The Importance of Branding Yourself
(and some ways to do it)
I’ve attended a number of marketing and more specifically BRANDING workshops for small to medium size businesses. The target audience is usually for business owners that can’t necessarily afford a PR firm and plan on doing-it-themselves. I like to attend them because sometimes during the course of my SEO work I feel strongly about making some branding recommendations. And I like to make recommendations for my clients’ website, social media, video, or even newsletters based on information from branding professionals.
Brand Yourself for SEO
Whenever I have a new SEO client one of the first things I do is conduct an SEO audit and I usually uncover a lot of sites and profiles that could be relevant to the business but are isolated, disjointed and not-branded. What I mean is I often uncover a slew of business profiles that are incomplete, lacking in content, or even abandoned/forgotten. Branding the business is critical, but branding key personnel is highly recommended in today’s engaged technology. And business owners, salespersons, management team, and sometimes customer service reps look more “real” with actual people.
One easy thing that you can do is to is to brand your business profile photo – here’s a post with some tips.
“You’ve learned about branding your business and your products or services. Now learn to brand yourself!“
~ Lori Brand (great name!) #BrandYourself
The most recent branding event/panel I attended was at my favorite photographer’s studio, 3 Chicks That Click Photography Studio. (I’m saving money to get personal branding “head shots” from Alyse. I’ve seen some amazing before and after photos and I need some of her magic!) At this particular event there were 3 panel members: Alyse spoke about branding photography, Carol Ingaro spoke about branding graphics, and Mary Ellen Landolfi spoken about the written word. Here are some tips:
Brand Yourself TIP
Your digital footprint often includes social media profiles. If you use your name, and your name is associated with your business you should pay attention to who is seeing it. It’s one thing to show your personality in a photo, but if you join a free business networking service like Facebook do you really think your Facebook profile photo should be of your cats, your kids, your man, or you in a bathing suit? Unless you are selling bathing suits or pet products, think again and brand yourself!
Brand Yourself Graphic Design Tip
Carol Ingaro of Ingaro Designs has been creating print and digital branding for businesses for years. Brand Yourself is
Brand Yourself Photography
Alyse Liebowitz of 3 Chicks that Click made a point of explaining that during the photo her goal is to capture a look that is appealing to the audience of the business of the person being photographed. It’s about creating an instant impression. You don’t want to see a glamour shot of your family lawyer, you want to see a photo of a lawyer. Read more on “What the Right Image Means for Your Brand” written by Mary Ellen Landolphi. Alyse’s photo shoot includes makeup, hair, changes of clothes, and Check out www.3ChicksThatClick.com
Branding Yourself with Words
Mary Ellen Landolphi explained that your choice of words are equally important when connecting to your ideal customer. She also touched upon the topic of choosing a business name and a domain name – should it be your name or a made up company name? An author of a book should always choose their name for the domain. However some solo-preneur business created with a person’s name might have been better suited to expansion without the owners name. It’s something to think about. Check out www.WordSpiralMedia.com