Personal Brand/Personal Branding…what does that event mean, and how do I get one?  
 
Are you ready for some good news/bad news?  Which do you like to hear first? How about this, what if I tell you that “good” and “bad” are basically the same?  The thing with your personal brand is…you already have one, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve done one single darn thing about it.  Do you see how that could be good and bad? It’s all depending on what overall message you’ve been putting out onto the interwebs!  This might be a great time to do a little self-audit, what are you putting out there, is it time for a course correction?  
 
But first, what is a personal brand?  Simply put, your personal brand is what people think of, when they think of you.  Now you’re asking, what are they thinking of me?  (If you’re not sure you should keep reading because you’re not even sure how to make this personal branding work for you check out all the training in the Social Experience - Elite Coaching)
 
Back in the “olden days”, pre-Facebook it was a bit more difficult to establish and promote a personal brand.  Back then, we had contact with actual people we knew and that we had real contact with – you know, like in person or over the phone.  To have a widely established personal brand you would have to have been on television or written a book, or have been famous in some way.  But now we have access to and are able to be in contact with 1,000’s of people on a daily basis! We have those we really do know, and would recognize and say hello to in the Starbuck’s line, and then those we just “know” through social media. We don’t need to be on a television show, our personal profile is like our own micro-show, we don’t need to have written a book to be followed and looked up to, our daily posts are micro-blogs or video-blogs (vlog), and regular everyday people can be Insta-famous, they need to take amazing photos and know how to build followers! 
 
So now back to that self audit…are your last Facebook (it could be ANY social media posts, but let’s use Facebook as the example since that’s where over 2 billion people hang out) posts a bunch of salesy-weirdo “buy my thing” kinds of posts, or were you negative, super political, complaining, ranting Debby-downer, and basically turning everyone off or alienating half of your audience with each post? Or are you bringing motivation and inspiration to your audience on the daily? OR more likely you might be a combo of the two sides of the spectrum? 
 
If you’re a solo-preneur, small business owner, real estate agent, lender or even in direct sales
it’s time to bring your content into alignment with what you want to build as your brand!  
Click HERE for my 30+ Posting Ideas, (it’s time to stop talking about “work” all the dang time)!
 
Building your brand takes time, but I swear it’s not too late; in fact it’s never too late.  We (us Facebook users) have short attention spans, and we love a great comeback or course correction!  Take control of your feed, it’s your personal micro-show!  Keep future posts on task and on message to be consistent with your brand!
 
Now get out there and be personal branding ninja superstars!!  Still need help?  Check out The Social Experience - Elite Coaching group!

by Brian Honigman

Online video has been exploding in popularity for the past decade (in fact, 79 percent of all the traffic online is related to video) and there is one name that has always been synonymous with online video – YouTube.

While YouTube is still a major traffic destination, there is a relatively new (although familiar) competitor on the scene that is slated to give YouTube a run for its money.

That competitor is Facebook, and in a short period of time, they have been gaining some serious traction in the online video and content marketing space and industry experts have been taking notice.

Gene Marks, a New York Times columnist, author and entrepreneur puts it quite well:

On FB, how can it not be a success – with just about every survey naming Facebook as one of the leading resources for small business marketing, and with just about every analysis pointing towards the explosion of video online (Netflix and YouTube consume 60% of the internet now) the merging of FB and video will be the future of small business marketing.

So, you may know....no one likes to read anymore.  Everyone wants to be entertained, and they want to be entertained by videos, photos, Memes and GIFs.  So how do you capture attention with your business Facebook page when the algorithms of Facebook are working against your business posts?  You get creative with videos, photos, memes and GIF's, of course!

If you want to see the entire video, check it out here.

So, if you're still with me, way down here at the bottom of the page, I hope you've got some ideas clicking in that pretty head of yours to get creative!  If you need help with your social media, marketing plan, Facebook advertising, contact us today!!
Please Help Me Socialite!

Happy Creating!
Gwen
The Socialite

...to your boring, dull, business, business-y, business-page!  Social media is about being social!  If you just hammer me (and your clients) with loan programs, underwriting tips and all your listings I'm going to check-out!  All that stuff is completely boring and doesn't matter to me unless I'm interested in that specific subject on that specific day, otherwise you lost me!  Dis-engaged, not interested!  


You've got this page going to get more business and to connect with your clients and potential clients, right?  Then do it! In addition to sparingly used business posts, use crowd sourced material relevant to your marketplace and clients!  Is there a fun event happening in your city, link to an article about it!  Do you like make-over's, like I do...post a before and after shot of a kitchen, give gardening tips, DIY home improvement ideas, something about your favorite home town sports team!  There is so much interesting stuff happening everyday, don't be afraid to tap into it!  


Wait, there's one more element to add...it's the true part of the social experience...you have to get a little personal.  Now I'm not talking about a #tbt picture of you at the prom in your sweet mullet (don't get me wrong, I love mullet pictures but there is a right place and time for them),  I'm talking about a picture with happy clients at a closing, a "selfie" with a referral partner at lunch, a group shot at a networking event, or your foursome at that charity golf tourney!  Did you go somewhere interesting, did you do something fun, did you see an amazing sunset?  Share it!

So I feel like I smacked you around a bit about all the business posts, I'm sorry about that, but it had to be done. There's a whole lot more to getting this social media stuff right, like algorithms and consistency, but this will give you a start!  If it's too much, or you know you can't do it right, we need to chat, and I promise to leave the boxing gloves at home!


Yours Truly,
Gwen 
The Socialite