Leverage Your Online Presence
"Give me a lever and i will move the world"
Archimedes
I'm a massive fan of Leverage, the show and the process, but probably the process more. I also believe, if you can get enough leverage over yourself, you can accomplish the most amazing feats.
In a similar way, if you can leverage your online presence, you can develop your brand quite substantially.
Here's my eight tips to make this happen:
1. Showcase Your Team
With permission, share photos of your staff in the office, or working with clients or the community. Thank them, in your post, for being who they are. Say what they do for the company. Announce a change, an accomplishment. You can do this all together as long as you don't leave anyone out. Or, go one-by-one and get a lot more content out of the opportunity.
2. Pictures with Quotes Get Shared
This is just a fact. Photos with a famous or inspirational quote are among the most shared content on the web. I know this seems really simple but if you put one out once a week among your other content, you'll see what I mean. It will often get more shares and likes than other content. Pro tip: Make sure you add your Twitter handle or website address in text on the image as well so that as people share it, they share your information.
3. Do A Simple Good Deed
This only works if you mean it. Don't fake it - people will see through that. But wouldn't it be nice to do a good deed? For a customer or for your team - maybe even have a good deed of the week or month and quietly share it. Inspire others or challenge others to continue the good vibes. Share it and challenge other small businesses to do the same.
5. Say It With Video
Whatever you want to say, add a video. Nothing high dollar is needed unless you are a video professional, and even then. Thanks to reality TV we are now willing as a society to watch poor quality video as long as we can understand what is being said and can generally see it on the screen. Unscripted is best. Or just make a PowerPoint and record your voice delivering it with software like Camtasia or Joomla. Videos get more play. Facebook will tell you how many people watched it. You can easily add video to an email campaign too.
6. Take A Moment To Really Be Yourself
Tell your audience who you really are, outside of the office. Do you play in a band? Have a cool vinyl collection? Speak more than one language? Share what makes you different/special/unique and just put it out there. You'll be surprised by how many people will not just like but identify with you.
7. Link to an Event you Will Attend
This can be an official work event like a conference or seminar but it can also be a great music concert or festival that lines up well with showing them who you really are. Encourage others to attend. Make sure the event host is able to see that you shared it if you can. (Example - on Twitter include the event hashtag or @handle with your tweet.) This is a public invitation to engage. Worth trying.
8. Share Your Music Playlist
If you use Spotify or Pandora or whatever, create a playlist of your favourite music to do taxes to, or to walk a dog or train for a 5k or for whatever you do for a living, make the list and then share access to it on social media and in an email. Music brings people together. You probably already have a playlist - send that one out.
Remember all our advice is free - drop us a line anytime: stu@madswansea.com