Like Me!

I sat on my couch munching the contents of a bag of regular Tostitos. Nothing better than hanging with my kids, tortilla chips and some homemade guacamole.  Chips and a movie, this time?  Ghost Ship, a family favorite  - there is a fantastic twist scene when all is revealed, check it out some time.

While snacking, I went to grab the bag of chips and noticed the Facebook button on the bag. Yep, Tostitos expects consumers to login, look up their fan page, and then “like” them.  I think the fact that I am eating right of the bag proves I like them.  But there you have it, Permission Marketing. Bring the consumer to you. Compel the consumer to follow a trail of bread crumbs and convert curiosity into brand loyalty. If you “like” the product, you have consented to contact, you have consented to receipt of future coupons or emails or ads up and down the right-hand side of your Facebook wall.

I have been talking about this exact thing for a few years now, actually advocating for it. But I must admit, it’s kind of scary to see it come to fruition. The potential was undeniable, it was exciting and different. It was new, it was contemporary and Corporate America seemed to shun the possibilities – for awhile. That is until a few took the plunge. I remember just two years ago seeing random companies adding Twitter and Facebook buttons to their advertising. Over three years ago, I consulted smaller companies and convinced them to create fan pages and start engaging. They were eager to learn more, especially when I told them their competition wasn’t doing it. Yet.

Currently, I like over 170 pages – translatable into a brand, product, service, person, or form of art. That’s down about fifty from last Fall, as I recently went through my Facebook likes and deleted those that I didn’t remember even liking, those I no longer liked, or those I saw no need to like and no longer wished to receive messages from. I will filter through my “likes” again soon – Spring Cleaning, as it were.

Facebook is now considered a strong and necessary marketing strategy. With its rate of growth, it will not be long before the number of FB profiles reaches One Billion, predicted to happen this summer or sooner. That is a lot of consumers – all in one place, all in one database.  Most companies get the picture of what that represents. Chance. Opportunity. Growth. Branding. But it also means maintenance. It isn’t easy, it won’t be easy. Make it worth the endeavor, not a wasted effort. The payoff will be a direct result of what is put in. It will require consistent work . That means exertion, which means it isn’t free.

So the old selling point of: Social Media is FREE?  Umm, no longer applies.

Do you think liking a brand, product, service, person, or art form that you don’t really like, that you don’t really use, that you don’t really care about helps that company / person?  Facebook is about YOU.  It is about you getting what you want.  I personally love the ads on Facbook, I love the tech/algorithms that make that happen.  It is incredible where we have come from and the future is intriguing and a bit scary, as well.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Just this last weekend I visited my hometown of Google, Kansas (AKA, Topeka).  I caught up with family and friends while squeezing some time in for a little business.  Throughout our whirlwind weekend, we drove from place to place, and I made sure to check into Four Square and Gowalla every chance I could. Why? Because just like any social networking site, it’s about sharing and being present where-ever and whenever you are.

The term geolocation refers to an application that allows the user to broadcast their location using the internet.  These apps are available on mobile devices like your blackberry, android, iphone, and even the world wide web.  Registered users log into an application like Four Square and check into their  physical location, event, or venue while broadcasting their check-in to their friends, social media networks, and those on the internet.

Another feature similar to geolocation now available on the popular micro-blogging site, Twitter is called geotagging.  Geotagging allows Twitter users the option to share their location to their followers, search engines, and other third party tools that work alongside Twitter.  As social media and sites like Twitter and FaceBook have served as conduits to link users with one another across the global, geo brings the focus back to your local and present community.  Users of all three of these tools have access to local and real time trends, information, and people whether you are a long time resident or just passing through.

But why personal branding?

Geo tools present an new and exciting way for users to network, develop relationships, engage a customer base, and build a brand within a niche community or ecosystem.  Building a brand reputation, recognition, or relationship takes time and touches. Customers want to do business with a brand who is recognizable and has a solid reputation built on recommendations from trusted sources like friends and family.  And with your personal brand, geolocation and tagging tools are another new facet of the marketing and branding package that sets you apart from the rest.

Blogging, Twitter, and FaceBook–Everybody’s doing it.

Imagine that you frequent a number of local businesses near your home or work and you happen to be the mayor of two nearby coffee shops, PT’s Coffee (locally owned) and Starbucks (global chain).  As mayor of both these locations, your profile picture and name are viewable to everyone who checks into the location as well as your network.  Tools like these increase your exposure and number of touches among potential companies, clients, employers, or even website visitors.  As you check in, you are sending a subtle but targeted reminder of your name or brand.  And because customers of coffee shops like Starbucks’s average household income is in excess of $80,00 and are 42 years old, it is safe to assume that many target customers work in high level and decision maker type positions or are influential and connected within the community.  Surely the kind of people you are interested in being connected with and getting top know, right?

As geolocation tools like Four Square become more mainstream with more than 500k registered users in March 2010, it’s a safe bet that a geo presence will only benefit your personal brand by increasing your brand recognition, strengthen relationships and quite possibly drive traffic to your website and your other social profiles.

Learn more about Gelocation Recruiting and Sourcing Strategies here.

Photo Credit Same Forzley.

The idea of brand management is growing and gaining momentum among the corporate and professional communities. Over the last two weeks I have given three presentations on the topic to business and HR professionals and job seekers and received almost a dozen emails and phone calls. Bottom line is that your reputation is everywhere and online is no different.

Just last week, Ad Week released a monetary dollar figure attached to FaceBook Fan (now Like) Pages. Based on Virtue’s research of their own clients, they determined the average value of a Fan is $3.60. This is the first ROI evaluation I have found that places a value squarely on a personal network. If your friend, fans, connections, subscribers, and followers are now being seen as having value. Having a strong online brand and presence is essential to your future success in the workforce. I believe that over the next 12 months, jobs seekers will begin to be evaluated for more than just their education and work experience but social media and networking presence as well. It’s already happening by some very progressive companies like Best Buy who requires 250 Twitter followers to be considered for their social media positions, and it’s only a matter of time before sales positions, marketing, PR, and maybe even HR will follow suite.

Since reputation and the perception by contacts, clients, co-workers, and companies are so important. Your online brand should be closely monitored so that you can quickly and immediately be alerted to any negative comments or perceptions so that you can work to rebuild or clarify comments, concerns, or misrepresentations expressed or implied by others.

• BackType. BackType is a tool that monitors your brand and key words of blog comments. If you are mentioned, represented, or comment on a blog or page, you will receive an email alert. This is a great way to make sure that your brand isn’t being misrepresented. As a company or individual, I would also encourage signing up for alerts of company names, competitors and common mis-spellings of your name and your competitors.

• BoardTracker. BoardTracker does exactly what it says. It tracks brand and key work mentions on discussion boards and forum sites. You control the key words and when it is distributed. This is a great way to go beyond Google Alerts and really dive into your brand outside of what the Google web crawlers find.

• TweetBeep. TweetBeep is not necessarily a new tool but one worth mentioning. It allows you to set up key word alerts from Twitter sent to your email at regular intervals. The basic service is free but if you are looking for instant and real time alerts, you will pay a nominal fee.

• SocialMention. SocialMention is another site that manages your social brand and key word content but across social networks and blogs. Visitors can use the key word search option for real time and immediate search or set up alerts. One of the drawbacks to the site is that if you have a large presence on social media, it Social Mention is difficult to navigate, but it does provide you with an all in one option.

Shout out to Dan Schawabel for website insights, recommendation, and good conversation.

Photo Credit Fazianbaloch.

I have often said that being a blogger has been the best and most important career decision I have made, and it’s true.  I enjoy writing and being a thought leader in my industry.  Bloggers who are serious about putting out quality and interesting content often before major publications and newspapers do, work very hard to write and produce good information.  It requires a lot of research, preparation, and creativity.  For me, blogging it not about making money.  It’s about building relationships and growing your personal and professional brand.  Because I have worked hard to build my name and brand, blogging affords me a lot of benefits.

• Networking. Blogging is a great way to meet with authors and speakers with whom you admire.  You are able to connect with them and establish a relationship while interviewing them for a blog or website.  I have been able to make and build relationships with some very influential people in my professional career as a result of blogging.  Their insight and mentoring has changed my career path.

• Media Access. As a blogger who has worked hard to build my brand, I have the ability to attend conferences and special events as media where I can blog, network, and interview presenters, attendees, and vendors.  Of course, I have to put out articles and content as a result from attending the conference.  It’s nice to be seen at events as a relevant and viable form of media.

• Client Testimonials and Work Examples. A good blog post with comments and conversation aims to make a potential client or customer’s decision to hire you much easier.  I am able to lead a prospective client to my site allowing them to view my work, my thought process, and insight into me and what I value.  It’s a living resume or profile that goes beyond the usual work experience into your passions and revelations.

• Special Blogger Access. I was able to plug in at SXSW and charge my labtop, iphone, and other electronics in a lounge specifically for bloggers at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference.  The folks there treated the bloggers very well with live music, beer, breakfast, and some free goodies.  I met and connected with some amazing folks while I was there while getting some work done at the same time.

• Cool Stuff. There are times as a blogger that I have access to new technologies, products, and articles and publications.  People want to know your opinion and will send you iphone apps, pokens, and other gadets to review or write about if you so choose.  Before writing that review, consider how reviewing the newest gadget or book you received will impact your overall brand and image in the marketplace.  And don’t forget to research and understand the FTC’s view on receiving and reviewing product as a blogger.

With blogging growing in popularity each day, your personal brand and your blog’s message is even more important.  Building your following and relationships takes time, but the payoff can be more than what you expected.

Photo Credit k-12 Online Teachers

“A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures” – Michael Eisner, CEO, Disney

What Mr. Eisner is saying is that the small things matter when it comes to your organization’s brand. Every interaction impacts the perception participants have of your brand.

When the topic of brand comes up in conversation, most people’s minds go straight to the outward, consumer facing side of a brand the side that customers see and interact with. But that isn’t a complete view of a brand; in fact inner beliefs and culture directly affect the outward actions and performance of a brand. After all, how many organizations do you know of that don’t have a single frontline employee that interacts with customers on a regular basis? I’m going to guess very few.

Let’s take another look at Michael Eisner’s quote. He describes a brand as a living entity, that is enriched or undermined. What a better way to grow and enrich a brand than by focusing on the people and culture inside the organization? And who better to facilitate an inward focus on brand than Human Resources, the task force in charge of recruiting, hiring, training and coaching the organizations greatest assets “it’s people” to become better teams and leaders?

In most organizations, brand ideology is embedded into some activities more than others. For example, it is standard in most companies to an orientation process, where new hires learn the history of the company and it’s beliefs. It’s in these moments that employees learn this is how we do things here lessons about the brand.

Outside of these few brand centered occasions it can be very easy to overlook the day-to-day processes and the implications they have on the brand. I believe it is in these small day-to-day activities that the most opportunity exists to build the brand into the culture. Ultimately, an orientation may make an impression on a new employee, but it’s the everyday experiences that the employee is going to live. If the stated company beliefs don’t match up with daily experiences, then which perception of the brand is the employee is going to take to heart? You bet! Their own.

While working with clients to help them continually improve and grow their brands, I’ve developed a simple framework to help them fully grasp the depth and complexity of the many ways that their brand is experienced, and also help them improve this experience over time.

I call it the Touch Cycle. It’s a great method for diving in and exploring the many touchpoints of your brand, and learning where you can make improvements.

Here are the steps:

1.  Choreograph Touches

• List all the HR touchpoints large and small.
• To make this easier start breaking down all the activities that HR is in charge of in your organization (trainging, hiring, recruiting, etc.). Now start listing all of the interactions that take place within these segments of HR.

2. Listen and Watch

• Observe how people interact with your touchpoints. Are there any breakdowns in communication? Are they responding the way you thought they would?

3.  Reinforce Behaviors

• Encourage on brand behaviors at each touchpoint.

4.  Evaluate and Expand

• Take a look at all the work you’ve done in steps 1, 2, and 3. Evaluate the effectivness of the touchpoints you identified in step 1. Determine what’s working and what’s not. Were there any surprises? What insights did you gain from this process?Is value being added at each point of contact, giving people a reason to further engage? Are there touchpoints that we should eliminate? Are there areas what we should expand into and add new touchpoints to the brand experience?

I outline this process in detail on my blog “ The Brand Touch Cycle

Use this tool to help you identify, analyze and improve the brand touchpoints of your HR activities. Here are some things to consider during your analysis:

Speed - How fast do you respond to job inquiries or resumes sent your way? How long does it take for an internal issue to be identified and dealt with? In this day and age, speed isn’t hoped for, it’s expected.

Culture “ Are you proactively recruiting talent that is passionate about your brand? Or are you just trying to fill a job description?

Empower “ How easy is it for employees to send organizational complaints or suggestions your way? Have you built and intranet for collaboration?

Procedure and Paperwork  Are all the forms, procedures and paperwork required of employees necessary? Do they align with the brand?

I hope you will take this as a challenge to explore the internal touchpoints of your brand and continually improve them to grow a better organization, one that employees are proud to work for and consumers want do business with a strong brand.

Chris Wilson is our guest blogger and is a  Marketing and Brand Strategist and author of the Marketing Fresh Peel.  He is the Digital Brand Strategist at Hester Designs.  Find him on Twitter @Freshpeel.

Photo Credits bsamp & FreshPeel

Slideshare is a great way to showcase your creative talents and build your online brand and presence. Take a look at the slideshare I created below based on my recent post titled, “7 Ways to Network on a Shoestring Budget.”

With a little time and creativity, you can market yourself using your slideshare presentation on all social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter. What a great way to get a leg up on the competition.