HOW TO BRAND YOURSELF ON SOCIAL MEDIA

WANT RECOGNITION FOR YOUR COMPANY? IT BEGINS WITH BRANDING YOURSELF BETTER.

BY JASMINE SANDLER

Having a strong online professional reputation today is more important now than ever.

Thanks to the explosion of social media and websites that rank and rate CEOs as leaders, it is not just a checklist item, but a priority for any executive to have a strong and well-maintained online personal brand.

Your credibility as a leader is at stake when prospects, the media, competitors, stockholders, and colleagues cannot find you online. Further, if you are then found online and what is found is outdated, incomplete, negative, or inconsistent, then you as the leader are at risk of being viewed as a poor leader. This is like having bad press, and no leader or company can afford bad press in a world now driven by consumer perception and opinion.

Just think about CEOs that have failed to invest in strong online brands and others that have succeeded. In 2012 a blog post published by IT company (NET)net reported that Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer had a "paltry 46% internal approval rating with his own employees. Compared to his competitor, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who had a 97% approval rating "it’s a wonder how he remains the CEO." In that year, Microsoft missed major market opportunities in related profitability in search and online advertising, smartphones, tablets, social networking, mobile music, and e-readers, while others like Apple and Google took the lead.

THE BENEFITS OF BEING A POPULAR CEO BRAND ONLINE

According to CEO.com’s 2013 Social CEO report, only 32% of top CEOs had at least one account on a social network. Some 68% had no social presence at all. CEOs like Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have a significant social media presence, and it’s no surprised that they are more successful, boasting 97% employee approval ratings on Glassdoor.com.

When your employees love you online, you can guess that as an employer you will be provided more awards and top talent will be more driven to you than your competitors. When you amass loyal social followers and engage with them appropriately, your fans and your customers become your best marketers.

The mentions, comments, and shares you receive as a leader all support social signaling for SEO on the major search engines like Google, BING, and Yahoo. This will provide your company with a better chance at gaining a higher search engine optimization rank around your CEO and company names, leading to more leads and online sales.

Here are three ways you can help brand yourself like Mark Zuckerberg:

1. DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND POSITION

This is your individual market position, which you will then need to commit to as your company leader. Your position must include these elements:

• Your overall statement of how you are different, yet better than your competitive CEO. What sets you apart? If you were to interview yourself, what would you honestly tell yourself about your top strengths and why you have earned the right to lead your company?
• Your own personal mission statement as a leader and for what the company will deliver to its customers.

2. DEVELOP A PERSONAL BRAND COMMUNICATION STYLE

Create a communication standard that you can commit to time and again and perfect as you commit. Your communication style is what you, innately, are great at in terms of driving influence and action as a leader.

To uncover this, you need to assess and ask those that follow you around you where you excel. It may be as a speaker, a panelist, a writer, an interviewee, an analytical thought leader, a visionary, or someone with strong opinions, ideas, and experience in their industry.

Choosing your style in relation to online personal brand development is critical before you invest any time and money in the process.

3. DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IMAGE

When defining your CEO image online, consider these elements:

• Your image should be in line with your corporate culture. Even if you run or are a part of a small business, the culture is important to developing a brand.
• Your personal brand image must suit the audience you are serving.
• Your smile, gestures, tone of voice and writing style need to be authentic to who you are and support your need to make your audience comfortable.
• A positive image and appearance is crucial to acceptance by the media. Don’t overdo it, though. It must be honest.
• You need to determine, based on your culture, where you do business and what type of business you are in. In industries such as banking, a powerful persona may be in order; whereas in a technology company, perhaps a more relaxed presence is more suitable.

It is never too early for you to start assessing and building a personal online brand. As noted, there is plenty of room for you to take the lead as others ignore the obvious importance of a social CEO brand.

Take it one step at a time and do it right. Before you know it, your CEO brand will be synonymous with a strong position, style, and image and earning positive social sentiment, ultimately leading to new business.

—Jasmine Sandler is a global keynote speaker, corporate trainer, author, and consultant in digital marketing and social selling for business-to-business professional services organizations. Sandler has more than 15 years of client experience in helping businesses drive positive online brand awareness, qualified lead generation, and sales.

courtesy of www.NakiaEvans.com 

How to Start a Small Business in a Few Hours

By Jeff Haden | Inc – Tue, Sep 10, 2013 4:53 PM EDT

A neighbor had been talking about starting a business for at least six months. Whenever I saw him, that's all he talked about. Eventually, I got tired of it.

"What the heck are you waiting for?" I finally asked.

It turns out, he thought the process of starting a business was really complicated. "I don't want to go through all that stuff," he said, "unless I'm absolutely sure my idea is perfect." Like a lot of would-be entrepreneurs, he was stalling because he was intimidated by the apparent complexity of the administrative and legal tasks involved in starting a business.

So I bet him lunch that we could take care of all that in less than three hours.

Keep in mind, I'm only talking about setting yourself up to do business: I'm not talking about writing a business plan, sourcing financing, developing a marketing plan, etc. The goal is to get off Square One and get on to the fun stuff.

Here's how:

1. Get over the company-name thing.

Many people agonize endlessly over dreaming up the perfect company name. Don't. If you're waiting until you come up with the perfect name, you're also waiting to start making money.

Instead, at least for now, forget branding and unique selling propositions and all the business-identity stuff. And don't worry about finding the perfect URL or website design or promotional literature. You're putting those carts way before your business horse, too.

Just pick a name so you can get the administrative ball rolling.

Remember, your business can operate under a different name than your company name. (A "doing business as" form takes minutes to complete.) And you can change your company name later, if you like.

2. Get your Employer Identification number (EIN).

An EIN is the federal tax number used to identify your business. You don't need an EIN unless you will have employees or plan to form a partnership, LLC, or corporation.

But even if you don't need an EIN, get one anyway: It's free, takes minutes, and you can keep your Social Security number private and reduce the chance of identity theft, because if you don't have an EIN, your SSN identifies your business for tax purposes.

Note: If you're using an online legal service to set up an LLC or corporation, don't use it to get your EIN. Instead, apply online at the IRS website. You'll have your EIN in minutes.

Now it's time to head to your locality's administrative offices.

3. Register your trade name.

If you won't operate under your own name, your locality may require you to register a trade name. In most cases, you'll get approved on the spot.

4. Get your business license.

Your county or city will require a business license. The form takes minutes to fill out. Use your EIN instead of your Social Security number to identify your business (for privacy reasons if nothing else).

You may be asked to estimate annual gross receipts. Do your best to estimate accurately, but don't agonize over it. You're just providing an estimate.

5. Complete a business personal-property tax form (if necessary).

Businesses are taxed on "personal" property, just like individuals. Where I live, no form is required for the year the business is established.

If you are required to file a business personal-property tax form and you plan to work from home using computers, tools, etc., that you already own, you won't need to list those items.

If you purchase tangible personal property during your first year in business, you will list those items when you file your business personal-property tax form the following year.

6. Ask your locality about other permits.

Every locality has different requirements. In my area, for example, a "home occupation permit" is required to verify that a business based in a home meets zoning requirements.

Your locality may require other permits. Ask. They'll tell you.

7. Get a certificate of resale (if necessary).

A certificate of resale, also known as a seller's permit, allows you to collect state sales tax on products sold. (There is no sales tax on services.)

If you will sell products, you need a seller's permit. Your state department of taxation's website has complete details, forms, etc., if you decide to apply online, but most localities have forms you can complete while you're at their administrative offices.

8. Get a business bank account.

One of the easiest ways to screw up your business accounting and possibly run afoul of the IRS is to commingle personal and business funds (and transactions). Using a business account for all business transactions eliminates that possibility.

Get a business account using your business name and EIN, and only use that account for all business-related deposits, withdrawals, and transactions.

Pick a bank or credit union that is convenient. Check out your local credit unions; often theyprovide better deals than banks.

9. Set up a simple accounting spreadsheet.

Worry about business accounting software like QuickBooks later. For now, just create a spreadsheet on which you can enter money you spend and money you receive.

Bookkeeping is simple, at least at first. All you need are Revenue and Expenses columns; you can add line items as you go.

Instead of spending hours playing with accounting software, dreaming up potential expense and income categories, and creating fancy reports with no data, spend that time generating revenue. As long as you record everything you do now, creating a more formal system later will be fairly easy. It will also be more fun, because then you'll have real data to enter.

And now you're an entrepreneur, with all the documents to prove it.

(Oh. I didn't have to pay for lunch.)