Marketing your personal brand

Your identity is becoming far more important when it comes to doing business. This is partly down to the explosion of social media on the Internet, but also applies just as much to your “offline” activity.

You’ll already have contacts in your trade who know you either as a supplier or customer, but is it just simply about being yourself or should you really have a personal marketing plan?

It’s not as shameless as it sounds.  Your strategy for offline “personal” promotion will be about the way you deal with people, maybe how you write about your subject area or speak on your subject.  These are opportunities to be an ambassador for your business at the same time as a respected expert on your field.

Online, content has become so important, as search engines consume new articles, blogs, website pages, news at an incredible rate. Then social networks are inviting you to join and participate in online discussions, forums, and surveys and make friends with people you might never have met otherwise.  So a plan starts to make sense.  Here are our top tips for creating and managing your personal brand:

Offline

• At networking events make sure you represent your business in the best light, bring business cards, and any other appropriate literature, never criticise the competition (you never know when that will come back to haunt you and it’s not good form).
• Offer to speak at seminars and meetings to show that you are an expert in your subject area – this builds your brand very powerfully.
• Think about your face-to-face and telephone customer service?  Have you got it right and are you portraying a professional organisation?

Online

• Join a professional business social network.  LinkedIn is probably the best and apart from raising your personal profile and that of your business, the possibility of making some amazing connections.
• Can you write a blog?  These are best when written by individuals and builds great credibility if you can write.
• If you have a Facebook account, you can use this to position yourself, and you can also set up a Facebook business page.
• Do you tweet?  Twitter is the 3rd most visited website in the UK and is an easy to use social network where you can tell people what you’re up to in 140 characters or less. 

There are two big advantages to getting into social media online – one is that they’re normally all free to join and the other is that by default they will all link back to your website.  Excellent for your business and all of these combined should portray the image that is right for your business.

Top five SEO tips for your online marketing plan

Your marketing plan should have a section relating to online marketing – if it hasn’t yet, start with a list of key online marketing channels as a starting point. 

Main areas should include:

• Your website
• Email marketing
• Online advertising (Google Adwords, advertising on others’ websites)
• Social media (including blogs, YouTube and other popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Pinterest)
• Online PR

And last but definitely not least, search engine optimisation (SEO).

Your website is top of my list for a good reason; all of the other marketing activity you do online leads visitors and search engines back to your website.  Making sure that your website is both visitor and search engine friendly should be a marketing priority.

But you already know this!  So what would I recommend today as the top five SEO tips for your website?
 
1. Define your best keywords.  Whilst SEO constantly evolves, some of the basics remain the same and this is one of them.  You should know which words your customers/potential customers are likely to use to find your products or services.  Start with these then use the Google keyword tool  to see what the volume of search is and view suggested synonyms.  Well worth doing and will help to formulate your content plan.
2. Content, content and more content.  Not just creating website pages once but updating copy regularly, blogging, providing added value information and content on your website.  Give other websites a reason to link to you.
3. If you’re a location-based business, make sure you’ve got a listing on Google Places (now also appearing in Google+ but at the moment you have to continue to manage a Google Places account separately.) www.google.co.uk/places/.  Doing this means you can appear at the top of search results for local search terms:



4. Social media.  Even if you’re B2B social media has a place, think about your target audience and where they might engage with your business.  LinkedIn is a must for most of us, but Facebook brand pages, YouTube and Pinterest can work really well.  Google is beginning to look at social media activity and remember those valuable links back to your website.
5. Measure and test.  Use Google Analytics to see which keywords bring traffic to your site, where your traffic comes from (referrals and sources) and seriously consider Google content experiments, used to be Google website optimiser (now in Google Analytics.)  This means testing different pages and seeing what the results are.

If I had to pick one of these as the absolute essential for today, it would be content, that’s the one to give some serious thought to you in your marketing plan.


Karen McNulty

Some dos and don’ts for using social media in business

Whether you’ve already started using social media as a business or if you are ready to take your first steps, the thought of “sharing” all can be quite daunting.

Used well, social media can be a great marketing tool for us and we shouldn’t be put off by its open nature.  Before you start it helps to have a few ideas of what you’re trying to achieve and who and how you will do it.

For example, which social media do my customers and potential customers use – is it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube?  Maybe it’s something more specific to your sector and LinkedIn is the most appropriate place to start.

Once you know where your audience is, it makes the next bit simpler.  How will you use this medium to communicate?  Examples include:

• News and events
• Marketing promotions
• Customer service
• Exclusive discounts and offers
• Market research
• Sharing content/expertise

Some businesses find it easier to define this early on so that it’s clear which purpose each channel has.  For example:

• Twitter – we’ll use this exclusively to share discounts and offers
• Facebook – we’ll share events and exclusive content
• Blog – we’ll provide insight and comment into developments and successes in our sector

After that it’s usually more straightforward to decide who will write the blog, look after Twitter and update Facebook.

Whichever social media you choose:

Do

• Research first.  Sign up and get an account if you need to but spend at least a couple of weeks seeing how your competitors use these media before you start tweeting, posting or blogging.  Doing this means you can see what makes good or bad content and decide how to position your business.
• Have a social media policy, particularly if you employ people to do this.  The nature of social media is so instant that mistakes are out there immediately.  Having a policy and guidelines means that everyone is clear on what they can and can’t say.
• Keep going.  Once you start using social media it’s really important to keep it up to date.  Out of date and poorly maintained profiles reflect badly on your brand and it’s another good reason to spend time researching and looking before you begin.

Don’t

• Ask somebody to do it for you and never check it!  Even with a policy you need to make sure that the messages are appropriate and in line with your marketing plan.
• Delete negative comments unless they are inappropriate.  Social media can be great way to demonstrate customer service.  Deal with negative comments by responding politely and then follow up off-line by telephone or email if necessary.  Dealing with customers well sends positive PR about your brand.
• Start using social media unless you’re prepared to stick with it.  If you’re really not sure, carry out the research phase for longer before making a decision.  Social networks don’t all work for every business so you need to be sure your target audience is using the media you choose and will respond.

Once you're underway you may be surprised at how successful you can be.  Social media brings us the opportunity to engage with our audiences in a much closer way than ever before, good luck!

Karen McNulty