Generating a Brand for Business Success

Generating a Brand for Business Success

 

From the most recognizable global corporations to your business, having a strong brand can make the difference for standing out from the competition, remaining a memorable experience to your customers and ultimately growing your business.

Read more from my article on establishing a winning brand for growing a photography business.

"Clients Will Choose Trust Over Talent Every Time"

In a market that faces the pressures of a fiercely competitive economy, and a marketplace where every opportunity is more hotly pursued, as more photographers cross-over to shooting different genres, styles and subject matter , while blurring the lines of geographic-based jobs, you need to use all your marketing tools to succeed. To establish a world-class brand, you need to spend time and thought into what goes into your brand, to create the brand infrastructure that will carry your business presence beyond your immediate touchpoints. This process is likened to as if you were creating with your own hands the most popular person in the neighborhood. Your brand will precede you and create that awareness that will not only attract clients to you, but leave you a memorable option for future projects. So before you call the graphic designer, or start printing your business cards, you should direct your attention to your brand and what stands behind it.

Social Media Consolidation for Maximum Exposure and Efficient Workflow

Social Media Consolidation for Maximum Exposure and Efficient Workflow

 

The proliferation of social media opportunities does not need to overwhelm you. There are now many solutions for consolidating your social media efforts in order to maximize your exposure, while streamlining the time you put into updating your network.

I will focus on several of the most widespread social media networks around today: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Twitter is by far the most pervasive system for connecting and interacting, giving you exposure and expanding your connections in directions that you didn't plan. A Twitter stream is easy to get going and the opportunities for growth are unstoppable. For some, getting there hands around Twitter takes some time and mental juggling. The success path in Twitter is somewhat counter-intuitive, where growth depends on promoting others. Some give the formula of for every 1 self promoted post on Twitter, you should be posting referenced (or retweeting) 7 times as much information from others. This principle helps to 'spread the wealth', and works on the basis of one good turn produces another.

Facebook has strong traction and is an easier model to grasp especially for marketing. Instead of being a location for featuring the latest shots of the kiddies, you should maintain a Facebook Fan page to highlight the latest with your business or organization.

YouTube has become the ubiquitous source of video the world over. This should also serve as a main new media communication tool. Creating video can be professional and expensive or simple and 'on the fly' with online screen recorder tools like Screen Toaster.

LinkedIn is by far the leading mechanism for maintaining your professional network, and keeping them updated on your latest projects, initiatives, and status.

Bringing the Social Media networks together
Just looking at these 4 options and trying to keep them all relevant with information about your activities seems daunting and exhausting. In addition, you will want to maintain a blog for more in-depth accounts of what you are doing. How can you do this without running yourself ragged? How can you still have time for your real work?

You need to consolidate your social media networks. Here are some useful tools for pulling them together.

1. Blog to Twitter: Push all your blog updates directly to Twitter, without even touching Twitter. Use easy online services like TwitterFeed. You can quickly have your blog directly publishing to Twitter, expanding your blog article exposure to the Twitterverse.

2. YouTube to Twitter: In YouTube account, go to 'Active Sharing'. You can setup that your YouTube activity will automatically publish to Twitter, including new uploads, favorites and comments

3. Facebook to Twitter: Out of your main Facebook account, create a Fan page for people outside your circle to follow your business or organization. You can keep your Twitter stream automatically updated about new posts to your fan page by using the Facebook to Twitter synch app.

4. Twitter to LinkedIn: You are making a strong effort to share relevant and important information over Twitter, but many of your connections may still not have joined the Twitter bandwagon. However they are still in touch with you over LinkedIn. You can set up a connection between LinkedIn and Twitter through your LinkedIn account, see more on the LinkedIn blog.

5. Twitter, YouTube to Facebook: As the Facebook format lends intself more to being a blog format, than the massive Twitter stream, many find it easier and preferable to keep up with via Facebook. Bring your other social media updates on Twitter and YouTube over to your Facebook page. Visit Involver.com’s Application Gallery, look for the Twitter app and follow through for adding both Twitter and YouTube as tabs to your Facebook Page.

Now you have all your networks covered, so no matter where you are making updates, and no matter where your touchpoints are with your connections, you will be maintaining maximum exposure, in an efficient workflow.