Photo courtesy of Pietro 999/Flickr
When you are a small business owner, not only are you your business, you are also your brand and your #1 salesperson. Take Steve Jobs. Yes, I know he is not a small business owner, but he’s an excellent example of the connection between the company leader and the brand. Chances are, when you think of Apple, you probably also think of him.
Now let’s throw out the names of some other big companies that are part of our lives: Coca-Cola, Nike, Pottery Barn, Gap. Unless you work for or are a shareholder in one of these companies, I can pretty much guarantee that you are hard-pressed to name the leader(s) of any of them.
While we do not have anywhere near the marketing budget of the big companies, we small business owners have a distinct branding advantage over them: the personal connection. It can go a very long way in marketing, as I wrote recently in my blog about Ben Casnocha and using networking to build your personal brand. Here’s why: the messages we post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites and use in our blogs, podcasts, and videos reflects us and our personalities. The messages aren’t vetted, edited, and ultimately ruined by multiple teams of people who “need to be involved” because of sandbox envy issues. The messages we send out are authentic, and authenticity is vital to good branding.
Seth Godin (yes, I do basically worship the guy) published a blog post recently entitled The Blizzard of Noise. It was a short and sweet blog post, as most of his are, but these 2 sentences really resonated with me:
The experience I have with you as a customer or a friend is far more important than a few random bits flying by on the screen. The incredible surplus of digital data means that human actions, generosity and sacrifice are more important than they ever were before.
With all the emphasis on social media lately (and we all know what I think about social media as the end all be all), here’s a short and totally incomplete list of social media do’s and don’ts to ensure you are building a personal connection (and therefore your brand) and not just becoming a content publisher:
- Don’t use social media just to push out information. When you “share” something on Facebook, add a message to explain why you wanted to share it.
- Do write the way you talk (as much as possible at least) when you write a blog post. Include the slang you use and your sense of humor.
- Don’t use industry jargon or insipid business clichés.
- Do share knowledge about your industry by writing about a subject from your viewpoint.
- Don’t just publish how-to lists. Everyone does it.
Brought to you by Network Solutions®
