Tag: Marketing

#LoveYourBrand – The Difference Between a Personal and a Corporate Brand

Branding is a popular topic in the marketing arena and for good reason. A brand can make or break a business. To make matters more complicated, most small businesses don’t even really understand the concept of branding. They’ve heard the lingo, and they know it’s important, but the nuances of branding strategy are often still a distant consideration.
A Branding Lesson
What is branding anyway? Is it a logo or a set of specific colors? Maybe it’s a tagline or a slogan? Perhaps it is all of that combined?
Actually, no. Branding is nothing that a company or individual specifically does or presents to the public.  This is where it gets tricky.
Now go back and read that again. Yes, that’s right. The audienceis in control of your brand. Does that mean you should pack it up and stop fighting the good fight? Absolutely not! The more you can implement and showcase in terms of what you want your audience to believe about you, the better.  This investment in time and resources tells a story to your clients or customers about what you want your business to be. 
Corporate Branding
Corporate branding is very conceptual. Most companies take a concept or an idea – a company vision – and build their branding around it. Once a business has an idea about their brand, they can then mold each and every touchpoint to reflect that brand image. Touchpoints happen whenever an individual comes into contact with your company – whether that be at the receptionist desk, through the mail, reading a magazine, or talking to an employee. Taking the time to really incorporate a corporate brand into all of the available touchpoints helps to ensure a company is consistent with their messaging.
Personal Branding
A fairly new idea on the branding horizon is the notion of personal branding. How is a personal brand different from a corporate one? The answer is simple. A personal brand is all about people. It’s about you! How do you come off in a room full of people? What impression do you give your co-workers, employees, clients, or while networking? These different perceptions are all facets of your personal brand.
This means that spending time developing a brand image for yourself is just as important as developing a brand for your business. What impression are you trying to make in person and online when it comes to your work? How can you implement those ideas into what you do as a career?
Of course, personal and corporate branding do not need to be mutually exclusive. The best of both worlds involves taken your personal branding and seamlessly incorporating that into the brand for your business. One type of branding is not more powerful than another. The sweet spot is the intersection where both personal and corporate meet and blend together.

Love the idea of branding but having a difficult time figuring out where to start or how to combine your personal brand into what your business is already doing? Our team loves helping businesses create a personal narrative and brand so that they can continue to follow their purpose and #BeAwesome!
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 


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Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, FacebookTwitterBlogGoogle+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them. 

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Too much “Turkey” in your Facebook Marketing could “Stuff” your Efforts into Poor Results

http://www.thesocialmediaadvisor.com

The end of the year is upon us and most of us prepare to sit with family, stuffing our bellies with yummy food, gift giving and reflecting in a spirit of thanks.  Along with this season, comes business planning for the New Year, goal writing and campaign development for marketing.  In the theme of Thanksgiving, here are some things you should consider with your social media marketing in Facebook  to improve results with branding while maintaining activity with your clients, vendors and partners. 

Let’s Talk Turkey – Using Facebook Promotions can benefit you but …

Facebook has three (3) paid advertising options.  The most important thing to know is none of these work well, without effective and attractive Profile writing.  The bio section of your Page should specifically paint a picture of your ideal niche, target market and specific services.  Facebook uses a program called Graph Search which pulls from things people talk about into suggestions of pages or posts for users  to then  “Like” or “Follow”.  Without the proper wording, even a paid promotion or advertisement isn’t going to draw in the right “Followers” leaving your efforts stuffed with an unhappy pocketbook and minimal results.

(1)    Consider getting your Bio/Mission Statement/About Us information written by a professional writer.  Social Media Marketing Experts are great resources for this as they play in this medium daily and have seen what works well for a variety of entities.

(2)    Be sure your profile is completely written, by filling in each section to its capacity with story telling, service offerings and calls to action.  Even selecting the correct type of “Page” can make or break your campaign as Facebook provides multiple options (Community, Local Business, Company, Organization, Band, Artist, etc)

(3)    Schedule out consistent posts by using tools such as HootSuite to make sure your audience sees updates from you at the time they are online.  By rotating time of day/days of the week and including photos/links/videos will increase your organic “share/like/comment” activity.  If your page hasn’t posted an update in the last month, there is work that needs to be done to get back in front of your visitors and a routine of posts multiple times each week  will help with that.

Let’s talk Stuffing – What are things I should have on my Facebook Page?

(1)    Be sure to have a clean Cover Photo void of too many words and be sure contact information is not included.  Contact information isn’t intended for your Cover Photo as there are other places for it.  The Cover Photo should draw in ideas for your target market – such as a featured product, event or provide a nice visual as to the services you offer.

(2)     Your “Profile Picture” should be recognizable to your brand, preferably your logo and shouldn’t change as frequently as your Cover Photo does.  Honestly, don’t change this picture unless your brand completely changes as it will confuse your visitors.

(3)    Buttons on Facebook such as “Sign Up for your Free eBook” are custom buttons and can integrate a multitude of different applications to enhance your visitors experience.  The buttons can be changed frequently to highlight promotions as well.

(4)    Use your Pin / Highlight options in Facebookallow you to “Pin” a post to the top of your timeline, making it the first thing visitors see when looking at updates or “Highlight” a post takes it from a smaller square shape, to a long wide real estate on your page.  This is good for a past promotions or sharing of an event, gallery of images, etc.

Use your Facebook Page to engage … after all, it is “Social” Media, not “Create a page that will do nothing for you” media. Engage, communicate, keep it fun and constantly changing.  Your viewers will appreciate the variety and over time will open up and begin to share with you in return.

Learn more about how we can help you achieve your marketing goals in social media so you aren’t stuffedwith poor results in this time of planning.

 

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a social media manager, trainer and author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , Pinterest and the tools to manage them. Click here for her Social Media Links

Sign up for your Free Social Media Analysis 

Why choose Social Media?


To understand the question, “Why social media”?  You first have to understand America and how Americans decide where to spend their money.  The foundation of this country has always been about “the guy next door” or “the mom and pop” businesses.  Even if you don’t consider your business one of these, it’s not about your business but about your customer. 

Your customer wants to do business with someone they “know”.  It has always been that way.  Due to the big box stores and advertising prices through the roof, the “little guy” has gotten lost.  It’s not that customers prefer these shops, because of advertising; they just know them like they used to know Tim’s Hardware down the street.  Most people will tell you that there is something missing.  Shopping from Mrs. Large Hardware Chain or Mr. Just As Large Hardware Chain just isn’t the same as when they could walk into Tim’s, get greeted by name, and put their money into the pockets of someone they actually knew.

Even if your potential customers have never known anything other than the big box stores, there is still something buried deep within their DNA that makes them want to spend their money with someone they know.  Bottom line is that your customers are looking for you!  If they can’t get to know you, they will still spend their money, but it will be with whom ever the media has told them to do business with.

Most business owners will tell you that if they could just sit down with a potential customer and talk to them about their product or service, they would be closing deals hand over fist.  With social media you not only allow your potential customers to get to know you, but you get to know them as well.  No matter what “widget” you sell, you will sell much more if people have a chance to buy them from “Tom” or “Jill” instead of a website or cold store front.

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

Jeremy Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a social media manager, trainer and consultant in  LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , Pinterest and the tools to manage them.  

Sign up for your Free Social Media Analysis 

Another great Social Media video by TheTotalprofit on Youtube

Another great Social Media video by TheTotalprofit on Youtube:

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a social media manager, trainer and author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , Pinterest and the tools to manage them. Click here for her Social Media Links

Sign up for your Free Social Media Analysis 


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