Brand Housekeeping
by Greta Perry
Keeping up our personal and business brand should never be like cramming for an exam. It should be a work in progress all year round.
As a young military spouse and new mom, I jealously glared over at the "overachieving" mom during a day of scrapbooking. She had made enough albums to fill a small library and even sold pre-made pages. She probably also had a house full of kids who behaved perfectly in her spotless home (insert sarcasm here). I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to know her secret. For 17 years, I have carried what she told me (though not always applied it) in the back of my head, "There will always be laundry and housekeeping and dishes in the sink. I set aside ONE day week for ME, to do what I love."
As military spouses, we're used to putting our needs last. There is always a house to move, event to attend, volunteering to do, deployments to weather, family and home responsibilities to juggle. Yet , as my new friend wisely advised, set aside one day (or afternoon or hour) a week as you time, or it will never happen.
Along the same lines, every entrepreneur/solopreneur and home-based business faces their challenges for finding their "me time" - how to make time for personal and business branding when there is always a paying customer to take care of. You have to make the time. A strong brand can make or break the success of a business, so prioritize it. While setting aside time to work on your brand may not directly pay the bills immediately, it will pay off in the long run.
Each person we meet in person is a potential client or has someone they may refer to you someday. There is nothing more unprofessional than handing someone your business card and telling them you are "working on your website" or that your email may be broken. Once you hand over that card, you can pretty much guarantee the person will check out your website and social media, so make sure everything's up to date. Keeping your personal and business digital images up to date is critical to any successful business person. Make the time to update your profiles and maintain them on a regular basis:
- Business Cards: Are they current? Do you have enough? No tape or cross-outs allowed because you PCSd and already had a gazillion made!
- Website: Have you taken a look at it lately? Better yet, pay someone else take a look at it for you and find that typo or broken link. Make sure your contact information is easily accessible too! Can someone see it from a tablet or cell phone?
- LinkedIn: When was the last time you really looked at your profile? Has your mission statement changed and is that reflected there? How about that picture?
- Twitter: Is your bio clear? Do you have a good avatar and custom background with a call to action?
- Facebook: Is your personal email, the default facebook.com one? Is your website on your profile and are you linked to your business page? When was your last post on your business page? Seeing the last post from two month ago is not going to make someone "like" your page.
- Pinterest: Did you know you can convert your personal profile to a business one? Do you have a work board?
- Google Plus: Love it or hate it, you need to have one of these for both your personal and business brand.
- Blogging: In a perfect world, we should all blog five days a week. If you are a slacker (like me), please have one at least within the last week before attending an event.
Greta Perry, owner of Kickify, "Pumping Up Your Web Presence," has branded herself both on and off-line with her positive energy, intuitive use of technology, and networking successes. Greta has shifted her title from "social media expert" to "digital strategist" and needs to hire herself from time to time. She can help you with any of the above tasks. Even though she sets one day aside for branding, she still had to go through this list and get everything up to date!
She is available for consulting or speaking for businesses and brands of all sizes. Greta is never far from the internet and can be contacted at [email protected], Facebook, Twitter @kissmygumbo @kickify @freetweetadvice, LinkedIn, Google + or www.kickify.com.
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