No doubt social media has spurred a frenzied school of anthropology all its own — especially as more and more brands have leveraged platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, among others. One craves a surefire understanding of consumers’ motivation in interactive arenas, and we want to know what springs them into action. Social sites continue to grow at astonishing rates as more people gain Internet access at home, work and on their mobile devices. As research powerhouse Nielsen reports, “In the U.S., social networks and blogs reach nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users and represent that majority of Americans’ time online.”

Hot off the press, Nielsen just released ‘State of the Media: The Social Media Report’ for the third quarter of 2011—and there are a slew of solid demographic nuggets that should pique a savvy marketer’s interest. Here are some of the most cogent insights revealed by the Nielsen report:

•  Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other site—which is why competitors such as Google+ and MySpace face such an uphill battle.
• Relying on mobile Internet access, users over the age of 55 are propelling the growth of social networks. And the 55+ demographic’s presence has doubled in a single year.
• Americans spend 22.5 percent of their time online visiting social networks and blogs, while online games are a distant second at 9.8 percent. Compare those numbers with the discovery that people spend a mere 7.6 percent of their time online with email and you gain a solid argument for brands entering the social media space.
• Here’s a breakdown of the most active social networker: She’s likely an Asian/Pacific Islander woman between the ages of 18 and 34, who lives in New England, has earned at least a bachelor’s degree and makes under $50,000 in income.
• While women are the most avid visitors of nine out of the top 10 social networks, men are more likely to visit LinkedIn and Wikia. In particular, LinkedIn is three-times more likely than other social networks to attract an audience with a post-graduate degree.
• It turns out that blogging platforms offer brands access to highly specific demographics. For instance, 41 percent of Blogger’s audience earns more than $75,000—while female teens are flocking to Tumblr.
• Maybe 2012 really will be the year mobile marketing goes gangbusters. Nielsen reports nearly two in five social media users access social platforms from their mobile phones. And social networking app usage is up 30 percent from the third quarter of 2010.
• More women view videos on social networks, but men spend 9 percent more time watching video and stream more videos than their female counterparts.
• While online, 60 percent of social media users create reviews of products and services—and brands are starting to take note. Consumer-generated reviews and ratings are the most popular source for information about a brand’s offerings. 53 percent of active social networkers follow a brand.
• Globally, Australians spend the most time visiting social networks and blogs, with an average of seven hours and 17 minutes spent per person. While the sites may differ from country to country, the extreme popularity of social networking sites and blogs is definitely an international phenomenon: 60 percent of active online users globally flock to such platforms.

A little insight goes a long way for a brand’s social media efforts—after all, no two audience segments behave precisely the same online. Social media offers brands the perfect opportunity to see strong results from niche targeting.

The rapid rise of social media has allowed skillful individuals to reach thousands of others at little or no cost other than manpower and wit.

However, as more and more people join the social media movement, it no longer takes just manpower and wit to win the attention of social media users.  What’s a entrepreneur, blogger, or content developer to do?

The answer lies within a smart investment in social media advertising.

Thinking of including a Facebook icon in your traditional advertising efforts? This makes good ol’ fashioned marketing sense.

Look up in the sky, up in the air, on that print ad in the latest issue of Wired. What do you see? Is it a bird? A plane?

Nope. It’s a Facebook icon or URL directing consumers to a brand’s Facebook page. Just about every major brand—and most of the smaller ones, too—are leveraging the powers of community and direct customer service on the social networking giant. And a slew of them are also spearheading innovative app development, creative work and promotions specifically designed to engage their Facebook followers.

But those same brands are also weaving their Facebook presence into traditional advertising mediums as well. While those icons and links on TV spots, print ads and billboards are usually static right now, new advances in technology could make them strikingly interactive in the very near future.

While it may seem like a flash-in-the-pan trend right now, we’re willing to bet that it’s a phenomenon that’s just picking up steam. Here’s why Facebook icons in particular can strengthen your advertising efforts:

Conversation is good for customer service

A Facebook icon immediately signals to your target audience the people behind the brand are listening—and interested in two-way conversation. No one enjoys navigating automated telephone options and long waits to speak with an actual human being. Facebook gives brands the power of immediate customer service—if they leverage the tool in the right ways.

Those icons may be static now — but not for long

With the recent launch of touchscreen technology such as Google TV and Apple TV, consumers can venture to a brand’s Facebook page as soon as they see a network commercial. And smartphone technology allows consumers to engage with brands when they’re on the move—so even if traditional ads aren’t clickable now, someone perusing your print ad in a magazine can easily find your brand’s Facebook page right then, right there.

Recruiting Facebook fans is actually a valuable enterprise

While social media ROI can sometimes be a little snaky, experts currently estimate the value of each fan to be roughly $140 (a solid average, with other estimate being higher or lower). In addition, Facebook analytics provide brands with actionable analytics to help them boost and custom-tailor products and services.

Brands can pair a Facebook icon with a targeted promotion or call to action

Sure most brands worth their salt already have a Facebook presence. But one way to really get the attention of your target audience is to connect the Facebook icon with a specific deal or call to action to motivate them to seek your brand’s page—and let their friends know about it.

Still, if you plan to alert consumers to your brand’s presence on Facebook, then be prepared to consistently engage with them — and give them reasons to frequent your brand’s page.

When you have an established presence on Facebook with either Facebook Pages or Facebook Events (or both), you can turn to Facebook Ads to allow your messages to reach a broader audience. Facebook Ads allows your message to turn into a trusted referral by including content from a user’s friends who are already affiliated with your products.

When you create your ads on Facebook Ad, the platform provides real-time suggested bids for its auction-based system. You can tweak your ad’s price and reach based on its various targeting filters such as age, college level and location.

An important advantage of Facebook Ads over other social media advertising options is its user-friendly  manager tool.

Marketers often target their Facebook ads at particular cities. Now Facebook advertisers can hone their ads to specific zip codes—a boon to small businesses that aim to reach a few slices of an urban or suburban population. And the feature is already driving strong results just weeks after its initial launch. According to Blinq Media, a major Facebook Ads API tool provider for ad agencies, zip code-targeted ads generate click-through rates that are twice as high as the city-targeted ads—and that could significantly increase a brand’s advertising recall, and drive more clicks and foot traffic.

Some businesses are able to invest in expensive public relations companies, hoping for any publicity in traditional mainstream news outlets. A lot of others for example, including bootstrap entrepreneurs, use “guerilla marketing” tactics to generate interest with almost no marketing budget.

We’re living in a globally connected world where both consumers and journalists alike are striving to connect directly with businesses and hear their stories of success, failure, and ultimately great success. Understand it’s not just about what your company does, but the reasons why you started it, what its purpose is, your mission and vision, your story.

Social technologies including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others have enabled businesses to not only become known, but more importantly connect directly with their audiences and build valuable relationships on a global scale never seen before. As an entrepreneur, you need to become the BRAND.

For many owners, it’s becoming much easier to brand themselves than the business. Here are a couple of very effective ways to do both.

Establish a Website or Blog under Your Full Name

One undeniable fact is both the media and your customers use search engines to do research about you, connect with you, and either will do business with you or interview you. This is the most compelling reason for you to purchase your full name as a domain name (yourfullname.com). Through the development of either a static website or a blog under “yourfullname.com,” you own the first search engine result (SER) for your name in Google and the many other search engines.

Understand this must be a site separate from your business website. Also, after acquiring the rights to your domain name remember to be sure to add your picture, a bio for yourself, your e-mail address and links to the rest of your online presence (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). This expands the way people can conveniently get in touch with you using the medium of their choosing. As soon as you finish reading this, claim the rights to your name before someone else beats you to it.

Generate Brand Awareness through Networking

If possible, you should be connecting with other businesses in your industry using social networks, such as Sprouter.com, and commenting on their blogs. Networking has proven to be one of the very best ways to become quickly known in your specific industry. Understand when you form lasting relationships with the people in your audience, you can successfully grow your business and just as importantly, your brand for the long-term.

Finally, it is important to understand these days that branding your business isn’t sufficient enough. Believe it or not, the world always listens and really wants to hear what you have to say. You should always keep in mind the fact if you aren’t building your own brand, your business will truly suffer. And if you want your company to succeed, become an expert in your field, claim a website under your own domain name, connect with the media, and build lasting relationships with your audience.

A memorable tagline also seems effortless—like a shining beacon of language that just landed on the page. But while a strong tagline can have a direct impact on the brand, finding the right one—the one which really connects with consumers—requires a thorough evaluation and development process.

A key part of any advertising tagline— is its longevity. One can tally up a bunch of taglines which have stood the test of time. For example, be sure the folks at DeBeers won’t be changing their “A diamond is forever” line any time soon—and that one was penned in 1948. The marketing folks at General Mills won’t be changing “Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions” in the near future, either. That line was created 75 years ago. Taglines like these have a way of working their way into a permanent place in consumers’ minds.

The good ones even become iconic—and they’re an important element in any brand’s toolbox, especially in today’s ultra-competitive and rapidly changing marketplace. Anything which can quickly get people to identify and remember your brand is critical to any business’s long-term financial success. After all, the cream of the tagline crop are more than just branded catch-phrases—they capture the reasons why a company is in business.

A tagline should achieve all of the following for your brand:

1. Communicate the brand’s unique value proposition (brand promise)
2. Be succinct
3. Be memorable
4. Cause a person to want to know more about or interact further with the brand

Achieving all of the above is more easily said than done. Over time, researchers have found the less sophisticated the client, the more they are primarily interested in a tagline which sounds good, even if it doesn’t really say the right thing or anything at all about the brand. Many relatively unsophisticated clients would choose a tagline option which sounds great but is completely off brand strategy over one which just sounds good but perfectly communicates the brand’s unique value proposition and brand promise.

The unique value proposition and brand promise are similar. They both focus on the one or two key points of difference between the brand in question and other brands. Typically, these points of difference are brand benefits, benefits that are relevant, unique, compelling and believable for the brand in question. Brands typically focus on only one or two benefits and research has shown people can’t link more than the number of benefits to a given brand in their minds. The first or most important benefit is sometimes referred to as the primary brand benefit.

Definitely, it is up to the brand consultant or marketer to create or recommend the perfect tagline, one which does all of the above, but the question is how many clients are willing to walk away from their brand strategy to embrace a cool sounding tagline which means nothing. It is heard by marketers their clients say many things about their required taglines such as: “Some like taglines because it could mean anything” or “some like the tagline because it could mean different things to different people.” Or worse yet, “That sounds so cool. Does it really matter if it communicates our brand’s promise?” Yes it does. Why bother with a tagline if it is not helping position one’s brand the way they want it to be positioned? Don’t settle for a tagline which just sounds good. Hence, keeping the process going until one is found and achieves all of the above criteria. By doing it in such a proper way one will be rewarded with a stronger brand.

What motivates us

To fully understand what your customers want from social media, you first need to understand what motivates individuals, both offline and online. There are differing viewpoints to be explored here. The psychologist Abraham Maslow presented a hierarchy of needs in his work ‘A theory of human motivation‘ in 1943. As much as this predates any concept of social technology that we have now, it can still be applied today. As can be seen below, Maslow split human needs according to different levels. Beyond the basic, pysiological needs, there are those levels that brands can hope to address :

While this model has received some criticism, it provides a useful reference point for brands to consider the needs of their consumers: basic motivations in day to day life. Beyond our basic needs for survival, we have a need for friendship, which helps to explain the huge appeal of social technologies in the first place. The concept of friendship was also explored by the philosopher Montaigne, who explored the idea in his early 1580 work ‘On Friendship’ that human beings are essentially shaped through nature, with a desire for friendship. Though this work was published hundreds of years ago, brands need to understand the basic human motivation of connection and friendship to begin to understand how to address this through social media.

The role of your customers

Looking at this in the context of social media, there is a further aspect brands must understand, in order to succeed. Whereas traditionally the majority of your consumers would have been confined to the role of ‘consumer’ alone, this has now changed through social technologies, when we now have a dual role of consumer and producer. As much as we consume content and products, we are now also responsible for the production of content, to keep our social communities thriving. And this may not necessarily be our own content, but content we discover online, which we have an interest in sharing. Consumers have evolved into mini media moguls, with a keen and almost innate understanding of the power of branding, personal PR and growing our media ‘empires’. And this is inextricably tied to the desire for friendship. The way to ‘friends’ online is through an active social profile, full of good links and the latest information.

It is at this point brands come in – providing the content which leads to this friendship among individuals, rather than having any direct role in the friendship itself. This is still misunderstood by many, who perceive people have any interest in becoming a friend of your brand itself. As harsh as it is, they don’t. But that doesn’t make you redundant from the process.

Where brands fit

With social media, brands have 4 basic jobs they need to fulfil : to bridge gaps between consumers (that is, the facilitation of online communities to connect;) to encourage a sense of belonging; to entertain; to inform. The first two are intrinsically social. How are you using social media to bring people together and foster the sense of community we desire? The last two are more directly linked to your brand. While you of course want to inform people about your brand to encourage interaction and commerce, you must also do this in a way which is entertaining, if you are to really succeed and achieve talkability. If you consider these 4 functions, it will help shape your social media strategy and give people what they actually want.

To put this into action, If you produce a video to inform people about your new product in an unexpected way, they are then encouraged to share it with their own online communities, which gives them kudos online and also spreads a community around your brand. In this example you have successfully achieved all 4 functions with one piece of content. And you have spoken to the dual role of the customer: as both consumer and then producer. You’ve given them something to write about and to share. At no point have you tried to ‘befriend’ the consumer, but you have positioned your brand in a different, positive way which will ultimately benefit you.

Sharing content is one of the most important considerations you must make in your social media strategy. The fact is if you are lucky enough to attract a customer to your Facebook Page for example, once they’ve interacted with you there for their immediate purpose, they want to leave as quickly as possible (harsh for some, but true). What you must then try to do is to help ensure this ‘interaction’ with your brand, extends beyond this initial contact. Provide something lasting for the consumer, they will share with their own community, so you then get to start the consumer journey all over again, with the next person.

First everyone should understand personal branding is just not a buzz word or a way for self-promotion today. It is process by which we can market ourselves to others and this can be done by every individual online. In other words, your personal brand is who you are, what you do, and your leading quality in the eyes of your ideal target market. Through social networks or social media you can get in touch with tons of people and this network will help you build your brand. Today there are many social media tools available to help you achieve incredible heights in no time and each one should understand the process to master it. With that in mind, REASM.com today shares Top 10 Tips To Master Personal Branding to achieve your desired success.

1. Select Niche

Personal brand in nutshell, is nothing but who you are and so it becomes important for you to select a niche for your persona. To separate yourself from the rest of the crowd, create your own niche to increases your visibility and preserve your reputation. Your selected niche should involve the application of one’s name to various products. For example, celebrity real-estate mogul Donald Trump uses his last name extensively on his buildings and on the products he endorses (e.g., Trump Steaks). When branding yourself bear in mind you must create a strong and reliable brand.

2. Identify Your Positives

Never be weak at your mission, you need to build up goals which can be achieved in a particular time. And for that you need to identify your positives and forget what is negative. Set up you goals and write down your mission statement along with a development plan on how to go about. Your statement must tell everyone what you do and who you serve. Include in your mission statement some inborn skills which match up to your personal mission. Cultivate and grow these talents to move ahead.

3. Be Precise and Clear

It is obvious you want all the business you can possibly get your hands on but that is not how to grow a strong and reliable for long time. You need to specialize. You cannot be all things to all people. You must be precise and clear about that one particular niche to serve your audience neatly. Don’t run behind ten different things and lose your precious clients. Accept the fact, if you might be good at one particular thing and perform that well, so you never miss any opportunity to grab your audience. It is okay to be narrowed down than to be dumped.

4. Establish Yourself In Chosen Niche

The key to productively branding yourself and doing it successfully is to first establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Once you have done that, concentrate on who you are and what you stand for within your selected niche. Your next step will be getting the word out through a variety of social media channels which are viewed by the people most likely to be interested in your message.

5. Let People Locate You Easily

Now that you established in your niche, you should allow people to locate you easily. Create social profiles at Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and more, so you are spread all over, then an audience can locate you easily. But make sure you maintain your social profiles, otherwise your whole brand can go to waste. Use business cards and email letters to strengthen your brand identity. Highlight your personal brand message with professional marketing communication tools. Every email message gives you a direct chance to connect your personal brand with a new company or individual.

6. Build Your Reputation

Building a strong reputation is the most important thing you could do to maintain your brand. Create your own personal branding website with your domain name, so when web surfers and other employers search your name, they get information about your career history, personal information and education qualifications. Build a solid personal brand with online activities which will further promote your personal mission and emphasize your career success optimistically.

7. Explore Your Audience

Audiences are what we need most to build up personal brands; they are the people who would pay attention to your work and also spread the good word around. So if you plying yourself to wrong hands, and then certainly it will be a waste of time. You must locate which consumers and companies will be interested in what you have to offer. Your audience should be your niche group of people and you must try by all means to give them as much value as you can.

8. Locate Your Competitor

The field today is too competitive to rest on your laurels. You should make sure your name remains in consumers’ minds when they need you, may be in next six months or later. You cannot assume they would remain your loyal buyers if you fail to keep your relationship current with them and your competitors will grab your buyer. So locate who is your competitor and stay ahead of them without trying to break their status.

9. Monitor Your Brand

A personal brand is just like an exotic sports car, where you cannot afford to let it run at top speed without any maintenance. If you do so, it would burn itself up. Likewise, in personal branding you’ve got to regularly monitor your brand to keep it relevant, alert, emotionally connected with audiences and to be different from the competitor. It is all about seizing every opportunity to meet someone new and maintain the pace with it.

10. Content Is Still The King

People enjoy reading fresh and relevant content, which is unique or in some way special to them. So to do this, you should customize your pitch to fit their preferences. Using social media – Twitter, Facebook or Social bookmarking sites, you can spread your information online and make connections with like-minded people. Write articles and blogs which can augment an audience’s knowledge about your brand in the industry.

Of course the most important factor here is trust! You must build trust with your audience, just think about service providers in your own life – be it your manager, your hair stylist or your account – all get your business because they carry good relationships with you, and that counts in so far as the services they provide. Try building personal rapport with the things you and your audience have in common. Bottom line is trust; your consumer/buyer must trust you emphatically!

After you have gathered together the essentials for embarking upon online branding, no doubt a strategy is the next thing that is needed. Those who develop the steps in their strategy that they are going to take are those who will be prepared to see their online branding through. The important distinction to make before you go any further than planning your strategy, though, is to decipher which would be a smarter entity to brand – you or your business.

For instance, if you want to do some branding for a business in the field of American Realtor Service, you have two options. You can brand your Real Estate entity or you could brand your own name as someone who specializes in real estate. If you choose yourself, it’s a fantastic way to humanize your services. It provides people a face they can focus on and trust. It makes the services personal, which is what everyone wants.

The way to do personal online branding is similar to that of online branding for a business. You simply focus on building up your own personal name instead of building up your American Realtor Service name, (for instance). The key behind online branding, whether it’s for you or your business, is to decipher what you want to be known as, thought of, used for. If you can figure out what the answers are to those questions and also decipher whether you should brand you or your business, you’ll be well on your way to online branding success. At this point, it’s simply a matter of deciding between whether or not your online branding efforts would best serve you by focusing on branding you or your business.

Social media is useful for almost every type of business. Cafes, retail stores, and even professional services can build their online reputation and increase trust. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can make themselves more accessible, more personable, and maintain long term connections. For a small business looking to increase referrals, social media can be a powerful tool.

Here are five ways small businesses can capitalize on this new form of marketing.

Why use social media?

The best way to illustrate why small businesses are using social media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. In those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting. Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.

Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).

We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.

1. Local Social Networks

For local businesses with a storefront, sites like Yelp can make a real impact. Yelp allows businesses to create listings with all the necessary information for a consumer to find you, while other customers can review and comment on your business. Many of these sites will let business owners “claim” their listings and add information, such as phone numbers, store hours, menus, etc.

Consumers use local social networks to find businesses, but also to get social proof when making a decision. They use comments and reviews to go with the “best” listing. Because of the demographic these sites target (people ready to make a decision) small businesses can see a great return from local social networks.

2. Blog or Social Hub

When most businesses begin a social media campaign, they tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. They usually forget to incorporate their own site and tie their social profiles together. Our second big win, is the creation of a blog or social hub. Why push your consumers to connect with you on other sites, but not give them a reason to visit yours?

Building and writing a blog may be time consuming, but it creates a way to connect with users on your own website. Additionally, creating useful content such as how-tos or industry insights can keep customers engaged.

For business owners that don’t have the resources to update their blog regularly or can’t think of what they’d write, I suggest building a “Connect” page. A connect page, or social hub, offers readers a way to find your business’ most active profiles and join you on those social sites. The page could also include a short bio or how you use each social site.

Giving consumers a reason to visit your site is extremely important. A blog or social hub can pull consumers to your site and into the sales funnel.

3. Twitter

Everyone is talking about Twitter. So why is it a big win? Simple: it connects you with your consumers in real-time via the web, desktop applications, and even mobile. Finding a way to offer value while humanizing the business can lead to a stronger following and increased word of mouth marketing.

A great example is CoffeeGroundz, a small coffee shop in Houston, Texas. The author of their Twitter account is charismatic and his commitment to customer service has drawn a lot of attention to his business. By being engaging and interacting with the community @CoffeeGroundz has been able to double their clientele.

With Twitter, business owners are able to cater to their consumer’s needs instantaneously. In a world where everything needs to be done yesterday, a quick response can create a lifelong customer.

4. Facebook Fan Page

Another major social site to target is Facebook. Creating a Fan Page is simple, but truly utilizing it to its fullest potential takes some guidance.

A Fan Page allows a business to visualize and build a community, similar to Twitter. However, unlike Twitter, you can add and customize a great deal more.

At the very least a business should update their Fan Page “status” to keep consumers informed and engaged. A more advanced technique would be to add things like coupons or Google maps directions to the storefront. These kind of resources give consumers a reason to visit the Page and interact with the brand.

5. Custom Wiki

The final tip is to use a custom wiki, which takes advantage of a phenomenon called crowdsourcing. In other words, use your customers to give information to other consumers.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a wiki for your FAQ or Customer Service knowledge base. Let your consumers enter the problems they’ve had via a public forum (the wiki), and provide your responses publicly as well. Although showing problems may seem backwards, it’s a very effective way to retain customers and generate new sales.

Consumers aren’t stupid, they know mistakes happen. Instead, they want to see that their questions will be answered quickly. Also, with a public wiki, customers can see if a concern has already been addressed, saving time for both you and the customer.

With minimal moderation, a wiki can build trust in your business and make your customer service more efficient.

Know Your Audience

When Ice.com, a Montreal-based online seller of jewelry, launched a Facebook campaign last year called “Love Story” to sell more jewelry around Valentine’s Day, they knew their target audience: women between ages of 35 and 60 living in USA and Canada. And they knew where to find their target market to acquire more leads online: Facebook.

Participants in the campaign were asked to tell their love story on a custom-built Facebook page in return for the chance to win a piece of jewelry.

“We promoted the campaign on our website, via our email channel, in advertising on Facebook and via other social-media channels—wherever we had a voice,” says Dave Haber, director of search and social media at Ice.com. “Following the close of the contest, we sent an email to all participants giving them $50 off their next purchase.”

The result of their finely-targeted campaign? About 4,300 Facebook fans, 965 love stories, $4,000 in profit above the value of the redeemed email coupons as well as an estimated several thousand dollars in indirect sales.

They might not have broken even in the short term, but he is confident they’ve now got hundreds of new loyal customers who will keep purchasing from Ice.com in the long term. Success came from knowing their audience – and how to build on it.

Set realistic expectations

Setting expectations for inputs for your social media efforts is another key to success. Don’t bet on going viral immediately. Aim for growth, but be realistic about what different kinds of social media tools will get you.

Blogs are a popular (some would say critical) social media tool, offering the ability to boost brand and advertise deals to bring in actual sales. Remember “funny” gets eyeballs and there’s no profit in “playing it safe”. The point is to get noticed.

Open Road Communications Ltd. are the Vancouver-based maker of social intranet software called ThoughtFarmer. The company derives 100% of its business from inbound leads to its website, with customer deals ranging from $10,000 to $200,000. The objective of their campaign was to boost the number of sales leads. They used a blog, targeted at IT workers and managers. It was funny, at least for IT professionals. And for $7,000 for an outside firm to set it up, it worked.

“Of those visitors, we can see that 474 then proceeded to our website,” McGrath explains. “At our typical conversion rate, those 474 visitors will result in about one sale, at an average sale price of $30,000. Our sales this quarter shatter all previous records and are a 270% increase over the same quarter last year,” suggesting multiple sales from the campaign.

The company had a creative campaign, a focus on their objectives and metrics to measuring ROI – and success followed.

“As a rule of thumb, we recommend that a company start by spending 25% of its web-oriented resources, which might include site design and development, email marketing, SEO, online advertising and so forth, on social-media marketing,” says Darren Barefoot, founder of Capulet Communications Inc., the Vancouver-based social-media consulting firm which worked with ThoughtFarmer. “They can always tweak it up or down based on their performance.”

Adapt and overcome

Successful companies don’t just set up a blog or Twitter account and let it run on autopilot until the phone starts magically ringing off the hook. You have to measure your success: web traffic, online coupons redeemed, shopping cart transactions, or whatever it is you want to grow.

Free software like Google Analytics is great. You can pay for sales tracking software through SalesForce.com. Or you can just track it manually in a spreadsheet. Track the data, ditch what isn’t working and plunge your resources elsewhere.

PostcardMania, a lead-generation firm which employs more than 150 people learned the hard way what works and what doesn’t. Thanks to tracking, they see real ROI.

First, they paid $15,000 US to a social media marketing agency to set up, create, design and manage all of their social-media profiles, says Ferris Stith, PR and social media manager for the Clearwater, Fla.-based firm. An additional $7,500 US per month went towards maintenance.

Stith was set to track incoming leads. But there was nothing to track. Not one lead. The outside firm had developed platforms but no real relationships. The “social” part of the social media effort was missing. No buzz meant no incoming eyeballs and no sales.

They cut off the outside firm and brought in an in-house sales representative. She produced blog posts and a few Facebook links. But the effort was tentative, infrequent and failed to present a consistent and confident voice for the company. Stith tracked the few leads coming in and after giving the lady six months, pulled the plug.

As the head of PR, Stith then took on the social-media role for the company directly, which generated more leads with little to no effort. “Last week alone, we received 10 new subscribers to our newsletter and five of them were new leads,” Stith says. “All I did was create a tab on our Facebook page where people could sign up.”

Now she’s putting more effort into Twitter and Facebook, gaining hundreds of followers—more potential leads. She’s actively promoting the company and engaging her target market. And they’re tracking success, noting that based on her salary, the company needs to generate eight new leads a week.

“Our CEO is very adamant about tracking leads and how many marketing dollars it takes for PostcardMania to get that lead,” Stith says. “She knew just how many leads she needed per week to make it worth the time, money and effort.”

That’s where businesses should start. Take a look at your past marketing efforts. Understand who you’re selling to. Set expectations and follow up with inputs matched to realistic outputs. Track performance. Success will follow.

Imagine if you didn’t have to spend the first 50% of your time with a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how you do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for you? You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather than educating your prospects about your business.

Personal branding is the process by which business people differentiate themselves by identifying and effectively articulating what makes them different or unique from their competitors – what makes them stand out from the crowd – a sort of personal USP (Unique Selling Proposition), if you will. This is especially important if you’re a service provider in a competitive field.

If you don’t stand out from the crowd, that means you’re just like everyone else – a white jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. And if you’re just like everyone else, why should customers or clients choose you over your competitors? Answer: They shouldn’t, and they probably won’t!

Following are 5 profitable reasons why you should establish your personal brand:

1. Gain Expert Status

Without branding yourself, people will not perceive you as an expert. You will simply be another carnival barker in a sea full of carnival barkers. Branding yourself will give you expert status (provided, of course, you really are an expert) – and a much bigger megaphone.

2. Credibility and Trust

With the advent of the Internet and the world-wide dominance of Google, nowadays, as a business person, you are pretty much your Google search results. Let’s face it, any responsible person considering doing business with you is going to do their due diligence and search for information about you online to see if you’re legitimate and trustworthy. And if they can’t find you, or have a hard time finding you in Google’s universe, guess who’s going to get their business?

That’s right, if your competitors are more visible than you are in the search results, the perception will be, they’re more professional and trustworthy than you are. That means they’re going to get the business you could be getting. The best way to prevent that from happening is to effectively establish your personal brand – stand out in the crowd.

3. Gain An Edge On Your Competition

Earlier, I described personal branding as “the process by which business people differentiate themselves by identifying and effectively articulating what makes them different or unique from their competitors – what makes them stand out from the crowd – sort of a personal USP (Unique Selling Proposition).”

I also said, “If you don’t stand out from the crowd, that means you’re just like everyone else – a white jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. And if you’re just like everyone else, why should customers or clients choose you over your competitors?”

Well, by effectively establishing your personal brand, you automatically become a black jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. You stand out!

4. Increase Your Value

Establishing your personal brand will increase your perceived value and give you the ability to charge higher fees – provided, of course, you’re good at what you do. This will automatically increase your income. And if you are really good at what you do and your clients are satisfied, they will refer you to other clients. Higher fees, satisfied clients and referrals…This personal branding thing is sounding better all the time, isn’t it?

5. Gain Confidence

As you become more and more successful because of your personal branding efforts, you will also become more confident. This confidence will be obvious to everyone who comes into contact with you, including potential clients who will be magnetically attracted to you because of your confidence.

Create a Logo for Your Brand

Your logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand awareness.

The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing mishmash of logos and banners and heaven knows what else. Everything you produce needs to use the same, consistent style of logo so that, over time, your logo becomes synonymous with your brand. Instant recognition is what you’re going for here, so don’t dilute it by using several different logos for different purposes.

To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used consistently and frequently in everything you produce, whether that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures, quotations, invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website, on the front door of your principal place of business and on your products. And don’t forget to be consistent in your use of color schemes. These can be powerful brand reinforcers.

Another benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend increasing your brand awareness through promoting and marketing your brand to your target market automatically transfers to your products and services. So, even when you’re advertising your brand, you’re indirectly also marketing your products and services.

Brand Your Name

Ideal for people whose name is their business (Real Estate Agents, Insurance Agents, Accountants, Mortgage Brokers etc.), and small businesses who want to brand their name with their email address

1. You never have to change your email address again.
2. You can change your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and your email stays the same, saving you money in advertising and business cards etc.
3. You’re always marketing your name or brand and business when clients contact you.
4. The internet is very cost effective marketing.
5. Once you own your name it’s yours forever.