Personal Branding Weekly
Editor’s Note: This week we covered working remotely and managing expectations. With all our Google Hangouts, Skype meetings and chats, I’m painfully aware that many people look at their screen and not at the camera. Even across video chat, “not making eye contact” can have a negative effect on your brand. How have you overcome that? Please share your ideas and tips below and I’ll create a blog post compiling your best ideas and of course give you credit!
This week’s posts included:
- To Startup Is No Longer the Question by Jun Loayza
- Personalized Hiring Manager References Improve Your Personal Brand by Phil Rosenberg
- Kayla Johnson: Making Money My Mission by Kayla Johnson
- Podcast #5: Mobile Workplace, Transparency and Hulk Hogan by Dan Schawbel
- Personal Brands: 3 Mistakes You Silently Make in Conversations by Nance Rosen
- Why Setting Expectations is Critical at Work by Jason Kleinerman
- How to Deal with A Difficult Boss by Glassdoor.com
- 3 Strategies to Encourage Increased Business by Elinor Stutz
- Medical Aesthetics- The New Job Search Weapon? by Skip Freeman
- When Should You Ask the Hard Questions by Jeff Shuey
- 4 Personal Brand Attributes That Transcend Cultures by Peter Sterlacci
- Personal Branding in Not Personal Bragging by Erik Deckers
- Building Your Brand While Working Remotely by Michael Spinale
- Self-Confidence and Your Personal Brand by Ken Sundheim
This next week we’ll cover how to improve your personal brand and your sales effectiveness. Plus, any “eye contact to a video cam” tips that you would like to share. Till next week – make it a profitable one!
Your Network And Marketing Funnel
Consider your marketing strategy as a funnel. These items are the outer reaches of that funnel, drawing contacts in towards your brand. The question is: Where is your brand actually located? Remember that social sites and other forums don’t belong to your brand. The individuals that use them may find you interesting, but they aren’t a part of your brand quite yet. There is still one more step to take if you want to own your contacts and ultimately own your online networks.
In the online world, your website is your brand’s draw point. Here, the audience has a direct gateway to your brand. Here, your brand has all the attention (unlike social networks where discussions can stray and you can lose control of the direction easily). While your other mediums reach out and interact with them, the goal is to convert those contacts into a valuable network for your brand.
Your brand at the center
Basically, you’re going to create a central location, a HUB, where the audience can contact you about anything. How can they reach you? What other mediums are you present on? The HUB is an essential part of your brand’s online image and places you at the center where you can most effectively engage your contacts. Without it, contacts remain rogue and often fail to take that final step and become an integral component within your brand.
As a HUB for your brand, it should also be a gateway to all of your brand’s online presence. Be sure that you unite all of your online tools here, such as RSS feeds for the latest blog and social networks where you’re frequently active. The more available you make your brand, the more interaction the audience will engage in.
The goal here is to further educate your audience at an in-depth level. You may find yourself speaking to a specific issue that your brand relates to, such as describing exactly what your brand does for its clients. While social networks, blogs, and even emails can attract the audience, it is your website’s content that makes everything clear to them. FAQs, blog listings, and client avocation (third party comments that develop word-of-mouth marketing) allow contacts that you’ve intrigued to further investigate your brand.
Your brand’s HUB is an integral part of any marketing strategy. While reaching out and attracting contacts is the first stage, it is essential that you have somewhere to draw them to. Your brand’s website is the online gateway in which contacts will become an essential component within your network
Author:
Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks– a word of mouth marketing firm, and a professional speaker and trainer on developing social networks that work. She provides workshops, webinars, seminars and direct services that help create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand. Maria Duron is founder and moderator of #brandchat – a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers.
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