So, I created a website and now I have the ultimate email address, jonno at jonnorodd dot com. Rad. I’ve made it, I can now retire happy. So why personal branding?
Personal branding is, for some people, a description of the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands.[1] It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.[1] Further defined as the creation of an asset that pertains to a particular person or individual; this includes but is not limited to the body, clothing, appearance and knowledge contained within, leading to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable.[2] The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article by Tom Peters.[3]
Put simply, WordPress is very powerful. It is a Content Management System (CMS) so can control your whole website, from the homepage, additional pages and a blog. In addition to the thousands of plugins available which can make it do many, many more things.
This is why it’s the worlds most widely used website and blogging back end.
Everyone has a blog these days, but if you are a brand, in business or trying to be a professional blogger then you need to make sure you are getting the most out of your blog.
For first timers this little video will run you through how to put up a blog post.
It doesn’t matter if you are using a free blogging service like blogger, tumblr or even a self hosted wordpress blog, these options will all be available and should be used. We know google reads our sites and getting traffic from google searches is what we want, by making sure you follow the below steps, you can ensure your organic google results will grow. All my clients use a self hosted wordpress blog, so these examples are specific to those controls and features, on other platforms where you find these options may differ.
Google and other search engines should be an important part of any blogging marketing strategy, 52% of my traffic comes from google alone.
Wordpress has good SEO by default but to improve your content and have a little more control over it you should install the plugin called “All in One SEO Pack“. The plugin is easy to install and use, it optimises your WordPress blog for search engines. This allows you a simple way to define each posts (as well as your internal pages on your website), Title, Description and Keywords which are used in the code behind the post.
Categories
Categories are the general topics you blog about, each article you publish should be categorised into one or a couple of these categories. The Uncategorized category should not even exist, if all your posts fall under this then you are missing out on potential new traffic. Try to create all your categories when you start your blog, adding categories on the fly will create a mess, confusion with your blog and too many unnecessary categories down the track.
Write a Title
This is what Google, Bing and Yahoo will index from your site and will show on the results page when someone is searching. It is just as important as the headline of your post and should be similar, keep to under 60 characters to best display in search results.
Write a Description
This is the Meta Description and will be indexed by google and display in search results. If this is not defined google will just take an extract of the content on the post or page and post that. However it is important it is written and is relevant to the post, encouraging people to click through from google to read your full post.
Enter Keywords
Keywords should be ones you have used within your post, the title or somewhere in this blog post. Make sure they are relevant to the post otherwise google won’t take notice of them.
Give Images a Description
Search Engines can’t index or read images if there is no text. This is the Alternate Text option you see when uploading an image. Getting imaged indexed along the lines of the keywords you are targeting will also help your SEO.
You now need to share, share and share…
Now your content is optimised for google and other search engines you need to promote and share the content.
Copy your blog post URL (the web address) and paste it into Facebook. Pick the image you wish to display with the post and publish your article to your friends or followers. Manual posting like this is more effective, but if you are strapped for time there is a great app which will check for updates on your blog and post to your Facebook page. RSS Graffiti is easy to setup and once set will post a link to each blog post not long after you make each one live.
Ideally tweeting an update needs to be done many times, twtter is all about now, right now, so just tweeting Tweeting once is not enough. A new post needs to be given a few tweets on its day of publishing. Twitter is like a newsfeed not an inbox and users will only get a snapshot of whats happening in the world of twitter each day. Another tip is to tweet it @ relevant people, spread the news and ideas in your blog personally directed at other users who are relevant. This can increase the chances of getting a re-tweet and your message going viral.
Often the forgotten social network, LinkedIn is has over 150 million members and will drive traffic. More important for B2B focussed blogs and information.
This social network has been around for a while now and it seems there is a re-emerging power in StumbleUpon, so post your update to this social network as well.
The new kid on the block of social networks is all about images, if you have rad images in your blog posts you need to add them to your boards on Pinterest. Pinterest does drive traffic.
Best to cover all bases, not a big traffic driver at this point in time. But everything google has its hands on seems to have some sort of power and it can’t hurt SEO to share on Google Plus.
Every time someone visits your website there should be an opportunity for them to subscribe to your mailing list and if you have a mailing list of subscribers, past customers and potential customers you should be emailing them. Email is still a very powerful marketing medium in the social media age. This marketing channel used to be the only way of sharing content with people before social networks were developed. Email is still personal and gets direct to your customer base so it needs to be managed carefully. Have a read of my post on What is Email Marketing? How can I get stated easily? to get some tips on how to get started.
These days you need to be everywhere with relevant content and with the power to share it to those who want to hear it.
If you need any advice on any of these topics, get in touch with me over here… That’s kind of what I do…
I found this article a little while back, it’s things we have heard before. Marketing will become an integrated solution across all channels with content that is user generated or less “branded”, is trackable, mobile friendly and presented via a video…
1. A broader brand presence across channels
With the range of available marketing channels growing all the time, businesses will start to recognise the value of connecting up their marketing approach across the web, social media and other channels. This will be inspired by the need to better manage business resource in more challenging times – and to create a more streamlined brand presence. Instead of relying on one or two channel marketing approaches, more and more companies will link up their activities to create a truly coherent brand across multiple channels.
2. The rise and rise of user-generated content
User generated content took on momentum in 2011 – and this will continue into the New Year. Whether it is a YouTube video showing a customer using a product or customers sharing their experiences within a selective online community, content that comes direct from the potential or existing customer is likely to grow in value. The key test of this trend will be how successfully companies inspire and facilitate user-generated content. However they do it, it looks like the voice of the user will grow significantly in value in 2012.
3. Mobile marketing reaches critical mass
Mobile is going centre stage. A third of smartphone owners have used their device to buy a product online (Source: EPiServer) and this number is growing. The companies that fully prepare their marketing approach for mobile in 2012 are the ones that will benefit from a potential customer-base that browses – and shops – on the move. This demands targeted, mobile-ready content and a willingness to adapt internal marketing processes. With 59% of UK consumers now in possession of a smartphone and 18% owning a tablet device (Source: EPiServer), mobile marketing is a trend that businesses can’t afford to ignore.
4. The gap closes between business brands and social media
We all know social media is big news for business. But in 2012, it will be even bigger – and even slicker. Companies will start taking social media more seriously as a professional marketing tool. But it won’t just be the big companies using social media to actively connect with customers. Many more companies will start to interact, meaning customer service – and customer interaction – via social media will evolve even further. The gap between social media and the business brand will get ever smaller. Again, the user or the customer will take centre stage with the rise of the brand advocate in recommending, recruiting customers and connecting with companies in 2012.
5. A clearer vision on the value of analytics
Companies will seek to improve their understanding of marketing analytics in 2012. With increased channels and brand presence, businesses will look to clarify and streamline their marketing data. Companies will recognise the value of analytics that allow them to maximise on the flexibility of social media marketing by adapting their content according to live viewer response. Add to this an increasing focus on cost management and online marketing analytics look set to become the vital flipside of business marketing.
6. Up close and personal
Next year is the year that marketing becomes more personalised. Tailored content that is customised to the needs and interests of a specific market or audience will grow in value and popularity. This is for a number of reasons – the increasing growth of content’s role within online marketing and the growing presence of online, niche communities, for example. As people become more and more accustomed to selecting which brands and businesses can join them within their own online community, the value of personalised marketing approaches and content will continue to grow.
7. Content diversifies – again
Content has been big this year – and its role and value is likely to diversify even more in the year ahead. With the increase of personalised marketing, more companies will start to present content that is focused on telling stories about their business and products or services. But this won’t be a top down approach. Companies will need to draw out the stories from within their workforce – and encourage their workforce to share stories. In 2012, carefully crafted, managed and distributed content will play a vital role in successful business marketing.
8. The customer recommendation rules
In 2012, the voice of the user or the customer will get louder. Businesses are becoming smarter at integrating opportunities for customer feedback and response within their marketing approach. Social media word of mouth will keep growing, with people increasingly relying on their own online social circles to advise and comment on their choice of services or products. The companies that actively embrace this shift will be the ones that boost their profile and credibility in 2012.
9. The influence factor takes over
Closely linked to prediction number 9, social media influence will gain critical mass in 2012. Already gaining momentum, a powerful trend in the year to come is the ability for companies to influence, increase and map their influence across the social media channels. The power to inspire users in a real-world, but professional way will make a huge difference to their performance in 2012.
10. Video is centre stage
Anticipated to be big for quite some time, it looks likely that video is set to be one of the leading marketing trends in 2012. The growth of video within business marketing fits naturally with the broadening of social media channels and with increasing customer focus on feedback and recommendations. Expect video to take on some surprising approaches in 2012 – with many companies developing fresher and more user-focused forms of viral marketing.
How’s 2012 looking to you?
2012 is looking like a year where marketing channels and messages will diversify – and where user connection, influence and feedback will rule. Companies can stay ahead by embracing and facilitating how their customers interact with them on social media. Combine this with a more targeted content and better connected cross channel marketing can help grow your leads, customers and revenue in 2012.
Whatever your choice, the New Year is a great opportunity to review what’s been working for you – and what you want to leave behind in 2012. Look back at past marketing activities and at their ROI and other results to see what’s worked best. Then you can move on to make more leads and more customers your New Year’s resolution for 2012. Start with 40 ideas for New Year resolutions now – download this eGuide 40 New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing in 2012.
Tumblr is a multimedia rich microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their short form blog. It is all about ease of use. And it’s growing rather quick…
900% growth in the last 12 months
90 million users compared to only 10 million a year ago
Addictive and highly engaged audience with 2% of its audience making up 43% of total visits.
The engagement on Tumblr is only second to Facebook at an average of over 141 minutes per month per user.
If you are thinking about setting up a blog, it’s a very easy and quick way to get it up and running.
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.
Put simply it is a bookmarking service where users can bookmark favorite sites and it will suggest similar websites, or websites suited to the users interests.
On January 19, 2012, it was reported that Google+ had surpassed a user base of 90 million.According to independent analysis of its growth in December 2011, the site was adding an estimated number of 625,000 new users a day, which may total 400 million members by the end of 2012. The site’s popularity accelerated in December 2011, with almost a quarter of its total user base joining in December alone, said Paul B. Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, who tracks the numbers as the “unofficial statistician” for Google+.
Click the image below if you can’t read the tiny, tiny text…
Pinterest is a pinboard-styled socialphoto sharing website. The service allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections. The site’s mission statement is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Pinterest is managed by Cold Brew Labs, a team based in Palo Alto, California.
There have been so many new social networks come and go, many you never hear of. Pinterest connects to a users facebook account and makes it easy to connect with friends already using Pinterest. As you add content it will post it to your Facebook account and share with existing friends, so not only is the content available through Pinterest its tapping into the existing power and size of Facebook.
If you need any advice on any on Pinterest, get in touch with me over here… That’s kind of what I do…
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