Branding Yourself for Online Success

Article Published: Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 9:11 pm | Subscribe

Working as the Director of Web Design & Development at a local Internet Marketing firm has rendered plenty of opportunity for assisting others in creating their online presence through personal branding.  This year has already yielded great success for our company in the way of revenue building opportunities, due to a high demand of personalized/branded Blog Design & Development along with Social Networking strategies.  In order to get ahead in any industry there are some fundamental tools one must understand, develop and finally implement in order to make an impact in their online presence.  To assist others in building a presence for themselves as well, I’ve written a few steps to get started in building and establishing your own personal brand.

1. Logo / Trademark

In order to have a true online presence, one of the first places you’re going to start is designing a logo and/or trademark.  It’s amazing how I often work with clients that have high aspirations for a blog, landing page or website and a clear vision for their product(s) or service(s) but have yet to establish a logo.  Logo’s are going to help you define your image online and over time can communicate a lot of information about you with only a few words and maybe just a touch of color.  Think about some of the most recognizable logo’s online today like Facebook, YouTube,  WordPress, and Microsoft, examine their simplicity and how a regular shape like a rounded rectangle can ultimately stick in the minds of your followers and help with establishing an everlasting image in your market.  When attacking your logo, always remember that you have a target market, however be sure to think of creative ways to personalize the logo without going overboard and trying to do too much.  Logo’s need to have the ability to look good on a computer screen, business card, letter head and possibly even printed in a newspaper in low quality black in white and still be recognizable.

Click Here to speak to me about Logo Design.

2. Gather your Print Materials

Now that you have your logo/trademark established it’s time to get some print materials.  Playing off the flow of the logo design get some business cards and letter heads printed.  Some might even put together press packages depending on the market they are in and who they are trying to reach with their products, services or venues. Having a professional image from the start of your business venture is going to assist you greatly in building up your brand from the start.  Don’t be afraid to get creative either with some of your designs.

Click Here to speak to me about Print Design.

3. Begin Networking

One of the most popular and beneficial tools to assist you in building your brand is Social Networking. Over the past couple years Social Networking has been somewhat transformed from a High School social circle gadget into a high tech, multi-faceted business/marketing powerhouse. One of the best things about services like Facebook is their incredible ability to meet the masses targeted to a specific market. Their inherit ability to share your content and media on the fly directly to those who would be most interested in it is not only affordable (because they’re mostly free) but it’s also a great way to drive traffic back to your website or blog. Which brings me to my 3rd step.

Click Here to speak to me about Social Networking strategies.

4. Contribute to Your Industry

Getting involved in your industry online can quickly become one of the best ways to get your brand out there and seen by colleagues and/or future clients.  Now that you have a logo and your mind is flowing with ideas to help clients understand your industry, you might want to consider getting a Blog developed.  If you already have a corporate website, often times it’s best to have a blog built and integrated right into it. It’s often times a good idea to keep the flow of design consistent from your logo -> corporate website -> blog.  This helps build familiarity with your clients and/or visitors and is essential to establishing your brand.  Once your blog is online you can begin writing articles about new technologies, tricks, tips and techniques within your industry and create an open dialog among your visitors.  Create links back to your corporate website service or product pages to help increase leads and sales. Don’t just interact with your industry from behind the curtain of your own blog though, get out there and create dialog on other similar websites or blogs and create link backs to your sites that way. These things combined all play a significant role in Branding and are essential to a strong online presence.

Click Here to speak to me about Blog Design.

5. Stay Fresh

Just like nobody likes opening a bag of tortilla chips to find they are more stale than couch cushion popcorn no body likes stale content either.  Make sure the content you are writing isn’t just a play off of a couple articles found after a  quick Google search.  Really take some time to think about what is needed in your industry at the moment.  Be creative and innovate to create solutions for those problems and blog about it, people love “5 tips to *insert title here*” so really get in there and be a solution for your visitors. Be careful to not get stuck in old habits and techniques online.  In the online world things are constantly changing and updating, something that might have been considered cutting edge yesterday might be considered “black hat” today so make sure to stick right in the center of your niche or industry, keeping up to date with current trends and trade secrets.

I hope this content meets you well, good luck with building your brand and make sure you greet everyone with an “ELLO”!

Regards,

Mike

Article Posted Under: Articles, Branding, Featured