6 Things to Avoid in Starting Your Company Blog

Blogging tips for an effective social marketing campaign

Have you ever wondered what you should do when starting a blog? What about what you shouldn’t do? Targeting an audience, creating quality material, and basically generating interest in your brand are the ultimate goals, but there are a few habits that tend to reduce the value our blogs bring to our brand image.

There are certain situations to avoid when constructing and ultimately posting a blog. Start by developing a plan. Basically, your blog should start out as a summary of your profile and goals. But, there are a few more important details to keep in mind when setting up your blog. 

Top Six Things that Must Not Be Overlooked

1. You don’t have to make a blog a group project for your entire business. While advice and even guest activity are welcomed when helping construct material, it shouldn’t be the task of every part of your brand to simultaneously establish a blog. In some cases, it can be useful to spread out the development process, such as investigating a portion of your business separately in each blog. Just be sure that it doesn’t interfere with your brand managers’ endeavors, since that would affect the material in the blog and the ultimate success of your brand. Basically, don’t allow the work on the blog set-up to become a burden - or else it will cost you…

2. This leads to the issue of being unreliable. When a business owner is focused on their business, establishing a blog can seem like a to-do project that can wait on the back-burner forever. But, one of the worst things to do is to establish a blog and fail to follow up regularly. Just like the material in a newspaper, people look for new material regularly, whether it’s in the Sunday comics or the sports. Don’t ever neglect to put in your allotted time and be sure to maintain a regular flow of material.

3. Of course, you don’t want to rush yourself or generate for the sake of posting. A common mistake is to write in order to gain SEO favor instead of creating quality content. Keywords are important, but are only to be used sparingly. Sure it’s a great idea to gain visibility – but only temporarily. SEOs look for current “hot topics” that are favorable and will abandon materials that lack quality content relatively quickly. Additionally such blog material doesn’t really generate interest or conversation, making it something that an audience will see and forget as quickly as a mouse click.  

4. This brings us to the important fact that people avoid blog posters who tend to be just plain boring. You can write a whole lot of words and end up with nothing if you have no structure, readability, or even humor (a little humor goes a long way). 

The main principle is to generate interest and thereby improve word of mouth marketing. You want people to talk about you, not just read the material and continue to surf the web. Make them stop and consider for a moment a simple but applicable point that you make that they are able to relate to their everyday life.

5. Of course, time is valuable to everyone, especially to a business owner or brand operator- hence the reason for ghost writers and guest bloggers. It can be useful at times to gain the aid of a helping hand, but it’s even more important to ensure that the content won’t hurt your brand.

To enunciate we target copyright issues and infringement. There are certain apps available to ensure the content is original, and it is important to filter it through systems so your blog isn’t just a repeating machine or even worse an infringer. Nothing is more upsetting than finding that your material is the result of “copy-and-paste,” even if you weren’t the one to do so. You are responsible so make sure you take all action to ensure the security and sanctity of your material. 

6. Then there are the links to consider. Too many sites have links that don’t work and that fact is noted in the comments. That doesn’t reflect well on your image at all, even if the comments contain praise for content. It can paint you as unprofessional or unprepared if your links don’t carry your audience where they want to go with the click of a button. Speed and availability identify your brand as reliable and efficient. Be sure that you apply yourself in this department. 

Generating a blog can be simple, as long as you avoid some common mistakes. Don’t misuse your publicity or it may cost your brand in the long run. 

Keep People Hiding and Staying Away

Social networking tips for your small business or personal brand

Have you ever wondered why you have plenty of “likes” but so few interactions or conversations on your social pages? You post material and only get five likes and one comment on your feed, which leaves you wondering why no one seems to be paying attention to your feed.

When it comes to Facebook or other feed related social networks, getting a “like” or comment raises your visibility, but time also plays a role in visibility. How often they view your page also matters. Do they regularly check on you or interact with your feed? There are several variables that generate improved visibility. 

But, this means you have to start at the beginning. How do you get that attention?  What are you doing that is keeping your visibility low on your social network? What might you be doing so that viewers either un-like you or hide you in their newsfeed?

Maintaining visibility

Have you ever considered the fact that you are guilty of scaring people away? Whether you are saying the wrong thing or saying it far too often, there is the possibility that you are boring! Take it seriously, because everything comes down to generating interest, especially in a social, high-speed environment. And consequently, intimidation comes in many forms. You could be guilty of several different tactics that are hindering your social visibility. 

What makes up your feed? Are you selling it too hard, too much, or too often?

“If your feed is limited strictly to making sales or blatantly selling, many people will not pay attention to it. “ [tweet this].

Few people would constantly watch commercials all day long because they would rather be entertained. 

This brings us to the posts about random and irrelevant material to your business. They liked you because of what you have to offer them. Be sure that’s what you provide. Talk about things that are relevant, yet have a trendy application to them.

Then there is the art of: Memememememe! The worst thing you can do is think that it’s all about you! Be sure to include the activities of your contacts, customer conversation, and associated topics into your social campaign. If your viewers post something, follow up on it and turn it into a conversation (by the way, you need to comment on your own posts as well). Avoid thinking that everything on your page is about you because in a network, it’s all about everyone. If they share, you share. This is the basis for word of mouth marketing because if you present content that others are willing to share, many more will see what is going on with you.

This means that you should strive to make the experience interactive. Don’t limit yourself to just speaking to a crowd of wandering participants. Create games, generate questions, and get your audience interacting with you and each other.

Consider what you can do to keep your feed line smooth and applicable so that your viewers enjoy reading it. It takes quality information for an audience to want to interact with it rather than ignoring or hiding you from their feeds. 

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. 

Online and Offline Word of Mouth

Your word of mouth marketing, online and offline

How often have you purchased a product based on a family member or friend's recommendation? Or how many times have you learned about a service that people are talking about on the internet and decided to give it a try? Without realizing it, word of mouth marketing has just worked its magic on you. It has been around for a long time even before other forms of advertisements graced your TV or computer screens.

Word of Mouth marketing is a free type of promotion that can work either way. Simple as it may seem, it can easily make or break the reputation of your business. To make sure that it will work in your favor, getting the right information across is vital. The information needs to travel accurately- no additions or omissions.

When conversations travel from online to offline, then online again, there are a few points to consider so it will remain authentic and seamless. Before anything else, creating enough buzz is the first step you need to make. It is important to understand that word of mouth can not only be encouraged but also facilitated. This means that you can control the information you want to put up to attract customers and generate enough interest to keep people talking. This takes a lot thought and planning so that you can get the right message across. You'd want to use brief yet catchy statements so that people can easily remember them even after their computers are turned off. Also be careful about using words that can carry a lot of meaning. It would be best to use simple words that are easy to understand and have only one precise definition. The problem with complicated statements is that it can be translated in different ways and might lead to inaccurate perceptions. 

Identifying influencers

Influential individuals can have great reach.  Aside from their valued opinion, they have specific knowledge and a specific following.

To keep the conversation going, posting regular updates will be essential. Often, these updates can spark a conversation offline and get more people interested. For the seamless transition from online to offline, provide information that is simple to understand, educational and relatable. At this point you can present real life client testimonials or experiences to highlight a product's features or how well a service is done. This is how you can compare your offerings with your competition and let people know what sets you apart from them. This can create a good flow and will encourage others to share their own experiences.

Forums, Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers

Take the time to research how, where and when opinions and views are shared online. Take advantage of popular sites or forums and join in on the conversation.  You can  provide information or answer inquiries and also educate others on valid information about your company or services.

Review sites

Reviews can also be your best marketing tool. They can provide and a perspective that other people may find helpful. Remember that although online exposure is valuable, the ability to take the attention and interest offline is just as important. If you want to be an effective marketer, you need learn how to improve and amplify the potential of word of mouth marketing and create a strategy focused on developing and measuring word of mouth.  

When is it Too Many Posts

Word of mouth marketing and your social media strategy

While Facebook is undoubtedly a fantastic way for a business of any size to promote itself for free, it can actually get to a point where using the site too much can start to have a negative impact instead. It is, therefore, important to strike the perfect balance between keeping in contact with your friends list and not bugging them. You will then see that when it comes to interacting on social media, less can indeed be more.

The problem is that people do eventually get to the point where they become fed up of being given updates on things that have been posted. It is even worse now that Facebook is accessed via smartphones so there is little to no escape for them. The only solution they will have left if you continually post updates is deleting the friendship, unliking your page or hiding you posts – all of which of course means you as a business will lose out.

Limit and they will read

This problem has been highlighted in a recent report by Inc. and the conclusion was that if you want to get more value out of your posts, limit them to once a day and you will find that your friends are far more likely to read what you post. 

The report did, however, also throw up a number of other interesting statistics that businesses should take heed of in regard to their marketing on Facebook. One of the more shocking statistics is that only approximately 30% of businesses respond to feedback by clients on Facebook and this in itself can be a major error. Whether you work in a main city or the far flung corners of Texas, word-of-mouth marketing works both in a positive and negative way. So if you ignore feedback from clients, they will tell their friends that you do not care. In this case, you are advised to use the time that you would have spent posting more things on Facebook to dealing with feedback instead as it will benefit your business in the long run.

Shutting down your wall

The only thing you can do worse in social media than ignoring feedback is not allowing it to be done at all. The report by Inc. states that 25% of businesses actually block contact from fans. This puts across the impression that your business does not listen nor care what their customers think.  In any social interaction, offline and online, you must make sure that people see you as being warm, open and welcoming. Do not even consider blocking people and when they contact you, respond accordingly even if it is a negative comment as you can still do something to turn it around. (And, all we lurkers are watching your every move!)

This means to continue to use Facebook as part of your word-of-mouth marketing, you must be very strategic about how, when and how often you post Saying “hi” and “asking for feedback or more information from their feedback that’s posted” is ideal, but do not plague them with posts several times a day. Instead, be professional and use it to let them know what is going on in your business and if someone comments, then respond as quickly as possible as this will speak volumes about you and about your business. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is very much a part of Facebook .  Post when you have something valuable to say and also reply to fans who give you feedback. Do not ignore your fans and engage with them as best you can so that you can give the impression that you are a business that cares about its customers. With that kind of reputation, you’ll not only be likeable – you’ll be shareable.  

Being Better, Socially Speaking

In the past, most brands relied on advertising to promote their brand. It was all about making sure that people recall you when they see your ad on TV or hear about it over the radio. The more that people hear or see your ad, the more likely they are to buy your products and services.

Times have changed, however, and people aren’t as easy to convince as they were before. Also, the competition among brands has become fierce, since many similar products and services have become available on the market. Whether you’re a personal or a small business brand, you really have to do your part in standing out from among the crowd to ensure that you’re noticed, so that people will buy from you. Advertisements don’t work well anymore – what works nowadays is social or word-of-mouth marketing.

The success of your brand now relies on how effectively you socialize and engage with your customers and audience. You need to build a relationship with them, and not simply consider them as random people you need to convince to buy from you.

This is the reason why brands have invaded social media. Since this is where most people are whiling away their time, it’s become essential for brands to connect with their audience using these platforms.
Of course, it’s easy for brands to create a website or a blog, to get a Facebook or Twitter account, and to start creating boards on Pinterest. But the challenge lies on how to connect and build a relationship with your audience within these platforms.

Here are some tips to help you:

     1. Update regularly

Nothing’s worse than an abandoned blog or an abandoned Facebook page. If you don’t plan on posting at least once a week, then you may need to reconsider your social marketing strategy. People need regular content from you in order to interact and engage with your brand. So make sure that you regularly update your blog and other social media accounts, so you can continue to have a good number of followers and readers.

     2. Respond to your audience

Interaction needs to be a two-way street, so it’s essential that you respond to your audience whenever they comment or make suggestions in your blog or your other social media accounts. When you respond to people’s comments, they will feel appreciated and validated. You can also pay special attention to people who comment and interact frequently with you, since these people are typically loyal to your brand and can easily become your brand advocates.

It’s a good idea to monitor mentions of your brand’s keywords so that you can respond to them. You can easily set up Google Alerts or do a search on Twitter to see who’s mentioning you. This helps you interact with people who have questions, comments or suggestions regarding your products or services.

You can also comment on your audience’s blogs. People typically leave their URLs whenever they comment, so it’s very easy to simply click the link and leave a reply on their page.

     3. Follow your audience back

Your audience will be flattered if you follow them back. So discover their other social media accounts and follow them on Twitter or even on Pinterest. This helps you connect and interact with them, since no one wants communication to be a one-way street.

     4. Ask an open-ended question

A great way to interact with your audience socially is to ask an open-ended question that’s related to your brand. This helps create buzz and conversation around your brand, and also helps you learn about what your audience wants and what they think of your brand.

     5. Create a poll

Many people enjoy answering polls, and these polls help you gain insights regarding the products and services you’re offering. Once the poll results are in, make sure to talk about the results to create conversation and buzz about your brand.

There are so many ways for brands to connect with their audience. Advertisements may continue to bombard people every day, but right now, it’s the people who choose to interact with a brand or not. So to succeed in this world, it is essential for your brand to be socially interactive.

Don’t focus on selling your products or services. Instead, focus on building a great relationship with your audience. The more they get to know you and the more you interact with each other, the more willing they will be to avail of what you’re offering.

When you become better at word-of-mouth marketing, your brand can really become successful.

What is SaveLocal and Why Would You Use It?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of years, you’ve surely heard about daily deal sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial. These sites have become extremely popular among people, after all, who doesn’t enjoy getting 50% off at a new restaurant or 50% off at an expensive spa?

For business owners, these sites can be an excellent idea since it can help them with their local business marketing and get new customers to your door. But as a small business owner, you need to ask yourself is: What do you really want—new customers or repeat ones? Do you want people who are only looking for deals, or do you want people looking for a brand they can be loyal to?

Also, did you know that Groupon typically gets 50% of what the customers pay? For example, if you put up an offer of 50% off on $20 worth of food. The customer pays you $10 for this deal and from this, Groupon gets $5 and you also get $5. That’s $5 for $20 worth of food. Imagine if thousands of people buy this daily deal (since these sites usually don’t allow you to put a limit on the coupons that can be bought), do you think you’re going to get any profit? Or would you actually become buried in debt?

Yes, there are many Groupon horror stories out there. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it hasn’t worked for some – there are also numerous success stories of companies that only have praises for these daily deal sites. But as a small business owner, are these sites the best choice for you? If you’re planning on marketing in West Texas, is it really recommended to use these sites that offer your coupons everywhere?

SaveLocal and Small Businesses

Here’s where SaveLocal comes in. ConstantContact, a company which has successfully helped thousands of small companies with their email campaigns, has now entered the deal site arena with SaveLocal. But what they’re offering is something quite different – SaveLocal basically helps you create, design, promote, and track your deals, at a very affordable price.

With SaveLocal, you decide what coupon to offer, the number of coupons you want to sell, and who can receive these offers. Unlike Groupon and other deal sites who reward people who are simply looking for a good deal (and aren’t likely to return and pay the full price), SaveLocal targets your existing customers and encourages them to share the coupon with their friends and acquaintances.

Basically, the coupons are only sent to the business’ email list and Facebook followers. The customers are offered the deal, as well as an incentive to share it with their friends and social network. It’s an excellent small business marketing strategy.

Though the people who will receive your coupons may be smaller in number, these people are the ones who are more likely to be returning and loyal customers. SaveLocal rewards your existing customers and encourages them to spread the word to their friends. These people are likely to be local, increasing the chances that they get the coupon. Also, for their friends to get the deal, they have to opt-in to your email campaign as well, giving you the ability to connect with them further.

You see, one of the basic downfalls of Groupon and other deal sites is the fact that you don’t get any information on those who buy your coupons. They buy the coupons, redeem them, and then they move on to the next 50% off deal, forgetting about you. But with SaveLocal, you can obtain the most valuable asset – a way to communicate with your new customers, to offer them other deals and encourage them to frequent your store again and again.

And what would this cost you? You only have to pay $1 to $3, depending on the cost of the deal you’re offering. This is perfect for small business owners, who can offer excellent deals and still get a profit from the sales.

But perhaps the main question you need to ask is: Why should I use SaveLocal? Can’t I simply create my own deals?

Well, you can. But SaveLocal makes it so much easier to conceptualize the deal and analyze the results at an affordable price. So if you want to save time and effort, then this site is a great way to do so.

For small business owners who want to offer deals to their customers without ending up in debt or even bankrupt, then SaveLocal is for you. Remember that you’re not targeting random people who just want a great deal. You’re targeting people who are likely to return and become regular customers. So to make it happen, give SaveLocal a shot!

Disclosure: I do have a partnership with Constant Contact. That partnership came about because of my genuine liking for their tools and system.

How to Keep Your Brand Clean – Virtually!

We have a lot of daily tasks to keep up with and to handle everything efficiently, we depend on technology. We have mobile phones to help us stay connected at all times. We have laptops and high speed computers to process work easier. We have the internet to move us closer to those we work with from different continents. With all the gadgets and tools that we are depended on, we are able to keep up with the demands of the competitive market we are playing on.
Between the files, documents, and work that we have to do; we rarely have the time to clean up the tools that we are using. We keep accumulating files and documents, sometimes misplacing the others because there’s already too much to keep track of. It is important to perform regular clean-up on the tools that we use for work to make us as productive as possible. We want to have access to the things that we need without wasting time looking for them, scrolling through the files that we have from previous transactions.

Because the tools that we use reflect our brand, we want to keep it clean at all times. If we keep our gadgets and tools clutter-free, it will reflect in the way we do business. We transact faster and more efficient. Here are some tips on how you can declutter your tools to keep that great brand impression.

Clean up your smartphone – having a smartphone is necessary in this day and age. Other than text messages and call capabilities, you can access your email and connect to the internet. You can also get apps to be more productive or get games just in case you need to pass time. Smartphones come with a lot of memory for storing text messages, your emails, photos, apps, and many more. Chances are you will only notice how much files you have after several months. By this time, your phone will be too cluttered and you don’t know where you read an important message, your email or text message?

What you can do is go through your text messages and delete messages that you don’t need any more. Same goes for your photos, videos, apps. You can back up your phone to save photos and videos to your computer. For your apps, you can delete the ones that you don’t find any use for. What you’ll have is a cleaner inbox, faster phone, and apps that are more accessible to you when you need them.

Laptop and computers – these tools can hold years’ worth of documents and files. You will just come to a point where you don’t know where to look for them. What you can do is delete files that you don’t need any more then arrange them in folders. You can arrange them by year or any way that suits you.Whatever strategy works that will make it easier for you to find your files. To make your computer faster, you can defragment and do system clean-up to remove all temporary files from the web. Once you are done, you can create shortcuts to your important files and have them on your desktop screen.

Emails – some people can receive hundreds of emails in a day. Most of time, we just scroll through the important ones and neglect the rest for next time. Days go by and you notice you have a thousand emails that is waiting for your attention. This is not a pretty sight but it’s just clutter in your inbox. It is now harder for you to look for important messages because of all the previous unread ones. Delete those you don’t need. If others look like spam to you, mark it as spam so next time it doesn’t go to your inbox.

Regular clean up of tools and other things that you use to interact with others is important because it saves you time from going through all your files. It also saves you the stress of trying to remember where you had that conversation with a client. The concept is the same with our workstations. We want to maintain a clean and clutter-free work area to make us think freely and stress-free. When we keep our gadgets clean, up-to-date, and clutter-free; we communicate faster without the risk of sending customers or clients the wrong documents

Your Touch Exudes Your Brand

Communication is an essential part of business and technology is changing the way we reach out to others. Reaching a client is now faster, either through text message or email. There are different tools that we can make use of to communicate with others. There are mobile phones, laptops and tablets that are making the way we do business more personalized. Through the internet, we can easily reach out to our target market; even widen our reach because of its worldwide coverage.

The same tools and technologies are changing the way we do business. It’s making it easy for us to innovate and move our business around, even if it’s just a small one. With laptops and the abundance of computer software, we can easily do our work at home. We can do work for someone even if they are on the other side of the world. In some instances we can work away from our office; we take our work home and finish it there. That’s why for some people, they prefer having the same tools at home that they use at work. It's easier to do work because it’s what they are already used to. It feels more personalized.

Everything you use for your business displays who you are

We must be careful with how we use our gadgets and technology because these tools that we use speak something about how we do business. Your choice of profile photo gives a sign of who you are and how your customers can trust you. If you put a professional looking photo on your social media sites, your customers will surely get the feeling that they can trust you. Add that photo to your carefully researched articles with perfect grammar, and surely your readers will take you seriously; they will start trusting you and frequent your blog for new information.

When you are delivering services to others, all the tools, equipment and materials that you use make an impression. You don’t have to necessarily use expensive tools, but investing in tools with good quality will go a long way for your brand. Let’s take a gym as an example. Good quality gym equipment is pricey, but if you want to attract customers and get them to apply for long term membership, you need to invest in equipment that will also last. Your gym equipment should be heavy duty because you don’t want your equipment to break down in the middle of a customer’s workout.  

You, too, are built by association

It’s the same with graphic designers and multimedia creators. They make use of laptops and computers that are top of the line to deliver what their clients want and exceed expectations. They invest in equipment just to make sure that they give the best product. They make these tools part of who they are as a brand. Using the best equipment plus their talent of producing great content means that the brand is reliable and it makes it easier to attract and please customers.

There will be times when we need a contractor for our business, another brand that can help us with our business. When we hire someone to do a job for us, we want the highest quality output. In order to achieve this we have to be ready when our contractor says they want to use their own tools rather than the ones you already have in your office. Like us, they work best with the tools they already have and the only way to gain that competitive advantage is to let them use the tools that they use for their own brand.

When we take our brand to the market, we have to be ready to make an impression. It’s how we are going to gain customers, how we are going to convert an audience to clients. Technology helps us make a great impression. Speakers are now using iPads and iPhones to make and control presentations. They can do final edits in 30 minutes or less, before they present. They can walk around while they are presenting, adding more speaker-audience communication. Innovating the way people hold conferences, it’s more exciting and interactive.

What great tools do you utilize that enhance another’s experience with you?

Using Your Own QR Code

QR codes were first used in the automotive industry to track vehicles during manufacturing. They are similar to barcodes because they show information when scanned. Today, they're gaining popularity among businesses. QR codes are used for promotional purposes. Some businesses even post big QR codes on buildings. They can be as large as billboards, so when people pass by, they can scan the code with their phones and get the information.

As a personal brand, you can make use of QR codes to help your business. You don’t have to necessarily use it for promotions or giving out discounts to customers. You can also use it to direct people to your blog or social media websites. It’s still going to be a part of your marketing strategy, but in a subtle way. You are directing your customers to information that they might find useful, directing them to your blog where they can find more information that might strike their interest. It’s a way of reaching out to an audience and possibly converting them into customers. You don’t have to use billboard-sized QR codes; you can be creative in where you put them for people to see.

Before you start generating your own QR code, here are some tips on how to be successful in your marketing campaign:

Know your strategy – like anything else that we want to include in our marketing strategy, we have to carefully study and analyze how we are going to make use of QR codes and how they fit in our business plans and goals. We need a clear definition of our purpose for using the code. Jumping into any campaign just because everyone else is doing it is not always a good idea.

Verify that your QR code is working – before spreading your QR code and posting it online, make sure that you have a working code. The last thing you want is people having problems with your code, it’s going to make or break your campaign. Imagine having QR codes posted everywhere with your brand name. When people realize it’s not working, they’ll never bother checking any of your marketing campaigns again. You have already created a negative reputation towards your brand.

Mobile accessibility – make sure that all the sites that your audience are going to be directed to are mobile compatible. Remember that QR codes are scanned using mobile phones. Once your audience starts scanning your code, they must be able to read your content or information right through their mobile phones.

Value added information – because you are not going to give your audience promotional codes or discounts, you have to make sure that you still give them something valuable. When you post your QR code on the articles that you write so that scanning the code will direct them to your profile or vice versa, they have to find something more than they already know. A QR code on your profile that only leads to another one of your profiles with the same information does not add value to your audience. It’s going to be useless for them because they’ve already seen that same information before.

Research tools you can use – there are many ways to use a QR code and you can choose the information that you want to be seen in the code. Do some research on the tools that can help you generate different codes with different information encrypted in it.  This will let you choose the best tool that will help portray you and at the same time add variety to the information on the QR codes that you are spreading.

With a working QR code and readily available information for your audience, you are giving them a different experience.  Yet, like any first impression, it can either work for you or against you. What unique value does your QR code give?

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Professional photos and headshots used to be for models, actors, and senior executives; photos that represent a business. These days, not only do professional photos belong to these personalities - everyone in business needs one. Yes, need. We are visual beings and it is easier for us to associate things with photos. Same as when we were young; it was easier for us to remember a word when we saw a photo of it, something to associate it with.  

The same concept applies when you have a social media site or a blog. A simple yet powerful headshot in there will get you a long way. Consumers like to associate a business or a brand with a face. Let’s look at some of the top reasons why having a photo on your site is important.

Promote your personal brand – when consumers go to your blog or social media site and they see your photo there, they’ll sense a closeness that will make it easier for them to approach you, or leave a comment or say something on your site. You are making it easy for them to associate your brand with you. This way you are promoting your personal brand at the same time you are making it easy for consumers to separate you from the rest.

Increase traffic – people are more likely to click on your LinkedIn page or other social media sites if they see a photo of you there. You can attract readers just by putting your photo on your profile. Once they are looking around and reading your profile, and you did a great job at putting links to your other sites there, then you increase your chances of driving traffic to your other sites.

Adds credibility – readers are more inclined to believe an article or any kind of web content if the photo of the person who contributed it is there. If your blog still doesn’t have a short bio and photo, it’s time you sit down and add a photo and say a little something about yourself and what you do. Give your readers a little background and reasons why they should trust you.

These are some of the reasons why having a photo on your blog or social media sites is important. Even social media companies know how important having a photo online is. They are taking advantage of this by creating apps that allow users to take a photo of anyone and then have that person’s contact info entered into Outlook or iPhone contacts. Face recognition is becoming more popular!

Make sure to upload good quality photos. Have a professional photographer take your photo. Have a creative shot done, depending on the brand or image that you want your readers to see. Here are some things that you can do with your photo to make it a part of your marketing strategy.

Have a series of professional photos taken – when people look for you online, you don’t want the same photo of you to come up more than once in a single page. This might be a turn off for your reader. Ask a professional photographer for packages and talk about how you can have different shots taken with different clothes on. This way you can upload different photos of yourself on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media accounts. When they search your name online, they’ll see all these photos of you instead of just one.

Your name as file name – use your name as your photo file name. This will make it easier for Google or any search engine to show your face when a person looks for your name online. You can also upload to Flickr if you already have an account. This makes your photos easier to come up in search engines and social media sites.

Photos are your chance of making a lasting impression that people can trust and count on you and your business. 

Discovering Your Personal Brand Culture

As business owners, we spend a lot of time on marketing our brand. We lay out different marketing strategies, tapping different channels to find consumers.  But some of us might be too focused on marketing alone, attracting and converting consumers to loyal customers.

Brand culture is a balance of your business goals, vision, mission, values, and beliefs mixed together. You walk and talk your brand, that’s your culture. This mix is important to a business because it’s the one thing that will define and separate you from your competitors, a culture that the owner, manager and its employees live with. A strong brand culture will easily attract consumers who believe in your values and how you do business. It is seen as an important driver that can make a business successful. It is flexible and adjusts well to consumer trends. If you have a great product or service, don’t let that go to waste because you have no clear vision of what your business is about.

As a personal brand, creating a culture around your brand means being clear and committed in your core values and non-negotiables (those things that are essential to who you are, what your business is, and what you will not compromise on).  You should start from within. Start with the things that you have control of, like the way you run your business, the way you handle your employees. Start internally.

Here are some tips on how you can discover your brand from its core to make it into a culture:

An energetic and engaging leader – the right attitudes make a culture. If you show that you are energetic and passionate about what you do, this will rub off on those who work with you. Become an example to your team. Make your products and services a part of who you are. As a leader, inspire your team by engaging them into the realities of your business. Help them see what you want your brand to be known for. This will make them understand what your business is about and how you want others to see your brand. Once they get a clear idea, their attitudes will adjust to what your business needs. They will be happy to talk about your products and offer amazing customer service when they reach out to customers.

Put your values into action – now that you have set values for your business, you have to consistently live by them. Your team members or employees will have a hard time living by company values if they only hear and read about it. For maximum impact, you have to put your values into action. Let them see how you work and they will follow. Create a lively environment where you can live by your brand values. Empower those who work with you so that they can embody your brand culture.

Clear roles and accountability – businesses who have established a strong culture recognize how important their team members or employees are. They are part of why a business is growing. As a leader, you have to recognize their talents. This will serve as another way to inspire them. Give them clear roles and let them know what is expected from them and what they are accountable for. By empowering them like this, they will understand how important their work is and start living the brand’s values. When you are hiring, you can also look for people who already share your interests and have an understanding of what you are doing for you business. This will make it easy to establish a culture.

Acknowledge success and failure – every business faces challenges and whether you get through that or not, you are left with a lesson. Remember to celebrate your business’s success even if it’s a small thing. Give credit to those who helped you reach that goal as a way of letting them know that their efforts are valued. If you take care of your people, they too will take care of you no matter what happens to your brand, even when you suffer a bump along the road.

Brand culture is important because it is what separates you from the others. If you have a well established culture, it is harder for you to completely lose balance in the business world. It’s never too late to start defining who you are as a brand. You can start discovering and establishing your culture from within.

The 5 Things a Brand Can Gain From Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform that is gaining popularity amongst businesses. It’s a simple and easy to use tool for businesses to reach out to customers and spread brand awareness. The concept of the site is more on visual communication. Users can post images they like, whether they took them themselves or they find them online, by pinning them on their “Boards.” Boards represent a user’s category of interest like Lifestyle, Books to Get, Places to go, and any topic that a user is interested in.

Sharing and pinning images are easy because of the “Pin It” bookmarklet tool, allowing users to instantly save and post an image they see on the web. Their iPhone app also makes it convenient for users to upload and post images on their account.

The site’s growing popularity among businesses is attributable to its ability to drive traffic to a website. You can market your brand on Pinterest by posting pictures of your products and services then add a link to your website or blog. According to HitWise, Pinterest is becoming one of the top 5 referrers for apparel retailers. When customers see an image they want, they want to know more about it so they click on the image. This directs them to a brand’s website, learning more about the business. Personal brands or services can also gain and take advantage of Pinterest and here are 5 ways you can do it:

Promoting a lifestyle or culture – Share your interests through images and let your images speak about your brand. If your brand is about traveling, share images of places you’ve been to. If you have a blog site, link that image to your blog if you have already written something about that place. Soon you will be attracting others that share your passion for traveling and they will visit your site when they want to know more about the places you’ve been to or how you plan your trips. Through Pinterest, your images can be shared to others and so will your blog.

As a focus group – When you post an image, users can “Repin” your images and share them on their network. Users can also comment on your images. You can post a creative image of your brand or services, and when users comment on it, you can ask them what they think about it. You can use their comments to get an idea of how other consumers think about your business.

As crowdsource – when you post images about your business, users will start commenting. As consumers, we like to share our insights about products and services that we’ve tried or got our attention. You can gather insights and ideas from other users – it’s exciting to see how another’s “perspective” can help you view your brand, services, and even problems from a much different angle and advantage.  This will help you make improvements in case the ideas you get are doable.

Run contests – as consumers, we like contests. We like getting free things or discounts because, after all, the best things in life are free. Your brand or business can run contests using the site. There are many ways to do it. Let’s say you are running a contest to give away free massages. You can ask users to comment on the image and why they deserve the free massages. As a way to promote your personal brand, you can give away free accommodations or discounts to users who Repin 5 to 10 images that you traveled to that they find interesting and why. Be creative and attract other users to interact with you through the site. Keep them interested.

Inspire your team – If you have a team that works for your business, you can share images of anything you can find on the web that can inspires them. Make learning interesting by using the site. Instead of sending them links to inspirational articles, images, and videos, post the image or video on your site. Link inspirational articles through an image relating to the article. This will make your team inspired to learn because of the fun and creative approach of learning through the things they see.

Your business brand and each team member's personal brand have lots of good visual play time on Pinterest.  Just remember to answer the question, "How does this fit in my marketing and communication strategy?" before you make your first board, and this platform can be a powerful tool in your brand toolbox.

Weak, Evil, and Rotten Words

Good communication is important in running a business. As people who sell and provide products and services to others, we need to effectively convey what our business is about. We have to use words that make us confident about what we are selling, words that will make us a trustworthy brand. Of course, part of conveying strong and effective messages to our consumers mean that our products and services live up and exceed their expectations. So how do we do it?

Our choice of words greatly affects how people understand what we are telling them. When we are marketing our products, we have to use words and phrases that will convince them that they do want our products or that they need the services that we are offering. Our choice of words also says a lot about how we do business and how reliable we are as a brand.

Here are some words that we should avoid using during business transactions:

Weak words – weak words can greatly affect our business transactions. When talking to customers, we have to make an impression, and using weak words is not good to start with. A sample of a weak word is the word, think. When you say, “I think you will greatly enjoy our product,” you sound unsure about the product or you are making your customer feel that you are indifferent.  You can improve that sentence by saying, “You will greatly enjoy our product...” then you can go on about why the product is perfect for them. Confidence plays a big factor here. If you know what you are selling and you know it well, you are likely to deliver strong and attractive messages to your customers in a natural manner. You won’t even sound like you are trying to sell something. Customers love doing business with people who make them think and feel that they made the right decision by buying your products or services.

Evil words – we have a big responsibility to our business, especially when it comes to our brand’s reputation. Anything we do and say reflects back to our business. That’s why it’s important that we avoid using evil words such as cuss words or derogatory words. It can happen when we are talking to random people out in the street and we feel like airing our opinions. It can also happen when we are on our social media sites and we accidentally updated our status on our business site instead of our personal page. Using such words will offend our customers, especially since we don’t know them too well to have a deep understanding on what can and cannot offend them. Be on the safe side; always be polite and sensitive to what our customers will feel about our opinions or statements. Avoid cuss words or words that have a negative meaning.

Rotten words – our words become the worst when we mix it with negative attitude. Keeping a positive tone together with choosing the right words is important in business communication. This is especially true when it comes to customer service. A negative tone and the wrong words will prevent you from gaining a customer, making a sale, and increases your chance of getting a bad reputation. When it comes to customers asking you about anything regarding your business, here are some phrases you should avoid:

·         I don’t know – saying this means a lot of negative things that can bring your business down. It can mean that you don’t know what you are selling. It can mean that you are not interested in this person that is asking about your products, and it can mean that you are not confident about the product or service that you are selling. It’s fine if you really don’t know the answer to the question, but it’s better if you give them a reassuring answer like, let me find out for you. Make them feel that they are important.

·         Calm down – this can happen when a customer is on your social media site writing about their bad experience they had with your brand. Don’t say “calm down.” Instead, apologize and empathize. Understand the problem and then let them know that you are going to do your best to resolve the issue.

·         I can’t do that – we may be limited by company policies but there’s always a way or a workaround on a problem. Saying this will mean that you are not willing to help your customer at all. Instead of saying this, what you can say is, “What I can do is...”

Choosing the right words to say to our customers always matters. When they like something that we said or did for them, they will surely tell it to others. It is the same when they get offended by the words that we say. They will tell others how about the bad experience they had while doing business with your brand. To avoid this, always follow good etiquette and be polite.

The 5 Laws of Pinning

Pinterest is a social media site that is gaining attention and gaining it fast. The site has been around for two years now, but only started gaining a lot of users these past few months. It is said to be the fastest growing social media site today. And because our customers are getting on it, let’s take a look at some of the advantages that the new site can offer to our personal brand or our small business.

Pinterest is a place where you can share images and videos. You can post images and videos that interest you and share them with your followers. On the business and marketing side of it, you can take advantage of the site to share your business through visuals, build a network, and drive traffic to your blog site. Since it is more of a visual place, you can get creative ideas. You can read about what others think about your posts or simply about what others think about a certain product through their comments. The site really has a lot of potential and if you want to get a feel for it, you can visit the site.

If you have decided to take your personal brand or small business to Pinterest, here are five laws to help you keep your focus and gain the best results for your business:

Manage your time – there is no doubt that this site is addicting and it is important that you manage your time properly when you are on it. The concept of pinning images can be really addicting. You see an image that catches your interest and instantly you re-pin it on one of your boards. Sometimes you might lose track of time and your goals. So make sure that you go in there and concentrate on what needs to be done. If you already have a strategy for how you are going to use the site for your business, that's well and good. Use that as a guide to increase your productivity and minimize distractions.

Use it to drive traffic to your posts – the only way to catch an audiences’ attention is through the visuals that you post. You never know who might end up clicking your posts. So what you can do is add a link on the image or video that you are posting so that when they click on it, they are taken to your blog site. If your post has an image, pin that image on Pinterest. If you made a video that gives tips about products and services, you can post the video on Pinterest as well. It’s a place where you can market your blog site.

Make your profile visible – one of our business goals is to attract customers, and you can do this by making sure that your profile is not hidden from search engines. Also, there are ways you can make your site visible. Make use of keywords when writing your profile description. Use keywords when describing an image that you posted. And also you can add your business URL to your “About Me” page. It’s not going to be an active link but you’ll still hit something by putting it up there. If your brand is listed on a Google Places business page, use that as a landing page especially, when you have great reviews there.

Build relationships – the site offers a place for you to build relationships and expand your network. People are pinning and repinning at a high speed so take advantage of that. Your content can be easily shared on this site. Also, if you like something, comment on it. Build relationships with others by sharing your ideas as well.

Be careful with what you post – Pinterest has no privacy settings so it’s best to be careful with what you post. If your account is strictly for business, it may be best to avoid posting family photos or images of anything personal as these can be easily shared with others. Also, avoid copyright infringement. Showcase your professionalism by giving credit where credit is due.

Pinterest is a great and fun place where you can market your business. Just  remember to answer these questions first before getting absorbed.

1.  Who will hear your message?

2.  Does it fit your strategy and plan?

3.  How will you measure if it’s successful?

How Your Personal Brand Makes the Sale

Some businesses have the budget to market their products while some do not. If you are someone who does not have the budget to hire someone to advertise your business, there are still ways you can market your products without spending too much. If you have the passion and creativity, you can still attract customers. If you invest time and use the tools available to you, you can still make that sale.

As a small business owner, paying for marketing and advertising is normally not part of the budget. However, there are ways to get customers' attention and the chance for your business to attract more. In this kind of business setup, making an impression will go along a way. Because you are catering to a small number of customers (compared to big companies), you have that chance to give your customers a more personalized experience. You are more likely to face your customers and talk to them compared, say, to CEOs or big company owners.

Here are some tips on how your personal brand can make the sale:

·         Make the experience worth it – when a customer looks into your shop or drops by your restaurant, make them feel special. Grab that opportunity of having the time with them by giving them a level of service that will make their visit worth it. If they come by your restaurant and you get their name, call them by it. If they ordered something in your shop, call them to see that they received the package and ask if they are satisfied with it, or if they have any questions about it.

·         Something extra – offer your customers a little extra when they shop with you. Together with their order, you can add a little product sample from your shop. Give them a taste of something new. It is one way of introducing other products from your store at the same time, the possibility of getting more orders from them next time.

·         Partner with local groups and organizations – partner up with fundraising events in your community. Offer something to those who will participate in the event, give them coupons or a discount when they visit your business. Doing this will give you benefits like brand awareness, getting people to try your business, and a chance to make an impression that will earn you more customers.

·         Offer free workshops – host your own event by offering free workshops at your business place. Be creative and teach people how they can use your products. If you are a coffee shop owner, you can host a dessert or drink-making class. If you sell different things in your shop, you can do a workshop on decoration or creative holiday cards. Teach people something that they can use in their daily lives with the help of your product. Doing this in your place of business will give them a chance to look around and buy things that they need after the workshop. For sure they would like to try what they learned once they get home.

·         Social media – make use of the internet. Social media sites are a cost-effective way to market your products and services. You can create a Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account under your business name and ask those who visit your shop to add you. If you invest time in these sites and promote, you will soon have a place where you can get in touch and announce the latest on your business. If you have an event, sale, new products, post them on these sites. It is an easy way to reach out to your customers and a place where you can start selling your products.

Another reason why social media sites are great for your business is because it’s become the way that people get their information and news. And, often they’re accessing this information on their phone.  They check movie schedules online or browse for restaurants near them. If you can update your customers when you have specials or discounts, you increase your chances of being chosen.

You might only get one chance with a person to convert them into a customer, so make the most out of it. Make a good impression and make them feel that they are receiving their money’s worth. Do follow-ups and assist them in the best way that you can. Find ways to help them. They might not buy your products the first time, but the impression that you leave will surely make them come back. And when you gain customers, make them feel special or important, because it is easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.

Update on Social Resources

The rise of social media usage is also leading to new social media platforms. In the last 3-4 years, social media has raised the bar in internet use through these platforms, and because a lot of people are connected, marketers see the potential of social media platforms as a place to attract consumers. Every year, there are new social networks being introduced, each coming up with their own designs, offering something different from the others as a means to attract users. Popular business platforms today are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms help businesses lower marketing cost while widening reach. But like everything else, we crave more and there’s the need to evolve.

Social media can help our businesses if we have the right strategy aligned with our business goals. Right now, social media is helping brands cultivate culture while engaging customers. It’s a platform to get closer to your audience, a place for interaction and sharing of ideas. There are even tools, or Social CRMs, that are designed to track and report activity on social media sites. That’s how important it is for businesses.

Every now and then, there’s a new platform being introduced to users. Here are some of the latest social media platforms that businesses are looking at. Most of them are Social CRMs:

Pinterest – a free site where you can post pictures that interest you. If you get a good following, your followers can “Like”, “Comment” and “Repin” the image that you posted. It’s another way of sharing your interests through visual content. Through an image, you get what people like or dislike about it and get ideas. It’s a place for creative inspiration. You can even customize your page and have “Boards” for each interest. On each Board, you can “Pin” images on it; it’s a good way to organize your images according to interests.  An example would be, if your business is flower arrangements, you can “Pin” images on “Boards” labelled for different occasions. This way your customers can just look at your site. It can be your brands visual representation.

Sprout Social – this is a social CRM tool that will help your brand manage all your social media sites. It is a social media management tool to track how people are talking about your brand on different platforms. It integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, and other sites where there is engaging customers. The tool also provides competitive insight, lead generation, analytics, contact management, and more. Some other helpful features include scheduling when your posts are published, a discovery tool to find target customers, and mobile compatibility.

Radian6 – is also a social CRM tool. It measures metrics, sentiments, measurements, and reports analytics. The tool reports on those who are talking about your brand and can also report on how others are talking about your competitors. It tracks conversations and discussions, then provides results from such interactions. Another feature helps you engage with your audience. If you want to get more specific on your target audience, the tool can report on demographics including age and location.

Hootsuite – this platform has been around for a while but a lot of businesses like it because it’s relatively inexpensive compared to other social media management tools. It is a web-based tool to help you organize and manage all your social media sites in one place. The dashboard view helps you build and manage your community, let’s you engage with your customers and see who is talking about your brand. You can also schedule your posts on all the platforms that you are on. And because keeping track of those who care and stay loyal to your brand is important, you can create a list of followers you want to keep an eye on. After all the posting and interacting, you can measure your analytics, Twitter mentions and follower growth, and Facebook visits.

Most consumers are online, and if you want to reach them, social media sites are a good place to start. Consumers are also fast when trying out new social media platforms, so be on the lookout for emerging platforms and see if you have a market there. Social media sites can help our brands, and great way to take advantage of its benefits is to track how effective our pages are.

The Zen of a Good Press Release

Have something new going on with your small business and you want your customers to know? Writing a press release for your new product or service is a way to attract your customers to come and try it out. But you can’t just type and put attractive words in your press release. It has to be well-written and, more than anything, informative. Your press release is a make or break statement, just like when you’re talking to your customers face-to-face. It either attracts your customers or they read through it and get you a bad reputation.

You want a press release that your customers will understand. When they read it, they’ll know what’s in store for them, and if it’s really well-written your news will get passed on to others.  Here are 5 tips on how to write a good press release:

Know your customers – one way to attract your customers is to be aware of what they want to see in a product or service. If you have discussed ideas with your customers through your social media site and you have what they want, highlight it in your press release. Let them know that your new product or service has exactly what they’ve suggested or recommended. Knowing your readers and their interests, and putting that in your press release, will likely attract your customers. They'll want to try out the changes that you made, especially if your new product or service was brought about by ideas gathered from your customers.

Make it informative, don’t promote – a press release should be informative, and promoting should be kept at zero to minimal. Don’t make promises that you are going to give them what they asked for. Just let them know that they probably want to try this new product that you have, then include the features that you got from your customers. Give them something informative rather than opinions about how good your product is. Let them be the judge of that.

Understand your business perspective – add strength to your press release by also acknowledging other businesses if you are not the only one in your industry. If you are not the only one who is offering the product, but you have something to the same effect, let your readers know. They will probably respect you more as a brand if you also acknowledge that you’re not the first one to offer such a product of service, but you might have something a little different that they are interested in. This is also better than just talking about your business, your new product, or service without perspective.

Watch your choice of words for misinterpretation – in other words, don’t sound weird. When you start writing your press release, of course you are excited, and chances are you might get carried away. An example of this is from a restaurant press release saying, “transforming the entire dining experience into a deliciously personal affair between the diner and the chef". I don’t think your customers would want a personal affair with your chef, so be careful with how you use your words. Your customers might misinterpret the way you describe how your product or service is different from the rest.

Make the tone conversational – write your press release with a conversational tone rather than just a full-on stream of information about your new business venture. Give your readers some time to digest the information that you are giving them.  And avoid fake personalized messages to your readers. Some readers, upon opening your press release, can sense fake personalized messages and may not even bother reading through your whole message. Make it sincere and conversational, and make it sound a bit casual. This way your readers will also feel that you are talking to them face-to-face, and will take the press release as an invitation rather than a formal business deal.

Write a press release that will work as a marketing tool without making it sound like you are marketing your brand. These tips will help your small business make an effective press release, something that your customers will finish reading, and at the same time consider going to or trying out. Remember to make it sound casual, conversational, and sincere. Inform your customers about what they need to know when they try your product or service, but be careful with your choice of words. Remember, a poorly-written press release can do more harm than good.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Business Brands

Marketing your brand is not easy and it takes business planning, strategizing, and execution to build your brand. Consumer trends are ever-changing and businesses have to keep up in order to be successful in the industry. With the boom of social media, businesses have a new way to strengthen their brand by interacting with consumers. This is also a way to narrow the gap between business and consumer, allowing businesses to get easier access to consumer ideas.

What are businesses doing these days to please consumers and how are they doing it? Consumers are fast to adopt technology and because of this, businesses have to regularly adjust marketing plans in order to keep attracting consumers the right way. Some businesses are doing it right while others become another side of the lesson. Who's doing it right and how are they doing it?

Social media presence – brands like AmEx, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks are known to have great social media presence. They are able to make use of their platform effectively and efficiently and customers are positively responding to their efforts. What makes great social media presence is when a brand is participating in discussions, answering customer queries, even extending customer service through their sites. Consumers like this because they no longer have to wait on the phone hotline. Customers make use of social media sites to share ideas and they want to be heard. Brands that are doing it right are those who listen and follow through. When you listen and pay attention, you get ideas for your brand, and at the same time you can share content that will interest your customers and keep them engaged. Social media platforms are a way to make your customers feel that you value them.

Who did it wrong? This year, Chapstick had a marketing campaign that got negative responses from customers, and they posted their thoughts on Chapstick's Facebook page. Instead of answering their customers' concerns, the Facebook moderator deleted negative posts. This move irritated a lot of their customers.

Branding changes – there will come a time when a brand has to make a big decision, just like when Motorola decided to split their company into two separate companies. Motorola is now Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. Mobility is said to cater to the consumer side (cell phones and cable set-up boxes) while Solutions will cater to government and professional business needs (barcode scanner and police radios). The split may lead to brand dilution and post confusion to consumers. As of now, Motorola is not aggressive with their marketing campaign establishing a culture and identity to the two different companies.

Unilever has different brands under them and they did a great job in distinguishing each from the other. Each brand can stand alone, and consumers are not confused. Not everyone adjusts to changes quickly but if brands are quick and aggressive in distinguishing and making a stand as to why they made such a change, consumers are more likely to accept it.

Image and control - businesses need a good reputation to gain consumer trust. They have to establish that they are what people need. To do this, a brand has to establish who they are and know their customers, not just throw something out there and hope that consumers will like their products and services. Brands need to study their market, what they want and how your business can provide this need. Social media sites are a good place to gather information, and so are other means of doing market research. There is always the need for proper strategizing and setting a right time to execute your plans.  When it comes to b2b, companies have to focus on their end users rather than their buyer. If consumers don’t trust your product, then other businesses will doubt your brand. If you know your company and you can provide a trusted commodity, then it’s easier for other brands to take your brand in.

Businesses constantly make decisions on how to improve their brand, get more customers, and anything that is needed to reach business goals. When you are getting positive responses from your customers, take that and consistently deliver that to your customers. If you make a mistake, apologize and face the consequences, Learn from the mistake then strategize your comeback.