Thursday, January 19, 2012

Do I mix my personal friends with business contacts on Facebook?


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 :)

No comments: