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Even if you think your customers are not on Twitter there are still benefits to sharing your business story through the service.

Laura Fitton ( @pistachio ) has some great additional off platform benefits from Twittering.  These are great ideas and show that even if you’re in a business that doesn’t have a lot of customers on Twitter you can still help your business through Twitter.

1. SEO – Findability on the web.  Twitter is a great service to help you move up the search results.  Use your business name as your Twitter user name to help manage your search rankings.  Bring people to your website with an active Twitter presence.

2. Research – Twitter is a great way to listen to what people are saying on the web about your field and research new ideas and directions.  You can ask questions and develop feedback loops for pretty much anything.

3. Content Generation Engine – setup a resource on your home page and use it to share and give your web site visitors a place to see what’s people are talking about.  Twitter can be a quick way to keep your customers in the loop for events and all kinds of things.  The quick communication platform is a tool with myriad possibilities.

4. Word of Mouth Pass-a-Long – Your promotions can spread beyond Twitter, even to your off – line customers if you create deals worth spreading.  A few followers could potentially share your promotion with their non twittering friends, spreading your good deals and positive word of mouth.

5. PR Gravity – sharing on Twitter can connect you to media professionals looking for great stories.  If you share great content you can become a resource for your local media professionals.  Most local media professionals are on Twitter.  You can often by-pass the press release and communicate directly with journalists through Twitter.

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Are you building your personal brand to help grow your business?

@tommytrc does a great job explaining why it’s important to start building a personal brand.  Tommy has some great advice to help you get started creating the brand of you.

How does having a strong personal brand translate to building a successful business?  If people can relate to you on a personal level they will be more likely to want to do business with you.

It’s all about relationships and I agree with Tommy that relationships are coming back.  Personal branding and social media is fundamentally about relationships.   With the wonderful tools available today it’s easier than ever to start building your extended relationships.  You can grow a personal brand that will continue to evolve and grow as your talents and interests grow.  Your personal brand is a reflection of your passions, gifts and talents.

Be the Real You

When your building a personal brand it’s important that the story you’re sharing is real and authentic.

3 Steps to Starting your Personal Brand

@tommytrc shares 3 great simple tips to starting a personal brand.

1. Start slow, start small and build your personal brand

2. Just do it.  Jump in

3. Be Yourself

These are great tips from Tommy.   There is much wisdom in remembering these basic ideas.

Adding my thoughts on Tommy’s 3 Steps:

- Start Slow! If you’re new to building your personal brand there is no way you can know everything you need to know about all the various ways to build your brand.  Start small and start simply with one or 2 things.  Once you’re comfortable then add more to your personal branding mix.  Personal branding takes time and is a long term proposition, actually it can be a lifetime activity.

- Just Do It! I talk to people all the time that are overwhelmed with all the possible ways they can use technology to build their brand.  Honestly,  you have to jump in and find what works best for you.  The beauty of the tools and technologies available today is that most of them can be adapted to fit you.  Remember, you are build the brand of you.  You need to DO social media  the best way for you.

- Be Yourself! It is impossible to build a personal brand without being yourself.  As Tommy mentions people want you.   Put yourself into everything you share and do.   Be consistently in alignment with who you truly are.  Be the real you.

How are you building your personal brand?

Please share your thoughts about personal branding in the comments.

Thanks to @tommytrc for sharing with us your great example of the personal brand you’re building daily.

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Markets are conversations, Markets are open ended, marketing needs to be open ended.  The conversations flow between real people with real needs and if you can authentically help them fill their needs you create opportunities for your success.

Social media marketing is getting engaged in regular conversations with your community.

Your business is a conversation.

Everyday you are having conversations with your customers and your customers are having conversations with each other.  By paying attention to the conversations you help solve your customers challenges and strengthen relationships.  Be a real person, not just a business.  People connect with other people, not some faceless organization.

The relationship is what’s important.  What kinds of relationships are you creating with your social media marketing?

Pay attention by listening to the conversations.  Adjust your communication to fit the interests of your community.

As your community evolves your interaction with the community needs to evolve with it.

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Knowing how to market your business is one of the most important parts of building any business.

Here 10 tips for creating a cost-effective business marketing plan.

1. Know Yourself

Selling is about trust, and those with the best, most trustworthy stories win over customers. Businesses need to clearly articulate the reasons potential buyers should do business with them.

You must define who you are and live your brand!

2. Know Your Stuff

Confused consumers don’t buy, so businesses need to clarify the reasons why consumers would want to buy from them. Listening to the needs of the consumer is critical.  Be knowledgeable about how your service or product can fill those needs, and you can discover how you can be helpful and connect with customers.

Know your product / service inside and out so you can focus on adapting to the needs of your customer.

3. Don’t Go to Market Without a Plan

• Know your markets
• Select a target audience. You can’t be all things to all people.
• Do a thorough analysis of competitors.
• Understand the challenges and opportunities within your market.
• Communicate your objectives.
• Have a clear and compelling story.
• Become the go-to source for local media.
• Develop a realistic marketing  budget (about 2% to 5% of sales).
• Write a timeline for implementing the plan and decide who is responsible for implementation.
• Develop metrics for success. ( Many metrics aren’t easily measured.  It doesn’t mean they aren’t important )

4. Develop a Compelling Message

A successful message is one that is unique, meaningful, and credible; that addresses consumers’ emotions and intellect; and that decisively sells a company’s demonstrated results.

This is the time to be direct and promote the benefits to your customer.  Testimonials are a great way to support a compelling message.

5. If You’ve Got the Knowledge and Experience Share It

Let consumers know about your training and certifications.  Customers what to know they are doing business with a pro.  Take the opportunity and let consumers know that you know your stuff.

6. Fish Where the Fish Are

Be where your customers are.  Know who they are and where they hang out.  From local networks, to international social networking, know your audience and what they value.

7. Choose the Tactics That are Right for Your Audience

Must-have items in a successful marketing plan:

• Necessities: uniform logo, tag line, letterhead, business cards, signage, presentation materials, an attractive Web site and involvement in social media.

• Recommended: referrals and a public relations program, press releases about your company.

Blogging, Facebook and Twitter are wonderful way to connect with customers.

8. Get Quality Marketing Support

Hire a pro to help you develop your company’s marketing plan, strategies and tactics.

9. Speak the Truth

Trust is so important in today’s business world.  Tell the truth, be consistent and be in your integrity all the time.  It’s important to believe in what you do, you spend most of your life doing it.  You deserve be true to yourself and everything you do.

10. Raise the Tide

Help your industry grow.  Be helpful and supportive within your industry.  When consumers understand the benefits of your industry everyone benefits.  You can chose to be a leader that shares with your industry.  Sharing your knowledge and stories can grow your entire market.
Do you have any additional marketing strategies you would like to share?  Add your voice to our comments.

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Social Media Brand Smarts 101

Are you a smart social media player?

What are smart companies doing in social media?

They are listening to and engaging with their customers daily.

So simple and regular practice yields exponential results.

How can you engage smarter?

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Here are some of my favorite stories about the growing relationships businesses have with social media and some challenges in bringing social networking into organizations

Embracing social media
a wise choice in uncertain times
With a full circle approach social media can entirely reshape your organizations day-to-day means of communications. Social media offers great economies of scale and ever evolving relationships with wider and wider circles of your stakeholders. I like how this article talks about operationalizing around your communication functions. Engaging your customers through social media is an ongoing journey that will fundamentally shift your business reality.

Why Big Brands Struggle with Social Media

• big companies often consider social media as just another marketing channel

• doesn’t fit company structure

• global reach stretches corporate boundaries

• long term not campaign approach

Why Executives Don’t Get Social Media
Everyone is not a “connector” and some people are just not that interested in connecting with other people virtually. This article shares some perspective on types of people that get and don’t get social media and how to keep that in mind when integrating it into your organization.

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Is your business a media company?
If you are in business and share your story with your customers you are. Honestly I can not think of one business that doesn’t have the need to share their story and connect with their customers.

You can go the route of traditional advertising to tell your story with spots in the newspaper, radio and TV or you can produce your own media and share it through your interactive and multimedia website building your own media property, customized just for you.

Rick Burnes from HubSpot shares an excellent article on Mashable about why every company is a media company. I agree with him. Helping small businesses embrace web media and become comfortable with blogging and social media is what Mandala Life Media is here for.

In today’s connected world of interactive communication you have the ability to go beyond traditional marketing and build quality extended relationships with your customers. We can help you bridge the path to becoming your own media company creating the relationships that bring you and your customers added value.

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