Branding Digi-sphere: Crafting Your Brand for the Digital Age
The "Branding Digi-sphere: Crafting Your Brand for the Digital Age" panel provided attendees with the tools, tips and techniques to build a digital brand and monitor their digital footprints. Led by Melinda Emerson, author, speaker and small business coach, the discussion featured four breakout sessions on topics that included how to monetize your brand, claim your brand online and use social media to build your brand. Known as "the SmallBizLady," Emerson used the power of Twitter to attract 10,000 followers before her book was published. Today, she has 175,000 followers and reaches 1.5 million small business owners on the internet weekly. "It’s important to pay attention to your digital brand because [customers and clients] will check you on Google before they pick up the phone," she said. Other presenters were Christen Rochon of DivasandDorks, a media entertainment website, James Andrews, founder of Social People, a strategic communications agency and Grant Harris, owner of Image Granted, an image consulting company. Presenters emphasized the importance of being "goggleable" and checking what’s online every 60 days. Own your name as a domain if you can get it. The audience was urged to beef up LinkedIn sites by adding a professional headshot, highlighting accomplishments and education and having at least three recommendations. "Recommendations are an unpaid sales force for you," Emerson said. Social media tips include using one site at least once to three times daily and engaging with your audience. For aspiring bloggers, decide if you want to post content, audio or video and start working on content two months before launching your blog. Develop an editorial calendar to help with timely content. Monetizing your blog may occur after you have refined your niche and demonstrated you have strengths that will benefit another business, said Rochon, who was inducted into BlackEnterprise.com's "Best in The Blogosphere 2012" class. |
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