Don’t just copy what others have done before you; on the other hand, you can pattern your ideas from them and create something new and different. Something that will make your audience stand up in attention and say, “Wow!”

So don’t be a copycat. To create effective content, put your own personality and style into the content you’re offering.

     3. Experiment

If you’re using Facebook, for example, and are not getting the results you want, maybe it’s time to experiment a little bit. Try different kinds of content and use different kinds of platforms to discover what works with your audience. Maybe you need to mix it up a bit and create more meaningful Facebook posts to connect with your followers. Or maybe creating a blog would be better for your small business brand to help you engage with readers.

Experimentation is important because otherwise, how else will you discover what works or not?

     4. Personalize your content

People want to engage with other people, not brands. So it’s important that you show off your personality through the content you offer. Tell your story and make people empathize with you. Don’t be afraid to share something about yourself, because this is how people will be able to relate with you and your brand.

     5. Be consistent

This is a very important thing you need to do in order to effectively market your business. You must post regularly and consistently in order to engage with your audience.

How will people remember you if you don’t provide regular content? If you don’t update your Facebook page, then how are people going to read your valuable Facebook posts?

So be relevant and consistent. If you abandon your blog or Twitter account, then your followers are going to abandon you as well.

Creating effective content to market your business can be tricky, but following these steps may help you find the right balance in engaging with your audience and marketing your small business. Remember to listen to your audience first and learn what they want – the rest usually follows after that.

Brand Yourself: A Great Tool for Small Business Owners and Executives

One of the best ways to promote your personal brand is to control and manage your Google search engine results. You want to ensure that whenever someone searches for your name, your best links appear. This could be your website, your blog, or your LinkedIn profile. You definitely don’t want anything negative to appear or a random person sharing your name who is notorious for doing something bad.

As a small business owner or executive, your Google search engine results are basically your online reputation. So it’s essential that you take charge of it, since it could mean the success or failure of your personal brand.

There are many reputation management companies out there who would be willing to control the search engine results of your name for a fee. For a huge fee. But if you can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars for this, what else can you do?

Brand Yourself

Here’s where BrandYourself comes in. Co-founders Patrick Ambron. Pete Kistler and Evan Watson first thought of the idea when Pete found himself getting turned down for an internship because he was being mistaken for a drug dealer. The three joined together along with an awesome technical team to create a product that would not only solve Petes problem, but also make it simple for anyone to control their own search results and be accurately represented online.

How It Works

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how BrandYourself works to manage your Google search engine results:

1. After signing up, the software will ask you what name you want to rank high in. It could be your real name or a variation of your name. Basically, it should be what people type in the search engines when they want to find you.

2. Brand Yourself will show you the links that currently rank in Google for the name you submitted, and you will evaluate each one to see if they’re a positive link about you, unrelated to you, or a negative one.

3. Afterward, you need to submit the links you want to show up at the top of Google when someone searches your name. This could be your website, your blog, your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook account, etc. Anything that shows you in a positive manner would be good.

4. After submitting the links, BrandYourself will analyze them and then give you very specific steps to boost those links and make them rank higher in the search engines.

5. The software even tracks your progress so you can see if the links you’ve submitted are moving up in Google. BrandYourself will also alert you if something unusual has happened, such as if a new result has appeared on your first page, so you can quickly take action.

6. Lastly, don’t forget to build your own BrandYourself profile, which is automatically optimized to rank highly on Google.

Best of all, you can start ranking highly in Google using BrandYourself for free. Yes, no need to spend thousands of dollars, since you can submit up to three links that BrandYourself will help you optimize without spending a dime. But if you want to optimize unlimited links, you can easily upgrade your plan starting at $9.99 per month.

So why throw thousands of dollars to an online reputation company that will help you rank in Google? With BrandYourself, you can learn some excellent SEO techniques, empower yourself, and rank highly in Google without spending a dime. So why not try it today and see how it works for you?

How to be in Time for Timeline

Facebook continues to change and enhance its features for all its users. After releasing the Timeline layout for personal profile pages a few months ago, they have released Timeline for business pages. And, all will have to change over by March 30 so the time to learn to use it is now!  The new layout will benefit businesses in many ways but we have to adjust some things to make it work to our advantage. The new layout makes it easier interact with our fans, post enhanced graphics, and will give us the ability to arrange our posts the way we want them to show on our page.

If you have a business page on Facebook, there are a couple of things that you need to do before switching to Timeline. Timeline gives us more creative freedom and if we take advantage of that, our business can attract more customers and make them stay long enough to find out more about us. The Timeline layout for business pages will automatically be forced to all pages on March 30. If you want to get the new layout for your business page, here are some things you need to prepare:

Profile and cover photos – the new layout gives you the option to upload a cover photo and a profile photo. For your cover photo, you can choose something that depicts your business. Be creative, and if you know someone who can help you come up with a design or make a design that you have in mind, do so. Make it look as professional as possible. According to Facebook, the ideal size for a cover photo is 851x315 pixels. You have to look out for this so you are sure that the photo you upload will remain clear and vivid.

Your profile photo will be a small box on the side, within your cover photo. What you can put here is your business logo. The ideal size is about 180x180 pixels. If you have a personal page that is already using Timeline, go ahead and experiment with it so you get an idea on how you can be creative with your business page.

Information tab – Facebook has a new “About” page. When your fans click on your “About”, the first thing that they will see is the information about your business. So before switching to Timeline, make sure that you check your details, contact information, and anything that you want your fans to know about you. If you are not making use of this page, it’s time you fill in that space because when people visit your site, they will surely want to know more about your business. Don’t forget to place contact details and links to your blog or other sites, if you have any.

Milestones – this new feature lets you add company milestones on your profile. This is helpful in informing your fans or those who visit your page about the latest happenings in your business. When you launch a new product, have a promo, or participate in events in your community, you can add these events as milestones. Through your business activities, you are giving your audience an idea of what your business is about.

Plan to make your “likers” visits worth their while.   Prepare yourself on how you are going to maintain your site. When you switch to Timeline, you will have new tools you have to get familiar with. For example, you now have the option to choose a post that will show on top of your page for as long as a week--something like a featured post. You can also change the dates of your posts. This allows you to fix your posts and have a constant flow of content in your page. There’s also the “star” option, wherein the posts that you “star” will be highlighted on your page. This means that you can attract and engage your customers to participate in discussions that you marked. Facebook will also add features that will help you control message activity in your page. If you want to control the comments from your fans, messages will go to your inbox instead of your wall.

Facebook is a place where we can get closer to our customers. Now that there’s a new layout coming out, it’s important that we find ways on how we are going to present our business to our fans. Through creativity and preparation, we can use the new layout to further increase our fan base and to engage more people to interact with us.

Best Tips for Connecting One on One

Doing business now is different compared to how it was done a decade ago. We live in a fast-paced world because of technological advancements. Before, we needed to set aside a lot of our time if we wanted to meet with clients or gain customers. It also required more energy and cost more because we needed to pay for transportation and other expenses we incurred while we were outside meeting with potential customers. Marketing was another strategy that cost a lot if we wanted to reach out to our target market and gain a reputation.

Technology changed all that and it is making it easier for businesses to gain customers and win their trust. Through the internet, mobile phones, and other tools available today, we can easily reach out to customers without spending on transportation and meals. We can enjoy all these advantages if we can establish an effective online presence. Like we professionals, consumers now prefer to just talk on the phone, exchange emails, or start a conversation on social media sites. We can make this work for us if we make it easy for consumers to find us online.

Here are tips on how to connect with customers:

Your online profile – When you promote your online profile, make sure that you are prepared to give your visitors what they need to know about you or your business. When they click on your link, your profile must make a great first impression. This is how you attract consumers. Fill your profile with important information and content that will make them stay longer. Let your profile speak to them until they start to “Like”, add, or share your profile to others. Remember that your online profile serves as a virtual business card.

Make sure that you fill the important spaces on your profile. Remember to add a photo because consumers don’t like connecting with people online who don't  have a profile picture.

Mix it up! – Now that you have completed your profile, it’s time to manage your content. It is important that you have a constant flow of content on your profile. You can write articles, share videos, and other information that can help consumers. You can create content based on how your business can help consumers, or provide general tips. The goal is to keep your audience interested, and the only way to do that is to consistently post content on your profile. This will make them feel that you care about them and that you are always online. Remember--mix it up with articles, videos, photos, and even audios.

Interact with your audience – now that you have made them feel that your profile is active at all times, your audience will start interacting with you. They can either comment on your posts or mention you. When they do, talk to them. Say thank you or open a conversation. Start closing that gap between you and your audience. Make it comfortable for them to reach out to you. This is the phase where you can start building strong relationships with your customers.

Strengthen your relationships – if you keep interacting with your audience, you will soon recognize who your valuable customers are. Of course all of them are important and will share ideas on your profile every now and then, yet there are those who will share you with their sphere of influence and will act as “brand advocates” of you business or personal brand.. Keep building strong relationships with these people because this is important to any business or brand. Build strong relationships, strengthen your network, and widen your reach.

If you are going to move your business online, it is important that you plan how you are going to follow these tips. These will help you strengthen your online presence and make it easy for your business to connect with individuals online. Remember that trust is earned: you have to take time in completing your profile, creating content, thinking of ways how you can help your audience which gives them a great forum to sample your character and competence.

Here's a Quick Way to Personal Brand Success

Your business success is determined by having loyal customers. It is just one of those “facts of life” for a small business owner.

Social media is a great way to gain and connect with your target market. This is also a way to communicate with them and build strong relationships that will help your brand reach your goals. It’s essential to plan before starting an online campaign. Ask yourself - How can we start our online presence in bridging the gap between our customers and our personal brand (often what drives the brand for small business owners)?

Most small business owners are their business. They will be Googled, along with their business name.

We did an interview with Amy Martin. She is a social media guru and the founder of Digital Royalty, a digital integration and social media marketing firm based in Phoenix. Her business helps celebrities, businesses, and professional sports athletes and leagues to effectively use social media for brand success. She shared some best practices that she uses with her clients to build a solid online identity.

Here are some tips on how to start your personal brand success:

Identify your personal brand – Before you go online to attract and connect with your target market, you must first identify your personal brand. Doing this will give you a clear view of how you can use social media to your advantage. Doing this will help you identify your values and business goals. Once you see how social media can help you meet your business goals, you can start building up your brand online. Attract your target market, and in return, they will start communicating with you.

Listen to your audience – Always pay attention to your audience, whether they are online, offline, or potential ones. Customers have insightful comments and suggestions that you can pick up to continuously improve your personal brand. Listening to their needs and wants will help you strategize your campaign, improve your products or services, and build stronger relationships.

Be aware on how you provide value to your customers – Social media is a great place where you can see how people view you as a brand. You will see how effective your brand is with what customers are saying about you. Take note of the things that your customers like and dislike about your brand. Take the good ones and find ways on how you can provide that to all your customers. Take the bad ones and find ways on how you can improve them.

Success takes patience, a lot of it – Success means you take whatever is necessary to reach your goal. Once you take your brand online, you have to make your presence felt. Post helpful articles and share photos and videos with your audience. Keep them interested. Doing this will engage your audience to share their insights about your posts or your brand. Once you get them interacting with you and with other customers, you start building a community around your brand. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, time and patience. But once you have loyal customers, your brand can have a strong foundation.

Try things and experiment – Customer feedback is beneficial to any business and brand. If you pay attention to people’s feedback, you will get ideas on how you can improve your brand. Listen to their suggestions, refine, and take action. Make changes because it is the only way to find out which strategy, products or services will best work with your target market. And because the market is always changing, the only way to be successful is to keep looking for that something that will get your customers interested. Make sure you communicate your brand’s uniqueness and at the same time flexible to market trends.

There is no shortcut to success and you will quickly get there if you plan and strategize properly, develop your road map and you are keen on executing on it

Do Focus and Engage

Here are some tips to help us focus on the people we interact with and how we can engage them to build a lasting relationship with us:

“What can I do for them” attitude – we always have something to offer to those who need help. If we live by this attitude, we are likely to become more attentive to those who communicate with us. I’m not talking about your business nor your products or services either.  There is always something person to person, in our connections, where we can help. 

In helping others widen their network, you are gaining their trust. They will know that you are not just about making sales but also willing to help others.

Use their name – when meeting people and they introduce themselves, make sure that you remember their names and use it when you are addressing them. If you encounter someone with a unique name or you did not get it the first time, repeat their name and ask if you pronounced it right. Doing this will make it easier for you to remember them, and at the same time, you are avoiding the possibility of mispronouncing their name when you talk to them again.

Why does this matter? The person you are talking to will feel important when you use their first name, and they will also love to be able to call you by your first name. It also leads to a more comfortable conversation.

Maintain eye-contact – paying attention means that we have to show them that we are really listening to what they are saying. Maintaining eye-contact is important when you are talking to someone.

Avoid using your phone. Avoid looking elsewhere. When someone is talking to you, just look them straight in the eye. Doing this will make them feel that you are really interested in what they are saying. They will feel important because they feel that you are respecting them. In return, you gain their trust and respect. When it’s your time to talk, you will have their full attention as well.

Get their contact details – after meeting and discovering how you two can help each other out, don’t forget to exchange contact details. It can be anything from mobile, email, or social media accounts. Once you have it, do stay in contact. Take the time to contact them and see how they are doing, or you can send them your company newsletter (with their permission) to keep them posted. If you did well in communicating with them when you met them, getting in touch will be easy. Invest time in building strong relationships with the people you meet and your business will reap the benefits of long-term professional connections.

All these sound like a lot of work because you may have other ways of building connections and gaining customers. However, these tips will ensure that you develop deeper and stronger relationships with the people that you meet. If you incorporate these as part of your business values, you will gain trust and respect at a deeper level.

It may take a lot of your time, but you will be bringing in more to your business. It is of great value to you when you build strong connection with a network of people whom you can enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with. If you live by helping others, your business will be known as a brand that people can trust. 

Does Your Picture Really Capture Your Brand?

Social media can help our brand make a good impression if we do it right. Part of making a good impression is choosing the right profile picture for our accounts. When people visit our profiles, the first thing that they notice is our picture. This picture can either lure them to know more about us or simply close the window and move on.

Profile pictures matter because it should reflect who we are and people are likely to be drawn to our profiles when we have the right picture there. According to a study on Facebook, the most clicked part of a Facebook page is the profile picture. When our audience goes on our page and clicks on our picture, we want to make an impression that is aligned to our brand. How do we know it’s the right picture for our brand?

Here are some tips on how you can do it right.

Smile – when you are smiling in your profile picture, your audience will get the impression of happiness. It could give a pitch that says you are happy and they will be too with your brand. It could also lead to better social relationships because your audience sees that you are approachable.

Body language is one way for people to read you. People can either see you as open or closed just by how you pose. For example, folded arms and closed hands mean that you are not open. A trick to show openness to your audience is to open your mouth a bit when you smile.

Babies, cartoons and pets – because you are using social media for your business, it’s best to avoid using pictures of anyone but you. Don’t use your baby’s picture, your pets or a cartoon version of yourself because there’s a big possibility that your audience will not take you seriously.

No logos – using your brand logo may seem like a great idea but people are more drawn to connect with people than logos. So avoid using your brand logo as your profile picture. However, you can try to include your brand logo in your picture like wear your brand’s color, use it as a background, mini-logo in the corner, or portray your brand.

Same applies to QR codes. QR codes are good for your website if you want to direct others to your content but it’s not going to work as a profile picture. You want people to remember your face as a brand and not as a QR code.

Stand out with bright backgrounds – personal branding is about standing out from the rest and one way to do that is to use bright backgrounds. Try experimenting with different bright colors and see which ones look good and effective for your brand. Rand Fishkin, founder of SEOmoz and web research mastermind did exactly this and said that orange works well for him and earned him more Twitter followers compared to other colors.

Where you look and what it means – looking straight to the camera will look like you are making direct eye contact with your audience. It seems like you are talking to them and that they have your full attention. It’s a good way to make direct contact with your audience.

Studies also show that your audience will look at the area where you’re facing in your picture. If your face is looking to the right, your audience will look at that area. It’s the same if you are looking to your left, up or down. You can strategically look at your left if you want an audience you go through your tweets.

Stick with your picture for long periods – part of being consistent is to keep your profile picture on for months at a time. Changing it every week or every month will only confuse your audience. You have to give it some time for your image to stick before changing it. Some are even dependent on profile pictures. They search for the image instead of looking for the name because it is easier to remember.

There are different ways on how to make our profile pictures work for our brand. Think about your brand and your goals, and then capture that image you want your audience to see. Once you have an idea, hire a professional photographer to take your photos.  It’s a good investment.  You only have one time to make a good first impression.