Have you determined who 'brand you' is?

I was at a workshop last week, at which I gave an impromptu “from the heart” mini-talk on personal branding in the era of social media.

People often question if they “need” a personal brand. Here’s the news – you already HAVE a personal brand. The only questions are, what is it? Are you projecting it effectively? And with the rise of social media, you also now have to think about your personal brand online. Is it congruent with brand YOU!

When people see you, think of you, and relate to you, words and images and feelings come to mind. That is your personal brand. If people who know you think “friendly,” “helpful,” “kind,” when they see you and talk about you, you are well on your way to possessing a positive personal brand. Of course, you can easily see the flip side of this as well…

So, you have a brand. Do you know what it is? What distinguishes you from the teeming hordes of humanity? What are you known for? Here, you need some self-examination, maybe some personality profiling (I found the Gallup books on Strengths to be particularly helpful), and some honest friends to help you distill it down.

What you’ll find is a constellation of qualities, and perhaps 1-5 characteristics that really stand out. Those are what you build your brand on. And, once you really have a grasp on it, you can communicate to people much more effectively what you’re all about. Where you fit in. Even what your future business endeavors should look like. You project your brand NOW – but you can project it more effectively when you actually know what it IS, and feel comfortable in your own skin.

What is my personal brand? I listen, analyze, distill, and rapidly find the core, then communicate it fairly effectively. This becomes my brand voice.

Let’s make one distinction. There is your personal brand essence, which is that grouping of personality traits, character traits, strengths, and capabilities that make you you. Then there is your personal brand role, which is how you function in the world and marketplace. Your role may change, but your essence remains the same, and hopefully, your functional and professional role is increasingly aligned with who you (essentially) are.

I’ve had live and on-line conversations with several people in the last few months who are wrestling with how to define themselves, and project their personal brand. As it turns out, my core competencies of analyzing, distilling, and expressing makes that a very enjoyable and meaningful exercise.

You don’t have to be a personal branding guru, or a consultant, a blogger, or an entrepreneur, to have and project a brand. You simply have to have a pulse. And a willingness to discover what really makes you tick. You DO have a brand, and you DO have something to offer. What endeavor could more rewarding and noble than identifying that brand and running with it?

Nearly 20% of Marketing Dollars Will Go to Social Marketing in 5 Years

Social media networks are a marketers dream. With over 500 million active users on Facebook today, there’s no doubt that Facebook is a social media powerhouse. And although Facebook is a social networking favorite, it’s not alone.

Marketers are actively taking note of many different social media opportunities and beginning to implement new strategic social initiatives at a higher rate than ever before. Here are 3 new studies that show social media is on the rise. As a business you cannot afford NOT to participate:

#1: Small Business Doubles Social Media Adoption

At least one positive result from the economic downturn is the rapid growth of social media marketing.

A recent study, “The State of Small Business Report,” sponsored by Network Solutions, LLC and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, points to economic difficulties as the catalyst for social media’s rapid popularity.

The study results show that social media usage by small business owners increased from 12% to 24% in just the last year, and almost 1 out of 5 actively uses social media as part of his or her marketing strategy.

Here’s a breakdown of what the small businesses reported as the main uses of social media marketing:

* 75% have a company page on a social networking site
* 69% post status updates or articles of interest on social media sites
* 57% build a network through a site such as LinkedIn
* 54% monitor feedback about the business
* 39% maintain a blog
* 26% tweet about areas of expertise
* 16% use Twitter as a service channel

According to the study, different industries are adopting social media marketing at different rates, and while many industries have started using social media marketing in their efforts to reach more customers, many still have not positioned it as their top priority.

According to the survey, “Professional services firms, real estate businesses and entertainment/food/lodging businesses rely more on email marketing than other types of small businesses. Firms in the education/health/social services sector rely more on social media marketing and direct mail. Not surprisingly, retailers depend more on print and broadcast advertising.” Those slow to adopt to the new way of communicating via social media may remain in the backwoods for years and may simply be unable to catch up with their more aggressive and savvy competitors

The report also measured small businesses’ expectations of social media. While 58% feel that social media “met expectations,” 12% feel it has “exceeded expectations,” while 25% feel social media has “fallen short of expectations.”

Some of the reasons given for social media’s shortfalls were:

* 50% feel it has used up more time than expected
* 19% believe social media has lost them money
* 17% feel social media has allowed people to criticize their business

Overall, social media use by small business is a major growth area. The report says it best: “This dire environment has not stifled innovation. The most successful small businesses are competing by offering superior service and creativity and small businesses are rapidly embracing social media as a way for keeping engaged with customers and tapping knowledge resources.”

#2: Nearly 20% of Marketing Dollars Will Go to Social Marketing in 5 Years

In just the last 6 months, marketers have shifted their attitudes toward social media marketing spending. This was recently affirmed in the new study, “The CMO Survey”, from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association. A key finding: Social media marketing budgets continue to rise. According to the results, businesses currently allocate 6% of their marketing budgets to social media, an allotment they expect to increase to 10% during the next year and 18% over the next 5 years.

Back in August 2009, marketers had already planned on devoting more money to social media. However, in February 2010, marketers reported that they plan to allocate one-fifth of their marketing budgets to social media marketing in the next 5 years. This is a definite increase from the 2009 projections. The study features the following comparison from August 2009 to February 2010:

Current marketing budget spending on social media:

August 2009: 3.5%

February 2010: 5.6%

Marketing budget spending on social media in the next 12 months:

August 2009: 6.1%

February 2010: 9.9%

Marketing budget spending on social media in the next 5 years:

August 2009: 13.7%

February 2010: 17.7%

According to the director of the survey, Fuqua Professor Christine Moorman, “Even though many are still experimenting and learning how best to use social media tools, these results indicate that marketers think social media marketing is here to stay and will play an increasingly important role in their work in acquiring and retaining customers in the future.”

#3: Mastering Social Media: A Top Goal for Marketers

Anderson Analytics and Marketing Executives Networking Group recently released a report titled “Marketing Trends 2010” with some interesting insight into the minds of marketing executives.

Marketing executives were asked to choose the most important trends and buzzwords to pay attention to in 2010, marketing ROI (getting a good return on marketing efforts) was number one, with 58% saying it was the most important trend to keep an eye on. But what’s even more interesting is that social media made the top 10 list, with 42% choosing it as one of the top trends to watch. In addition, 72% said they work for companies that are planning social media initiatives in 2010.

The study also explored social media presence and reported interesting findings when comparing personal social media use among marketing executives and their company’s social media use.Individual executives are most likely to use networking tools like Facebook and LinkedIn, while companies are more likely to keep a blog than individual executives.

Equally interesting is the consensus on how to carry out the social media initiatives. Marketers turn to internal employees, social media consultants and interactive agencies for support and are less likely to use PR and ad agencies. The growth is certainly in social media marketing agencies.

When selecting a supplier for social media initiatives, marketing executives focus on the influence over a target market and the extent of a consultant’s network as major deciding factors.

These three surveys are great indicators that we will continue to see social media marketing rise and perhaps over time see less of the traditional marketing strategies. Social media is here to stay so for those still working within organisations where it is a low priority your challenge is to show how linear marketing is no longer the norm. Your customers hear about your products from many, many different sources.

Have you seen a major shift to social marketing initiatives in your company? Is there still a hesitancy to make a substantial leap to this new way of marketing or has the shift been an easy transition?

Tips for creating great Blog content

I often get asked how do we keep our blog interesting and topical. Often the solution is simly a matter of brainstorming with your team. You will be surprised by the stories that abound within your organsiation that will indeed interest your audiences, customers and add focus to your business. Here are some tips.


1. Industry News – whats happening this week, this month

2. Industry Trends – where is the industry going, what are the emerging hot segments

3. Customers Pain Points – Write posts that provide solutions for your customers
problems

4. Customers successes – Write up a case study about a clients successful project,
they will often let you publish their name

5. What not to do – highlighting where something hasn’t worked (the names shall
remain anonymous of course)

6. Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can a
powerful providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you
and the client

7. Write articles for the different types of customers that are relevant for each
of your vertical markets

8. Brainstorm blog post topics with colleagues and management and create a list for
future reference and planning

9. Subscribe to the top industry blogs in your market, both company blogs and
personal blogs for ideas

10. Look through your latest news releases for ideas

11. Sign up other staff to write on topics in your industry or market that they are
passionate about

12. Develop a series of how to blog posts

13. Turn the “how to” blog posts into short videos

14. When you have a great idea, go straight to your “add new” button and write the
headline and save it as a draft or write it down before you forget it.

15. Include a great iconic image at the start of the blog that catches the eye

16. Case Studies are always popular to write about and not just your own

17. Place Powerpoint presentations on your blog by posting and then embedding links
from Slideshare

18. Run polls and surveys on your blog

19. Create great headlines that catch people attention and makes them want to read
the rest of the article

20. Add credbility banners such as how many subscribers, number of hits, blog grade
and any awards

21. Provide “share this” buttons to Facebook and Twitter as a minimum

22. Implement “subscribe” buttons via RSS and Email

23. Write in bite size chunks and use bullet points so readers can quickly and easy
consumption

24. Break up large blocks of text with iconic and interesting images

25. Take screen shots to place in your post using Software like Snagit to highlight
points .. a picture is worth a 1000 words

26. Be yourself even if it is a company blog.. be authentic.

27. Optimize your blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

28. Promote and distribute your posts on to other social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

29. Make the blog easy to find on your company’s web page with a large bannner or
button

30. Finally, have fun, mix up the types of posts and add some humour occasionally

What makes your blog hum? Look forward to hearing your suggestions

How are you as CEO using Social Media

A Harvard University study “Society For New Communications Research” (SNCR) in November 2009, is a great insight into the rise of social media and usages by CEO's

I thought that a summary of their findings would be a great backdrop and insight into how the CEO and major decison makers are using social media, particularly as CEO's now have to consider themselves personal brands as well.

In the survey they asked questions like

* Are professional networks being utilized by decision-makers in business?
* Is social media typically regarded as a trustworthy source of information for
professionals?
* In what ways do professionals rely on social networks to support business
decisions?
* Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level
operations?

The survey was administered online to 356 participants via online survey with close to a quarter (23%) are CEO of their organization, 50% are “Director” or “Manager”.

Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees and age was well distributed with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range, 25 countries were represented, with 58% of respondents living in the US and all respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision process.

So what were the “30 Key Findings”

1. Professional decision-making is becoming more social, traditional influence cycles are being disrupted by Social Media as decision makers utilize social networks to inform and validate decisions.

2. Professionals want to be collaborative in the decision-cycle but not be marketed or sold to online, however online marketing is a preferred activity by companies.

3. The big three have emerged as leading professional networks: LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter.

4. The average professional belongs to 3-5 online networks for business use, and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are among the top used.

5. The convergence of Internet, mobile, and social media has taken significant shape as professionals rely on anywhere access to information, relationships and networks.

6. Professional networks are emerging as decision-support tools.

7. Decision-makers are broadening reach to gather information especially among active users.

8. Professionals trust online information almost as much as information gotten from in-person.

9. Information obtained from offline networks still have highest levels of trust with slight advantage over online (offline: 92% – combined strongly/somewhat trust; online: 83% combined strongly/somewhat trust).

10. Reliance on web-based professional networks and online communities has increased significantly over the past 3 years.

11. Three quarters of respondents rely on professional networks to support business decisions with reliance increasing essentially for all respondents over the past three years.

12. Social Media use patterns are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation with younger (20-35) and older professionals (55+) are more active users of social tools than middle aged professionals.

14. There are more people collaborating outside their company wall than within their organizational intranet.

15. Professionals tend to belong to “Multiple Social Networks” for business with

* Half of respondents report participating in 3 to 5 online professional networks
* Another three in ten participate in 6 or more professional networks
* More than 7% used more than 10 professional networks

16. The Big Three Social Networks Have Emerged as Professional Networks, so popular social networks are now being used frequently as professional communities with

* More than nine in ten respondents indicated that they use LinkedIn (91%)
* Half reported using Facebook (51%)
* Twitter followed closely with (41%)

Note: The closest next channel only scored 13%. Blogs were frequently listed as ‘professional networks’

17. Mobile Is Emerging as a Frequent Professional Networking Access Point with 94% using a PC and 44% using a Mobile.

18. Usage Of Professional Networks Is Increasing

* Three quarters of respondents visit their social networks at least daily
* Four in ten visit many times each day
* All indicated that their usage has increased over the past three years
* Those who belong to more online professional networks are more likely to
visit many times per day
* Small companies are more likely to indicate that they have increased their use
significantly

19. Professional Networks Are An Increasingly Essential Decision-Support Tool

* Three quarters of respondents rely on professional networks to support
business decisions
* Reliance has increased for essentially all respondents over the past three
years

20. High Levels of Trust Exist in Information Obtained From Online Networks

* Offline is strengthened by online engagement – to extend relationships and
collaborate
* Information obtained from offline networks still have highest levels of trust
with slight advantage over online (offline: 92% – combined strongly/somewhat
trust; online: 83% combined strongly/somewhat trust)

21. Connecting And Collaborating Are Key Drivers For Professional Use of Social Media.

22. More than half of respondents expect that in 1-2 years their company will increase social media use to share more content.

23. Over half the respondents will increase social media use to do more company-wide communications.

24. Changes in Company External Use of Social Media with More than half of respondents foresee more marketing programs and content distribution in the next one to two years.

25. Social Media is supplementing the traditional professional decision-making cycle with great affect.

26. The era of Social Media Peer Group (SMPG) has arrived and information will travel at a business velocity that has never been seen before enabled by the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies.

27. Challenges are facing marketers who endeavor to mange or control social media network content.

28. Traditional cycles of decision-making are being disrupted by Social Media Peer Group (SMPG) .. I like this new acronym!

29. Managing and influencing professional decision-making will be the major challenge as professionals often do not seek the information that marketers want to share online.

30. The greatest opportunity business has is to engage collaborative influence – via immediacy of impact through social channel.

So how are you as CEO using social media?

Why Should Your Company Care About Social Marketing?

For anyone who's grown up in the world of traditional marketing, some of the terms getting tossed around these days, like social media, social networks, and online community, can be extremely confusing. Even more abstract is a concept that integrates all of these terms—social marketing. Whatever happened to easy-to-understand concepts like newspaper ads, direct mail, email marketing, ‘our website’ and search engine optimization? With these more traditional terms, all are discrete activities and their name tells us exactly what they mean.

As someone who's spent time in both marketing camps—traditional and online—I'm here to offer a little clarity. Let's start by explaining some of the terms mentioned above and why they are different before we drill down into social marketing:

•Social Media: The facilitating of conversation around any type of content—expert or consumer generated—using social tools like blogs, ratings and reviews, videos, and life-streaming services like Twitter.

•Social Networks: A collection of like-minded individuals focused more on "who you know" versus "what you know." Social networks like Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn are often heavy on user profiles with some light tool functionality mixed in. (This is quickly changing as public social networks realize that they need to do a better job getting their members to engage.)

•Online Community: Most experts have come to define "community" as a place where social tools like those mentioned above in the definition of "social media" meet online profiles like those mentioned in the definition of "social networks." To that end, online communities combine the concept of "who you know" with "what you know" and often rally around lifestyle topics or areas of practice (e.g. search engine marketing).

Now to social marketing, which is a blend of the tools and techniques listed above. Building upon the three other definitions, social marketing is the ability to drive measurable and meaningful results by creating expert and consumer-generated content with managed online communities to help improve things like customer loyalty, engagement, and advocacy.

Hopefully those definitions provide a little clarity around the concepts of "social" and "online community." So the bigger questions are, "Why should you as a marketer care?", and "What could you expect if you were to add social marketing programs to your existing arsenal of tools and techniques?"

For one, the current economy is forcing us to get more done with less. This means less money for acquisition vehicles like email, direct mail, and online advertising. If your budget is shrinking, now is the perfect time to focus on customer retention, cross-sell, and ultimately referrals.

One thing to keep in mind is that any of your marketing efforts—social or traditional—will work best when done in conjunction with one another. Just like you wouldn't choose to do online advertising instead of search engine marketing, you should think about how combining search engine optimization strategies, email marketing, direct mail, and social marketing will maximize the way your acquire and engage with your customers.