Your online personal brand is the same as your reputation. Everything you do, say, don’t do, don’t say, etc. becomes part of your brand, your reputation, and how others perceive you. There are many ways you can strengthen your personal brand. However, what took so long to build can be destroyed in a matter of seconds in four easy steps!
Don’t do today what you can do tomorrow. Your brand can create itself, right? WRONG! You already know what your niche is and you already have a plan. All you need now is to put your plan in action. Remember, you are in charge of your own personal brand. If you don’t build it up, who will?
You need to define your brand. Your brand also has to be consistent. For example, McDonald’s hamburgers taste pretty much the same no matter where you are located. When you walk into any McDonald’s anywhere, you KNOW exactly what you will get. That is consistency. Your customers will expect to see your brand wherever you are online. If they don’t, they won’t recognize you.
You need to know how to manage your time properly. If you cannot keep track of your own work and time, why would clients trust you with their money? Part and parcel of your own personal branding is to deliver the goods on time and in a consistent manner! There is no point having really good products but at the same time being unreliable. Clients take reliability into account when choosing your brand.
You need to constantly keep on moving. Your ideas need to be fresh. If you just stick to the same old concept all the time, someone is bound to take your idea and an extra zing to it. So keep those fresh ideas coming. You don’t want your personal brand to stay on a plateau phase all the time! You want it to keep growing and growing!
There are many other ways to kill your online brand like being rude in a public forum, not following through on your brand promise, being dishonest, having poor quality products or services, and much more. 
Video can also be viewed on my Youtube Channel How to Kill Your Personal Brand in 4 Easy Steps
Brands have power if created and promoted consistently and honestly.
Branding is a powerful message that speaks to your customers and potential customers.
Brands humanize and personalize your company offering.
A solid branding strategy is important for any small business and should be the integral part of your marketing strategy. Not convinced?
Let’s do a quick word association quiz. What is the first name that comes to mind when you read the following?
The Winner is the person who receives the most points. Can’t get any easier than that! What do you win?
A video created especially for you and your needs by New Horizons 123 Production valued at $499. It can be a virtual business card, a business profile video, a blog post, a product how-to, a marketing message, an advertisement, or anything else you want to “Say With Video”.
Why not head on over to Facebook and find out? Click on the link below and we will see you over on Facebook!
I was recently approached by Jupiter Jim about a video I made YEARS ago. He loved the video and wanted to feature it on his Youtube Channel and blog. I find it interesting that he refers to the video as “short (4 minutes)” when in today’s terms it is actually “long”. However, he got great responses on his post WordPress: Why should I blog? How do I get a blog following? and some really nice compliments about the video. Here is an excerpt from his blog:
I just happened to have stumbled across this really cool, informative, short (4 minutes), helpful, entertaining video about WordPress blogs which explains so simply and so amusingly why you need one and how to use it to gain more followers and customers.
So I emailed Julie Weishaar, the creator of this dynamite video over at New Horizons123 and asked her if I could share her video on my blog post — and she said — YES! I even told her to add a watermark to the video, because it just might go viral. Read full post HERE!
Now THAT is something I would love to see! One of my videos go viral
What do you think? Do you agree with Jim’s reader’s that:
1) “Yes, a great video. There is a lot of gold in it!” (John Gaydon recently posted..Applying The Free Model To Network Marketing)
2) “Very nice and well done video. Cool music, clear presentation. I will use it too. Very good find.” (Philippe Moisan recently posted..Making mistakes in online marketing?)
3) “Great video Jim, well shared. I agree with the concept and all the reasons given.” (Jym recently posted..Marketing Your Blog: How to Make Your Readers Need You)
4) “Thank you for sharing this awesome and entertaining video. The tune is “catchy.” You are correct that this video contains a lot of great facts and figures about blogging in a very short period of time. The main point of blogging is that “Content is King.” Refreshing content regularly and consistently is the greatest challenge of having a blog, but it is essential for its vitality. “ (Raena Lynn recently posted..Does Attraction Marketing Work?)
5) “Hi Jim, what a fun interesting and informative video! She doesn’t just teach about blogging in the video, there’s also some great ideas for creating educational videos. ” (Julieanne van Zyl recently posted..Network Marketing Leads 4 Ideas for Easily Creating an Irresistible Offer)
6) And much more…
What do you know that your competition doesn’t know or that you know better? What value can you offer your target market? Do you have something you can teach them? Remember, people like to do business with people they know and trust. Make sure your target KNOWS you and TRUSTS you so they can SEE your value to them. Utilize video marketing by offering your teachings online. Make your brand stand out!
How can you teach online? There are many online platforms that allow you to share your desktop, share your images, deliver Powerpoint presentations, interact with your audience, and build your brand while sharing your knowledge and teaching your target market something they really need or want to know.
To See the MyVideoTalk Broadcaster (aka Teaching) Platform, click on the image below. At that link you will see four product demonstrations. When you click on an image, you will be taken to a screen where you can put your name in the “guest” field and watch the broadcast. MyVideoTalk’s platform also allows you to charge for your content, if you choose to, by the using passwords.
WOW! There is an over-abundance of really valuable, really helpful, very insightful information on the web today. I am sure you have noticed. Have you ever found yourself doing a Google Search for one thing and ending up going in all different directions because you keep finding more and more and more value? I know I sure have! Where do you start and where do you stop?
It is for this reason (and many more) that I love to use video to relay my messages. Video done right can capture the audience’s attention with clever images, engaging and appropriate music, and of course the right length. The rule of thumb is the shorter the better; however in some cases, a little longer works as I have discussed in previous posts.
When I read Michele Welche’s Blog post ““The Naughty Entrepreneur Checklist: 40 Reasons Why You Are Not Seeing Results”, I just HAD to make it into a video. The content screamed “make me a video” If you missed the video, you can see it here in Do You Follow Shiny Objects?.
Here is a tip for you non-graphic folk out there (like me), If you like images with transparent backgrounds, Presenter Media has a great selection. If you want to use another image from a different site (assuming of course that you have the permission to use the image) you can make the background transparent by opening the image in Paint.net. Under the “tools”, select the “magic wand” option and click on the background section of your image. Then under “edit”, select “cut”. Voila. You now have an image with a transparent background! By the way, a word of caution: do NOT use an image you do not have the rights to use. I know of several people who were sued for this reason. There are enough either free or very reasonably-priced sites for you to be able to find any image you want. I use Presenter Media and iClipart.com.
I came across another site of very valuable information and followed Chris Hamilton‘s video series “30 Best Ways to Promote Your Website or Blog“. His videos are rich in content and information we can all use. With his permission, of course, I created a summary video for his series that you can see below. To me, this video represents a nice summary and entices the viewer to visit his blog to see more information about each of his 30 suggestions on how to promote your blog or website. What so you think?
Now, if you have any content you would like to see in a video, please send it to me. I will create a short video that we can co-brand and co-promote. A win-win!
Without further ado, may I present to you:
Do you know how many businesses, both small and large are marketing their products and services on the web? Do you know how many articles and blog posts are written around the same content in various places on the Internet? Have you even wondered how and why there are a finite number of topics one can speak or write about yet an infinite number of discussions about them?
I read somewhere that it would take 57,000 years to read the entire Internet and then of course, once you were done, you would have to go back and start all over again because the web is dynamic and constantly changing. Now I don’t know about you, but that is way more time than I have so the challenge becomes how do YOU get your website, articles, blog posts, etc. read?
There is no easy answer but there are a few simple things to keep in mind. First of all, if you are a small business owner and can’t answer the questions “who are you?” and “why should I care?” – you better either figure out a way to answer those questions or find another career.
Your brand, your product or service, and your online personal and business reputation make up who you are. You need to be able to clearly define exactly what your offering is. If you are selling a specific product or line of products, the answer is fairly straightforward. But if your business is service-oriented, it might be a little more difficult to be able to clearly capture your service(s) in one phrase (your tagline). Keep in mind that if you as the business owner can’t summarize your service(s), your potential customers certainly won’t be able to either.
Next you need to be able to answer the question “why should I care”. What need does your business fill? What makes you better or different than your competitors?
Armed with these answers, you are in a better position to be “heard”.
How many emails do you get every day? How many email accounts do you have? How many social networks do you belong to? How many invitations to join new social networks do you get per week? How many directories are you listed in? How many newsletters do you subscribe to? How many groups do you belong to on Linkedin and Facebook? How many new products/technologies do you try for free to see if you want to purchase the upgrade? How many different ways do you market your business? Are you getting dizzy yet?
The Internet has opened up amazing exposure opportunities for all businesses, however, there is a down-side. In order to keep up with the latest and greatest, we might find ourselves joining and jumping on the bandwagon to keep up with what “everyone else” is doing. In the case of our competition, if THEY are “there” (wherever “there” is) we need to be there too.
Products/services/novel ideas come and go in this new world of the World Wide Web. For example, QR codes came out in the US with a vengeance. I was just getting used to the idea of using these cute little images, and was surprised to read Death to the QR Code and even more surprised at the reference in this article to Google’s dropping them. Of course, just because Business Insider wrote this article doesn’t mean everyone is going to stop using them.
One trend that has been growing and isn’t going away is video. Video is changing the way the world communicates and the way businesses brand themselves. Using video to promote your website, services, or products has become an integral component of online advertising. With the explosive popularity of sites such as YouTube (now considered the number two search engine online), Vimeo, and others – it’s time to embrace video and make it work on behalf of your company and your website.
For more examples of how to use video in your business, check out Say it With Video Web TV.
I just finish
ed reading Elegant Gurus Beating Straw Men by Greg Satell where he discusses, with wit, how many notable business Guru’s backed by impressive credentials have chosen hyperbole over substantiated facts in some of their writings. His sentence: ““However, in seeking to sensationalize business trends by citing and then continually reiterating false premises, they do us all a disservice” brought to mind two words – “Charlie Sheen” and that conjured up the image of Lindsay Lohan and what I have been saying for a while about both of them: They both need to have the silver spoons ripped out of their mouths and get a real good spanking for being “bad”. Why are we constantly hearing about these lost souls and why are they getting so much media attention? Because sensationalism sells – period (which is exactly what I wrote on Greg’s blog post). Why prominent business experts are falling prey to similar tactics is something I will leave to Greg to continue writing about as this is his area of expertise and he does it so well. But what does this mean for small business owners?
Well, it doesn’t mean that we should all go out, get drunk, party all night, and get arrested that’s for sure. I think it means that we need to be more creative in our marketing efforts and lean towards Guerrilla Marketing tactics. We are always hearing about how we have to be different and stand out from all our competitors. That is not so easy when most markets are already over-saturated, competition is incredibly fierce, and everyone is faced with information overload every single day. Think about those companies who have utilized unconventional marketing strategies. Remember the old Calvin Klein commercials? They had nothing to do with jeans but were very suggestive – sex sells and do did Calvin Klein. How about the Herbal Essence commercials? Who doesn’t remember those? Same topic – totally different product. If one’s goal is brand awareness and brand recognition, even being obnoxious like Crazy Eddie will get your brand remembered – whether or not it will increase your sales is another story altogether.
So maybe the next time you are considering doing something a little unconventional in your marketing initiatives but stop yourself before carrying it out – maybe you should give it a try. You never know! It might work. What do you think? Here’s mine:
They meet online, they network, they exchange ideas/expertise/goals/programs/etc. and the end result is a super-duper awesome training ground and helpful blog called TheWebVideoAcademy.
AND I am lucky enough to have met both Susanna Hess and Bertram Heath Sr. online as well and look forward to networking more with them.
Without further ado, I would like to introduce Susanna Hess and an excerpt from her latest blog about the WebVideoAcademy which offers both a paid membership and free advice via their blog and a perfect addendum to my last blog post about how to produce and use video to promote your brand.
You heard me right, I’m stepping it up!
I’m making a major change, that almost doesn’t even seem like a change. Perhaps a better word would be “improvement”, or even “upgrade”! 
As I’m sure you can tell by looking around this blog, I’m very passionate about video.
I love creating videos, editing videos, sharing videos, and even teaching others all I can about video!
I’ve taken it to the next level and would be THRILLED to have you join me.
Although I’ll still post here from time to time, I will primarily be writing and doing videos at a brand new blog.
Read the rest of Susanna's blog here and please join me in wishing both of them luck with their new project.
