“Do you really know what your brand says about you?”, or perhaps, “What
do you want it to say to your customers?”
When it comes to entrepreneurship, one of the quintessential aspects
that really matters is your personal brand – as simple as how you choose to
present yourself. Every day, there are innumerable brands that we encounter in
the market. Frankly speaking, how many can we recall at a time? I’m pretty sure
that it’s only a handful that stays significantly in our mind. Having said
that, this is when entrepreneurs have to further build a personalised approach and
create a custom-branded experience for their customers – and now, brand’s
discoverability is where we begin.
Let’s face it; the use of technology today has seamlessly penetrated to
the business market in establishing a compelling and successful personal brand.
In an article by Mel Carson, Founder, CEO and Principal Strategy Consultant at
Delightful Communications, he highlights the essential guide to make your
personal brand discoverable, shareable and memorable in the eyes of your
customers through the use of social media profiles.
__________________________________________
When I am asked to explain the steps that
someone should take to create a compelling and successful online personal brand, I advise people
to optimise their social-media profiles and updates and content disseminated so
they’re discoverable, sharable and therefore memorable.
How you present yourself online and what you
say or share has the power to leave an impression on anyone you come
in contact with. You can reap many rewards if that experience is a good one.
Be Discoverable
For your personal brand to have an effect on
your career, company or target audience, your social-media profiles and
updates and online content must be easily found.
This means taking steps so that when
people are searching for your name (in advance of a sales meeting,
say, or a job interview) or looking for someone like you with your
experience and expertise, your name shows up in search results.
If you search for your name online what
do you see? Are you happy with the results? Are there any links that come up
that you would rather people not see? Is there any competition for your
name?
It’s your responsibility to keep an eye out
for website mentions of your name and take steps to ensure the first page
of search-engine results reflect the brand you want to project.
Do this over time by signing up
for relevant social-media networks that tend to rank highly in
search-engine results. Make sure you use the same name across all
networks. When possible, link to these social-media profiles and bios from
other relevant websites you have a presence on and increase the visibility of
your personal brand via search engine optimisation.
You can optimise your LinkedIn
profile by making your summary and experiences keyword rich so it ranks
high in results for people looking for skills and expertise like yours on
that platform as well.
Once your social-media profiles are optimised
for discoverability make sure your posts contain keywords that people will
use to search for your kind of content.
A social-media white paper I wrote five years ago still ranks #1
on Google and Bing in searches for "social media white paper." I
did research about the types of keywords that people use to find out more
about social media and labelled the paper and file name of the
PDF accordingly.
Offer people useful content and you
will find they will share your wisdom. Whatever your niche, try to avoid
what I call the "so what factor" whereby your content leaves
your followers not feeling engaged and wondering why they just wasted
several minutes reading a post you have written or watching a video you
shared.
Be generous with your expertise
and share it in such a way that the information has value and
people want to pass it along on social media, too.
Online, this might mean really
thinking smartly about the language you use in your Twitter, LinkedIn or
Facebook posts so that they stand out from all the social noise.
Too often I see social-media updates
that have not been well thought out and that look really rushed and dull.
Take some time to construct content that will pique the interest of members of
your audience and make them want to share it.
When you meet with individuals
face-to-face, let them know how they can connect with you online. Identify your
social-media handles on your business cards. During a conference presentation,
put your social-media handles on slides so that people know how to connect
with you online.
Be Memorable
Be Memorable
Maintaining an active presence online
in posts that are compelling and useful pertaining to your industry
niche will leave the right impression with your peers and help you become a
go-to resource for information and insight that will translate into fruitful
business relationships.
Don’t expect overnight success though.
Cultivating a successful personal brand takes time and effort. Although keeping
tabs on what and how you’re presenting yourself takes a while to become second
nature, once you start seeing the rewards you’ll be glad you set yourself on
that path.
Inspiration:
(1) The Essential Guide to Creating a Distinctive Personal Brand
(2) 10 Ways to Make Your Personal Brand Discoverable, Sharable & Memorable
(1) The Essential Guide to Creating a Distinctive Personal Brand
(2) 10 Ways to Make Your Personal Brand Discoverable, Sharable & Memorable
Image Source:
(1) firsttimehomebuyersnetwork.com
(2) guiase.com.br
(3) convertwithcontent.com
(4) explara.com
(2) guiase.com.br
(3) convertwithcontent.com
(4) explara.com
Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will.
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