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Build your brand - Build your career

Georgetown School of Continuing Studies 

July 14th 2010

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Media & Technology always evolving

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mly/lowres/mlyn598l.jpg

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The internet has surpassed newspapers and radio in popularity •92%) use

multiple platforms 

•33% access news on their cell phones.

•28% of internet users have customized their home page 

•37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Onlin

e-News/Summary-of-Findings.aspx?r=1

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Others are creating your brand

A whopping 92% of respondents said they had more confidence in information they seek out online than anything coming from a salesclerk or other source.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123144483005365353.html

Word of Mouth has become Word of Mouse

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100711080242AAGS0VT

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Businesses are more transparent

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Online Personal Brand

Your clients, prospective employees, future customers are already searching for you online 

You have to know how your brand is perceived online before entering the job market or reaching out to customers

Creating Brand also requires success in what you do best

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Online job boards and third-party search firms may be losing out to social media

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007811

Social Network

Used by surveyed business

Success Rate

LinkedIn 80% 90%

Facebook 55% 27.5%

Twitter 45% 14.2%

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Do you know him ?

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Never used a computer – Yet his brand exists online

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Online Branding

Be memorable

Transfer your real world reputation into the online world.

A strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, trust, attention, and execution

Thank you @ChrisBrogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/develop-a-strong-personal-brand-online-1/

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Steps to start establishing your online brand Define your brand

Memorable Name

Domain Name

Brand identity

Logo

Web Site

Business card

Social Web Presence

Still using Hotguy32@somexxx.com as your business email?

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Online brand building

1. Perception

2. Listen/feedback

3. How can I help people talk about me

4. How can I help ? Do you one better

5. Promote others to promote yourself

6. Make it easy for your brand followers to give you their money

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Do you control your search results

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Concentrate on developing your top results

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What will prospective employers / partners find when they search?

Class of 2011 Georgetown. First result is a blog

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Objectives of developing your personal brand online Ensuring your brand perception matches the audience perception

Monitoring and maintaining your online reputation

Participating in conversations to build networks and communications

Creating content to show thought leadership and help others through gift of knowledge

Result : Impressive Search results for your personal brand

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Start listening and evaluate mentions and conversations

– Search Results– Google Alerts – Twitter Search– Friendfeed– Technorati– BackType– SM2 by

Techrigy.com– Radian 6

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Tools - Google Alerts,

• Get alerted to conversations about you

•Trends and competition

•Tip : Use Google alerts to get content ideas

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Steps to show your knowledge & thought leadership

Choose 3 blogs in your area of interest or industry to follow

Join 2 to 3 social networks that are relevant to you

Answer questions on sites like Linkedin

Approach blogs and online media sites to see if you can guest post for them

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Social Media puts the power of publishing in your hands

•Website•Blogs•Microblogs•Guest posts•Articles•Forums •Communities

• Social Media Press Release

• Multi- Media

• Share your content• Link to other web sites

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Twitter

• Follow your friends and brand leaders

•Tweet 3 times a day

• An article that interested you

•Retweet a interesting tweet from your followers

•Reply to messages sent to you

Your Twitter profile will be among the top 10 results on search engines

Twitter tools : Web ( twitter.com), mobile ( m.twitter.com)

See list at http://oneforty.com/category/Clients

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Facebook

Profile

Page

Make your personal profile as private as needed and your page as public as possible

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Start a blog to showcase your knowledge

Free software like Blogger.com, wordpress.com

Use hosted services to have your own WordPress blogs

Easy to publish

Many plug-in that help curate content and manage the blog

Ability to share across all your networks

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LinkedIn

Profile

Answers

Groups

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Find other evangelists to help create content

Join your peers in networks

Go to offline networks

Invite experts to share their experience

Learn about tweetups on Twitter

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Videos : Tell your Story

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera 

New embed videos into Slideshare

NEW

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Podcasts & Your Own Radio Shows

Flickr photo Josh Bancroft  http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/30440518/sizes/o/

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Photos- Flickr

Flickr photos can add to your online presence

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Social Media press release

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Document sharing Sites

Docstoc – http://www.docstoc.com

Slide Share – http://www.Slideshare.net

Scribd - http://www.Scribd.com

Share content and distribute it widely

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Sometimes you may need rebranding

Use the Mom rule

Carefully curate your content

Your alerts will tell you tell you about new content

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernandoariotti/3011252905/

Removed the picture of two drunk individuals found by searching flickr/com for the keywords “drunk”

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Basic best practices

Bring value to people who read what you write or follow you

Converse and engage in conversations not broadcasting

Follow the same rules you follow offline

Use opportunity to help people and solve problems

Create content consistently and use keywords that people will be looking for.

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How do we measure success

Search results

Profile views

Network reach

Positive mentions

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Your Personal Branding Plan

•Setup Alerts •Join and setup profiles in 3 social networks •15-20 minutes a day tracing the alerts and responding •Choose 3 blogs on your field to read and comment•Converse, don’t sell•Answer questions and become an expert in your niche on LinkedIn

•2 hours a week - Learn and write about the products you promote

•Measure your effortso How many times were you mentionedo How many people read your postso Inbounds linkso Are your customers evangelizing

•Attend one local event a month

•Ask for help from the community if you need it

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Final thoughts

There may come a day when if you are not found on the web you don’t exist

Listen first

Be a useful conversationalist

Build relationships - one at a time

Take a Leap of Faith and Jump In!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp-dawson/2821182851/

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Questions ?Shashi Bellamkonda shashib@networksolutions.com

Twitter: @shashib

Small Business Success Index : http://www.GrowSmartBusiness.com

Network Solutions Blog : http://blog.networksolutions.com

Unintentional Entrepreneurs : http://www.UnintentionalEntrepreneur.com

Gen Y Blog : http://www.WhatsNextGenY.com

Women Entrepreneurs : http://www.WomenGrowBusiness.com

Personal Blogs:

Technology & Social Media: http://www.shashi.name

Digital Thoughts: http://readythoughts.blogspot.com

Restaurant Reviews: http://www.carryoncurry.com

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Audience Questions

How can a non-profit get more followers and Facebook Fans ?

How do you separate the valuable tweets from fluff?

Due to the economy if you have taken a lesser job to survive how do you present this in your online brand.