Learning tips on how to build your online brand and social media branding requires plenty of thought. Are you ready to recreate yourself or do you simply just want put it all together to produce a particularly effective online brand image?
When you reach adulthood, you’ve figured out who you will be in terms of character, values, personality and morals, but have you given much thought to your personal brand as it relates to the corporate world? How about the way you are perceived on the internet? What’s your online company brand stating about you? Consistency is definitely essential here. I will go into some detail about applying the consistency and how to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Build Consistency When You Build Your Online Brand: Social Branding.
The very last thing that you want to do that would be entirely counter to creating your online brand would be to continue replacing your online brand. Having a tag line, mission and purpose is truly important. Be certain to communicate this text in all of your communications. For instance, you want to have the identical verbiage about yourself in Facebook as you do in your weblog. And don’t modify either without modifying the other. It is definitely not smart to continually alter your brand on a regular basis. You could tweak your brand in an attempt to enhance it over a period of years but preserve it the same. Now I’ve observed really winning re-launches do fairly well, but typically after the brand had an online presence and following to start with. This is a marketing approach that may boost your customer base significantly, however it is a technique that must be done properly, but that is getting off the topic and I will save that for another post.
Listed below are a few points to stick to on how you can build your online brand or social branding:
Username – Create your on-line brand with your username profiles. I recommend that you choose to use the same username with all of your online profiles as much as possible. As an illustration, I’m known online as Sharon Prosperity in over 100 sites. Consider all of the social media networks, article listing sites, blog networks, Facebook, twitter, and Skype. There are many more, but you get the idea. This is also known as social media branding.
E-mail Signatures – You may very easily develop your on-line brand simply using a good catchy Electronic mail signature that tells the world what you are all about.
Pictures – I imagine people are surprised by this one. You can build your on-line brand with pictures. If you have a company logo you’d naturally use that, but don’t discount the power of your own persona. If you have been following me then you know that I use the exact same picture in as many places (Web 2.0, other blogs, Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.) as I can. This goes a long way to develop trust and consistency in the eyes of your audience. Your social media branding is personalized with images of you as part of your networking sites.
Design – This would be what your colors, fonts and theme look like. Again, maintaining your fonts and colors as consistent as possible is how you’ll be identified online.
Real – This is something that I have caught a handful of others on. Although it’s obvious that a person would act in a different way (e.g. not as professional in a personal relationship) it’s unfortunate that some people believe that they have to be fake. Their online brand is that of another person who’s rather different from their true self. It’s a matter of being authentic which will ultimately convert leads into sales. You have been perceived as someone who is adding value rather than somebody who has their own interests at heart.
Many people have a knack for this creative image creation and some don’t. So, if you find yourself feeling frustrated with being the non-creative type then understand that you’ll find tools out there which help with building your on-line brand. If it’s all about moving up the corporate ladder, getting out of college and seeking to get that first job or starting your own traditional or web based business, realizing resources like this exist is a life saver!
Now that you have an idea of the way you would like to construct your image, the final tip is actually very easy, but does definitely take a little time on your part, but will pay off as you construct your online brand.
Develop your online brand and social branding with networking…networking…networking.
You have to get the word out about who you are and what you offer as part of your online brand. I’m reminded of one of my first traditional companies. I didn’t want to start out advertising and marketing through the newspapers or yellow pages until I obtained the company logo, business cards, or tag line ready to rock and roll. It would seem un-businesslike to hit the net with the idea you will be in business without getting everything in place, but people do it every day. So many people have the wrong concept about a web-based business. An on-line business is a real business and it has to be treated as such. When you eventually have your image or online brand put together, get out and promote and form relationships with people. Allow your on-line brand speak for you and watch your business increase.