So,
how do you become "known"?
It's not easy, and if easy is what you're after, you've come to the wrong
place.
I'm sorry for the length of this page, but there are many steps involved.
[Small Business Owners - be sure to
follow the link located at the end.]
And whether you call it Social Media or something else,
these are the
keys you'll need for success.
As the CEO of
yourself, the custodian of your "brand",
you need to take control and do
everything you can
---AT ALL TIMES---
to be sure YOU are the best you can be.
[What to find out more about yourself? Take the DISC
profile test. COMING SOON!.]
Here are the
steps you'll need to take to be "Known":
Immediately get a domain name
with your name (i.e., yourname.com).
You can use any domain name service and there are many, but I suggest
1&1.
You can purchase your domain name for as
little as $6.99/year!
What a great investment!!
And don't forget about your .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc. options.
Create a web-site.
Using your new yourname.com domain, start your virtual branding of yourself
through your own
web-site, accessible to anyone with web access across the globe.
Do this even if you only have a one-page site. You
can do that
here.
Establish yourself in social media
communities.
First,
check to see if your desired username or vanity url is
still
available at dozens of popular Social Networking and Social Bookmarking
websites
by going to this site.
There are many, but one of the most popular and visible is
LinkedIn.
This gives you the opportunity to connect and build a community
with other business professionals. This is also a great way for
search engines to find you and/or your company.
The next best site to sign up for is
YouTube. Though
this site may be best known
as a site to post personal videos, this is a wonderful site to use for
business purposes.
Set it up to brand yourself and/or your business. Upload video's of
your self, your store, your
services, your team members, and---most importantly---customer testimonials!
Next, set-up
a Facebook account -
for yourself if an individual, or
a Fan
page
if a business. Connect with friends, family and colleagues to start
with,
be sure to include connecting with any vendors that have Facebook pages.
Then,
sign up for a MySpace
account. Another tried and true social
media site to build your brand and community.
You can use these sites to market your brand,
and it's another way to be KNOWN.
Provide your connections with value, information, events, photos, videos,
testimonials, and then (and only then) throw in a little marketing stuff
along the way.
I recommend you have a Twitter
account too. This gives you
an opportunity to micro-blog information and connect with your
customers as well. Then constantly monitor your
business via Twitter
Search and proactively communicate with your
customers especially those
who may be posting negative comments
about you and help
them resolve their problems.
The great thing about all these
sites---THEY'RE FREE!
All it takes is the effort on your part to sign up & create
the site
with information.
My advice---keep them mostly business based and
limited personal information on them.
Make sure you connect/link
all your sites to each other.
Driving traffic from one of your sites to the other is key in
helping your success and your ability to be known.
Make sure you use some "sharing" software on all the sites that allow
you to post it. One of easiest to use is
ShareIt.
Another is
Add This.
Join a local networking organization.
Again, there are many of these too, but my first suggestion
is to
join your local
Chamber of Commerce. Even if you join as an individual (which you
can)
you will be around other business people who are looking to grow themselves
and their company.
BNI is another
organization you can consider joining.
Find one
in your area.
Look for other local opportunities with civic organizations. Find
something you're
passionate about and support them with your time & efforts. This is a
great opportunity to
serve others and become known.
Be sure to have gather business cards while you're at these events, writing
down
notes about the person as soon as you finish speaking with them on their
card (so
you don't forget). Follow-up with a thank you message within a few
days.
Also, be sure that you don't sit with the people you know, always
sit with someone new at each event.
Create a stand-out business card.
Don't give someone a boring, 'they'll never save' business
card.
Create a custom card, even if you have to purchase it yourself,
that makes a statement about YOU.
I personally use
Vista Prints and
find their pricing extremely reasonable,
they offer custom cards and their
service has always been great.
This is a good point to
speak about contact information: Be sure to keep your personal
Outlook
Contact information updated & accurate. Any time you meet someone
new and get their contact
information, be sure to immediately add that information to your contact
list (always grow this list),
e-mail your new contact with a THANK YOU message, and be sure to attach
your contact information
to the e-mail so they can easily save this electronic version to their
contact list.
You can also join Plaxo
which will help you keep all your contacts updated as you update your
contact information from time-to-time. Another good location to
help you be known.
One last item concerning
posting links in all your websites (blogs, official, social media,
etc.): Use bit.ly or
BudURL to
shorten your links, to keep them from reveling the link message as some
links often do, and this also helps track how many people are using
them.
Learn how to become a great NetWeaver.
Books, research, articles, etc. at
their site.
Now that you have your
domain name, your website, your blog, your YouTube -
MySpace - Facebook - LinkedIn -etc... you need to make sure the search
engines find them.
Start submitting your site URL's to them at the
Google site,
the Bing site, and the
Yahoo site.
Become a Great Servant to Others. Zig Ziglar says, “You
can have everything in life that you want if
you will just help enough other
people get what they want.”
Start today by focusing on serving & helping others succeed.
You'll
soon see that not only do you feel good yourself when you help others win,
but you will also find that this begins helping you in your success as well.
And with great success will come great wealth.
Miscellaneous Keys To Continuing Success.
Additional items you'll need in addition to the others listed above
to help assure your success (regardless of whether you're a
business or a individual):
