Recently in Online Marketing Category

If personal branding is all about your promise of value, how can Twitter (and other social networking tools for that matter) help to build your brand? If CNN Newsroom and The New York Times are tweeting, there must be something to it.

I ventured into Twitter land about a month ago. Here are some brand building techniques I have observed from others.

• Ask questions. This sends a signal of respect and authenticity.


• Invite discussion on blog posts.


• Link to events that add value for your readers.


• Be yourself, your "voice" and style are part of your brand.


• Some are witty and let it show - fun!


• Some use Twitter to ask for help or offer it.


• Many add value to the community, good stuff.

Social media strategist Chris Brogan has written an ebook on personal branding with social media. Grab your copy here.

How has Twitter helped you with your personal brand?

I just finished self-publishing my book, Signature Web Marketing: A Handbook for Professionals (click here to go to Amazon.com) with Booksurge (www.booksurge.com). The best part of the process was my ever helpful publishing consultant, John Schuster (bookmarketing101.blogspot.com).

Booksurge offers several levels of service for authors. John helped me make selections that were a good fit
for my timeline and my budget.

It's nice to have someone who's in your corner. Thanks, John, for your great customer service.

If you are thinking of self-publishing a book and using your website as a marketing tool, Booksurge is a great option. If you want to talk over the web marketing piece, I'm here for you and I'm in YOUR corner. Contact me to schedule a free 20 minute consultation - let's go!

Brian Clark over at Copyblogger knows human instinct all too well.

Check out this recent post and try not to click on the link that says "don't click here."

Brilliant.

Way to go, Brian.

And happy birthday, too!

Pauline Kerbici at High Rankings interviewed Seth Godin on Squidoo and wrote a great article here. In a nutshell, a Squidoo lens is designed to teach, inform and inspire. It may become a signpost or a pointer to your website, but you shouldn't expect to achieve page rank from a Squidoo lens. Your lens should be about whatever you love. As you teach and inform, you earn respect as an expert. The article also explains the difference between a blog and a lens. I thought it was great, here's the link again. Enjoy!

Career Distinction authors and personal branding experts William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson of Reach Communications have hit the mark with a new Online Identity Calculator. This clever assessment returns your Google Quotient, i.e. a baseline for how findable you are in Google. Give it a try and see how you rate. Did you get the results you wanted? Let me know what you think.

The great thing about your online identity is it can always be improved. I am excited to be one of a handful of early adopters in the pilot Online Identity Certification seminar from Reach. Watch for more postings on new strategies and services to help you be your best online!

There's a reason rockstars are paid the big bucks. They take us out of our world and into another. Music taps into our emotional pipeline and helps us be happy [or sad] and forget the other stuff for awhile. Right?

The big corporations spend thousands of dollars for customized audio logos to help you feel one way or another about their brand. You don't have to spend thousands, but don't you want a cool audio vibe for your company, too? I thought so.

Here the short version of how to do it.

Check out a royalty free music collection especially for radio or background. Try flashden.net or do a Google search for "royalty free background music." I use Rhapsody to find and download music for my audio logo projects.

When you're browsing music, try to find a sound that is on-brand for your company. For example, some of my brand attributes are "friendly" and "trustworthy," so I searched for a folksy sounding tune, kinda earthy (trustworthy) and mainstream sounding.

The next step is purchase and download your file. Then you can incorporate your audio logo into audio welcomes, videos, or podcasts.

I like to edit the audio first using Audacity, a free open source editing tool available here, http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Sometimes the audio loop is a little long, so I use Audacity to create a fade-in and fade-out and shorten the loop so it's perfect for an audio introduction.

After the audio is edited, place it at the beginning and the end of your audio recording, save it as an mp3 file, and then post the audio on my website. Voila! Now you have an on-brand audio vibe that you can use over and over to differentiate your company from the rest.

For more information about online brand identity, visit www.thewebservant.com, and be sure to request my audio mini-course, More Revvv!, free when you join my update list.

The WebCafe Marketing Class opens September 18th, 2007. Join us on Tuesdays for six weeks to learn how to prosper online! You'll learn the latest in online marketing techniques and reach your web marketing goals in a fun and friendly environment. For more information, visit the WebCafe Class Website. Earlybird registration expires August 31, 2007!