The blending
of your business brand as your personal brand is the secret to excelling in
your marketing today. This allows you to be a savvy, innovative brand connecting
with people worldwide and positioning you to have a global business. Sounds
exciting, right?
It is
exciting, but there's one challenge.
Many business
owners are still of the mindset that personal and business are separate and
truly don't have a clearly defined personal brand. No worries. No fault of your
own. We all come from the same mindset and training. It’s those who step up and
INNOVATE their brand to speak to the sophisticated consumer will progress.
In today's
"Social Reward" economy, every business owner needs to think of
himself or herself as a brand; it's no longer an option, it's a necessity if
you are to succeed in your marketing using Social Media.
Why?
The abundance
of savvy consumers today requires an authentic relationship online. They want
to get to KNOW, LIKE, AND TRUST you before they consider hiring you, buying
from you, or recommending you.
By delivering
a well defined personal brand in all your marketing channels (website, blog,
ezine, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube) you are poised to win. Then the
quality of your postings and content become more compelling and
"marketable."
Furthermore, when
you build the right audience for your message with a clearly defined personal
brand, you are now poised to thrive in our Social Reward economy.
Building the right audience for your social media requires a
specific strategy of being very selective and clear who you will allow into
your communities, especially on Facebook.
I have had several business owners comment they prefer not having
their personal friends mixed with their business clients and customers. I
recommend you keep them all in your friend community and just be very savvy in
your postings (I coach specifically how to do that) plus know your purpose to
using Facebook is business savvy more than personal. Remember, you are
delivering the authentic you as a brand for people to get to know, like, and
trust first which leads to business contacts and potential clients to serve.
This is personal branding style marketing in our Social Reward
economy. It’s OK to be you in front of all people. That’s virtual networking
and how SEO is now measured. The game of marketing has changed. Time for
innovating.
However if you still prefer keeping them separate, here are two
solutions:
1. Create another FB main account (Timeline) under a version of
your name, perhaps add the middle initial so it’s easy for your friends to find
you and use that solely for your personal friends.
2. Use the custom list option for each of those “personal” type
postings by creating a “private friends” custom list and be sure to choose that
list (bottom right hand corner of the update box) whenever posting.
To give you a sense of clarity why this style of branding today is
so important, I’ve spelled out 3 of my 7 benefits to having a clear, compelling
personal brand which makes you “client attractive.”
1. You are
seen as an innovative business that is on top of their game thriving in our
Social reward economy. (Impression of increase)
2. You will
know how to implement the key strategy to capture public interest, tell a
compelling story and convert that market into a loyal audience.
3. You will
know how to clearly communicate in an authentic voice in ALL your marketing
channels (website, social media, blog, ezine, and emails) to your existing
community and potential new clients or customers so they FEEL connected to you
before they choose to buy or hire you.
Learn the other 4 benefits and inspiration during our upcoming Spring evening “Beauty, Bling and Branding You Lifestyle event" – Networking, shopping, and guest speaking by Marla Dennis & Laura Weintraub for professional women. Date and location TBA. Sign up for UPDATES by clicking here..
Gratitude,
Marla :)
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