As a business owner, you have spent time and energy on your organization's brand - name, logo, colors, marketing materials. Your personal brand needs attention too.

Your personal brand is what you're known for, and the values that your customers/clients associate with you. Your personal brand is impacted by what is online and offline - your social media pages, personal website/blog, portfolio, presentations/speaking engagements, published articles and books.

It's hard to know how others perceive you, but just like your organization's brand, you can take steps to strengthen it and make sure it aligns with you and your goals. Your personal brand is going to change over time, and is important if you are just getting started, growing your business or changing careers. 

What is your personal brand? 
What are the values you want to be know for? Write down a list of your strengths and the words you would use to describe yourself. Now ask people you work with and your close friends to let you know how they would describe you. If your co-workers and friends have a very different idea than you, it's time to get to work!

Social Media
The first impression someone may have about you comes from what comes up when they search for you online. Make sure your social media pages - your professional and personal pages - align with your goals. If you're  looking for a new job or changing careers, spend some time updating your LinkedIn page and share and write content about the industry you want to work in. If you are established, share your thoughts on your industry or tips on your blog or social media pages.

Be the Expert
Give a presentation, offer a workshop, or sponsor an event to share your expertise. 

Personal Website
I'm always a fan of claiming your domain name, and have linked my name - CatrinaOssmann.com - to my LinkedIn profile. You could use a personal site for a blog, or portfolio of your work. Depending on your industry, you can add samples and photos. There's a fine line between self-promotion and personal branding, The focus of your personal website and portfolio should be to strengthen your brand. 

You can't be something your not, so build on your strengths (offline and with online tools) and be authentically you!

Try these few ideas to improve your Social Media

Make sure you give people a reason to follow you - Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter - and keep it professional and up-to-date.
 
Facebook

• Does your Facebook page have a URL/Username? This makes it much easier to promote your page (instead of saying "Find us on Facebook..." you can give people the exact URL - facebook.com/CatrinaOssmann). Learn more.
• Try something new! Try a live broadcast to announce an event, special sale, tips or news. Promote it really well (reminders about the day/time, emails...), or offer an incentive for those who share and/or participate.
• Try an offer... 

1. Reward Your Customers
Promote a drawing/raffle for a gift card. Think of ways to incentivize people to share - offer extra entries for people that visit your location, or if they share a post on Facebook. If you use your social media page for a contest, make sure to follow the rules (see Facebook's rules).
* Use an app/website like Wishpond or Woobox to help organize your contest.

2. Revamp your Look
When is the last time you updated your marketing materials or website? Start thinking about how a new look could help before you start Holiday promotions, attend a trade show, or start a new campaign.

3. Partner with other businesses
Find an organization that is targeting similar customers (that you're not competing with) and come up with a promotion that benefits both businesses.

​4. Celebrate your Success

• Recognize your achievements - post on social media, email newsletter, or send a press release - for milestone anniversaries, employee promotions or awards they have received.
• Host a Special Event - celebrate an anniversary or host a customer appreciation event. This can be as simple as an open house and staying open late, or a large event with entertainment and food. 

5. Pay It Forward

• Sponsor an event in your community (get your logo on a sign/banner/t-shirt for a golf outing, school group... ).
• Offer up your space to an organization you support to host an event for their cause - another great opportunity to cross-promote both organizations.
• Get your organization involved - volunteer, or offer to be a collection point for needed items for a local food pantry, or non-profit. This gets people visiting your location too.

*Don't forget to take photos to promote the cause and encourage others to support them too!

Facebook recently announced that users want to see more from friends and family in their newsfeeds, and less from business pages and brands. Unfortunately, this means that you can expect to see even less views on your posts, even if your Facebook page has plenty of likes.

Here are 3 things to consider to make sure your audience will still get your message... 

1. Use video - Go live! You can now live stream video directly on your Facebook page. Use this feature to highlight new product, give tips, record testimonials, invite people to an event, introduce your staff... get creative! The best part - everyone following you will get a message that you're live streaming to encourage people to click on the link and watch it live.

2. Use Facebook Ads - Facebook has a few options including boosting a post to ensure people that like your page (and more) see a specific post. This can be beneficial for a post that has had engagement (likes, comments and shares) and you want to keep the momentum going. A better option is to invest in ads that target your exact audience - based on demographics like where they live, age, interests - with a strong call to action. What do you want people to do once they have clicked on your ad? Does the page tell them to call you, sign up for a newsletter, come in to your store for an event? Facebook ads allow you to direct people to a specific page on your website, promote your Facebook page (to get more likes) or to your call to action - call you, book now, etc.

3. Diversify - Facebook is great, but it should be just one part of your marketing strategy. Don't rely on any one way to promote your business. Find other social media pages to share your content and make sure that your audience is using that platform. You can create great content on every social media platform out there, but it's only worth your time and effort if you're building awareness and seeing the return and getting customers from it.

Besides social media, you can also write a blog, write an email newsletter, advertise on radio, host a workshop or special event at your location, offer to speak at a chamber event or cross-promote with other trusted businesses that you share an audience with, but are not your competition. 

Are you looking to try something new for social media... see if something besides Facebook could help grow your business?

Instagram might be a good (and user-friendly) way to try something new! 3 ideas for using Instagram for business...

1. Use #hashtags. Use relevant hashtags to make sure people find your post. These are going to be different for each business. Hashtags are the keywords (or search terms) to categorize your photos. This is critical for growing your page. 

2. Be engaging. It's social media - you need to be social! Follow your followers back, comment on posts, start a conversation!
 
3. Have fun! How can you be uniquely YOU with your photos? Give people a reason to follow you - host a photo contest (details on that - from Instagram - here), use video, highlight your product or services, feature your customers or your staff.

If you're in the Adrian area, I'm hosting a workshop on Instagram on Friday, March 11th. Click here for details or to RSVP. 

Social media provides you a direct connection to potential and loyal customers. As we begin 2016, now is a good time to evaluate how you are using social media to promote your business. 

1. Know WHY you’re using social media. It can be frustrating to figure out if using social media is worth it and if you’re getting a return. Make a list of goals for your social media pages. How will you know your finding success?

• Make sure your posts have a call to action: what do you want the person to do next? If it’s to buy a product/service – create links to specific pages on your website (and track the clicks you get to help measure the success of using social media pages). Looking for people to come to your store? Promote in-store events and promotions that encourage people to visit your location. 
• Know your audience: what type of posts get the most engagement? Photos and videos tend to get more engagement (views, likes/shares), but it’s different for each business. Pay attention to the posts that get shares and comments and build on those. 
• Be consistent. Post at least once a week – more often if you have new and engaging content.

 
2. Focus your efforts on the platform your target audience is using.

• Choose pages with demographics that match your ideal customer - learn more. You don't need to have a page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat...  just because you can. Pick one or two and keep them updated and do it well.
• Know the tools available for those pages: advertising options, how to connect to your website, "buy now" buttons, and insights/metrics.

 
3. Your updates should sound like you do in real life.

• How would you talk to someone who called you on the phone or came in to your store? What would you tell them about your business? That’s the conversation you need to have on social media.
• It's not all about you. Share information about community events or groups you care about. How is your business giving back? Say congratulations to someone celebrating a milestone at their business. Just stay out of politics or other polarizing topics. Keep it positive!
• Don’t beg for shares or likes.

Catrina Ossmann of Clever Ideas Marketing is presenting a 2 workshops about social media at The Centre in Adrian.

The first session, Best Practices for Facebook Business Pages, will be held on Tuesday, March 17th, 8:00-9:00 AM. Facebook made changes in January that impact those who have a business page on the site. The session will cover both free and paid options for reaching more people. Participants should have a Facebook business page, and be familiar with the website.

The second session will be held on Tuesday, March 24th, 8:00-9:00 AM. The workshop will cover promoting a business on LinkedIn. The session will focus on best practices, optimizing a personal profile, and tips on how to reach current and potential customers using the website. Participants should have a LinkedIn profile and be familiar with the website.

The cost to attend each session is $5 per person. Registration is required and is available online.

Workshop Details:

Best Practices for Facebook Business Pages
• Tuesday, March 17th, 8:00-9:00 AM
• The Centre, 1800 W US-223, Adrian
• Cost: $5 per person
• Register online 

Utilizing LinkedIn to Promote Your Business
• Tuesday, March 24th, 8:00-9:00 AM
• The Centre, 1800 W US-223, Adrian
• Cost: $5 per person
• Register online 

I added a blog post for 7 days in a row. Before this week, I sometimes went 7 weeks between posts. I learned about the Your Turn Challenge, which asked participants to commit to writing everyday for a week through Seth Godin's blog. 

This was the motivation I needed to make myself find the time to do it. 

The best part of the challenge was connecting with others on Twitter and reading their ideas, dreams and tips to make things better. A few of the posts from Twitter... 

My takeaway from this challenge is to keep going even when I don't think I have anything to say, or that anyone is reading it. I'm going to keep learning from other writers, and seek out something new. The Your Turn Challenge Blog Archive page is a great place to start!

Thank you to those who have reached out and offered some encouragement to me and others participating in this challenge. 

There are people who post in their Twitter bio, "my opinion is my own," in an attempt to say that whatever they post doesn't represent where they work, or groups they belong to. That's not true.

Can you imagine this working outside of social media? 
You're at a busy coffee shop with friends and you say, "What I'm about to say is my own opinion, not my company's..." Of course not! 

Not that everything that comes out of your mouth is a press release for your organization, but your personality - online and off - does have an impact. People need to like and trust you to do business with you. There's no "off" switch for people to know when you're not at work.

I encourage you to be authentically you on social media and offline. The idea of social media is engagement. People are going to let you know if they agree or disagree with what you say. Don't be afraid of that conversation. 

Be respectful when you share, and respond, to other ideas. If we all felt the same way about everything, it would be boring.

This post is Day 6 of the Your Turn Challenge. I'd love to connect with you! Find me on Twitter @CleverIdeasCO

Do you ever have one of those days when you are really productive?  

Not just that you got a lot done, but everything came easily to you, with little effort. Those days are the best!

I joke that I am powered by caffeine and that the amount of work I get done is based on the amount of coffee I've had. On those productive days, I cross items off of my to-do list, follow-up with clients and tackle projects big and small. I am organized and always try to tackle the item on my list that I want to do the least. Makes the rest of the day a little better.

We all have the days where you feel stuck. You can't make any progress, you feel unproductive and defeated. 

Here are 3 ways to boost your productivity (caffeine optional) and get unstuck...

1. Free write. Keep a notebook with you, or open up a new document and just start typing. This is helpful if you have been struggling with writing, and can help to get your ideas going. Even if writing is not what has you "stuck," free writing can help. You can make a list of what you're grateful for, your favorite things, advice you would give to someone else that was feeling unproductive or stuck - keep it positive. 
   
2. Take a break. Stop focusing on what you're stuck on. Go for a walk, call a friend, take a few minutes to focus on something else so when you come back, you are ready to try again.
3. Keep perspective. Focus on what it will feel like when you're done. It's easy, especially when you're stuck, to forget why you started - doing the project, planning the event, training for the marathon, starting your own business (or whatever "it" is) in the first place. 

No matter what has you stuck, find what works for you, and try and focus on the good. 

This post is Day 5 of the Your Turn Challenge. I'd love to connect with you! Find me on Twitter @CleverIdeasCO