One of the first things that I heard when I started working online that you have to learn to brand yourself, your product, your site etc. Well I can remember telling the person that told me that they were crazy as how do you learn to brand online. Branding – have you learned it yet?
Years ago – you could tell alot from a person’s attire, the way they managed themselves when you met them and even sealed deals with handshakes. Well that isn’t so easy to do online as you can’t always see the person you are dealing with and you really have to careful as everyone has their own story to tell.
Years ago, I was told by a mentor of mine, if you meet someone online before you do any kind of work with that person – go to Google and put in their name. If this person is let’s say walking the walk and not just talking the talk – you will find out, you will find what that person has been doing, you will learn the good, bad and ugly about that person.
Does that mean that if you do find something bad or ugly – run in the other direction – NO – I have found over the years for SEO purposes many people like to use some of the keywords for what they are writing at the time and may add scam etc. to the title just to get attention. Be sure you read ALL and not just the headlines about the person that you are looking up.
Now if that person has done their homework and like my friend told me have branded themselves – they you will be able to see it when you Google them. Another thing that I like to do is visit social sites also and put in their name, read their profiles and one of the best places that I have found for other business people is APSense. A friend of mine also wrote a great article on how to brand yourself there – Click Here To Read
Ok I know what you shy people are thinking, I really don’t want to put myself out there it makes me feel uncomfortable and I don’t like talking about myself. In the TE Land there are many other ways that people are branding themselves – when talking to other listen to how some sites are being branded – here are some examples.
How about a dog named Fred at ClickFred Traffic
Every time you see a Frog now – dont you think about Froggy Hits
Horror Films makes you think of Horror Movie Hits
Mention Cows and who do you think of Mo’s cows at Holy Cow
And we all know about “Flash” at Hot Flash Hits
Can’t forget the one and only Krazy Kaye over at Krazy Exchange
What site has taught us about Marijuana and Kudos to Jon on a great job at Marijuana Hits
How about Teacup Puppies – didn’t even know they existed Teacup Puppy Traffic
Last but not least – the kid on the block – Yuppie over at Yuppie Hits
Saving the best (JMO) example of branding ……….If you have not heard about IT, seen IT, grabbed IT, and even joined IT – well I just don’t know where you have been because I think James has done an excellent job (don’t tell him as IT will go to his head) in branding his site Internet Traffic (IT) 24/7
One more before you go – want to make sure you get it – here is his latest Video
So Branding – have you learned it yet?? I hope by the examples in this post that you will get out there and start branding you, yourself, you logo – YOU need to make your presence known – have fun.
Branding is very important for a business. You should build your brand to represent you or your site well. We hope when people see Flash they think of Hot Flash Hits.
As an individual, if you are shy, get a professional logo made for your name. I don’t feel it is necessary to plaster your photo all over ads but I do feel you should have “something” to represent yourself.
I think you have done a great job branding Flash and Hot Flash Hits – Kudos
And you are right something that represents you as by accident I have got to known as the cat lady and get so many pictures sent to me to use on Zaney – and I love it
One of the very first things i ever learned was brand names rule Nike was way cooler then Prowings or XJ900 it was all about the brand
and it still is golden arches are a nasty burger but an amazing MC-brand
great post and thank you for the very kind words
This is true – even kids know about the golden arches – they are over and there is nobody’s picture on that billboard
You are welcome and you know me by now – tell it like it is – you did awesome job and deserved a pat on the back.
Hello Nancy,
I never remember to do a Google search on someone’s name. I am grateful that you keep mentioning it. 🙂
Btw, I’m honored you mentioned my article in your blog post, thanks for that. 🙂
Philippe
That is one of the best things that I have learned is to make Google Search my best friend – what I find interesting is that anything question that I have and feel that it’s crazy – if you type it in you can find it in search as someone else had already asked
You are welcome.
Well, I happen to disagree 🙂
In a lot of ebooks and ecourses I bought I was told to brand myself which constantly kept me from doing anything because I kept asking myself: brand what?
Start working. Start getting results. Eventually you find your brand and now you can work on that.
A lot of really rich people who work online don’t even have a brand.
If you want to open a business or TE yes of course you have to come up with a name and that can turn into a brand. Everybody else you don’t need a brand.
But there are many ways of branding yourself and it can be as easy as filling out your profiles on the social sites like Facebook, Linkedin, APSense, Twitter, etc. It’s getting people use to seeing you, getting them feeling comfortable with you, it’s helping them anyway that you can, it’s becoming a go-to person. For years people have done business with people they know or trust – this is the type of people that I work with and the type that I want to work with.
You brand YOURSELF – it also could be as easy as your name – get yourname.com and start a blog – use your name on your social sites.
If you are in TE’s – some of the simple and easy things to do is create splash pages with your picture and name on it when you are promoting something, buy a block on the prizebox, stop in the chats and say hi – keeping your name and picture in front of others is another way of branding yourself.
“Brand yourself for the career you want, not the job you have.”
-Dan Schawbel
Oh great quote Marcy – thanks for sharing
You definitely have to learn how to brand yourself. People join people not companies. They want to know what the person is like and if they know, like and trust you they will join you. How to they determine that? If they like what they hear and they watch your actions that you are going somewhere then they trust you.
Lawrence Bergfeld
Thanks Lawrence and you are right – thanks for the comment