Managing Your Online Brand in the World’s Best & Worst Marketplace

“Had a very long day today. Got into an argument with my boss and a client. All I want to do is drink a glass of wine and take it easy, but I have to do laundry tonight. Arrrgh!”

This is the text of a post I once read on a friend’s Facebook page. She was clearly frustrated after a tough day at the office.

There’s nothing earth-shattering about this post and certainly nothing unusual. We all have periodic days we would rather forget. It’s common to come home from work tired out, feeling sick to your stomach, knowing you have important work to take care of at home.

That said, the Facebook post above does nothing to build my friend’s personal brand, and worse yet, it probably harms it. In the branding game, we need to paint a picture, cast a vision of ourselves as interesting, fascinating and anything but ordinary. We should never lie when we make a post on the social media, but don’t focus on the mundane. Focus on those things that will make people want to know more about you, wish they were like you and want to go out of their way to work with you. Be special. Be fascinating. Be intriguing.

The Internet is the greatest marketplace ever invented, because it is available worldwide 24-hours a day, is so vast that every imaginable product or service is available, has low barriers to entry and is comprised of billions of prospective customers.

The Internet is also the worst marketplace ever invented, because it is available worldwide 24-hours a day, is so vast that every imaginable product or service is available, has low barriers to entry and is comprised of billions of prospective customers. It’s too loud and crowded, making it hard to be noticed.

While the Internet (and the social media that are a part of it) provides us with historically unprecedented access, it also provides us with unprecedented clutter. It is easy and challenging at the same time. It has the potential of bringing riches but is filled with land mines. You can’t afford to take missteps.

That’s why savvy professionals carefully manage their online brands just as they manage how their personal brands appear everywhere else. Below are a few pieces of advice to keep in mind as you promote your personal brand online and take advantage of the countless benefits that come from the world’s greatest AND worst marketplace.

It’s a Game of Fundamentals - Regardless of the medium used, your personal branding must be of value and stand on its own merit. In other words, nobody is impressed just because you have a presence online. People are impressed if your presence is interesting, fresh and provides value to them. When determining what you’ll write or say online, think back to your area of self-marketing expertise, the part of your professional self that is most interesting to other people. That’s what you talk about when you make posts on the social media.

The Invisible Man or Woman - I will periodically receive a call from a stranger, who says, “Jeff, I’d like to meet with you, get to know you and pick your brain. Do you have time for lunch next week?” As soon as I hang up, the first thing I do is Google that person. I want to know who I’m dealing with and what he or she is all about. This may not be fair, but if nothing or very little pops up after I Google someone, I’m unimpressed. My assumption is that they don’t have much going on; they’re not involved in their profession or community.

It’s safe to assume people are Googling you too. When that happens, you MUST have a presence. A number of positive things about you should show up in their search results. To be safe, I recommend you Google your own name at least once a month. Also check Bing, Yahoo and other search engines just to make sure you cover all the bases.

If you are not satisfied with your search results, start building a better online presence now. Deliberately build a “Google trail” that people can follow to get to you:

1. Maximize social media. Postings, links and photographs show up in many searches.

2. Become a blogger. Write interesting articles about your area of self-marketing expertise. You can also comment on others’ blogs.

3. Once you have a blog, submit your articles to the countless websites that publish articles written by a wide variety of people. Just make sure your writing is of high quality.

4. Tell everyone about each of your new blog articles via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

5. Shoot short but interesting videos related to your area of self-marketing expertise and make them available on YouTube.

6. Post messages using your real name on discussion forums that relate to your profession. Just make sure the forums are legitimate.

7. Write reviews of products and services on various websites using your real name.

8. Develop your own personal website, where you post articles, photos and information about yourself in a flattering way.

9. If you are an officer in an organization, or if you sit on a board of directors, see if the organization will include your name, bio and photo on its website.

10. Start a regular podcast.

Live Socially- The social media are such an important part of online branding, they deserve their own section:

1. Develop a nice list of friends, connections and followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Don’t just invite people willy-nilly. Make sure you know them or have had a professional interaction with them.

2. Participate in LinkedIn discussion groups

3. Ask and answer questions on LinkedIn. This has generated powerful results for many professionals.

4. Keep your profile information up to date especially on LinkedIn and include all your accomplishments. In a lot of ways, a LinkedIn profile is akin to your resume or professional bio.

5. Don’t just tweet. Re-tweet the tweets of other Twitter tweeters.

Avoid the Gotcha’s - A few words of caution are in order:

1. Don’t succumb to the temptation and do anything online that would undo the hard work you put into building your personal brand.

2. Never slander or libel someone else.

3. You may want to disconnect from or de-friend anyone whose online behavior is unbecoming or unprofessional.

4. Carefully manage how you are depicted in photographs. Keep in mind that undesired photos of you may appear in someone else’s social media.

5. If you want to participate in non-professional discussion forums, consider using an alias or a pseudonym.

In conclusion, remember that your Internet presence is to you what a big advertisement in the yellow pages was for large companies 20 years ago. If you’re not easy to find, you might as well not exist. But just don’t put yourself out there for the sake of “existing.” Manage your online brand and carefully control your online presence. Be interesting and relevant, while always remembering that the most effective messages you can deliver are the ones that bring value to your readers, listeners and viewers.

6 Ways to Generate More Sales with a Home Office Meeting Room

When you started working from home, did you dream about customizing your space with the perfect furniture, lighting, and equipment? When you transition from another company's office to your own space, it's easy to get caught up in the details of your day-to-day grind area and forget about one of the most important spaces needed to push sales over the edge: a meeting room. This is the area that immerses potential clients in your brand, showcases your great products and services, and  gives your clients distraction-free focus on what you have to offer. Here are some strategies that will help you establish a successful meeting room:

1. Location, Location, Location

When choosing an area to develop into your meeting room, you must consider several factors: how frequently you plan to meet with clients, and how much is riding on those meetings? If you answered either of those questions with “a lot,” you should really invest in a dedicated space in your home that is used only for meetings. Do you have an extra bedroom or area that could be set aside and only for meetings? Could you move your office somewhere else to make room? If you're planning on having relatively few meetings, you should designate an area that can be easily converted into a meeting space.

2. Pay Attention to First Impressions

Whether you meet a person for the first time or visit a location, your first, and often the most lasting impression you have is made within the first few seconds.  The same thing occurs when potential customers and clients visit your meeting room.  Because it is in your home, it is especially important to present a clean, polished area that leaves no question about your professionalism.

To that end, the décor in your meeting room should showcase your company’s brand by emphasizing your signature colors and your logo. Everything from the color of your upholstery and paint to the art hanging on your walls should be used to call attention to your unique brand.  This creates a lasting impression that enables customers and clients to remember you and the products or services you have to offer.

3. Display Products or Samples of Your Work

Whether you are selling products or services, your meeting room should showcase examples of what you can provide or do for your potential customers or clients.  If you're selling a product, lay out physical samples for customers to examine or offer free samples for them to take with them when they leave. If you are offering a service, such as design or architectural services, photographs of your completed projects can be displayed and made available for potential clients to take with them.

4. Provide Brochures and Business Cards

To extend your branding presence beyond the meeting, informational literature is key. Particularly if you cannot provide product samples for your potential customers or clients to take with them, it's important to have informational brochures and business cards at your meeting table (and anywhere else you can sneak them in).

All literature should be designed to reflect your brand and professionally printed—this is not a do-it-yourself task. Brochures and business cards should prominently feature your contact information, as this often will be the means your customers will use you contact you again.  All informational literature should be updated frequently to make sure they contain accurate and up-to-date information about your business and products.

5. Use Your Walls to Promote Your Products or Services

The walls of your conference room can be used as prime real estate to promote your brand.  Invest in high quality photographs of the items you produce or provide and hang them prominently in your conference room.  Depending upon the size of your space, you may use wall mounted or pedestal posters. 

To really wow your clients, consider using high tech multimedia posters to showcase the products you have available or successful projects you have completed. In addition to showcasing your products, posters also can be designed to display good recommendations, reviews and ratings by prior customers or clients. 

6. Invest in an experience

When presenting to clients, whether its showcasing past successes or unveiling the product or service they hired you for, remember that it's about creating a complete experience. From the moment they sit down, clients should feel at ease. Above and beyond regular home décor, you should search for modern, sleek furniture that conveys professionalism while providing comfort. Provide refreshments like bottled water and coffee, and consider playing light music over speakers to set a relaxed tone.

When it comes to presentation time, your clients should already feel they are being given world-class treatment. Keep the momentum building with high-resolution television or projection screens connected to your laptop to display your work in the best possible quality. If you are giving them a physical product, display it professionally for maximum impact by having it spotlighted on a table or stand. If you play your cards right, when your client leaves your meeting room, they will remember not only your product or service, but the entire experience of your brand.