An Introduction to Personal Branding: Making the most of your expertise & experience

As part of my programme of practical online courses which I’m launching in January 2011, I’ll be looking at how you can build up your online reputation to promote your expertise and experience. Today’s blog touches on some of the key themes which I’ll be covering in more detail – if you’d like to find more about the courses, please do get in touch!

Increasingly, professionals are using social media tools to promote themselves, and create virtual calling cards for prospective employers and clients. Creating a brand profile to showcase your fields of expertise & depth of knowledge raises your professional standing and can help you become, in the current jargon, a “go-to person” in your discipline.

Using the new technology, professionals are creating personal brands which provide them with income streams, a following and improve career prospects. It’s a fast-growing and fast-moving field with some exciting innovations to learn from.

To develop a brand profile which stands out, let’s see what marketers mean by brand. Marketers define “brand” as… the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product/service/individual from other products/services/individuals…

So in marketing terms, you’re the “brand” creating a successful brand identity which shows what you offer to the marketplace, and what differentiates you from your competitors. A brand image is typically the attributes one associates with a brand (in other words, how you would like your client/prospective employer to perceive you and your services). Your personal brand should reflect an understanding of what your target audience needs.

Once you’ve identified and outlined your brand identity, you’ll be able to communicate messages which ally your brand with your audience’s expectations. Just remember that an individual can’t be all things to all people so your brand image & identity should focus on your authentic qualities.

Finally, creating a successful brand strategy will outline how, what, where, when and with whom you plan to communicate and deliver your brand messages.

My online course will guide you through the key questions you will need to ask of yourself to define your brand identity and image. Once you know what you stand for, you’ll need to consider what you want to say and how you’re going to communicate with your target audience. So many of us underestimate the amount of knowledge and experience we keep in our heads – following a strategy makes it easier to convert this information into viable income streams.

Use Twitter, your web site, a blog, etc. to write about your professional/personal experiences – providing your thoughts and commentary on the latest trending topics emphases your credentials and knowledge. The more information and interactive opportunities you provide, the better your content will be at educating, converting, and retaining your audience. Writing white papers, articles, newsletters will create content you can eventually convert into a print or an e-book/booklet, podcasts or videos.

My courses, “understanding social media for your business”, and “using social media to enhance your professional branding” will cover these aspects in more detail. To find out more, please contact me and I’ll be happy to help!

Sumi

I’ve set up a Pressroom on PRLog so that…

I’ve set up a Pressroom on PRLog so that my and my clients’ news releases will be in one area.

Using Social Media for business series #1 Developing your online social skills

 

We’ve all heard about social media tools like Twitter and Facebook but it’s not easy to know where to start and why it’s worth getting involved. Knowing how to present business-related content through social media outlets is a factor many businesses are still getting wrong. Don’t worry – for it to be worth your time and effort, know what you want to get out of it before you start.

If you’re using social media outlets for business reasons, and not just to share your thoughts with the world, then first be clear what your business objectives are. For example:

• Are you selling a product or service?
• Do you have events that you would like people to attend?
• Would you like people to know that you have knowledge and experience in your field?
• Do you want to develop a community of like-minded people?

By establishing your objectives, you’ll be able to choose the right people to “follow” that is, those in the same field, or with a common interest (if you have interesting things to say, they might well follow you back). However, key to this is that by knowing your business intentions, you can write content that’s relevant and targeted to your audience. For example with Twitter, you only have 140 characters to use so you’ll need to make every word count.

Building relationships – customer relationship management with a social media twist

 

Whatever your commercial aims, what you’re actually going to be doing with Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and so on, is making relationships with potential or existing customers and clients. Giving value in your content through some useful information or even, if appropriate, humour, will endear you to your readership and help raise your follower numbers.

And, returning to your business objectives, the point of increased follower numbers is to increase your business opportunities and eventually generate income.

Remember that in this social media world, people are choosing to meet up with you and find out more about what you do. Communicating through this way is not like “interruption advertising” where you’re trying to attract attention through distractive marketing, but rather it’s about providing a steady flow of relevant information to an already receptive audience.

Thus your promotional and sales communications approach will be different to those you employ through traditional advertising. The emphasis will be on messages that demonstrate your understanding and appreciation of your customers’ needs and wants. Through your 140-character tweets and other content you can show you’re able to provide solutions, products, or services which meet these needs and desires.

How are your social skills…?

 

Think of social media in terms of a party where someone likes the look of you and wants to know more. They might start glancing your way, catch your eye, maybe even smile. They’re aware of you and you become aware of them. You both like what you see, and want to know more. Eventually you end up near enough to each other to begin a conversation… So what’s your next move?

• Start shouting at them about your favourite music, books, films, travel spots before they’ve said hello?
• Scream in their face that you’re single, solvent, and available?
• Bellow in their ear how your spouse doesn’t understand you/ you’re in an open relationship “so how about it…? “

Well, of course not!

As in the real world, in the Twittersphere and other social media channels, people don’t want to be sold to in an aggressive, loud, overly-commercial way. They want to know enough about you and your business so that they can grow to trust and like you. They want to be loyal to the business that listens to them, respects them, and meet their needs. They want you to show them that you are that business.

Sounds a bit touchy-feely, perhaps? Well, let’s put it this way, would you do business or spend money with people you didn’t know or trust…?

Think before you type…

 

So before you set up and account and start typing, do your homework first:

• Work out what you want to get from your social media experience
• Think about how you’re going to achieve this
• Review your marketing and promotional approaches – is it appropriate to the channel and your audience?
• Avoid hard-selling, aggressively commercial message and engage with your readers

   

In the next post, I’ll look at the consequences when you break the social taboos and walk away from your social media relationships! If you’d like to be updated on future posts, you can either sub to an RSS feed or email update.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave comments or questions in the comment box below,

Best wishes,

Sumi

To tweet or not to tweet… should your business get involved with Social Media?

Welcome!

This blog is the first of a two-part introductory series that explores the benefits of using Social Media to sell or promote a product or service.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be adding further information and discussion based on the these key themes that this series has highlighted. For updates about future posts, please subscribe using the links provided.

 

Today, I’m touching on Social Media and how it affects customer relationship and brand identity.

The impact of Social Media
The growth of Social Media (SM) is a new and explosive trend, evolving rapidly just in the last five years. Its steady growth reflects the growing number of technological advances, accompanied by accessible pricing options for users. Significantly, many key Social Media tools are free to access and allow individuals and businesses to have a reach of millions within a global setting.

This geographical reach allows businesses to communicate directly with existing and potential customers locally, nationally, and internationally. Yet many SMEs are still unclear on how to make the best use of Social Media, and remain to be convinced of its value.

For individuals and SMEs using SM strategically within set business goals, the power of Social Media is increasingly clear.

 

Using Social Media to build relationships
One of SM’s primary strengths is the concept of engagement with customers. With increasing opportunities for interaction, both existing & potential customers/communities have new expectations of how a business should work with them.

Through Social Networks such as Facebook or Twitter, they want to interact with their chosen businesses and they want to know, (and “feel”) how your business and your business brand aligns with their own personal brands and values. In short, people are willing to do business with people they like and trust.

Decisive factors in why a customer decides to build a bond with you:

Desire – they want what you’ve got!

Ethics – they like the way you work

Sheer gut instinct  – they “like” or “get” you.

By collaborating on discussions surrounding ideas related to your industry and your business, and revealing your own (and the business’) ethics and values, you can build a  good relationship between you and the target community.

These are relationships which haven’t been paid for or cost very little (in cash terms), with people who have indicated interest in your business’ products/services. In direct marketing terms, these are hundreds or (if you’re really successful), thousands of “hot” contacts who want to do business with you!

In future posts, I’ll be looking at how you can develop relationships with your customers in more detail…

 

Using Social Media to support your Brand

A revolutionary aspect of SM is its ability to amplify Word of Mouth (WOM) recommendations to a wider audience. Your customers and potential customers can talk about you among themselves at their own leisure. Moreover, they’ll do so at great length if they’re either pleased or unhappy with your business or service!

SM is built on the philosophy of collaboration and shared opinion so feedback can be forthright, honest, or occasionally, even rude!

It’s in your best interest to take all opinions without rancour and try to put right what you might have done wrong. Using tools such as Google Alerts, or Twitter search, you can see comments made about your business and take proper action such as dealing with complaints, or thanking contributors for their positive remarks.

Getting actively involved and giving value are key tenets in SM relationships and if you show how you listen and respond, or are appreciative of customer feedback, you will have created good will as well as loyal followers.

Brand identity is important for individuals and businesses who wish to connect with potential customers and subscribers.  I’ll be adding further posts and resources to help you create a strong, relevant brand which will resonate with your target groups…

 

Part two of “To tweet or not to tweet… should your business get involved with Social Media?”
My next post in this introductory series will look at Appropriate Social Media Platforms for Research and Engagement and Identifying your Social Media Strategy. After this, I’ll be getting into Social Media Marketing in more depth! If you are interesting in learning more, please feel free to subscribe.

I look forward to sharing thoughts and experiences!

Sumi