Mistake #5 in our Top 5 Small Business Marketing Mistakes special series. Plus some bonus material.
Mistake #5…Ignoring YOUR “Personal Brand”
“Brand.” “Personal Brand.” Gee, which one to put in quotes.
Step one is to remember the following.
Your brand is NOT your logo.
Brand: A series of experiences, of expectations, of behaviors that people associate with your product or service. Or your company. Or YOU.
Your Personal Brand = the series of experiences that people associate with YOU.
When small business owners dive into social media, they start to find people finding them – whether they like it or not, and whether they’re prepared or not.
Your restaurant, your coaching practice, your real estate practice, your dry cleaning business…the list goes on…these things are extensions of you, the business owner. And the sum total of all that stuff you say and do online will be attached to YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS.
BUT, watching your P’s and Q’s – well, that’s what you do anyway with your business. If you think of your online social media marketing time as an extension of what you do at the front of the store (greeting customers, providing excellent customer service, making a great product), you’ll go far.
And so will your personal brand.
Final thoughts…Don’t Be Afraid…To Make Mistakes of Your Own!
One thing is constant – change.
Today’s Twitter is tomorrow’s MySpace. Or something else. We know that will change over time.
But there’s a constant set of behaviors, on- and off-line, that sets average businesses apart from stellar businesses. That keeps average people from breaking through and becoming huge successes.
Do we have all the answers when it comes to those behaviors? Heck no. And don’t hire someone who says they do.
BUT…
We’ve watched this space evolve – from small business marketing to social media marketing. From the “send out a bunch of emails” world of a few years ago to the “how many followers do you have?” world we’re in now.
Engagement Marketing, Authenticity Marketing, whatever you want to call it…it asks YOU to get involved. To have conversations. To share with others. To build real relationships. To get real.
Go get ‘em!
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