Are You Building Your Personal Brand?

This blog post is an excerpt on personal branding from my forthcoming book Marketing 2.0, due out in June…

The term personal branding is relatively young, but the concept is nothing new.  Before the advent of the social web and its many opportunities for personal branding we just called it our “reputation.”  If you’re old enough to remember building your career before the Internet became social, our reputation followed us from job to job.  We used personal referrals through the relationships we built to maintain our reputation.  Our reputation was built by our achievements and the relationships we built throughout our career.  Those relationships included our peers, bosses, subordinates, customers, trade association colleagues and people in our community.  As we traveled around in our career our word of mouth reputation followed us through a chain of phone calls, and live conversations, not to mention old fashion letters of referrals.

Fast forward to 2009 and our reputation isn’t even called that anymore.  Now it’s called our personal brand.  There are real dangers in not understanding the concept of a personal brand and how to develop and manage one.  There is also a danger for employers to attempt to thwart employees from building their personal brand.  The truth is an employee who builds a good personal brand has two benefactors: him or herself and their employer.

To build your personal brand start by filling out your online profile on social networking sites including but not limited to Linkedin and Facebook.  If you’re willing to devote the time to Twitter, then go there as well.  If you’re willing to devote more time to it create a Flickr account with photos and a YouTube channel where you aggregate videos about your favorite topics.

It’s critical to understand one point though before you set out to build your personal brand.  Whatever you put online stays online.  And, your personal brand is you both professionally and personally.  If you think you can build a personal brand about your 9 to 5 life and a separate personal brand about your evenings and weekends life, think again.  The web has converged our lives into one platform.

How can you help your staff build their personal brand while also benefiting your organization?  Start by embracing this concept because you will both benefit. Next, set out to build your own personal brand if you haven’t already.  In most cases, whatever you do to build your personal brand you should encourage your staff to consider, though in their unique way.  It’s important to know the area of expertise of your team members and encourage them to build personal brands around those strengths.  Start with the basics described above by creating a footprint on the social web by getting them actively engaged in social networking sites.  Make sure their profile is completed entirely.  Upload a good picture of you that is current.  Once you’ve filled out your profile you’re just getting started.  Then, start connecting with people you know directly or indirectly.  Use the Search feature to find people you used to work with or went to school with or are from your home town and connect with them.  In LinkedIn you connect with others.  In Facebook you friend others.  In Twitter you follow others.

Chances are you’re already using at least one of these mentioned social web platforms.  That’s great!  But, are you building your personal brand with them and encouraging your staff to do the same? Perhaps, your staff has a head start on you and they’ve been bugging you to get started.  You’ve resisted either because you thought it is for kids or because you think you don’t have the time.  Well, Mr. or Ms. CEO, I’ve got news for you.  Many of your peers are already there.  Your absence is obvious.  The train has left the station.  Get on board!

Once you have your social profiles completed, how often do you upload content to your personal profile or to industry social sites? How often do you recommend others in your network? How often do you answer questions in online discussions? How often do you ask questions?  How often do you check each of these platforms – once per month? Once per week? Daily? Hourly? In order to develop your personal brand you must be active in the online social platforms.

Here are some tips to consider in building your personal brand on the social web:
•    Be visible: Stay active in which ever social web platform you choose to participate.  When you are active you will be noticed more and you have more opportunity to engage with others.
•    Be interesting: Whatever your subject matter expertise you probably have ideas to express.  Think of creative ways to express your thoughts.  Ask questions meant to get people thinking.  Remember that often what is obvious to you is probably not so obvious to others.  Don’t be shy about expressing your points and stimulating new conversations.
•    Contribute: Similarly share your insights.  We live in an economy where our content is our marketing.  When you have good content to share, by all means share it! You’ll get recognized for it.  Don’t be surprised if you get invited into more conversations, or invited to speak or write because you have contributed good content.
•    Push the envelope: This one requires discretion especially if you are employed (as opposed to being self employed) or you are the CEO.  You don’t want to create controversy which can have a negative impact on both you and your business.  Using discretion you can be provocative and thought provoking with your ideas or methods of getting things done.
•    Be real: This is critical.  The social web is not a place to act or be someone you’re not.  You may get away with it for a little while but not for too long.
•    How do you want to be found? If you do a Google search on “personal branding” the number one listing (in early 2009) is a blog called Personal Branding Blog by Dan Shawbel.  Develop your personal brand around something specific that you can use as your unique value proposition.  Even if it doesn’t boil down to a single phrase like this example, you can still become known for something like “the gal you want to hire if you need to launch a new product in the (fill in the blank) industry.”

To promote your personal brand promote your presence on the web.  Start with the simple tactics such as including links your social web profiles.  If you have a blog, include graphic links to each of your social web profiles and invite people to connect to you.

Building your personal brand is too important to ignore.  Businesses who understand the value of a personal brand do more than accept it, they embrace it.  One of my favorite personal branding examples is Matt Cutts from Google. His personal brand is very recognizable to people in the Internet industry.  Google benefits greatly from Cutts’ personal brand because he is so effective at conveying who he is as a person and as a Google engineer.  Another good example is Scott Monty of the Ford Motor Company. Scott heads up social media at Ford. He is an active blogger and he is very active on Twitter. He delivers great content about Ford enhancing their reputation while he has built his own reputation as a social media strategist.

If it frightens you that your employees may leave once they develop their personal brand then I argue you have other problems to address.  Such insecurity will fail you in an age of marketing on the social web.  A strong personal brand will benefit you and your employees assuming other pieces of healthy employment are in place.

Personal branding is the new media version of reputation management.  You can’t fight it.  Embrace it for all its value.  Personal branding does not have a line item in your marketing budget but it is a marketing asset.  It takes time to develop and maintain.  But, there is a strong argument for the opportunity cost of not allowing employees to develop a personal brand.  One way or another they will do it.  You may as well encourage them to do it in a mutually beneficial way.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Is SEO Ranking Dead?

At the annual SEO geek-fest at Pubcon last week, there was a lot of buzz over predictions for 2009. Specifically, SEO guru Bruce Clay made some predictions about changes he expects to see from Google. Additionally Matt Cutts from Google went on camera and gave us his insights into what we might expect to see from Google.

Here are some of the highlights and my take on these predictions.

Getting Personal

We don’t have to wait until 2009. Google launched GoogleWiki yesterday. You now have the ability to personalize your search results by editing out irrelevant search results, moving around your favorite rankings and even adding some. Google will remember this so your future search results will be more relevant. You can also comment on search results similar to commenting in a blog. You must be signed into your Google account. The idea is to get more personalized results when you search in Google. But, beware the rankings people see will no longer be exactly the same or predictable. Search engine rankings can vary from one person to another due to this personalization capability.

Google has enough history on your IP and search history that it will serve you relevant results based on your location and your search history. If you search for a bank and you’re located in Florida, you’ll get different results than the person searching for a bank who is located in Michigan.

Rich Media Content is King

Google’s Universal Search approach to presenting search results is evolving. If you provide your visitors a diversified mix of content including images, voice, video and interactive functions like RSS widgets Google will reward this mix of content. Universal search results present searchers with options to view results not limited to web pages including those shown below from SearchEngineLand.

Comparative Ranking Sources Expand & Blending No Longer Subtracts

When Universal Search launched, comparative ranking ran against these vertical or specialized search engines as well as web search:

1. Web Search
2. Book Search
3. Images
4. Local/Maps
5. News
6. Video

Since around December, Google says two more vertical search engines have been added to the list:

1. Blog Search
2. Product Search

What Does This Mean to Marketers?

Ah, this is the question of the day. First, it means that we need to be thinking about our content strategy. We need to plan to offer our audience a diversified mix of content. Text content alone will not cut it in the long run for competitive keywords. Content such as images, video, audio, widgets, PDFs, blogs, wikis, etc., offer visitors a richer experience than just plain text content. In essence Google wants to reward marketers who give their site visitors a rich media content experience.

What Does This Mean to SEO Services Firms like Find and Convert?

SEO services firms need to be marketers first and foremost and SEO geeks secondly. We need to focus on driving qualified sales traffic to your website and tracking conversions and the real business value of your overall SEO program. Rather than tracking search engine rankings, we need to track business results. Some of the metrics we’ve tracked in the past will need to change with more focus on business results.

This will force some SEO services firms to change their business model to deliver tangible value to their clients. I don’t expect this to be a major problem for most SEO firms except perhaps those whose background is very technical with limited marketing expertise.

I have a high opinion of the vast majority of my peers in the SEO industry. Whenever I attend an industry event such as Pubcon I am always impressed with the quality of people I meet. So, I am optimistic that SEO firms will generally continue to be valuable resources to their clients.

Are you ready for the evolution of SEO in 2009? It’s already started. So, the time to get ready is yesterday.

Bernie Borges

http://twitter.com/berniebay

Measuring Brand Equity Through Social Media Marketing

There are several tools available to help marketers measure the effectiveness of their social media marketing efforts.  Some of them include free tools like, Blogpulse, Trendpedia, Trendrr, Google Blogsearch and other vote-centric sites such as DIGG, StumbleUpon and Reddit.  These tools are some of the most popular and readily available tools used to track, measure and monitor social media content.  They are all free to the user community. 

In the spirit of sharing good content, Nathan Gilliatt, Principal at Social Target, LLC has published an impressive list of tools to monitor social media results which include commercial tools which have a cost.  The list of tools is growing every day. 

But, how do you measure brand equity? Admittedly, measuring brand equity is somewhat intangible.  But, that depends on your perspective (is the glass half full or half empty?).  Large companies place a lot of importance in measuring brand equity.  But, most companies are not Nike.  So, how do the rest of us measure brand equity? 

In social media marketing there exist new opportunities to positively affect your brand equity.   It all starts with the people in your company who are active in social media marketing.  Previously, I’ve used the example of Matt Cutts from Google.  When someone from your company takes a visible position in a social media community, and they effectively communicate meaningful stuff that the community truly appreciates, you are positively affecting your brand.  How do you measure this? 

If you hire a PR agency with good social media skills, that’s one way to measure it.  If you use some of the tools described above including some of the commercial tools, that’s another way to measure your brand equity.  But, here is a simple tip that takes ten minutes and doesn’t cost a dime.  Go to your Google Analytics account or equivalent website traffic analytics program.  Assuming you have had your analytics in place for more than one year (which you should have), look at the traffic that came to your website from the keyword “your company name” (insert the name of your company).  Study the traffic coming to your website from your company name over different periods of time starting with a period of time before you became active in social media marketing.  If you are actively engaging, listening and interacting with your community in social media, you will see an upward trend in traffic to your website coming from some combination of your company name or the name of the person (or people) who are actively involved in your social media strategy.  I’ve experienced this firsthand as both “find and convert” and “bernie borges” are two of the top five keyword phrases driving visitors to our website.  Likewise, the Find and Convert blog home page is in the top three most frequently visited pages in our Google Analytics account.  These two data points alone tell me that my efforts in social media are positively affecting our brand. 

The lifecycle of social media is a continuous loop.  The good news is that when you apply the simple principles discussed here, good things can happen.  But, the flip side is that the “continuous” part of it is such that if you discontinue participation you can lose all the benefits. 

 

 

SEO Tips from Matt Cutts (Mr. Google)

Matt Cutts is considered the face of Google which I think is brilliant because he is such a regular, unassuming guy and gives Google the persona of an approachable person.  Just brilliant!

In the video interview below with Jefferson Graham from USA Today, Matt Cutts answers questions about the “common sense” things you can do to have your website found in Google.

Below is a summary of Matt’s responses to Jefferson’s questions and my commentary:

Matt Cutts: In response to what is the #1 thing you can do to be found in Google: Use keywords in your website content which are actually being searched by people.

Bernie Borges: Duh…Absolutely!  But, this is a bit oversimplified.  First you must research keywords.  You shouldn’t assume your keywords are good.  You may be too close to your business to know which keywords are searched most frequently.  Additionally, some keywords are very competitive.  Keyword research will tell you which keywords are more and less competitive.  Often, the Long Tail keywords are the most effective.

Matt Cutts: Title Tags Matter.  Users see the Title tags first in the search results.  But, the description tag actually describes your web page listing in Google.  The description tag should be short but very well written about your web page.

Bernie Borges: Absolutely! But, many marketers make the mistake of using the same Title tags on each page.  Each page should have a unique Title tag and a unique description tag.  Optimizing many web pages will increase your chances of being found by Google. 

Matt Cutts: Links are Important: There are many ways to get legitimate links.  One of the best is to start a blog and participate in the conversations on the web.  A blog doesn’t have to be fancy.  You can talk about your customers, why you started your business, things about your business.  People will learn more about your business.  Give people compelling ideas from your blog and you will get links. Also, participate in other social media sites. 

Bernie Borges: I generally agree, but Matt makes this sound easy and it’s not.  Starting a blog requires development of a strategy, which requires research and planning.  Once you start a blog, you must be committed to it, or you’ll lose credibility for starting and stopping a blog.  Matt didn’t mention other link building strategies such as syndicating content, or SEO optimizing press releases.  Social media marketing can be very effective in link building, but it requires strategy, commitment and resources.  Not all businesses are able to make and follow through with this committment.

Matt Cutts: The most common misconception is that you have to pay Google to get listed in the organic listings.  Not true.  Google crawls web sites for free.  Another misconception is that the PPC (pay per click) listings will help your organic search engine rankings.  Not true.  PPC has no affect on your “editorial search results.”

Bernie Borges: This is aka “separation of church and state.”  Matt’s referall to organic listings as “editorial search results” is terrific.  Media firms have always maintained separation between advertising and editorial.  This is exactly the same principle.  This is 100%, indisputably accurate!

Matt Cutts: In response to: Does it take 3 to 6 months to get your website crawled?  No.  Google updates their index monthly and crawls all websites it can find for free.  Google also provides a free tool called Google Webmaster which allows you to list all your URLs to be found there in days, not months.

Bernie Borges: Absolutely!  We use Google Webmaster with our SEO clients.  It is a valuable tool which gives a lot of insight into how Google sees your website, including identifying broken links which you may not even know you had.

 

Bernie Borges Final Commentary:

While everything Matt Cutts said in this interview is 100% accurate, it is a bit oversimplified.  It’s a little like saying if you want to compete in a marathon, all you have to do is train 5 miles a day for 3 months, then 11 miles a day for 1 month prior to the marathon event.  The execution of such recommendations takes discipline, coaching and just plain hard work.

SEO is hard work!  I’m sure this sounds a little self serving, given that we provide SEO services.  My argument is that the details associated with these valid suggestions are plentiful.  A successful Internet marketing strategy requires planning, execution and measurement by resources with the know how and availability to get the job done.  Matt Cutts’ suggestions, while accurate, are also just a portion of an overall SEO strategy, for example, he made no mention of the importance of the technical architecture of your website, along with other important factors. 

Oh, one more thing.  I take exception with people who say that SEO is a one time process and once you’ve completed it you are done (Matt Cutts did not say this).  Whoa!  That is so far from the truth.  That’s like saying today is sunny and therefore I assume everyday going forward will be sunny…Others are doing SEO in your keyword space and you will lose ground if you stop working at it.  I will agree there is more effort required on the front end, but you should not just walk away from an SEO plan or you will see declining results, unless perhaps if you are a in very unique niche with little competition for your keywords.  

Your thoughts?

Do you have a V.P. of Social Media?

While it’s recognized that only about 12% of the Fortune 500 have a corporate blog, those that do take it seriously.  Companies such as Intel, Google, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell and Kodak have devoted people resources to their corporate blogging strategies.

The companies in this list are Fortune ranking companies.  But, companies like Junta42 and Hubspot are not Fortune ranked companies (in fact considerably smaller) and they devote equally impressive resources to corporate blogging.

I’ll single out two blogging trailblazers from each category above.  Matt Cutts is the corporate blogging face of Google.  And, Mike Volpe is the corporate blogging face of Hubspot. 

Matt Cuts is often seen at Internet conferences in a t-shirt and jeans talking about whatever topic is hot at the conference de-jour.  Matt is also very active in his blog which appears to be sponsored by Google, or at least sanctioned by Google.  Matt is the official “webmaster” guy who represents everything Google.  In my opinion Google has very effectively humanized their corporate identity through Matt.  He is a regular guy.  He is not an executive.  He doesn’t speak over any one’s head.  In fact, he is a like-able guy who speaks in plain English.  Even if you don’t like Google’s position on topics as represented by Matt, it’s hard to have a hostile view of Matt, as the face of Google.  He is truly a regular guy.

Hubpot’s blog is branded under their name.  In full disclosure, I am a fan of the Hubspot Internet Marketing platform.  One of many things Hubspot does well is devote time and energy to their blog.  The main guy who is the corporate blogging face for Hubspot is Mike Volpe.  Mike’s title is V.P. Marketing, a pretty mundane title for a cutting edge Internet company.  I’ll forgive him for this because Mike does an excellent job of blogging on a myriad of Internet Marketing topics (he has help from some of his colleagues too).  In essence, Mike is educating and evangelizing the benefits of corporate blogging for Internet Marketing benefits.  Hubspot is a young company.  Their rapid brand growth is evidence of how effective corporate blogging can be. 

Corporate blogging can’t be effective without first deciding that it is important to your business.  Those businesses who think the benefits can’t be measured haven’t studied it enough.  These are the same companies who will eventually be blind-sided by their competitor’s corporate blgging strategy. 

The biggest risk to a corporate blogging strategy is not recognizing that it should be part of a bigger picture social media strategy.  You wouldn’t launch an advertising campaign without first setting the corporate marketing strategy.  The advertising should support the corporate marketing strategy.

Social media is fast becoming a strategic element in corporate marketing.  In some businesses people’s jobs are being defined under the social media umbrella, and in some cases whole departments.  We’re starting to see titles such as “Chief Blogger,” and “V.P. Communities and Conversations.” 

The commitment these companies are showing is to a strategy of conversations with people they want to converse with. 

Being in the conversations is everything in a social media strategy.

The online publication B2B Online covered this topic recently.

I am sometimes asked about my title: “chief find officer.”  Hmmm…Maybe it’s time for a title change…