SMBME #5 – Social Media: Personal vs. Professional Brand
December 2009
This month’s breakfast was another sold out event at MPX! The topic was chosen after the question of ‘should I be me or my company online’ kept resurfacing during our QA section of the breakfasts and a few requests came in on the website contact form.
We started the morning with Emily Brackett from Visible Logic, Inc. who broke down how people are deciding to choose whether or not to be their personal brand or their company brand online. Emily was found as a speaker after she wrote a great post on her blog, Who Are You Online? Personal Branding vs. Corporate Branding while Social Networking.
Emily’s full presentation is below
Our two case studies were Chrystie Corns and Chris Brown. Chris talked to us about how he has used social networking sites to promote his company, Bull Moose. He covered how they got started, some effects of this new form of communicating with their customers and stories of social media and his business.
Chrystie from Thirteen Thirty Marketing closed up our morning with her presentation on the importance of having a good personal brand and strategy. Chrystie showed the group the reasons you need to establish your personal brand (my favorite line ‘If you don’t have a personality… go get one’) and discussed the online and offline tools you need to get your personal brand in working order.
Chrystie’s full presentation is below
During our QA portion of the morning we got some good questions that I wanted to share here as well:
- How do I find local Twitterers in my area?
You can use special sites like Nearby Tweets, where you enter your zipcode and the site will find Twitterers in your area. You can also use the Advanced Twitter Search tool and enter in keywords that interest you and change the Places field to your area. Another good way to find quality Twitter users in your area is to use Hub Spot’s Twitter Grader. - How do I report a person who is squatting on the Twitter username I want and they aren’t using it?
Twitter Support has a helpful page if this is an issue for you. We know some people who have used the reporting tool and got the username they wanted relatively quickly. - How do I start creating social media policies at my business?
Policies are a great way to protect you, your brand and your company. The most simple set of social media policies should include – what you as a company will and will not do online, what your employees can and cannot do online and what members of the public can and cannot do with your content online. Continuity Engine has a great list of resources on their site but I have found the Social Media Policy the most useful so far. This is just a great document to give businesses a starting point. One other thing to remember is that your policies document should continue to grow as you get more experienced online with what is and what is not acceptable.
Below are Chrystie and Emily’s presentations:
Speakers
Emily is president of Visible Logic, Inc. Established in 2001, Visible Logic is a boutique graphic design firm that works across all media, from web sites to logos to print materials, to build cohesive and consistent identities for their clients. Based in Portland, Maine, Visible Logic builds complete branding systems and designs individual projects for clients across the U.S. They serve small businesses, not-for-profits, entrepreneurs and publishers who want to use high-quality design to compete with companies of all sizes.
Emily has a BA from Carleton College and a BFA in Graphic Design from The Massachusetts College of Art. This combination of liberal arts foundation plus graphic design education creates a skill set unique in the industry. Good graphic design is ultimately about communication. Having the “word” skills to complement the “visual” talent allows Emily to create materials that truly work as demanded—whether to inform, entertain or persuade.
Chrystie Corns is the President & Chief Strategist for Thirteen Thirty Marketing, a Portland Maine based web strategy and social marketing consultancy which works primarily with sales professionals and technology start-ups. She is fascinated by the power of personality and its effects on business. Chrystie, uses her professional experience in the areas of Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing, and Branding to implement marketing strategies to bring out a company’s personality.
Chris is the Vice President of Bull Moose Music.