Branding thru Social Media
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Personal branding utilizing the three dominate social platforms of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This presentation is an overview directed at those who are just starting to express themselves in the digital space. (part of a seminar series presented by bowden2bowden) Prepared for and presented at the 7th Annual Professionals Outdoor Media Association (POMA) Conference, August 4th, Tunica, Mississippi. NOTE: Embedded Animations Disabled for SlideShare
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Branding thru Social Media
- 1. Branding Through Social Media POMA’s 7th Annual Business Conference Tunica, Mississippi August 4, 2012 randy bowden principal partner | bowden2bowden llc
- 2. Agenda Why Social Media? Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
- 3. What is a brand? "A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer." ~Colin Bates, BuildingBrands.com
- 4. What is a personal brand? “Relates to an individual who markets their personal strengths, attributes, and qualities to others.” ~Tom Peters
- 5. What is a personal brand? Your self- How people = impression perceive you
- 6. Personal Branding Process Discover who you are • Expertise • Value • Target Create your identity • Image • Message • Keywords Make it Visible • Blog • Social Media • Networking
- 8. Randy’s donuts go SOCIAL! I like Donuts I’m eating a #donut This is where I eat donuts Here is a vintage photo of me eating a donut Here’s a video of me eating a donut My skills include donut eating Here’s a donut recipe Now listening to “Donuts” This is my circle of friends who eats donuts.
- 9. Social Media needs… Anticipated Reciprocity Increased Recognition Sense of efficacy Communion …to really work!
- 10. enable authentic LINKEDIN PINTEREST consistent no personal information of others authority engage gracious no confidential information SPOTIFY Listen before courteous do not criticize no rumors TWITTER speaking rich media FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA disclose your employer originality be yourself INSTAGRAM give credit where credit is due report events YOUTUBE reward reciprocityGOOGLE+ share no false information participate
- 11. What is Social Media? Click banner below to view video What is YOUR social media marketing strategy? By: The Catalyst Partner
- 12. Three Major Platforms superplatform micro-blogging professional network
- 14. 900 million Founded 2004 accounts worldwide (2012) Internet users spend more 138.9 million time on FB than on Google, monthly unique US Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and visitors Amazon combined! (May 2011) (via Mashable)
- 15. Timeline vs. Page TIMELINE is a quick summary of who you are and how you spend your time, including projects, classes and other activities you enjoy. Showcasing the things you care about most and allowing you to connect with family, friends, and others who share the same interests. Timelines (profiles) are for personal, non-commercial use only.
- 16. Timeline vs. Page Pages are for professional or official use and allow an organization, business, celebrity, etc. to maintain a presence on Facebook by sharing stories to engage and grow their audience. People who like your Page will get updates in their news feeds. Pages are managed by admins who have personal Facebook timelines. Pages are not separate Facebook accounts, they are merely a different entity.
- 17. Face Paint Know your audience Decide on branding strategy Set your privacy settings Fill out profile completely Create vanity URL Import contacts and grow your network Update your status Link out to your facebook Timeline Feed your social networks
- 19. Founded 2006 Micro-blog 140 character message 140,000,000+ active users worldwide 400,000,000 tweets per day 1,600,000,000 search inquiries daily Usage doubled since November 2010
- 20. Tweet This… For brands on Twitter, the conversation is the canvas delivered by "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. Tweets represent conversations related to almost any topic imaginable. Conversations provide powerful context in which to connect your messages and your brand to what people are talking about in real-time.
- 21. Tweet This… It is the new face of marketing. It is a credible marketing funnel. It is an instant roving reporter. It grants easy access to influentials.
- 22. Fly Blue Bird Claim your twitter handle/URL Decide how you want to brand yourself Establish a twitter marketing plan Think before you tweet Be Yourself Become known as a expert or resource Retweet Utilize third party applications Form a twitter mastermind group
- 24. • Founded in 2002 • Professional networking site • 150 million registered users from 200 countries and territories • 21.4 million monthly unique US visitors and 47.6 million globally.
- 25. Linked Up Your LinkedIn profile allows: Interested parties to learn more about your professional qualifications Potential employers to identify and recruit talent Collaboration between professionals via Groups Media can vet and source resources for articles and information
- 26. Get Linked Analyze and Develop your Personal Brand Create an Engaging and Professional Profile Create Vanity URL Create Valuable Connections Join Groups Seek Recommendations Take Part in Daily Activities Leverage LinkedIn as part of your unified brand strategy
Notas do Editor
- Branding Through Social Media: If a Facebook or Twitter user searches for you or your brand and the space is void, you just lost a huge opportunity to build a connection, bolster your brand and perhaps garner a new customer. If you're not available and/or playing in the social media space and your competitors are, you're losing ground hourly. Randy Bowden will teach you the steps to branding through social media, to bolster connections, visibility, stature and customers.
- persona onlinerise of social technologies that have made branding not only more personal, but within reach.Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. As a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make these celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equity just like them. To know if you’ve discovered your brand, you need to make this equation equal:It’s far easier to build relationships, and your brand, when you help other people out first. A term first coined by Tom Peters in 1997, personal branding includes your professional reputation, online image and personal characteristics such as your work style, community engagement and worldview. It incorporates the particular skills, talents and areas of expertise you’ve cultivated. When I host workshops on personal branding, I ask participants the following questions to help determine the elements of their personal brands:How would your colleagues describe your strengths?On what issues are you the go-to person in your organization?What do you know more about (web design, compensation plans, marketing to baby boomers) than most people?
- Focus on Social Media
- Social Media works best when there are real people, with genuine intentions and quality content, behind every profile, tweet, and tag.The goal is to continue to engage consistently and authentically, while adding strategic thinking and planning to increase your company’s effectiveness. If there is an automated system in place, the value and engagement drop significantly.Social media can give your business the right tools to get the BUZZ about your services and business. Social Media can also provide Anticipated Reciprocity helping other business minded individuals sharing ideas and concepts. Increased Recognition for others brain stormed ideas and methods, Sense of efficacy adding their personal contributions that will effect the environment and others. Communion beings we are naturally social people gives us sense of accomplishment and real time feed back on our contributions.Best practices on how to use social mediaSocial media works best when there are*:Real peopleGenuine intentionsQuality content behind every profile, tweet and share/postMotivations for contributing to social media rely on four pillars: Anticipated Reciprocity. A person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return.Increased Recognition. Recognition is important to online contributors. Individuals generally want recognition for their contributions.Sense of efficacy. Individuals may contribute valuable information because the act results in a sense that they have had some effect on this environment.Communion. People are fairly social beings and it motivates many people to receive direct responses to their contributions.What doESSoCialMEdiaNEEd to rEallYWorK?Social media works best when there are real people, with genuine intentions and quality content, behind every profile, tweet and tag. Automated social-posting systems diminish the value of your presence by corroding real engagement� Ultimately, what motivates people online is similar to what motivates them offline� According to professors Peter Kollock and Marc Smith motivations for contributing to online communities do not rely on altruistic behavior on the part of the contributor they depend on these four pillars1: > Anticipated Reciprocity. A personis motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return. > Increased Recognition. Recognition is important to online contributors. Individuals generally want recognition for their contributions. > Sense of efficacy. Individuals may contribute valuable information because the act results in a sense that they have had some effect on this environment. > Communion. People are fairly social beings and it motivates many people to receive direct responses to their contributions. Social media participation frequently suffers from the “tactical enthusiasm” syndrome. Your organization should be focused on objective-driven participation. If you are like most social media users, you may have started out by signing up for an account because a friend or coworker suggested you try it out� You may find yourself using it when you remember and neglecting it when you don’t� The goal is to continue to engage consistently and authentically, while adding strategic thinking and planning to increase your company’s effectiveness� Trainings, review of best practices, adoption of guidelines, organized/planned editorial content, company- wide awareness, and, most of all, peer support/promotion will all contribute to your ability to achieve these goals�
- Words and phrases that will help you be successful in your social media strategy!1- Reciprocity is the currency of the web; the more you give, the more you get!Report events with behind the scenes info, esp. pictures.4-Share jokes, puns and quirky things that happen to you.5-Give credit where credit is due…articles, photos, quotes, etc.6-Be sure to mix in rich media to keep tweets dynamic and inviting.7 -Become an authority and provide value.Listen Most importantly before you speak!It’s been said before but I will say it again. Research your audience first. Figure out where they are and what they’re saying about you, your category and your competitors before attempting to insert yourself in conversations online. Spend a month and make notes of the types of conversations about you and what percentage are positive and negative. Listen. Learn the various unspoken rules, guidelines and dos and don’ts of the communities you’re thinking about joining. When you do start participating, listen to your audience and figure out what they like. Involve them in idea generation and product creation. Use social media platforms and tools to provide customer service on steroids. It’s about them, not you.2) EngageThis has a dual-meaning. Part of social media marketing is engaging your audience on their own turf. Your goal may be to get people to come to your website, but what really should matter is engaging people (they way they want to be reached) to build relationships. The other part of this is providing and creating content that is engaging. If it’s not interesting or helpful or entertaining, people aren’t going to care or pay attention to your efforts. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Is whatever content you’re producing something that is interesting and good enough to share? If not, then you should re-evaluate your efforts.3) EnableBased on your research and listening, you can probably identify some people who are already talking about your organization. These people are great to involve in your efforts, so you should empower them and give them the tools and content to become an even bigger advocate for you. This also includes enabling people to share your content with their friends on various websites, and maybe letting people take your content and create new content from it in the form of remixes, mashups, and videos. Give people ways to feel ownership of your brand and they’ll get closer to it. Lastly, empower and enable your employees to get involved in your efforts.4) ShareShare interesting articles, pictures, videos, links about you and your industry. Give to get. Give some more. Give and share your time, attention, expertise, questions and insight with your audience. The more you do this, the more relationships and trust you will build. Your audience will appreciate this, and that’s good for business.5) RewardIf people are taking the time to interact with you online, why not reward them (and in some cases, you may have to reward them). Reward your loyal and passionate fans and followers with exclusive content, access, discounts and promotions. There’s also an opportunity to involve sponsors in this piece to give your fans something of value.6) Participate Participate, don’t promote. If all you do is say, “Look how great I am, look how awesome my product is” people will get tired of it really quickly and stop listening. The whole point of social media marketing is to participate in conversations with your audience, not just talk at them. You don’t have to start with a huge splash; this invites a lot more scrutiny and criticism from people who might not like what you’re doing. If you start slow, there are still a lot of things you can do and learn from. Participation is the key. Participate regularly. There is a high value set on activity level.Do be authentic.Do be consistent.Do be gracious.Do disclose who you are working for. Don’t share confidential information about company, clients, colleagues, partners, or competitors.Don’t criticize your company, clients, colleagues, partners, or competitors.Don’t spread rumors or false information.Don’t reveal personal information about any of you colleagues.Don’t misrepresent yourself or your company.
- FacebookConsidered to be the most popular social network on the Internet, Facebook is a “superplatform” that allows users to connect and publicly and privately share all kinds of information with people in their network. TwitterLinkedInIs a business oriented social networking site that allows you to display you professional experience, academic accomplishments, connect with current and former colleagues, and perform research.
- FB has become a personal, product and corporate branding hubSearching and adding friendsUpdating personal profile with daily informationJoining networks organized by city, workplace, and school or collegeBecoming a “fan” of things like brands, companies, celebrities, politicians and other high-profile individualsTagging friendsCreating more personalized experiences on a variety of partner websites through Facebook Connect like BranchOut, Like button, Friends Activity Stream
- Facebook is changing the way users find websites. Sharing links to interesting, helpful, or funny websites is an integral part of the way users engage with each other on Facebook.Facebook’s ConnectSocial Plug-ins- “Like”/“Activity Feed”/ “Recommendations”Greater privacy, greater comfortCredible traffic funnelHigh personalized advertisingThe Feed Factor
- Mashable 4-2-09HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook1. Know your audienceToo many people are sharing information to the wrong audiences. Your manager doesn’t want to know if you just went to the bathroom and, although your parents would love to eavesdrop on your relationship with your girlfriend or boyfriend, you might not want to share those details. Since our lives are starting to converge more and more every day, you need to decide what audiences you want to connect with on Facebook.Do you want to use Facebook as a communication stream to your family and friends? Are you looking to network with professionals that could help you get a job? These are questions you need to start asking yourself before you add “friends” to your Facebook profile. If you decide to open it up to the masses, then you need to be mindful of what you share and how that could impact people’s perception of you. Remember, you can limit what select users can see on your profile, just by changing your settings, which we’ll discuss more below.2. Decide on your branding strategyEveryone should have a Facebook branding strategy and it should be based not only on the audience you’re targeting, but your overall life goals. Depending on who you are, where you are in your career, what you’re passionate about and an expert in, you’ll want to brand yourself differently.If you haven’t signed up for Facebook, then you have a great opportunity to start fresh and to build your Facebook profile to best represent you. If you’re a current Facebook user, then start analyzing how your brand is being portrayed and take steps to customize it to reflect your branding strategy. If you don’t want to build a branding empire, a strategy should still be extremely important to you; you’re already branded and that brand can help shape perceptions online to portray you in a positive light and help you secure a good reputation. This means choosing what links and media you share in your news stream to add value to your brand and those you’re friends with.3. Set your privacy settingsDepending on your Facebook goals, you may set your entire account to private or grant certain individuals permission to view sections of your profile. You can also make your entire profile public for the world to see, which could be beneficial to you if you’re looking to become more visible in your industry and will result in your profile ranking high for your name in search.I recommend turning tagging settings off for both photos and pictures so that you can take control of your Facebook wall. You wouldn’t want your friends tagging you in a picture of you doing something stupid, would you?4. Fill out your profile completelyFacebook is a great platform where you can paint a picture of who you are. When filling out the information fields, be sure to focus on the education and work section, where you can reconnect with fellow alumni from college, or past colleagues that might be able to help you get a job.Also, in the contact information field, be sure to list your blog, any websites you might own and links to your profiles on other social networks. Since hiring managers use Facebook’s search engine to find candidates, it pays to load up your profile with keywords that they can search against. Depending on your Facebook brand strategy, you’ll want to promote more information in certain fields like your contact information and less in other fields.5. Import contacts and grow your networkEach month, you should go through the process of importing your contacts from your email accounts and your instant messenger screen name accounts. This will help you continue to grow your Facebook network as you’re meeting new people through your other channels.If you have a blog, it’s also a smart idea to use Facebook Connect. By having Facebook Connect on your blog, you can bring your friends with you and promote your content through social interactions that start on your blog and end up on Facebook.6. Update your statusUpdating your status on Facebook allows your to project a single message to a large audience. Your status is a reflection of who you are and what you do. You can update your status with press mentions, your latest blog entry, a new project you’re working on or your interest in a particular job. Based on your branding strategy, you’ll want to update your status to either keep people informed about what you’re up to, push them to your content or both.7. Link out to your Facebook profileYou might already have a blog and accounts on other social networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Technorati, etc. If you do and your Facebook strategy is to promote yourself and remain public, then placing a link (and possibly a Facebook icon) on these other sites to your Facebook profile is a great idea.As the chief marketing officer for your personal brand, you want to build your friend list, so that you have more people to market to now and in the future. Think of your Facebook profile as a digital asset and grow the equity in that asset over the rest of your life.8. Feed your social networksBy using Ping.fm, you can update your status on Facebook, as well as many other social networks in an instant, without duplicating your efforts. Also, you can import your blog titles in Facebook using notes or by using an application called Simple RSS.Not only does this make you more productive, but it appears as though you’re contributing to your community, without you having to think about it. Since Facebook is all about sharing, those that share more will be remembered more, which is great for personal branding.
- Founded 2006“micro-blog” tool and platform 140 character text-based messagePublicly and privately message140 million active users worldwide400 million tweets daily (6-7-2012)1.6 billion search inquires per dayAs of February 2012, about 15 percent of online adults use Twitter. Eight percent of online adults use Twitter on a typical day. Overall Twitter usage has nearly doubled since November 2010. The percentage of online adults who use Twitter on a typical day has doubled since May 2011. The proportion of adults who use Twitter on a typical day has quadrupled (now 8 percent) since late 2010.
- Twitter users have employed the platform to stage protests, coordinate disaster relief, break news, air grievances against brands and stay in touch with one another.Platform combination platterNew face of MarketingCredible Traffic funnelInstant roving reporterEasy access to influentials
- Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last month we showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.1. Claim your Twitter handlePrime domain names, especially those ending in “.com,” have long been desirable, hard to find and extremely expensive. By not reserving your domain name, your business or personal brand is at risk and you may never be able to reclaim it once you’ve lost it. With Twitter continuing its meteoric rise in popularity, it’s no surprise that Twitter account names are starting to be treated like domain names.What happens when you don’t claim your Twitter handle:• Exxon Mobil failed to claim their name on Twitter and was forced to deal with reputation management problems, when an imposter started tweeting using @ExxonMobilCorp.• Jack Canfield, founder and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, had to take a different user name because he didn’t act quickly enough to secure his full name (he has @J_Canfield, not @JackCanfield).• The same thing happened to web developer community and book publisher SitePoint, which was forced to settle for @sitepointdotcom, rather than @sitepoint.Twitter handles have become so important, that there is now even an aftermarket for them, Tweexchange, where user names are bought and sold. Stop what you’re doing right now and claim the Twitter handle for your full name, as well as any products and/or companies that you currently own or you have plans to create in the future. You can’t truly own your personal brand if you don’t even own your Twitter handle.2. Decide how you want to brand yourselfBefore you start actively using Twitter, you need a strategy, and the first step in developing that strategy is to completely fill out your user profile. One of the goals of having a Twitter account is to gain followers and few people want to follow an account that doesn’t look legitimate (i.e. the profile hasn’t been filled out and there’s no avatar). Take a good look at your other websites and profiles and draft a Twitter bio to match the rest of your online branding. This is how people will find you and recognize you now and in the future, so be honest. Don’t brand yourself as an expert unless you already are one. Do brand yourself based on your passions and skill set.Once you have everything filled out, you should spend some time focusing on your Twitter background, which gives you an opportunity to extend your brand image onto Twitter and create a more cohesive experience for your followers. There are many sites that you can use to help you develop a custom background, such as Twitpaper and Twitterimage. I recommend creating a Twitter background that resembles the colors, format and logo from your personal or corporate website. When you create your background, add in additional information that isn’t covered in your Twitter profile, such as pointers to more websites, contact information, or information about products or services you sell.Three techniques for branding yourself on Twitter:1. Lead with your company: Pete Cashmore puts his company (Mashable) ahead of himself on Twitter by using @Mashable as the account name, but uses his personal avatar and bio. This is a smart approach for Pete because he wants to build his company’s brand, while associating his own name with this successful property. This also gives Mashable a face and a personality to go with it.2. Mutual branding: More and more companies are realizing that their employees are on Twitter and that they can be tapped to help promote their initiatives. Some of these Twitter accounts are mutually branded, so that the avatar has the person’s picture and the corporate logo. Two examples are Kodak’s Jennifer Cisney (@kodakCB) and Allison and Mike from CareerBuilder’s PR team (@CareerBuilderPR).3. 100% personal branding: If you’re trying to build a strong personal brand, then focus your Twitter handle, avatar and bio information 100% on you, instead of your company.3. Become known as an expert or resourceEssentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, then I recommend using Twitterfeed, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically.For many people, Twitter has become a filter. Trusted experts are relied upon to send their followers interesting and relevant links. You can subscribe to blogs and keywords using Google.com/alerts, and then act as an arbiter for your topic, constantly pushing out the best content. Do you want to become known as a personal finance enthusiast? What about a search engine marketing consultant? The best thing you can do for your brand on Twitter is to take your current interests and activities and establish a feed on Twitter to deliver that content to your audience again and again. If you are an expert in your field, then have Q & A sessions, where you answer questions from your followers. The more you tweet about the topic you want to be known for, the more people will remember you and when they need your expertise, they will contact you. It’s that simple!4. Establish a Twitter marketing planJust like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily mean people will come. You should have a marketing plan in place to acquire new followers. Elements of a Twitter marketing plan:• Email signature: You probably already place your blog or website URL and contact information in your email signature, so why not add your Twitter handle? It’s free promotion and every email you send can turn into a new follower.• Personal/corporate website: If you already have a website for you and/or your company, then you have a platform on which you can promote your Twitter address to people who will probably be interested in following you.• Blog homepage + posts: Your blog is a great place to promote your Twitter account because most people who read blogs know what Twitter is. You should take a two pronged approach. First, put your Twitter address in one of your sidebars and second, promote it discretely in posts every once in a while.• Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that each email has a link to your account.• Presentations: Do you do any public speaking? Why not include your Twitter account on the last slide of your presentation and tell people that they can follow you on Twitter?• Business Card: Try including your Twitter handle on your business card. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, did this with his card.• Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a magazine, news website or guest post on a blog, try to include your Twitter handle in your byline.• Networking on Twitter: By using the “@” symbol and either retweeting or communicating with other people, you’ll have some of them responding to you, thus promoting your Twitter account to many of their followers.• Promotional products: Some people take Twitter promotion to the next level: Ted Murphy, for example, created custom Twitter shirts that have your Twitter handle.Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the easier it is to grow your already existing community. Retweets and following other people are two essential ways to get new followers. However, content is king on Twitter, so it is vital to make sure you produce consistent, quality tweets.5. Utilize third-party applicationsThere are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few that can really help you build your personal brand. The apps below will help you stay in touch with your industry, find people you can network with, save you precious time, and push out your content.Note: If you have additional Twitter applications that aid in personal brand building to recommend, please tell us about them in the comment section.• Twellow: Find people in your industry to follow and connect with using this Twitter yellow pages guide. You can find more Twitter directories here.• Tweetbeep: Keep track of your brand reputation by getting alerts through email when your brand is mentioned on Twitter.• Tweetmeme: Put a button on your blog that allows your readers to more easily retweet your posts.• Hashdictionary: Keep track of conversations that include hashtags on Twitter.• Ping.fm: Save time by sending messages to all of your social networks at once.• Twitter Grader: A site that ranks your influence in the Twitter world based on an algorithm. You can see where you stand in your town, city, state or country, as well.• Tweetlater: Schedule tweets so that they are published automatically in the future. It’s a real time saver.6. Form a Twitter “Mastermind Group”As you may suspect, certain groups of people on Twitter constantly promote and retweet each other. Some of them are in what are called “mastermind groups” — groups of individuals who are committed to helping each other and sharing knowledge amongst themselves. They are communities of supportive colleagues who seek to mutually help each other become more successful. On Twitter, by finding people who share your interests, you’re able to help each other out and cross-promote. There are a few Twitter applications that help you form these special interest groups.Group applications:• Grouptweet: This app lets users create groups and broadcast messages to each other via direct messages sent to the group’s Twitter account.• Twitter Groups: This site allows you to tag your followers and place them into different groups. You can then send messages to those groups without needing to send them to each person individually.
- After considering the goals of your personal branding, you may decide that your target audience and marketing strategy includes social networking. If you’ve decided that LinkedIn would be a great way to build your network, increase exposure for your skills and talents, and create more visibility for your personal brand, congratulations! You will be joining a large group of busy professionals, who take advantage of LinkedIn’s easy-to-use tools and apps to drive their personal brand to a large potential network.LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that also serves many dynamic business purposes. I recently experienced a great benefit from building a dynamic and timely LinkedIn profile: I was interviewed for an article in Fortune Magazine because they found me on LinkedIn and vetted my credibility through the network and my website. That’s a great success for my personal brand strategy!Other benefits professionals are finding from LinkedIn, include:Colleagues, prospective business partners, investors and vendors can check your LinkedIn profile to learn more about you: where did you go to school, what is your career path, what topics/areas are you interested in and who are you connected to?Employers may use LinkedIn to ensure their teams are staying on point with key messaging and loyalty to the brand, as well as to ensure discretion and confidentiality is kept with projects and clients.Potential employers scour social networks, primarily LinkedIn, to identify and recruit talent.Global collaboration between professionals with different skill sets, talents and geographic coverage is happening all the time through LinkedIn. Whether the conversation begins on a post in a Group, or as a response to a Question, or as an Update to someone’s status, the scale and reach of LinkedIn connections is broadening each day.Media can use LinkedIn to vet and source resources for articles, timely information and expert commentary on key projects.
- has been developed purely for business to business purposes, and is, by far, the most appropriate business social media tool to drive qualified leads to you and your business.1. Analyze and Develop Your Personal BrandBefore you can promote your own personal brand through LinkedIn to drive qualified leads to your inbox, you need to create your own compelling personal brand. The first thing you need to do this is to ask your colleagues and clients to list your three strengths that relate to how you provide value to your clients, customers, and vendors. You also need to think about what it is you like to do and what you want your name to be synonymous with when people think of you. Make sure you can substantiate and support this personal brand through client testimonials as well as by making a commitment to delivering resourceful content to your LinkedIn audience on a daily or weekly basis. Content can include links to related articles and your comments, plus presentations, articles you have developed and delivered, and case studies of your work. 2. Create an Engaging and Professional LinkedIn Profile Always remember that LinkedIn is a B2B networking place—it just happens to be an online community. You want to create and refresh your profile in first person, as you would if you were to introduce yourself in your 15 second pitch at a breakfast networking event. In your profile, you need a compelling headline that states what benefits you provide and, again, something to support your personal brand position. In alignment with having a professional profile, you will need to create a professional photo or have one shot by a photographer. You do not want a high school or phone camera shot of you for your LinkedIn profile. Always remember that LinkedIn is for serious business professionals. Having a professional headshot of you is mandatory for your LinkedIn success. Your LinkedIn headline should reflect your brand and your success so that potential clients can immediately see what you do and how you have helped other business professionals. After you create your headline, your summary profile should contain a list of keywords for your own personal brand based on what the brand is, as well as what phrases you think people will type into the LinkedIn search bar to find someone like you. Don’t overwrite. The headline should be a headline. Period. You want to grab their attention and move on to reading your profile and client testimonials. Your Linkedin profile summary should be written in first person to engage the reader and should quickly and effectively highlight your relevant accomplishments and skills. Remember, the point of developing a personal brand is to position yourself as a field expert. The more you list and, especially, prove your skills, the more credible you become to your target LinkedIn audience. Besides the basics, you want to create and refresh your profile to be interactive, engaging, and fresh. To do so, you can utilize applications such as Slideshare and Box.net to pull in your latest presentations, videos, and PDFs of work that you have delivered. Another way to keep your profile alive is to create and commit to a blog on WordPress that will support your brand and pull in using the Typepad LinkedIn app to display your latest blog posts. Vanity URL -Custom URL: Your LinkedIn URL should appear as “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” If it doesn’t, you’re missing a vital opportunity to have your profile rank higher in Google and to make it easier for people to find you. To do this, go to your profile and click “edit” and then next to where it says “public profile,” click “edit” again. At the top, you’ll want to click “edit” one more time next to “your public profile URL,” and then type in your full name, without spacing, and click “set address.” If the unique URL is taken, then try using a period between your first and last name or use your middle initial. 3. Create Valuable ConnectionsNow that you have an effective, personally branded LinkedIn profile, you want to start to generate valuable connections. These come in several forms: Potential clientsPotential networking partnersPotential employeesPotential colleagues The first thing you want to do is create your LinkedIn message that you will send to these prospective connections. The message should state your brand position, politely request them to become a connection, and offer to be a resource to them. Once you have your message created, you should import any and all connections that you have in your email contacts. These include clients, prospects, vendors, partners, networking connections, and university relations. All of these connections can assist you to grow attention to your LinkedIn profile. Once you invite people into your network, you must make a commitment to provide them with value by either making LinkedIn introductions that can help them or providing them with fresh, daily information that will help them do their jobs better. One crucial activity you will need to do to create LinkedIn relationships is to either create and manage a group, or join and participate in groups related to your industry, business, or target audience. Group members create the strongest bonds because they share activities or knowledge.JOIN GROUPS LinkedIn offers you hundreds of groups to chose from, where you can become engaged and involved in conversations around areas of interest, alumni groups, causes and business initiatives. Chose the groups wisely – you build your own reputation in part through the groups with whom you associate.Once you join a group, post and comment where appropriate and comfortable. Ask questions, offer insight and share information around the topic of the group. Be aware of posting guidelines (often shared at the outset by the group administrator) so you don’t inadvertently post a job opening to a group that prohibits such posts.Be aware that groups are highly conversational and participatory. If you make a post about something you are passionate about, expect to receive feedback, input and possibly even negative comments from others. If this becomes uncomfortable, speak to someone in your company’s marketing department before engaging in an online (public!) conflict.SEEK RECOMMENDATIONS-Recommendations are a great way for others to see how you work and how you contribute. The beauty of LinkedIn recommendations is that they must be attached to another person’s profile, which adds to the credibility of the comments. Additionally, you have an opportunity to view and edit the recommendation before it is posted. Pay attention to how you want to be perceived. Then ask yourself, “Does this recommendation support the perception I want my network to have of me and my work?” If necessary, go back to the endorser and suggest key phrases or key words to help strengthen their recommendation of you and your work.*** Always follow your company’s social media protocol when considering whether to offer a recommendation to a colleague. Many companies do not approve of employees endorsing or recommending staff or colleagues, for legal and human resources reasons. -Recommendations: Many people argue if LinkedIn recommendations are legitimate, especially because they typically come from your trusted network of friends and colleagues. The truth is that they are very significant because when a recruiter searches for talent, they will view and identify profiles that have the “thumbs up” graphic next to them. If you don’t have a “thumbs up” graphic, that means that you haven’t been recommended and if you do and you’ve been recommended several times, there will be a number next to it. If two candidates for the same job had the same background and skills, yet one had twenty recommendations, who would you choose? Exactly! Recommendations can come from colleagues, teachers, managers and even celebrities. --Additionally, if you haven’t set up your personal LinkedIn URL yet, it's time. Look under “Profile” then “Edit Profile” to find “Public Profile” and carefully consider whether you want to use your name, business name or a nickname in the URL. This is a great link to share in your email signatures or on your personal business cards if you don’t yet have a website you’re proud of or a job or a personal Tumblr or similar page. For example, mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyjk----Ask for specific recommendations, and say thank you. Good recommendations can be tough to secure, but they’re worth it. And being appreciative can get you a lot more than you realize. 4. Take Part in Daily ActivitiesTo truly make LinkedIn work for you and your personal brand, you must spend at least five to 10 minutes a day doing the following: 1. Asking questions related to serving your clients2. Answering questions related to supporting your personal brand3. Getting involved in related group discussions4. Asking for and providing real client testimonials5. Making valuable connections for others in your networkLeverage LinkedIn as part of your unified brand strategyWhen it comes to your personal brand, LinkedIn is only one piece of the puzzle. You’ll want to supplement LinkedIn with profiles on Facebook and Twitter, in addition to your own blog or website and profiles on industry specific social networks. Your LinkedIn profile should be consistent with your online presence, which means you should be using the same avatar, your full name and your personal branding statement. As you grow your brand over time, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is updated with your latest job information and experience. If you’re looking for a job right now, toss away your traditional resume, click on “PDF” on your LinkedIn profile and print it out for your interview. This, in effect, displays more of who you are in a different format than recruiters are used to, so you stand out.Decide how much time you want to invest in LinkedIn, as opposed to your other online assets. LinkedIn requires less upkeep, but to leverage it to the best of your ability, you will have to put your time in. By building your personal brand on LinkedIn, you’ll be where people are searching and you’ll have access to those who can help build your brand now and in the future. Remember that using Linkedin as a personal branding tool requires commitment and giving. Start today to see results tomorrow.
- Tips to get leadsGoogle AlertsTweetDeck search Use LinkedIn as a prospect research platform.Engage!Become a fan of prospect’s FB pageDetermine if Prospect has any current storage accounts, if so promote, rate, comment, engage with content.Make regular comments on Prospect’s blogPromote blog contentLinks back and mentions the prospect’s nameFollow prospect on Twitter…respond and retweet as opportunities arise!Update your social media accounts regularly.