Stand Out With These 4 Top Personal Branding Tools

Improve Your Personal Branding with These 4 Great Resources

Building a loyal following is not difficult when you know which tools to use. Connecting with the right people can help you spread word and find new clients. There are several resources that can improve your networking with better results. Would you like to increase your brand awareness? Take advantage of these resources, and let me know how these work for you!

1) Become the knowledge source – Passle

Build relationships with experts who will recommend your brand. Passle helps by focusing and engaging with your community who can then experience your own expertise in your industry. Find targeted articles to re-purpose on your blog, announce the latest events and news for your brand, find relevant content for your audience, and more.

2) Connect with quality industry leaders – Xing

Would you like to engage in a smaller social network for more targeted connections? Newer on the networking scene from Germany is a website similar to LinkedIn called, Xing, but with more of a simplified format. This is a good resource resource for employers and job seekers alike with access to high level professionals in both business and the media.

3) Online reputation management – Brand Yourself

Want your blog to appear in Google search results? Then you will enjoy Brand Yourself, which gives you an opportunity to submit three profiles such as a website, social media profile, ect. for free. This is one worth checking out especially if your personal brand is newer.

4) Create an online business profile in minutes – Strikingly

Would you like to showcase your brand but don’t have a website up yet? A good service to use in place of a blog is called, Strikingly. Brands and businesses can set up a page showcasing a biography, expertise, and connected networks. Use the free version or purchase a domain name that can be moved later to a WordPress installation.

Hopefully you will find these personal branding tools useful to your online marketing strategy. Are there any that you would like to add as well?

ADVERTISEMENT

Source: https://www.business2community.com

Image Credit: Susan Gilbert

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

10 Tips for Branding, Blogging and Social Media Marketing

There’s so much that goes into creating a successful small business marketing campaign. Branding, content marketing and social media all play important roles in this area. So you need to come up with the mix best for you.

But members of the online small business community can still offer valuable insights to help you shape your own unique plan. Here are some of their top tips for promoting your small business with content marketing, social media and branding.

Learn the Importance of Consistent Branding

If you want customers to remember your business, you need to create a brand identity that’s consistent across platforms and messages. Consistency is a main tenant of branding, but it’s still something some entrepreneurs overlook. Learn why it’s so important in a recent PMA Web Services post by Peggy Murrah.

Ramp Up Your B2C Social Media Content Distribution

When you’re marketing a consumer focused business on social media, content creation is only part of the process. You also need to be able to distribute this content effectively. Learn more about this part of the equation in this Prepare 1 post by Blair Evan Ball.

Keep Up with Changes in Social Media

Social media platforms are constantly changing and updating. So if you want your marketing strategy to be successful, you need to be able to adjust to those changes, as Rachel Strella explains in a recent Strella Social Media Post. BizSugar members also share thoughts on the post in their community.

Consider the Ideal Blog Post Length for Your Content

There are many schools of thought about how long blog posts should be in order to attract the most possible search traffic. There’s not a simple answer to the question. But there are many things you can consider to make a good decision, as Sam Hollingsworth discusses in a recent Search Engine Journal post.

ADVERTISEMENT

Update Old Posts When You’re Out of Blog Post Ideas

If you find yourself out of ideas for what to post on your business’s blog, you could simply go back and repurpose some previous content. Ivana Taylor of DIY Marketers offers some suggestions for updating those old posts.

Train Your Brain to Be Creative

Creating effective content for your business requires a lot of creative thinking. This creativity grows over time for a lot of business owners, but there are some things you can do to intentionally develop this characteristic, as Jodi Harris details in a recent Content Marketing Institute post.

Use These Simple Yet Effective Techniques to Grow Your Business

Growing a business doesn’t need to involve a lot of complicated techniques. There are plenty of simple things you can do, like the methods listed in a recent Pixel Productions post by Helen Cartwright. You can also see what the BizSugar community has to say about the post here.

Build a Facebook Messenger Bot Sequence

One of the main purposes of using social media is to start conversations with customers. And Facebook Messenger can be an effective platform for doing just this. You can even build bot sequences to automate parts of the process. Learn more in a recent Social Media Explorer post by Dana Tran.

Don’t Miss Out on These Free Online Advertising Opportunities

When you first start your website, you might actually find the opportunity to take advantage of some free advertising credits. A recent post by Susan Solovic goes over how to best utilize these opportunities so they make a big impact on your business.

Incorporate Video into Your Business

Video has so many different potential applications for businesses, from content marketing to training. So if you have yet to make use of this format, Ivan Widjaya of Biz Penguin explains why you should rethink this strategy.



Source: https://smallbiztrends.com
Image Credit: Shutterstock



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

11 Branding Tips For A Better Company Image

When it comes to branding, most people think about logos and colors. But branding is about more than just recognizability. It's about the impact that you have on a customer and how it sends a message. The first impression can say a lot about a company, its values and what it does. Entrepreneurs should be thinking about the unintended impacts of branding. 

We asked members of the Forbes Agency Council about what to consider when thinking about branding assets. The answers given reveal a lot about what makes a good slogan, logo, name and more. After all, a company's branding is a visible, and often tangible, extension of the company. 

Forbes Agency Council members offer their best tips.

1. Clearly Identify Yourself 

While catchy names and cool graphics can be interesting, they do not do a great job of telling your story. Your company name, logo and slogan should provide insights into what you do and the products or services you offer. If you miss this opportunity, you will spend valuable time and energy on explaining the basics. That is time that could be used to further develop a relationship or share key benefits. - Korena Keys, KeyMedia Solutions 

2. Make It Easy For People To Understand 

Make it easy for people to understand what you do. Too many names are clever wordplay or have no meaning. Also, be certain to adequately find a campaign to publicize the brand. Sufficient publicity can do a huge amount to define the brand. - Peter Prodromou, Racepoint Global 

3. Let Your Brand Tell A Story 

Let your name, slogan and logo tell a story. Having a clear message behind your business will allow the consumer to grasp the pillars that your company embodies. - Danny Fritz, SBX Group 

4. Consider What Your Customer Will Think 

We've been a part of a lot of new logo designs and I'm routinely surprised that the customer is not considered during the process. Most times, the logo, slogan and company name are thought of by the entrepreneur before having even one customer. If you like a high-tech look and feel and are selling to an earthy, wholesome group, there will be a mismatch. Your logo or brand won't resonate with your chosen customers. Define your customer, then create your brand to attract that customer. Are you Toyota or Lexus? Payless or Tom Ford? Walmart or Target? - David Kovacs, Allegra Princeton 

ADVERTISEMENT

5. Ask Why You Are Doing This 

You have a business that sells a product, but why do you sell that product? Of course, we all want to make money, but selling something to make money won't motivate the consumer to buy into your brand. Ask yourself: What difference will it make in the lives of the consumer who buys it? Start by building a foundation of who and why you are selling what you sell and work up from there. - Rebecca Kowalewicz, Clearbridge Branding Agency 

6. Create A Liquid Experience 

The most important part of branding today is creating a liquid experience. To many, that means repeating the same slogans and looks across all platforms. That is a mistake. A liquid experience is a cohesive branding strategy but also one that takes into consideration the user and audience in an intimate way. My advice when working on a first impression is to first work on the audience. Better yet, think about the tribe you want to reach and create a cohesive yet customized branding version for a peak user experience. - Jennifer Barbee, Destination Innovate 

7. Be Creative And Approachable  

The best company branding is a combination of creativity and approachability. When considering a name, logo and brand aesthetic, consider your audience as well as your brand category. There's a reason we go to Zappos for shoes rather than Shoes.com. The most successful brands adopt a creative spin without deviating too much from what their prospective consumers expect from their product or service. -   David Harrison,   EVINS   

8. Design For The Long-Term 

Consider how your branding and logo will hold up over time. Communicating that a brand is cutting-edge or uber-hip may drive you to the trendiest of design trends. However, you may want to think about how to bring that message to life in a way that won’t look dated in five or 10 years. The crossed-arrow look might be in today, but if you plan to be around for a while, think again. - Keri Witman, Cleriti 

9. Try The ROI Principle 

We follow the ROI principle: relevant, original and impactful. If our brand strategy and brand development work achieves these standards, the client will make a desirable first impression in the marketplace. We take time to make sure that our clients are aligned with these ROI standards and encourage them to test our work with their past, current and "want to have" customers. Social media is a great platform to test ideas before taking them to the next level. - Alannah Tsimis Sandehl, IDM Brand 

10. Think About Extensibility 

Your branding assets are often consumers’ first impression of your company. What’s one factor to consider when coming up with a company name, slogan, logo, etc.? Understand that your business will go through changes as it pertains to the products it sells, the region it sells in and perhaps even the audience it is selling to. It’s important to create something unique to your business that represents the integrity of your company, but make sure it’s extensible enough to weather the changes that are sure to come over the years. - Lori Paikin, NaviStone® 

11. Pass The Radio Test

Depending on the type of your business, this can be super important. You want to make sure that your company's name is something that people can spell easily when they first hear it. If they can't, then you risk missing out on opportunities from people that just couldn't find you after (mis)typing your name. If I hear your company name on the radio, I should be able to find you right away. -   Rafael Romis,   Weberous Web Design  

ADVERTISEMENT

Source: https://www.forbes.com
Image Credit: FAC Members



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!