#LoveYourBrand - Why You Should Be Your Brand Online, In Person and In Print

You’ve created your own business and you’ve spent time brainstorming branding and marketing. The impression you’ve sent out into the world is important. It generates income, builds your client list and protects your reputation. However, the bottom line is that you are your company. You built it. You make sure the work gets completed. You go out and represent your company with vendors, power partners, clients and potential customers. This is why you are the central and most essential element of all of your branding efforts.

Once all the layers and curtains have been pulled back, the heart of your business is you. Whether it is intentional or not, you are the MVP of your company. Being true to who you are, and what you believe in, should be the core of your brand. By keeping you as the foundation of all of your business efforts, the business stays authentic and true as well.

This is especially true if you have taken the time to really figure out what you stand for. What is your mission, your vision? What are your goals? What is the image you want to project to the public? What is your purpose? What are your passions? How do they relate to your work? Jot the answers to these questions down. It will create a map of your personal and business brand.

There is a lot of chatter about the Like, Know, Trust business relationship. It is a common sales concept. The reason is that people make purchases based on emotion and then they bring logic to the equation. Building up trust between you and your audience means they will be more receptive to hear your message and invest in your product or service. How will they get to like, know and trust you if they aren’t even sure about who you are? This is certainly an issue with smaller businesses and service providers. Your logo cannot build a relationship with a customer.

Business owners can always create branding that represents their company. However, if you leave out the heart of your business – YOU – then it will always feel like there is something missing. Take pride in what you have built. Invest in some professional photography and incorporate that into your marketing efforts. Let your audience really get to know you. Inject your persona into all of your marketing including your social media, website, networking events, and printed materials. Leave your social fingerprint and brand on everything you create.

In a world of online chaos, the only way to truly stand out and get attention is to bring your passion to the conversation. A brand without a personality is static and does little to inspire people to sign up for what you are offering. The keys to successfully branding yourself are 1) understand what it is you represent and 2) incorporate those qualities into everything you do.

Need some support or an extra push to get started? The Social Media Advisor team can help you discover and promote YOU and your brand. Let us show you how you can #BeAwesome online!

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

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

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

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

Why Should You Quote Yourself In Your Memes

If you spend any time at all on social media, you know what a meme is. Memes are such an integral part of Internet culture.

While they started as bits of humor and entertainment, today’s memes are more diverse. That doesn’t mean that the LOLcats or being Rickrolled is obsolete, it just means there is a lot more a meme can accomplish now. For businesses, memes are often used to spread popular inspirational / motivational quotes or brand messages.

The Popularity

The reason that memes are as popular as they are derives from the fact that these graphics are the gateway to going viral. Visuals are such a central part of any social media strategy because they attract more attention. Plus, memes are shareable. It takes mere seconds for a viewer to decide they like something enough to share it with their fans or followers. The right meme can build up a ton of traction and attention.

The Purpose

This amount of presence online is the real reason behind creating a meme. Of course, not everyone’s memes will go viral.  If they do, jackpot! However, there are still good reasons to create your own memes even if one of them never become viral.  Here are some stats about visual content from a recent Hubspot article:

“Researchers have found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.”

“Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images.”

“Visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.”

Branding Your Own Memes

Now, you know you should be creating your own memes. In a recent blog post, we talked about the importance of being the face of your own brand. It is time to blend these two ideas together to create memes for your brand.

What kind of content can you use to create your own memes? Well, you can go the easy route and grab quotes that relate to your brand and create your own visuals – slapping your logo into the image somewhere. However, I would like to encourage you to go through your own content and create memes with your own quotes. Why? If your meme resonates with your audience, they will share it. Not only will this increase your brand image on social media, having your own quotes on there automatically establishes you as an influencer or expert in your industry.

Another way to #LoveYourBrand, quoting yourself in your own memes is tool in the toolbox of personal branding ideas for your social content. As always, I hope this helps you #BeAwesome online and generate some business at the same time.

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

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

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

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

#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 audience is 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 ~ 

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

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

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.