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Branding

What are best practices of integrated branding and design?

What are best practices of integrated branding and design?

Integrated branding and design refers to the practice of consistently using the same visual and messaging elements across all marketing channels and touchpoints to create a cohesive and unified brand identity. This includes the use of the same logo, color scheme, typography, and brand messaging across all marketing materials, from social media posts and website design to physical products and promotional items.

Here are some best practices for integrated branding and design:

  1. Develop a clear brand strategy and messaging: Before you start designing anything, it's important to define your brand's purpose, values, and target audience. This will help you create a cohesive and consistent brand identity that resonates with your audience.
  2. Use consistent design elements: Choose a color scheme, typography, and design elements that are unique to your brand and use them consistently across all marketing materials. This includes your logo, website, social media profiles, business cards, and any other branded materials.
  3. Create a style guide: A style guide is a document that outlines all of the design and branding elements that should be used in all marketing materials. This includes details about your logo, color scheme, typography, imagery, and tone of voice. Having a style guide ensures that everyone on your team is using the same design elements and messaging, which helps create a cohesive brand identity.
  4. Communicate your brand effectively: Make sure your brand messaging is clear and consistent across all marketing channels. This includes the language you use, the tone of voice, and the overall messaging you communicate to your audience.
  5. Monitor and update your branding: As your business grows and evolves, it's important to regularly review and update your branding to ensure it stays relevant and consistent. This may include updating your style guide, refreshing your website design, or adjusting your messaging to better reflect your brand's values and target audience.

The most important part of our work is getting the branding and messaging right. It will inform every aspect of our work with you. We will interview key stakeholders and evaluate your existing messaging platform. Then we’ll develop value propositions to define your position based on the segments you intend to win over. This approach enables you to stake out a strong position that 1) differentiates you from the competition, and 2) resonates with your audiences.

what you need to know about preparing for DIY videos

Marketing Round-table on DIY Video Development

Watch our video as our panel discusses what you need to know about preparing do-it-yourself (DIY) videos. Tim Fahey of Dirigo Agency will moderate and — Margaret Doan of GKA Advertising and Eric Peguero of ENS Media Pros as panelist. Together they will discuss using a storyboard/script, planning, lighting, camera positing, dos and don’ts, including knowing and using your equipment, tips to use during your videos, and editing. This is a round-table you don’t want to miss!

Hi I’m Tim Fahey i want to invite you to our what you need to know about developing do-it-yourself videos the panelists will be Margaret Doan and Eric Peguero.

We’ll be talking about how to set up how to light how to use the microphones and different features within the the actual iphones and the android we’re going to go over how you actually produce these types of videos through the different social media channels including some of the tips and tricks with some of the editing software as well good morning everybody welcome to the marketing roundtable series um i’d like to introduce you to tim fahey who will be our moderator today.

For more information, contact me, info@dirigoagency.com

How to Brand and Design Effective Interactive eBooks

How to brand and design effective interactive eBooks? Creating digital marketing assets like eBooks is one of the best ways to deliver value, create engagement, and elevate your brand. This blog is about my workflow on developing an interactive eBook for Cisco Small Business using Adobe InDesign.

Our design team of writers, designers and planners, develop an eBook about Cisco IT Networking for supporting the small businesses with 250 employees or less. The page count 12+ pdf pages to be used as a presale communication tool to download from the Cisco Small Business website, social media pages, email and other engagements.
We want small business owners to know that Cisco understands their pain points as expressed in the headline: “One Size Does Not Fit All Small Businesses.”

The Purpose of an Ebook

Our approach was a personas driven message. Business owners have challenges and they want solutions that speak to their pain points. These personas portray the kinds of people in businesses that are:
1) New startups
2) Expanding or adding branch offices, or
3) Optimizing their IT Network to accommodate a variety of needs: remote workers, global offices, collaboration, or other kinds of optimization.

There is a big opportunity for the Do it Yourself (DIY) small business people with either low to no IT Staff — and others that do have IT managed companies.

People want to know the right-fit for wireless and IT Networking for their business. The “one size does not fit all for small business” humanizes the Cisco products. People will immediately identify with the solution because you are talking directly to them about their pain points, their experience as a small business person who wants to get their branch office up and running right away, or getting the right wireless solution to satisfy the 100-200 people who visit their location every day.

We begin with our end in mind: what are we selling.

We offer the language of “Value, Expansion, and Optimization” to showcase the Cisco Switches, Routers, and Wireless to small business. We want to offer them one or two different solutions per persona. Then all them to connect to the Cisco online “selector tool.” https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business.html?stickynav=1

Like a good business plan, a small business owner should develop an IT Network plan according to their current needs as well as anticipate their future needs. This eBook will help business owners to future proof their IT Networks by choosing choose the right IT Network for their size and future growth plans as “good, better, and best.” There are a lot of choices in the market place that want to sell you a cheap systems, security and promise performance, but Cisco understands “One Size Does Not Fit All Small Businesses.” We want to offer our customers “Value, Expansion, and Optimization” language of our Switches, Routers, and Wireless to small business, and get them to use the online

We were able to make updates including a new page on Webex see link Click here to view the eBook

Feel free to reach out to me to talk about how eBooks works and how you can use it in your own marketing journey at info@dirigoagency.com.

Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts.

Shopify E-commerce Site — Best Business Practices and Metrics for Success

Cisco Partners Leading the Way to Digital Selling for Small Business

Marketplace-in-a-Box – best business practices and metrics for success.

To help its partners capture more market share while providing the best possible solutions for customers, Cisco offers a DIY e-commerce platform that creates a virtual “Marketplace-in-a-Box.” One of the first to benefit from this program is Matthew Keeler, President and CEO of KR Group, Inc. a Cisco Partner. He discusses why KR Group chose Shopify as well as how they implemented the platform to sell Meraki cameras and Cisco Meraki Enterprise Support licensing support, along with other Cisco products for small business.

Why is now the right time for a DIY e-commerce platform?
We’ve entered an era where entrepreneurial spirit meets DIY. Companies need to engage customers how and where they live online – but without building complex and costly infrastructure. At KR Group, we have to focus on our existing customers and growing our business rather than burdening our technical people with another system
to maintain. The keys for us are to be nimble, to allow customers to easily research and buy products, and to generate leads – all while supporting our brand.

Why did you choose Shopify as your online store?
We initially tested a robust WordPress-enabled platform that embedded an I-frame on our website. However, that turned out to be a frustrating experience for us and our customers. It didn’t allow us to organize information in a way that made sense, plus to make matters worse, search results load times were painfully slow.

“Rock solid security”
Shopify, on the other hand, gave us everything we needed. It’s not over-designed, it’s easy to use and the SaaS Shopify platform – from a security standpoint – is rock solid. It provides an easy checkout and payment system for our customers.

What’s more, we get a dashboard that includes useful metrics such as total sales, online sessions, returning customer rate, online store conversion rate, average order value, total orders, top product units sold, online store
session by location and social source, sales by traffic and social source, top landing pages by sessions, and total sales attributed by marketing campaigns.

The best part is, there’s no need for system updates or heavy programming that e-commerce platforms ordinarily require. Nontechnical staff can update content and view metrics in a matter of minutes.


How did you implement Shopify?
Cisco sponsored the Marketplace Jumpstart – “Marketplace-in-a-Box” – as a pilot program to manually integrate marketing planning, the project management chronological timeline and the existing marketing roadmap.

With the user interface branded template, we were able to add product information, set up a payment gateway, and sales channel into Facebook. Essentially, that gave us a store inside our Facebook business page, audience profiles, pay-per-click advertising and the analytics.

Customers get to our store via our website’s global navigation and other links. From their perspective the entire user experience is seamless. Social media integration makes it easy to develop posts and targeted Facebook pay-per-click advertising to small business owners and IT professionals in our region. We were up and running within 30 days and getting results immediately.

How we built the digital selling program

Cisco developed a smart business pilot program called Marketplace Jumpstart to help partners reach customers easily through their own e-commerce site with low/no touch sales.
This program reinforces Cisco’s commitment to small business by helping Cisco Partners lead the way for digital selling of cloud and on-premise products with Cisco intel that’s built into the products.

Marketplace-in-a-box provides a way to sell directly to small business with Cisco products that were “no-touch or low-touch” on-prem and cloud-based products under their control, bringing to Cisco Partners the first-ever rogram of its kind to support partners own lead generation program and e-commerce site.

The long-term value will enable partners to work at their pace, hand-off the e-commerce tools to their own marketing department and content development personnel, generate their own leads and sell low margin products while integrating the social media platform into their marketing practices. It generates an additional revenue stream, and use of easy-to- use enablement tools to help partners acquire new customers.

Cisco is constantly finding ways to invest in their partners to help them increase their revenue stream by selling more products, engage more customers and generate leads, training, and best e-marketing practices. For DIY types of entrepreneurs who want an easy way to start a store, there isn’t an easier solution available.

Published by Timothy Fahey; and edited by Howard Schwartz, a freelance user experience strategist and writer. Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands like Sprint and Cisco Systems. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts.

Published by Timothy Fahey; written by Eric Schwartz a freelance writer and public relations and political science major. Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts.

game-plan-your-brand

4 Steps to Game Plan Your Brand

When you Game Plan Your Brand you are on your way to a successful outcome.

If you began your road trip by hopping in the car and start driving, who knows where you’ll end up. Although this may be a great adventure, you might waste time getting to your destination. Likewise, if you’re building a business or starting a new project you need to map out your plan from beginning to the end. As Alice in Wonderland learned, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

As a business owner, creative or marketing professional, you need to spend a little time to map out your target audience, brand message, most effective vehicles, define the goals for each tactic ‚ and how exactly you’re going to get there.

That’s why you need to “game plan your brand.” Follow a clearly laid out path from where you are — to where you need to go.

You can easily break this path up into different phases.

How does this apply to small businesses?

First, you need to know what problem you want to solve: Getting to your destination in the least amount of time while avoiding getting lost.

For your organization, that goal should be to organize yourself first before launching into countless hours of tactics without the right goals and strategy.

You can break up the process into multiple phases. These are your checkpoints. This is how you make sure you’re on the right path as your moving forward without getting lost or forgetting important details.

The first step is to understand what problem you want to solve and set a goal that will drastically improve business. Next, evaluate your marketing assets and evaluate what parts need fixing or what is missing in the communications process.

Third, interview your key stakeholders on their understanding of your problem you are trying to solve. They are your greatest resource and the ones you will get the most insights. There are a number of ways to do this analysis. For example, develop a SWOT analysis of your business. (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats).

Fourth, go all in on defining the communication strategy and tactics that fit your brand. Develop a value proposition. The key is to define your position based on the target segment you intend to win over. With this approach, you separate yourself as the market alternative from the competition with a unique differentiation that belongs to you to bring the buying decisions your way.

Your intent is to get it down to two short sentences. Note how the two references competitors, the marketing alternative and the product alternative, help the listener’s mind triangulate to find the new position.

Follow this template (generally, this is an internal message):

For: (target customers – beachhead segment only)
Who are dissatisfied with: (the current market alternative)
Our product: (new product category)
That provides: (key problem-solving capability)
Unlike: (the product alternative)
We have assembled: (key whole product features for your specific application)

When satisfied, write a customer-facing messaging that reflects your value proposition.

If you are a local business owner, creative, or a local marketing agency, this may be the most important starting point for building or restoring your customer journey.

Published by Timothy Fahey; Timothy Fahey is branding and design professional, designer, professor, blogger, videographer and owner of Dirigo Agency Inc., a company focused on helping business owners use branding, design, and content to market their business. He has worked in the agency business since 1986 and served both local and global brands. His passion is to collaborate with others to create content more strategically so they get the recognition and results they desire through content marketing efforts. Member of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce.

A Game Plan Your Brand strategy builds your customer journey.

5 Tips to Creating a New Product Name

Not surprisingly, developing a product name is usually done by committee. Some people think the brand name is too childish but love the product. Others want to name things with acronyms, Not all products and offerings need a new name. Too many of your company product names will lead to confusion about our offerings, which undermines the integrity of the brand.

A new name is only necessary when introducing a new, unique product or family of offerings. If a product or service is an enhancement, feature, component or accessory of an existing product, use the current name of that product.

1. Although each situation is unique, answering “yes” to the following questions indicates that a new name should be created:

    • Is this a new family of products and services?
    • Is this an individual product which provides an unusually strong point of differentiation from the competition — and does not fit into a current family of offerings?
  • Is the offering backed by significant marketing support and commitment to long-term growth and development?

2. A new name is generally not necessary if the offering:

    • Is it a product enhancement, product feature or product component of an existing product (for example, If we bundled a new add-on feature, we wouldn’t rename the plan?)
    • Is the product common in the industry (for example, wifi)
  • Is the product part of a short-term promotion (for example, a promotion that will run for a quarter or less) Is the product and upgrade or part of an existing family name.

3. When to use descriptive names:

    • Descriptive names are straightforward. They use common, easy-to-understand words to describe functions or benefits of the products or services.
  • Descriptive names may be preferred for most company offerings because they are highly communicative and require minimal advertising or communication to convey the message of the offering.

4. Below are situations where descriptive names should be used:

    • When the product or service is part of a standard industry category or offering in the marketplace (for example, wifi). When the product or service has a limited budget.
  • When the product or service is not backed by a long-term commitment. Examples: company® open house, company® grand opening, company® free promotion

5. When to use proprietary names

When a program or services is very innovative or is comprised of many different components, it may be too complex to use a descriptive name. When this is the case, a proprietary name can be developed.

Proprietary names are less communicative than descriptive names. These names may suggest meaning and benefits, but on their own, these names generally have little meaning to the customer without more information. Once understood, though, these names can be powerful, memorable and may be entitled to protection as intellectual property.

It’s imperative for proprietary names to undergo research testing to ensure they are appropriate for and meaningful to the target audience. Do not do this in-house. Proprietary names may be appropriate when the offering falls into two or more of the following categories:

    • A major new product category or company-wide offering.
    • Product or service family whose breadth or complexity requires an umbrella name to ensure clarity of communications.
  • Backed by a large multimedia marketing budget and a long-term commitment. Provides significant competitive differentiation. Examples: In 2012, Cisco Services Domain Ten(SM) Cisco Services’s Blueprint for Simplifying Data Center and Cloud Transformation; or Cisco Aironet®;  or Cisco Prime™

For more information and help with determined a product or company name, contact Tim Fahey at Dirigo Agency at info@dirigoagency.com.

When to use Trademarks in your brand name or logo

When to use Trademarks in your brand name or logo

How many times do we wonder when and how to trademark our company name? Here are some tips to use when using trademarks, service marks.

A trademark identifies the intellectual property to be distinct and proprietary. You should apply to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a registration to achieve maximum protection for proprietary names, but in some cases, it may not be necessary or beneficial.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark office https://www.uspto.gov/ will help you determine whether it is beneficial to pursue a trademark registration for a name. Please note names will require preliminary and possibly full trademark searches in order to ensure they don’t infringe on other trademarks regardless of whether we want to protect the trademark. Please allow adequate time for these searches.

Trademark rights can only be established through consistent, correct use. If the use of a trademark is discontinued for as few as three years or if the trademark is used indiscriminately or incorrectly or its licensees, you may lose its rights to the trademark. This jeopardizes the strength of your brand and its competitive position.

Best practices for using Trademarked names

  • Think of all trademarks are adjectives. For best business practices, do not use trademarks as nouns or verbs. Always use the complete product or service name.
  • The appropriate trademark attribution must be used at the first or most prominent mention of the product name.
  • Never alter a trademark, including abbreviating to an acronym, or translate a trademark into another language without working with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office or Dirigo Agency before making such a change.
  • Don’t use a trademark as a possessive or plural. Don’t use trademarks to coin new words or names. Don’t use trademarks to create a play on words.
  • Here are the definitions of how to use the Trademark symbols as notices

® Registered Trademark – This symbol should be used only after registration as a trademark has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A registration mark (®) is used with a name for which a government authority has issued a trademark registration certificate. It is used with registered trademarks for goods AND services. It replaces the ™ or SM.

™ Unregistered Trademark – Indicates an unregistered trademark that describes goods.

Trademarks (™) include words, symbols, designs, slogans, vanity numbers, or musical tones or combinations used commercially to identify and distinguish the goods of one source from those of another. The ™ indicates that the trademark is not registered.

SM Unregistered Service Mark – Indicates an unregistered service mark that describes services. Service marks (SM) include any word, symbol, design, slogan, vanity number or musical tones or combinations thereof used commercially in the sale or advertising of services to identify and distinguish services of one source from those of another. The SM designation indicates that the service mark is not registered.

Effects of New Tax Laws on SMBs

8 New Trends in Social Media for SMBs in 2018

In 2018, social media is poised to create even more disruption as a number of new technological advancements go mainstream, and as Facebook and Instagram are leading the charge on social media platforms.

Here are the top 8 social media trends to help you as marketers in 2018.

1. Influencer marketing is improving new business engagement

Over 90 percent of marketers who employ an influencer marketing strategy believe it is successful. Companies like North Face, Hubspot and Rolex use social media–based influencer marketing strategies to connect with new audiences and improve engagement with existing audiences.

In 2017, we saw that brands that opted for traditional advertising strategies struggled to connect to social media users. In 2018, it is likely that more brands will embrace influencer marketing as a way to connect with audiences who tend to ignore traditional strategies.

2. Instagram Stories is the master story teller

Over 200 million people use Instagram Stories each month, which is over 50 million more than those who use Snapchat — and Instagram Stories is just one year old! At this rate, nearly half of all Instagram users will be using Stories by the end of 2018. This means that brands interested in connecting with Instagram users must take the time to master Instagram Stories.

3. Augmented reality is entering the room

At the first-ever event hosted in the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple announced the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. Both devices incorporate a new chip that allows the phones to provide users with extraordinary augmented reality experiences. While augmented reality will have its initial impact on mobile gaming, it is likely that social media platforms will find ways to incorporate the new technology as well, and according to Facebook, includes dropping in product placement.

4. The New Generation Zers are 22 years old and have increased buying power

A recent study conducted by Goldman Sachs concluded that Generation Z was more valuable to most organizations than millennials. Today, the oldest Gen Zers are 22 years old. They are just beginning to enter the labor force and will have increased buying power for some time.

Brands will begin to recognize this and will shift their social media strategies accordingly. Expect great investment in platforms loved by Gen Zers like Snapchat and Instagram.

5. Messaging platforms are hot

Over 2.5 billion people use messaging platforms globally, and yet brands are still primarily focused on connecting with consumers on pure social networks. In 2018, expect brands to invest more time and money in connecting with consumers on messaging platforms. Artificial intelligence, voice assistants and chatbots will enable brands to offer personalized shopping experiences on messaging platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp and Kik.

6. Live streaming 2.0 is more powerful now

What was once a novel gimmick has become a mainstream part of social media. Today, brands big and small have started using live streaming to capture the attention of followers. In 2018, more brands will begin to realize the power of live streaming and will incorporate it into their monthly content plans.

GORUCK, a backpack manufacturer and the organizer of extreme endurance events, is one example of a medium-sized brand that has grown its reach by live streaming compelling content on Facebook. Thousands of followers tuned in to watch 48-hour coverage of a recent endurance race.

7. Facebook Spaces taking VR mainstream

Facebook isn’t just interested in live video streaming; they’ve been working on a project called Spaces that is designed to allow friends to connect in VR. Given that Facebook owns Oculus, a virtual reality hardware and software company, it is no surprise that the social media giant is developing a platform to make use of this new technology.

Facebook is poised to scale Spaces in 2018. When they do, it is likely that it will be the first successful VR social media product at scale.

8. Facebook coming out 2018 with their version of digital hangouts

Houseparty is a video hangout platform used by over one million people each day. It is primarily used by Gen Zers as a way to hang out with friends digitally. The platform is so successful that Facebook is reportedly investigating ways to create a similar functionality within their platform.

We have already seen video become increasingly important on social media, and live video group hangouts are a natural next iteration of this trend. It is conceivable that in 2018, Facebook will announce a similar product to Houseparty that will win over users, just as Instagram’s introduction of Stories did.

Conclusion

A number of new social media trends that will impact users and brands alike are accelerating. It is likely that video streaming and virtual reality will go mainstream. Additionally, brands will turn to newer social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat as Gen Zers increasingly spend their time there.

With the announcement of the new iPhones, augmented reality has a chance to become a part of social media in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago.

Lastly, Twitter and Facebook will most likely adjust their policies to protect their brands from political criticism and to provide users with better online experiences.

12 Great Ways for SMBs to Elevate their Brand in 2018

Does the Fear of Success Scare You? 13 Great Ways to Elevate Your Brand

If you’re waiting for the right time to build your personal brand, this is a perfect time.

I’m very passionate about building a personal brand — it’s something I’ve been doing since my first marketing communication and design agency. I leveraged my personal brand and evolved it ever since.

You’ll enjoy the ability to establish yourself as an authority, create your own voice and attract business by winning the trust of your customers and partners. I’ve worked with many companies on defining their brand — as well as developing websites, blogs, videos, messaging, logo development and  differentiating them from the competition. There are may more branding vehicles these days then ever before, which you can use to talk about your strategies. Here here are 13 ways you can elevate your personal brand in the upcoming year.

1. Launch a weekly email newsletter

Building your own mailing list is still one of the best ways to generate your own leads. You’ll be able to talk about a wide range of topics. Establishing a website with a blog can act as an information hub to build trust with your visitors for all of your brands and projects.

2. Run an ad campaign on Facebook for as little as $3/day

Facebook presents you with the ability to put yourself in front of the exact audience you want to attract. I suggest that everyone starts with a personal profile, then make a business page in order to separate your business brand from your personal profile. This approach is an effective strategy that is affordable for all entrepreneurs. You should always be thinking about developing great content, then present through on “Facebook Live.”  You’ll generate greater reach and credibility with your audience.

3. Start an ad campaign on Google Ads

When anyone is looking for help the first thing they do is search on Google. Google Ads presents your brand and services the exact audience you want to attract. You’ll gain credibility and leads. If you need help getting started, contact me.

4. Post daily short and long-form content on LinkedIn

Some entrepreneurs swear by LinkedIn as the best prospecting platform ever. Posting daily, keeps your brand top of mind with your audience. Since your time is limited, make one long-form content per week, and make short-form quotes in your daily posts, which you can then push to other social platforms, blogs, and websites. By turning comments into conversations, you engage with your audience and establish yourself as an authority.

5. Update your website

It’s very hard to build your personal brand without a website. These days you can get a beautifully designed WordPress website template via Square Space, or Envato or many other sites.  However, remember to go with the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to get started. Start with a simple website — Home and About Pages — are all you need to get started. Then build out the rest of the site: Services, Your Work, Blog, and Contact Page.  Do you have a domain? If it’s available, choose your first name and last name for dot-com domain. Need help getting started. Call me.

6. Increase your organic reach through blog and video posts

These days, you must develop videos and blogs on your company website to bring the voice to your company’s audiences. Content is king, but you cannot build a website without developing a great messaging. Influencer marketing is improving new business engagement. Marketers who employ an influencer marketing strategy believe it is successful. The views and social shares you collect using this strategy also act as social proof, and social media-based influencer marketing strategies will connect you with new audiences and improve engagement with existing audiences.

7. Participate in Twitter chats — or start your own

Post interesting news and your accomplishments every day. Twitter chats were immensely popular years ago and have started to become popular one again, which I attribute to the recent increased interest in the new 280-character limit. The easiest way to find relevant Twitter chats to participate in is by following the most influential people in your industry.

8. Shoot a video about how you can help someone solve a problem

Starting a daily blog or video your most excited about. Filming and editing is easier now than ever before. Editing all day and editing all night is not inevitable. You can do these quickly with your Smart Phone and even edit the video. Think about unique angle and story, the opportunity to attract an audience and raise your personal brand is limitless.

9. Donate your time and expertise to your local community

Help somebody. Help nonprofit organizations with their online marketing, pro bono. Over the years, you can expect to be introduced to an amazing number of contacts and being referred to some large brands.

10. Start a weekly podcast

Post a podcast about what you know. Podcasts, which can be merged with blogs, are portable and can be consumed during someone’s downtime. Some entrepreneurs build massive podcast audiences, and that spilled over to their social media profiles, which really helped strengthen their personal brands.

11. Never stop learning

Read the top trend setters and influence’s blogs and videos in the industry. I spend time daily reading and learning — absorbing as much information as possible. My industry is constantly changing, so if I failed to keep up with the changes it would have a negative impact on my personal brand, as my value would plummet. Stay in touch via Lynda.com, Udemy.com or any other social media learning channels. Offer advice and providing your input in blogs and vlogs, and even Facebook groups to give back to the community.

12. Network at key industry conferences

Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Generate your own leads by attending conferences and trade association events. It’s a great way to meet new customers. The best way to spend your time is to attend conferences, put as much time networking either during the day or at the evening events.

13. Get a professional headshot

I use the same headshot everywhere — from my social media profiles to my author bios — and that consistency is key if you are serious about building a strong personal brand.

For more information, contact Tim Fahey, info@dirigoagency.com

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