The Importance of You Connecting to Your Brand

Yep, that's me...RockStar! JaymesGrace. That's how colleagues know me. That's how clients know me. That's even what is says on my Press Kit - RockStar! Why RockStar? Well, many say I have a Rock Star (and I have even heard Super Star) name. And my name suites me as does that persona. It's indicative of my "flow" as a colleague recently called it; it's even reflective of the manner in which I teach and give seminars. It is my Personal Brand!

Anyone who has ever taken a class, visited my website, or worked with me in regard to their personal branding knows I am famous for one quote when it comes to branding, "Don't send a ransom note!" Your marketing pieces should not look like they were cut and pasted from various magazines with no clear conveyance of where I might find you. It is imperative to have consistency in your branding.

And equally important is tying together your physical brand and emotional brand: Who I am - RockStar! (the emotional) and my logo and colors and writing style (the physical); there should be consistency between them. I will admit I have a certain vibe and look about me. Yes it is natural; I've been polishing my own shoes since I was 5 yrs old; but it is not effortless (as I said, those shoes don't polish themselves.) I purposefully do not show at events wearing a tee shirt and sweatpants. Actually, I don't even go to the corner store wearing sweatpants. But hey, that's just me! The point is that I am reflective of my brand in tone, mannerisms, appearance, preparedness and effort.

It may or may not seem obvious as to the importance of that. I would think the former; but there are too many people walking around in the latter state of mind! But beyond the obvious, comes one major deep and practical reason. What happens when you fall victim to "identity theft"? When someone "hijacks" your style or copies your website; and in my case even down to using the exact same theme and attempted design layout? And I said "when" and not "if", because I have seen first hand when it happened to a colleague of mine and just recently when it happened to me! When I showed others what had happened, among the expressions of disbelief, where the sentiments of "It happens!"

I know to me it would seem so unlikely, repulsive and just plain stupid to do such a thing. Particular in a scenario in which you know, work and network in the same circles as the individual. Yet nonetheless, there was my website with someone else's name on it. I literally lost it. I was certain that my head was going to explode. But in the end it didn't and I was left to redesign my site and logo!

But because I really am my brand, the transition or revamp of my style was almost effortless. It took some thought and deliberation, but in the end, I know who I am and it was easy to portrait, even in another site design and logo. Similarly to updating your wardrobe, you would do the same with your brand as well over time. Does that mean I appreciate the hijacking or theft of my site and work by a false competitor? Of course not. What I do appreciate is that I have a very tight brand that in the end could not be so easily hijacked.

GoogleHaven 100 #GoogleHaven

Join Us Today as we have fun and do our part in making a difference on various levels! Our thanks to Ripple 100 and Andre Yap and Amy Desmarius (and thanks Jason for your behind the scenes). Our thanks to Jack Nork and Google for inspiring us! And thanks and much love to the 99 other businesses and their fans and supporters that join us in the crusade!

If you are on twitter remember type any of the following to join in the fun... @Ripple100: #GoogleHaven or Gift 6/100 #NHV: or http://ht.ly/1Evca

SMM Boot Camp - One Boot Camper's Perspective

An exciting event, promotion and opportunity takes place tomorrow as the Social Media Marketing Boot Camp announces it support of GoogleHaven! You'll "see" more on what GoogleHaven is tomorrow! Today I want to share a little of what you can expect from participating in a SMM Boot Camp class. SMMBC is currently taking registrations for classes beginning the week of May 17, 2010.

Please visit www.smmbootcamp.weebly.com for registration and info.(Upcoming syllabus' will be posted shortly)

I asked Iyabo Asani of Coachiyabo.com and facebook fame Coach Iyabo, if she could share some of her insights and perspectives from her recent participation in the SMM Boot Camp. My thanks to Coach Iyabo for taking the time out to share; here's what she had to say...

As entrepreneurs, we are all overwhelmed with the amount of teaching and resources out there that teach us how to create and market our online businesses. For many of us, we do not understand the value of social media. We may have a Facebook account but we really do not know what the fuss is all about on Twitter.

Well, I thought of myself as more of an “expert” in these areas. After all, I had almost met my quota of 5,000 Facebook “friends.” I had a Facebook group and my Facebook fan page had about 800 fans. I also had over 3,000 twitter followers and I had about 1,250 LinkedIn connections. I knew to go to each of my sites every day and to communicate and engage with others. However, I was frustrated.

I did not see how this was actually helping my business. It gave me something to do everyday and I felt as if I was working in my business but I was not seeing the results I wanted.

Then I met Jaymes Grace and I signed up for her Social Media Boot Camp. I signed up for only one reason: I liked Jaymes. I promise you that I was the snob in the class. When participants in the class asked, “What is a Facebook Fan page?” I was the one in the background sighing with rushed politeness!

Well, just being a participant in the class allowed me to observe Jaymes Grace as a business woman and a teacher. I was impressed! It takes great skill to hold an online class and as the teacher, Jaymes was aware of each person’s skill level and allowed each person to show up exactly where they are and learn and move to the next level. Everyone in that Boot Camp was at a different level and each participant exponentially increased their learning about social media and how to leverage it for her business.

I was introduced to a new tool by Jaymes called SlideShare.com. I had heard it was the only way you could upload a video to LinkedIn so my ears perked up when I heard Jaymes mention it. She taught us how to use it.

I do a monthly free community call and I usually have to upload a PDF presentation for the call to my website which was not the most ideal for me. On my next call, I uploaded the PDF to SlideShare. I also uploaded the video I had created to welcome my LinkedIn connections.

Everyone on the call loved the presentation. SlideShare nominated the presentation as the slide of the day and I had over 756 views. I did see a spike in visits to my website after I uploaded the presentation to SlideShare. Guess what? SlideShare has become my favorite tool now and I have even uploaded a short audio with one of my slides. I have even figured out how to use slides for a class that I teaching so only my students can see the slide.

Needless to say, I will be attending Jaymes’ advanced Social Media Boot Camp and I am looking forward to it.

Here are some of the highlights that I came away with from this Boot Camp:

1. How to evaluate the data that Facebook supplies me about my fanpage.
2. How to create a landing page on my fan page.
3. How to capture more business prospects from my fan page.
4. How to engage in direct communication with my friends.
5. How to measure the responses that people leave me and use that to create future interactions on Facebook.
6. How to streamline and combine my social media activities.
7. How to connect with groups of people using skype and share documents.

This is just a scratch on the surface of the things I learned and the results I am seeing in my business.

I believe that to have a successful business, you have to use tools. However, the tools do not make the business. They merely showcase your business. In today’s marketplace, tools change every day. Therefore, having a teacher like Jaymes Grace show you multiple tools and how they interface with each other is important as a foundation to leverage your business.

Thanks again Coach Iyabo! Please feel free to join us on Facebook!

Creating A Buzz with Animoto!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Ripple 100 w/ Amy Desmarius

On Tuesday we took closer look at a new application for MICROmarketing (a term that is still being defined.) But the basic principle is not new to marketers. Micromarketing in it's simplest definition is the promotion of targeted marketing campaigns. Most common are monthly or seasonal campaigns. Say for instance that you know whatever product or service you are promoting that in May you will somehow tie it into Mother's Day; and the same thing for Father's Day, the fourth of July and so on. During this time of college basketball tournament season, I'm certain you can find a whole slew of businesses with a March Madness theme.

What Ripple 100 has done is develop a tool (or another sm platform) that through video enables you to promote, direct and track your current campaign(s). It allows for a concise, authentic, streamline correspondence with your targeted audience.


click here to see an actual ripple!

For our closer look, we invited Amy Desmarius, Founder of Ripple 100 to join us on an interview call to explain more about Ripplecasting (TM) and to give us an inside scoop on what sm tools they were using for promoting their new application.

Afterward, Amy provided us with a nice follow-up piece full of valuable information and with her permission I have included it here in this post. So thank you Amy. And for you readers...enjoy!


Hi Jaymes,

I wanted to put together a public note with useful information and some other info from our chat yesterday with your class. Hope that this is helpful for all of you.

THE BIG 9

BIG 9 Diagnosis: As a special gift you are all invited to setup a 1-on-1 session to pin point your business pains, so you can work backwards and create micromarketing campaigns that have the most impact on your business and help you reach your business goals. The bottom of the post lists what the "Big 9" are, so even if you don't want the 1-on-1 it's worth checking out: http://www.ripple100.com/ripplecast/quickie-diagnostic-what-of-the-big-9-ails-you/

The Big 9 Q & A, 24/7: Questions on the Big 9? Questions about the affect on your business? We're ready and tweeting! Ask us a question using the #9Q hashtag in twitter and we'll get back to you with an answer. Learn more: http://www.ripple100.com/ripplecast/quickie-diagnostic-what-of-the-big-9-ails-you/


Twitter Chat

HASHTAG: A hashtag is how people on twitter can follow which tweets are for your event, simply create a tag using the # that no one or not a lot of people are using. You can check that out by doing a search for your tag on twitter. Remember: hashtags are only one word following the # so "#my chat" with a space would only be tagged as "#my"

PUBLIC TWITTER CHAT LIST: If you're thinking about doing a twitter chat, check out the running public list at this link to find some other chats to watch for ideas and add your own chat if your going to run one on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhisaMy5TGiwcnVhejNHWnZlT3NvWFVPT3Q4NkIzQVE&hl=en

REGISTER CHAT/SETUP EVENT: There are a couple of sites where you can set up your chat as an event, I like www.wthashtag.com but another popular one is http://www.twebevent.com/. Here you can write a description of your event, make your hashtag known, and keep track of stats on your chat.

BONUS TIP: When selecting a hashtag or while promoting the event, the shorter the better. This allows for people to maximize the 140 characters and RT what your saying easily (keeping your promo tweets short).

Announcement
Ripple100 will be having its next twitter chat in April (we're skipping a chat to let March Madness die down and the use of our hashtag). The theme is on Professional Services and turning the intangibles into tangibles that your best customers can use to spread the word on how great you are! Email me at amy@ripple100.com or send me an FB message if you'd like to be put on the contact list for this event.

Again, I hope this information was helpful. Don't be shy if you have any questions!


Amy Desmarais
Founder + VP, Ripple100

More SM Tools for Your Tool Box

Wow, this is only our second post and we are half way through the Beta Class cycle. This month had five weeks so we actually had a little more time which was a benefit. This class included a combination of basic and intermediate instruction. Our last call this past Thursday was a 2 and a half hour call; scheduled that way to make up for a missed class on Tuesday. The first hour was dedicated to PR and in particular the neccessity of having a press kit or an electronic press kit (epk) available. I am not going to go into the details here of the press kit except to provide the basic components that should be a part of your, not matter what form it takes.

Here are the necessary contents for an electronic press kit. I do not know where I originally resourced this information. If you do choose a service like my ppk (which is what I use), http://www.powerpresskits.com/, all of these components will already be a part of it; yet will will still need to supply sufficient information to make your epk robust enough to begin sending.

Components List

1. General Info: Company/Organization, Mission Statement, Company Honors & Awards, Upcoming Events, Fact Sheets & Previous Clippings

2. Create an electronic letterhead template - high resolution design 300 dpi

3. Construct Info in step 1 by formatting in a thorough concise style that is visually appealing. Should include additional links to specific websites or emails of significance.

4. Transfer all to a letterhead template

5. Save and create locked and editable version of all material

6. Compress in a zip folder titled Press Kit

7. Make available by uploading to website and send via email to recipients

*Note- in lieu of step 2 and 6, I created the press kit in Publisher and then save as a PDF using http://www.pdfonline.com/


Additionally, I added this information for the class as well.

Common press kit components (from Wikipedia)

* Backgrounder with historical information on the company or individual
* Fact Sheet listing specific features, statistics, or benefits
* Biographies of key executives, individuals, artists, etc.
* Past Press Coverage
* Photos or other images (high resolution) of key executives, logos, products, etc.
* A press release detailing the current news the media kit is sent in reference to
* Media contact information (usually of a public relations department or spokesperson)
* A CD, DVD, Software title, video, etc. as appropriate for the sender of the release
* Collateral advertising material, such as: postcard, flier, newspaper ad, etc.

The second half of the class was dedicated to Facebook as we revisited our fan pages and saw who had had success in setting up their landing pages. Facebook is now making that process easier by adding a FBLM option at the bottom of the edit page as an additional application choice. Definitely saves in the time it took our class to learn where to find it our their own. Is the better...only as a tie saver. There is a earned reward in being hands-on in your practical application. Still there are many more fb applications that still allow for hands-on learning in trying to apply.

Social Media Marketing Boot Camp's New Blog!

Today in Boot Camp we will be discussing our fan pages. Here's a nice article from Mashable to help others get started on their fan page(s). And it's true, if you don't have one - you surely need one!

http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/facebook-pages-guide/

Although the information is accurate, this is a test post as I am working on tonight's curriculum for class. I will return later to expound on the topic of having a great fan page. So feel free to check back later.

Okay, so it's 11:31pm and I am back as promised. Tonight one of our focus topics was on the Facebook trend for 2010 - the Landing Page. Since your fan page really acts as an additional website, a place were perspective clients can go online and get insight into your business, it makes sense that it should have a professional welcome just as would your website. Traditionally on your fan page, that first impression page is your "wall". And for the most part, especially depending whats on your wall, that page may not be making a good first impression. Enter...the Landing Page.

The Landing page is a page that is totally customizable with Facebook's version of HTML, called FBML (but HTML is fine for writing the necessary code to create your page.) In this evening's call (hopefully recorded) we went through the steps one by one. Since I have not yet begun posting my own tutorial videos (and yes I will be soon), here is a link to a well explained video regarding the set up of your Landing Page. Have fun. We will talk more in the days ahead!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ36ugmXsO4&feature=PlayList&p=4CFEBD7F93FFE950&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6