Archive for Branding

Are you Jack-of-all-trades, master of none? Know your expertise!

Know Your Expertise and Stick to It. Don’t Be the “I do that too” guy!  ~ Lissa Duty

Don’t be a Jack-Of-All Trades: Know Your Expertise
In today’s economy it is very easy to be tempted to take on projects that are not your expertise to pay the bills. (And, yes, I have been there. Being a small business owner is not always easy.)

When you work, speak or write out of your realm of expertise no matter what the reason, it has an affect on you, your brand, your clients and even others.

Risks to Your Brand

  1. Brand messaging gets cloudy. What do you do again? 
  2. Strategic partners are no longer strategic partners. You are now their competitor
  3. Loss of respect from industry peers when you misspeak on your supposed expertise

Read More→

15 Ways to Support Others, Help Yourself and Your Brand Online and Offline

15 Ways to Support Others, Help Yourself and Your Brand Online and OfflineThere is no better satisfaction than supporting a cause. One of the side effects of supporting others is how it helps you and your brand online and offline.

The Best Reasons to Help Others

  1. Helps someone in need
  2. Makes you feel good
  3. Creates goodwill for your brand

The simple fact is when you help others it triggers endorphins in your body that makes you feel good. It builds positive feelings about you and your brand in the community.

Lately, I have had several opportunities to support causes and charities, which has got me thinking about the affect it has had on my brand to be connected with the good will I have been creating.

Supporting others doesn’t always mean you have to make a financial contribution. Read More→

How is your MOTHER?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I thought writing something discussing mothers was only appropriate.

In today’s world, we have to be Likeable, Shareable, Tweetable, Pinable and +able.

 

M – Marketing is about your customers and how they connect with you and your business. You need to understand your market, how to market to them and the best way to get your marketing message across.

O – Opportunity for you to learn about your strategic partners, share their content and help them to market their business, so in return they help you market your business.

T – Timing is everything in marketing your opportunity. Understand when your client is online and establishments they frequent offline.

H – Hype is important in promoting your product / service.  Know what kind of messages, photos, etc engage your current and future customers. Use them to market your opportunity.

E – Effectiveness is how good of a job you doing at marketing, using your opportunities, timing your strategies and building the hype. Analyze this closely so you can evaluate what is working and change what isn’t working.

R – Repeat the above and finesse as necessary to gain results. Execute your marketing strategy for a minimum of two weeks and tweak as you go along to increase your opportunity for improvement.

How is your M O T H E R ?

What does Social Media, Rebels and Doritos all have in common?

Photo Credit: Scott Bratt

So, I am browsing my Facebook Newsfeed, commenting on others updates, giving out some “Like” love and posting status updates when I happened to notice a picture that came up in my Newsfeed from my nephew!

It was a bag of Doritos that had been opened from the side of the bag vs. the top.  He included this phrase:

We’re Rebels

It immediately inspired this blog post … BTW, he was at school when he posted the photo – don’t worry, I doubled check he was on lunch break!

I have never been considered a “Rebel” by my family or friends! I’m a rule follower for the most part. Just ask my clients that want to have a Facebook Contest that breaks their Terms of Service or my mom who has accused me all my life of “starching my underwear”.

There is one thing I always do rebelliously – I tell it like it is! No ifs, ands or buts! I am a bit more tactful then I was in my early twenties. Thank goodness!  You want the truth – ask Lissa. I don’t worry with what people want to hear, but rather what they may need to hear! This is how I live my life and manage my business!  People trust me because I am bluntly honest!

Find the rebel in you and capitalize on it … a little bit of rebellion can go a long way in achieving success.

Here are 5 things you can do ONLINE to “Be a Rebel” and get social media results:

Take up a cause. Not a cause that everyone else is doing, but something that is perhaps a little different, but has meaning for you.

Blog about your cause and ask others to comment and share about their cause on the post. The more interaction you get on your blog post, the more people that will share the post on their social media profiles, which will mean, more people will see, read and comment on your blog. (Just look at RedHead Writing. It worked for her.)

Give your opinion. Share the good, the bad and the ugly. People want feedback.  Do it nicely though!

When you share your opinion with others they usually appreciate it, thank you, ask you for future opinions, plus when others want an opinion, you’ll get recommended.

Ask for feedback. Take a poll, ask others what they think! People want to share and help you. It’s in their nature.

When they comment / interact with you providing their feedback others will see it, wonder what they are commenting about, click to go read and usually comment also. Now you have made a new connection.

Share photos that make people think. Don’t post the same photo that everyone else does. Be unusual.

Take photos of stuff around your office / in your home. Weird things you see at places when you are out and about. Example: Post a photo of a USB cable that you took with your iPhone and add the caption “Name 10 things you can do with this cable besides hook up your printer”.  You’ll get comments back like hook up the scanner, take photos off your phone, tie myself to the desk, strangle the UPS guy if that package doesn’t arrive, etc.

When you post something different than every one you get comments and shares! Comments / shares equal interaction, which means higher preference in the Newsfeed of your friends / those that “Like” your page, which gets you a further reach on Facebook.

Stand out in the crowd. Easier said than done? Not really. All you have to do to be different is BE YOURSELF.

No one person is alike. We all think somewhat different and look somewhat different. Stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks and be who you are! I practice this day in and day out and it has got me to where I am today. The more you are unique the more friends you will attract. They will have conversation with you / about you that their friends will see / hear about and want to know YOU!

“Be A Rebel” and start a cycle which goes viral for you, which will in turn go viral for your business!

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts,  but one last thing first:

If you live in / near Dallas, Texas – Check out the DFW Rocks Social Media Day Conference on June 30th. Some of the who’s who in Social Media is speaking, which includes Andrea Vahl aka Grandma Mary, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, myself of course – Lissa Duty, Robin Moss, Patty Farmer, J.R. Atkins, Fred Campos, and to end the day – a Social Media Q & A Panel featuring Giovanni Gallucci, Neil Lemons and Mike Merrill. Social Media Day Conference is $30. Register NOW!

This all day social media event will be followed immediately after with a Mashable community event – Social Media Day Happy Hour at 4 pm in Addison, Texas. Social Media Day Meetup is FREE! RSVP Now!

It’s your Turn … tell us about the “Rebel” inside you! Comment below.

Trends: What do you do when you see a new trend developing? Ignore, implement or keep a watchful eye.

What do you think when you see someone following / doing what you think is a silly trend?  Do you ignore them, do you read up and research it? What exactly do you do?

I know looking at the pictures to the left of me “planking” on a guard rail you are probably laughing and puzzled. I was inspired to write the post based on a recent photo I look following a trend “planking”. You can read all about the trend online. They even have a Facebook page.  I took some “planking” pictures over the weekend to have a laugh with a friend who spent Saturday taking his 13 year old son “planking”. Some trends are silly and come and go quickly, however some trends are here to stay.

Here are a few social media trends that most people ignored and they are still around and thriving:

  • Facebook was started by some college students. People thought it was a trend for kids.  Facebook now has over 800 million users. Quite a trend! Wouldn’t you have liked to say you were one of the first, I know I would have.

There are businesses that just focus solely on building Facebook applications and games. Any website that doesn’t have Facebook “Like” and the other social media integrations they offer are considered behind the times. If you have a business and don’t have a Facebook Business Page you are behind. If you don’t have a Facebook Profile you are even more behind.

  • Twitter was started in March of 2006. The first Tweet was sent at 9:50 pm PST by Jack Dorsey. At first there were only a few regular users, now they have over 200 million users. I remember the first time someone mentioned Twitter to me I had never heard of it. I needed a training lesson and live demonstration to see what it was all about (a far cry from my Twitter addiction today). This Wikipedia post about Twitter is quite interesting.

Developers are now continually building the new latest greatest Twitter tools to manage your following, grow your following, Tweet, etc.  I personally have used and use many of them.  To name a few of my favorites – SocialOomph.com, Tweetdeck.com and Tweepi.com.

If a trend is something that could affect your business look at it a little closer before just dismissing it.  Follow it!  I am not saying act on it, but watch it a little closer than turning a blind eye.

This is my approach with a new technology trend:

  1. Does it make sense?
  2. What are others saying about it?
  3. Could it be applied to your business?
  4. Would it damage your reputation?
  5. Does it cost you little or nothing to implement the trend for a short time to test it?

I usually will test a new social media trend, so I can support my clients and friends with answers to their questions. I like to know the positives and the negatives. I then will think about the strategies that can be used with the new trend for business owners.

These are just a few thoughts I have on trends.  I know you have some great feedback also. Now, it’s your turn! Please comment and share!  Thank you!

P.S. I realized after taking the “planking” photos last weekend, I was actually doing it wrong. To me, that made it even funnier! If you want to see the rest of the photos I made, check out the album on Facebook. Also, for those that are thinking I am losing my mind, I was “planking” on a guard rail in a park, not on the side of the highway!