A PLANNED EMAIL CAMPAIGN

A PLANNED EMAIL CAMPAIGN

Set up planned email campaigns using a service like AWeber.com. You can 

offer the same type of casual, informational style that is popular with social 

networks, but include links to your products and offers. Include branding 

information like videos and applications that can help people understand 

more about you and your company. Always mix in free branding offers with 

sales offers. This way, when they open an email, they don't expect that 

they'll be sold every time. People just don't like that. It's like answering the 

door to a pushy salesman. However, if they find that you give away free 

information about 50% of the time that might benefit them, they’ll be more 

likely to open that email. 

Try different branding subject headlines in different emails and run split 

testing to see what gets a better reaction. AWeber.com will give you 

statistics on open rates and click-through rates. Once you start to watch the 

results of your branding efforts, you have to have direct feedback on what is 

working and what is not. It will tell you how to tweak your marketing so that 

your message becomes more appealing every time you send out a new 

email, increasing brand awareness and sales at the same time.

EMAIL CAMPAIGN

Email Campaigns

Once you have a large following around the Internet, it's time to take your 

branding to a more personal level. You will want to try to harvest as many 

email addresses as you can in your activities and get permission to market to 

these people directly. Once you have that, you will want to establish an email 

marketing campaign that starts to show people on a one-to-one basis what 

your company or your products are all about.

YOUR EMAIL SIGNATURE

The first place to brand within email is by way of automatic signatures. If you 

don't have one set up to point people to your website, to your offer of the 

week, or to a personal biography, you are missing a great opportunity to 

brand. If someone contacts you for anything, it's the perfect opportunity to 

sneak in some information on your private brand via the automatic email 

signature.

YOUR INTRODUCTORY EMAIL

Twitter will allow you to automate direct messages to people who follow you 

via direct messaging. You’re on your own with Facebook. Either way, you can 

join SocialOomph and send out direct messages for each person who follows 

you, giving them an introductory message that shows more about you and 

your brand to them. Every introductory email should seek to contribute value 

and to not sell anything. 

BRANDING WITH FACEBOOK

Facebook is a little harder to gain a following. It also tends to be more 

complex in terms of the amount and the quality of content you can add. 

While this means that you can brand far more effectively, it's to a smaller 

audience. You can also set up a sales page on Facebook for a company and 

advertise it to the entire Facebook audience based on the demographics that 

you choose within the program, called SocialAds. This allows you to brand 

outside your immediate circle of friends, although it does cost to utilize this 

advertising format. 

By using Selective Twitter or Ping.fm, you can send some of your tweets to 

Facebook, but you need to take care not to update Facebook as much as you 

update Twitter. People will want to hear less from you if you spam their news 

feed with your Twitter updates, and that's one of the main differences 

between branding on Twitter and on Facebook. On Twitter, you can talk on 

and on and no one cares, but if you try that on Facebook, people will drop 

you and many won't tell you why. It's a more intimate setting, and no one 

likes a bore.

BRANDING WITH TWITTER

TWITTER

Let's start with Twitter.com. This unique social networking site is also 

referred to as a “microblogging” site. The entire concept revolves around a 

status update that you can update all day long, but it's limited to 140 

characters each time you update, which are known as “tweets.” Within those 

140 characters, you can post links back to other places online using a URL 

shortener. In general, it is far easier to gain a massive audience with Twitter 

than it is with Facebook. You send out tweets, and people who follow you will 

see them. If they “retweet” your message, people on their list will see them, 

and you can gain more followers. You can add several hundred followers a 

day on Twitter, and many of those will automatically follow you back, 

increasing your audience. You can automate tweets to go out all day, even 

when you're not online, and you can even send them to Facebook with an 

application within Facebook.com called Selective Twitter.

INTERACTION WITH OTHERS

Next, it's important to portray the personality and qualities that you want to 

associate with your brand in personal interactions on the site. One of the 

newest trends is to make an introductory video thanking people for being 

your friend on Facebook and telling them more about yourself. You can add 

this link to their profile as a way of saying hello when they befriend you. 

Use status updates wisely to promote your brand and offerings. Don't just 

use it as an easy way to spam people. In social networking, you have to seek 

to add value to be a brand with integrity. Heavy-duty commercialism is 

frowned upon, and you don't want to be known as someone who promotes 

himself/herself too much. Instead, you can offer value and still generate 

brand awareness by offering helpful hints and links to informational content, 

even if it's not your own. People will associate it with your brand, and it will 

contribute to the community at the same time.

BRANDING WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS

Branding With Social Networks

Social networks are great for personal and business branding. Each social 

network has its own strengths and weaknesses. They all attract different 

demographics too. LinkedIn attracts professionals in established careers, 

MySpace attracts a teen crowd, and Facebook attracts young professionals 

just coming out of college and getting into the workforce. Business owners 

can get online and brand themselves for different audiences, depending on 

who is their core demographic of buyers.

HOW TO BRAND ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Profiles are the first place that you can brand on social networks. They are 

personal snapshots of your likes and dislikes. They can include the groups 

you join on Facebook, books and movies you've enjoyed, what types of 

relationships you are looking to make on Facebook, and photos of yourself. 

Remember that photos are a particularly powerful means to brand yourself, 

and they can help or hurt you. Don't include photos where you are in an 

embarrassing position or that can change the image someone has of you or 

your company.

Do include images of your business logo. Do add your blog to the 

NetworkedBlogs application so that others can see it on your profile. The 

more friends you have in your niche brand, the more people will associate 

those qualities with you. If you want to be known as a savvy Internet 

marketer who can help others with social networking, then you might want to 

link to people who have that as their main topic of interest or who have 

joined groups on that niche. 

own a blog or website

Blog Or Website

Owning your own website is critical to branding online. Whether the site is a 

strict HTML site, an e-commerce site, or a blog, it doesn't matter. The one 

thing you want to make sure of is that you own the rights to the content of 

the site and that it centralizes all of your activities for that niche on one site. 

If you have multiple niches online, then you'll have multiple websites. It's 

important to consider the type of website you want, how often you intend on 

updating the content, and what sort of domain name best conveys your 

brand.

DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION

As mentioned earlier, be sure to pick a good domain name. Don't include odd 

characters like hyphens, as they can throw people off. A three-word domain 

name is a good choice, since most two-word domains have already been 

taken. However, if you can get a smaller domain name, that’s all the better, 

even if you have to pay for it. You want a top-level domain name instead of a 

site that gives you a sub-domain on their server. This gives your brand a 

more professional image and helps people to remember you better.

WORDPRESS.ORG

After you've picked a hosting company, you have to decide what type of 

website to create that will be used to brand your presence on the Web. If 

you're a professional consultant or freelancer, a blog is a great way to 

personally introduce yourself to others online. Blogs have gotten so 

sophisticated over the years that many company sites are also using blogs 

within their content. 

You can easily have your hosting company install a copy of Wordpress.org on 

your site. This can be customized with multiple templates to give you a 

professional appearance in a very short time. Just be sure that you aren't 

using the community called WordPress.com if you want a top-level domain. 

PORTFOLIOS

Portfolios

Portfolios provide a visual and audio way to influence someone with your 

brand, not just with written text. A good portfolio has samples of your best 

work for new customers to review before making a buying decision. Artists 

have long used paper portfolios to get into the best schools and to show new 

customers their work. Digital portfolios can include anything from 

photography snapshots of offline work, music .jpgs, and video content. It 

doesn't have to be just about your written work. The more you wow and 

dazzle your viewer, the more likely they are to buy from you.

EXHIBIT YOUR NICHE

The sample within your portfolio should be used to showcase your brand. 

What is your niche and what makes these pieces representative of your 

expertise? If you're a musician with a specific style, you might want to 

showcase that style to attract more work. If you're a writer with a talent for 

specific niches or styles of writing, be sure to include pieces that reflect that 

information in your portfolio. When trying to project your brand online, don't 

mix it with too many other styles or niches that aren't related to your own 

brand. This just dilutes the power of your portfolio and leaves people 

confused about who you are and what you are offering. Try to stay within 

your niche of expertise and try to send a strong message that you excel in 

this area.

SITES WITH PORTFOLIOS

You can include your portfolio on freelance sites, like GetAFreelancer.com 

and MySpace.com. Some sites do better with different audiences, and it's not 

unusual to have one portfolio in one area be different from another portfolio 

to cater to different audiences. For instance, MySpace.com caters to a 

younger audience, and their style is more bold than professional places like 

GetAFreelancer.com. However, this is just the audience that buys music and 

loves to experiment with musical styles and videos. You might put music on 

here that appeals to this demographic and include different music in a 

different portfolio elsewhere. Match the portfolio to the site you're posting 

on.

DIGITAL RESUMES

Digital Resumes

Paper resumes are good if you're looking for a job, but they aren't very good 

if you're trying to promote your business online. Putting up a list of your 

accomplishments and some of your past achievements is a good way to let 

people know what circles you travel in and what type of quality they can 

expect from you. Businesses that are in consulting or freelancing can also 

benefit from digital resumes that list their previous projects. You can write up 

several, differently formatted resumes that highlight your strengths and 

promote your past experience. In some cases, you can even add that to your 

business profiles. 

BRANDING ON JOB BOARDS

When you're on a job board, you are competing against hundreds, if not 

thousands, of other people who are looking for work during this recession. 

It's a shame, but many human resource people aren't even going to read 

your resume. They might grab a bunch of electronic resumes and stick them 

through a resume reader looking for specific keywords. That's why part of 

branding your resume is to use keywords that will best describe your skills 

and experience, and that might also be searched by offline companies. 

It's important to be as detailed as possible, like including the names of the 

equipment you work with, software programs and versions, or languages 

that you speak or program in. Include keywords for the type of experience 

you have, whether it's technical, management, or retail. It's also important 

to include several different copies of your resume, one in HTML format and 

one in text format, so that they can download the right format and chug it 

through their resume readers.

ONLINE BUSINESS CARDS

Online Business Cards

In the past, you would do business and help to create brand awareness 

through a paper business card. While there is still a place for these quaint 

relics of the past, the more modern versions use an online, interactive 

component to share your personal brand digitally so that there is less chance 

that it will get lost or overlooked. Besides, when was the last time you saw 

anyone pull out a rolodex of business cards to contact anyone? With so many 

businesses promoting their brands online, which costs far less and is more 

effective, it pays to step into the information age with enthusiasm.

E-BUSINESS CARDS

A copy of the paper business card in digital format is easy enough to create. 

Distributing it is far more efficient than trying to hand someone a paper card. 

You can go to places like www.mydropcard.com or www.Businesscard2.com

to use the service to create your own e-business card. These types of cards 

have the advantage of being able to be transmitted to other people’s 

electronic gadgets, like their cell phone, and will store your email in their 

directories. With so many phones having messaging capabilities, it puts your 

online email address right at their fingertips, with little intervention on your 

part. In addition, you can add other types of links to these business cards 

that can be viewed on phones with Internet capabilities. You might want to 

add your Facebook and/or Twitter profiles or any other site that you use for 

branding you or your business.

BRAND YOUR DIGITAL MEDIA

Your digital media can include ebooks, CDs, and videos on YouTube. You 

alone know where all of your digital media ends up residing. It can also be 

sales promotional tools like DVDs and USB drives. Add your brand 

information there and make sure it comes up in auto-run mode so that when 

people use your products or services, they are also seeing your official e�business card that tells them where they can find more of your products or 

services or learn more about your brand.

PROMOTE YOUR BRAND

Promote Your Brand

Online, if you want to be known as an expert, all you have to do is to claim 

to be an expert and then help others with your expertise. People learn who 

you are by interacting with you and can make up their own opinions about 

you and your company. The interactivity and the ability to reach people all 

around the world for very little money is what levels the playing field 

between companies and individuals. Information isn't as segregated as it 

once was, and it's also quite a bit more transparent. Now, no matter how 

much a big company spends on promoting some defective product, odds are 

that there will be numerous online complaints that are easily accessible and 

that dissuade new customers from purchasing a defective product. In the 

same vein, if you have a spectacular brand and some wonderful product or 

service, you can promote the brand and the positive vibes by sharing that 

information online to attract new customers.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ONLINE

There are a few places online that you can leverage to get the most positive 

publicity with minimal effort. You could spend a lot more time plastering the 

World Wide Web with your own press release, but ultimately, as a business 

owner, you just don't have the time to do too much promotion. Even if you 

can do the following list, you should seriously think about hiring a company 

or an individual to help you publicize your offerings online in a manner that 

will get you more exposure.

 Online business cards 

Replace your paper cards with a digital version that allow you to share 

it much more easily online.

 Digital resumes 

If your personal experience is important to your business, be sure to 

update archives with your personal digital resume.

 Portfolios 

You might have a freelance company or be a solopreneur who is 

interested in showing off some of your work via your online portfolio.

 Website 

This can be a formal site or a blog, as long as it is a central place to 

show people who you are and what you're up to with your business.

 Social networks 

These include Facebook and Twitter and are great for getting traffic 

back to your site.

research your brand

Research Your 

Brand

That’s why in order to get a good one, you have to start to brainstorm early. 

It’s going to take a while to come up with a brand name that you love and 

that is also available as a domain name. One thing is certain: most two�word-phrased domain names are already taken. You will probably have to go 

with three words or more, or you might try purchasing a smaller domain 

name from someone who is squatting on it and waiting for a buyer to offer 

him/her some money.

DO RESERVE YOUR PERSONAL NAME

Even if you’re not going to use it for business, you will want to reserve as 

many profiles and even a domain name with your name in it. Celebrities with 

established careers already have lawyers who do this on a regular basis for 

them. However, if you start your business brand and then you suddenly 

achieve fame in the middle of it all, you’ll probably end up paying someone 

else to give back your personal brand name on the Internet. There are many 

opportunists out there who go out and try to reserve names like Paris Hilton 

or other notables with large followings. If your following increases, so will the 

number of fake spammers out there, and you want to be ready by having 

already reserved your name on the biggest sites like Facebook, Twitter, and 

a personal branded .com name.

RESEARCH AVAILABILITY

Hop online now and check to see what’s available for your domain name 

possibilities using Whois.net. You can check a variety of different extensions 

besides .com sites. If the domain is already reserved or bought, you will see 

the owner of the domain name. It will also tell you who you can contact 

should you want to try and buy the name. Otherwise, you can get onto 

popular hosting sites of your choice and try to register the domain name. 

Whois.net will also tell you (when it’s not available) what other names you 

might try to reserve instead that are available. Typically, they are prefixed 

with the word my or something similar, but are slightly different. You can 

even register the domain name right there for a charge of $9.95/year. 

DISCOVER AND COMMUNICATE YOUR PASSION

Discover and Communicate 

Your Passion

Branding has evolved from nonsensical trademark names to descriptive 

words that tell people who you are and what your passion is in life. Take, for 

instance, Xerox: this name had no real meaning until the machines came out 

and people used them as a common meaning for photocopying papers. While 

the brand is now known worldwide, the brand has been completely diluted 

into a generic meaning that is hard to defend as being unique and expressive 

of a company brand. In order to create a brand name today, you want to 

give special attention to the qualities that make this name unique and how it 

is descriptive of what you do or who you are in business or life. 

PERSONAL BRANDING

In a way, we all come into this world with our own personal branding: Our 

names. This tells members of our family and the people we meet who we 

are, but doesn’t really express our personal qualities. Sometimes, people 

acquire nicknames or make up their own to help express more of their own 

unique qualities, and this is used as a form of group personal branding. If 

that personal branding also expresses what your passion in life is, you can 

use it to help promote yourself to others. Personal branding, as well as 

business branding, is all about conveying your self-image to others in a way 

that what they perceive is identical to what you are projecting to them.

BUSINESS BRANDING

If you have a domain name, that’s a form of business branding, just like your 

business name is. These tend to be more expressing of the products and 

services offered rather than of the personal qualities of the owner. In the 

past, in conventional advertising, you would know the business name before 

you learned the owner’s name. However, with so many people using social 

networks these days, personal branding is becoming as equally important in 

business and company branding.

PROJECTING PASSION 

Whether you choose one, the other, or both to promote, the idea is to project 

your passion to a bigger audience. If your passion is connecting others to 

their soul mates, then you might use a business or personal name with the 

word love in it. That’s your passion. It’s not as hard as it seems to think up a 

few choice brand names to try out. What is hard is reserving them online 

when so many have already been snapped up by others.