Jul 19, 2015
Hopefully you’ve already read my previous post on How To Brand Yourself and Your Company. Now that you have your brand in your hand, let me show you how to make your mark. The hardest part might be over … or just beginning! Don’t let this derail you. Some of the savviest brands were born out of laborious discussions, hours poured into thought, research, and just plain trial and error. The most important part is that you have a brand essence.
1. Define Your Brand
This is where your elevator pitch comes into play. It’s not enough just to have the idea of your brand in your brain. You need to be able to speak about your brand comfortably and often. Whether you are your brand, or your company is your brand (often one and the same), you have to translate your idea into something that’s easily digestible and resonates with your audience.
2. Write Your Story
Whether or not people are reading books or just hashtags, you need to have a compelling story to share. This is the “So what? Factor.” Your story can highlight the journey you took towards business ownership and/or it can be your personal journey thus far. While brands may overlap in similarity, the brand essence and/or story is what sets them a part. This is why business owners benefit when they are actively presenting themselves as their business’ spokesperson. Remember, if you don’t define your brand or yourself, other people will define it for you!
3. Identify Your Audience
Hello friends! We know ourselves or our products backwards and forwards. What about our audience? Who’s at the end of the phone line? The best businesses know their demographics down to a T. They create storyboards and profiles that capture their ideal audience’s looks, voice, interests, and desires. I’ve always stressed this element with clients and students since it’s easy to overlook or generalize. I’m even guilty of the “come one, come all” outlook on marketing, but you’ll soon find an uphill battle if you don’t “niche down.”
FYI—One of the reasons I started my business is to literally walk the talk. You’d be amazed at the new perspectives that jump out at you when you segment yourself as a doer vs. a coach. You should also do the same as you continue to mold your brand. Step outside yourself and try to view your business and/or yourself as your audience would.
*You may just need to rework your brand and story based on your audience’s needs.
4. Establish Your Trademark
Got your brand, story, and audience? Now, you need a business name and tagline (optional) that speaks to your services. For personal branders, you can go with your actual name or a catchy phrase that encompasses your philosophy. In case you missed it (how could ya?), my philosophy on entrepreneurship is RAW BRANDED®.
Now that you have your tag line, put it on lock down! The digital space is moving at rapid-fire speed. After listening to Blogger Tamsen Horton’s legal tips over at Launching Legal, I made a mental note to Trademark any and all business products and names. I would hate for you to do the hard work of building a brand around a name just to have you make a copywright or trademark infringement.
You can do a Trademark search by visiting USPTO.gov. If your Trademark is available and you’re certain that you will use your mark, file for your Trademark. Just be certain that you are planning to use this mark, since the cost to file is a pretty penny.
5. Secure Your Domain
Once you have your Trademark, secure a domain that is the same as your business or personal brand. Consistency is key. This is the name that you will share everywhere and often, so people become familiar with your brand.
6. Get Your Creative
Choose your brand colors and logo designs. Remember, this is not your actual brand. These elements are indicative of your brand. Your logo and color schemes are visual cues to help people remember you and your brand. Of course, if you are your brand, this becomes a much simpler effort!
7. Search, Find, and Connect
All of your previous efforts will be in vain if you are not building a relationship with your audience. Back in the day (yes, I said that), not too long ago, it was quite easy for advertisers to spam us with catchy jingles, never ending commercials, obnoxious website popups (the animated ones are still the worst culprits), and billboards.
Today, our lives are much too busy to be distracted by these advertising tactics. Studies have proven that the general public’s behavior has evolved, and people will seek information as needed. Specifically, people are going online to connect with others and brands that take the extra step to engage them.
In 2011, Google coined this as the “Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), which describes a revolution in the way consumers find information online and make decisions about brands. ZMOT is the precise moment when they have a need, intent or question they want answered online.”
Your brand needs to help others as they need it. In order to do so, your brand must be present where your audience resides online and in-person. It is all about relationship cultivation and sustenance, which often takes longer to generate but has lasting impact.
Case in point: Nike. The shoe company isn’t just known for its swoosh logo. It has built a whole community around the Nike philosophy—Just do it. Nike supports its community’s efforts to stay fit through several workout apps and a training club, for starters. Talk about walking the talk! Now that’s RAW BRANDED®!
Have you started to make your mark? Please share your story. Need help? Send me a tweet or feel free to contact me. One step at a time.
Jul 4, 2015
So, you’ve just built a website or blog. Congratulations! You’ve achieved the first milestone … but where’s the traffic?? You’re not alone. This is a common scenario for bloggers and website masters far and near. It’s often believe that if you build it (your website not fields of dreams), traffic will come. Except, there’s a missing component. Site visitors will come only if your website is optimized for search engines AKA Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
What’s SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website or blog organic/free search results in search engines. In other words, when searching in search engines, e.g. Google or Bing, for topics or keywords related to your website, your website should naturally turn up in the search results. It is ideal for your website to turn up on the first page of the search engine’s results page, since this will ensure that people will find your website.
According to academic research, 91% of web searchers do not go past the first page of their search engine results, and more than 50% of web searchers do not go past the first three results displayed on the first page of their search engine results. (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2009). Given this information, it’s time to buckle up and join the ranking game. Here are 10 quick (and legal) tips for website SEO that can up the ante for your brand.
How Can You Optimize Your Website?
1. Sign-up for Google Webmaster’s Tools – Please note that Google isn’t the only search engine that’s out there. Hello Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and Dogpile (ah, used to be my favorite)! However, since Google is dominating this space with approximately 1,100,000,000 estimated unique monthly visitors, let’s use it for a frame of reference. You should signup for Google Webmaster Tools to analyze your website. Through this service, you will see a list of keywords that are generating traffic to your website, spotlighting the audience you are organically targeting. You may want to adjust your topics and keywords accordingly. More on keywords later. Google Webmaster Tools also highlights how search engines view your website. With this information, you can correct issues related to Google bots’ inabilities to crawl your site.
2. Optimize Your On-page SEO – The action taking place behind the scenes of your website is equally as important as its external environment. Your website or blog’s Content Management System (CMS) should permit you access to each page’s HTML. Once located, optimize the page’s Header Tag (H1), ALT tags or alternative text, meta keywords, and meta descriptions (with no more than 150 characters) to accurately reflect the topic of your blog posts or pages. Use keywords, preferably longtail keywords. More on this after the jump! 
3. Target Longtail Keywords – These keywords will help boost your search ranking and hone in on your target audience. Longtail keywords consist of a longer string of keywords. In other words, instead of using “cookbooks” as a keyword in your meta keywords, descriptions, or header, you should target longtail keywords such as “cookbooks for kids” or “cookbooks for college students.” Since these keywords are more specific, you will hone in on terms that have a higher traffic potential with lower competition. Of course the popularity of your longtail keyword and competition from other brands that are targeting your keywords will also shape your ranking for these terms.
News Flash: You cannot stuff keywords into your website! Those tricks of the past will now harm your search results. Instead, keep your keywords to two or three longtails keywords. Google Trends, Google AdWords, and Quora are helpful tools for identifying appropriate keywords.
4. Include Image/ALT Tags – These tags are essential alternative keywords that Google bots use to scan images on your website. This will enable your photos to turn up in Google image searches, thereby providing another source of traffic. They are particularly helpful for folks who use screen readers.
5. Use Pretty URLs – Create neat, simple URLs with keywords that relate to your webpage/post.
For example, replace www.yourwebsite.com/123I’mcomplicated_difficulty10 with www.youwebsite.com/easyURL.
6. Establish Inbound Links – Google Webmaster Tools provides a list of websites that are linking to you. The more link juice you have, particularly from influential websites such as CNN, the better your search rankings. Once upon a time, in the land of “black hat” web tactics, website owners would use sneaky tricks to drive multiple, invalid links to their website. While having external links to your website still matters for SEO, it’s no longer the end-all and be-all to the equation.
7. Go Mobile – In April 2015, Google unleashed “Mobilegeddon” AKA “mobilepocalyse,” thereby boosting mobile-friendly websites’ rankings in search results. Google states, “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.” If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to mobilize!
8. Create Key Content – While content is king on the web, your content must have value for readers. You will build an audience once you showcase your expertise. Once people are able to find you, make sure that they are willing to return to your website. Site stickiness is essential!
9. Dominate With Domain Presence – Time is truly a virtue. The older the age of your website or blog, the stronger it’s domain authority. Like a fine, aged wine, your website will eventually gain a firmer web presence over time. However, this is just one factor. An older website with outdated and irrelevant content will fall short in the rankings. See item #8!
10. Support With Strong Social Media – Your social media platforms and followers should link to your website. You’ll not only gain link juice from your social media followers, but you will also expand your brand’s reach. Time to mingle.
Where Should You Begin?
A few years ago, a website simply needed to have multiple inbound links and/or keywords. Today, a myriad of tactics must be implemented in order to frame your website. It may be a lot to juggle, but you can still make a big impact by implementing a few of these tips. Begin by creating content that resonates with your audience, connect with an audience and influencers in your arena on social media, and build relationships in order to establish loyalty.
Relax, relate, and breathe! Take these tips for website SEO one step at a time, and you will eventually #BeTheBestBrand.
Got another tip? Chime in below.
References
Van Deursen, A.J.A.M. & Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2009). Using the Internet: Skill Related Problems in Users’ Online Behavior. Interacting with Computers, 21, 393-402.
Jun 30, 2015
Happy Social Media Day! Thanks to the social media experts at Mashable, June 30 marks the fifth year of this internet holiday. Over the course of these years, we’ve seen the steady increase in social media users, which now includes both individuals and businesses. We’ve also seen the continued development of new, savvy social media platforms. From YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn to Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram, we’re connecting in ever increasing and varied ways.
So, it was quite timely when, on this special day, a friend of mine approached me with a serious expression on her face. She pulled me aside, made sure the coast way clear, and whispered, “What are hashtags and how do I use them?”
I threw an arm around her and gave her a tight reassuring squeeze that all would be okay. Ironically, I received the same question earlier in the day from a coworker. Seeing the glaring signs, I knew I had to write about this. I raced to my laptop, whipped it open, and jotted down the details below. For you millennials out there, this one may be old hat for you. For you newbies to the social media world, have no fear. I’m here!
Hashtag Defined
A hashtag is a word or phrase proceeded by a # (the number/pound sign) that is used to categorize a list of topics. For example, #whatsahashtag.
By tagging your message with the number sign, it will be easily found in your social media platform’s search function. By searching with a hashtag, a list of all conversations that have used this tag will turn up in your search results. Hashtags were originated by Twitter; however, they are now being used on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. If you haven’t heard it by now, you’ll begin to notice how it’s infused in our lexicon. #everywhere!
How It’s Used
During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, viewers were encouraged to follow and comment on the event on social media using #WorldCup2014. This is similarly seen proceeding, during, and following award shows and in political races. If a large number of people begin to use the hashtag on Twitter, it will be noted as a “trending” item.
You can use the hashtag either proceeding, following, or within your main message text. The usage has now evolved to become a way in which people can express their current mood: #needtorelax #exhausted #excitedforthefuture
During Twitter meetups AKA Tweetups, hashtags form an ideal way to follow conversations during these events. If you are hosting a Tweetup, you should register your hashtag to ensure that other people won’t be using it in a separate conversation. There are a few services, such as Twubs, that are excellent sources.
How To Create A Hashtag
1. Begin with the # sign.
2. Use a word of phrase without spacing. #All1Word.
3. Be creative. A generic, one word tag may get lost in the shuffle. Try using two or more words.
4. Make it memorable, particularly as it applies to your brand. There should be some relation, unless of course you’re lightheartedly hashtagging.
5. Use existing hashtags for discussions you’d like to join.
6. Try not to use too many hashtags in one message. Remember you’re often limited by characters, and you don’t want your tags to overpower your message. #fail #EnoughHashTagsAlready!
If you’d like to make a mark with your brand, secure a unique hashtag for your audience to use. In case you missed it, mine is #BeTheBestBrand. Feel free to retweet this!
