Personal Branding Power Personal Use Ebook With Audio

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What Is Personal Branding And Why Should I Care?

Whether we're aware of it or not, we are all affected by branding. It is, and has been, a persuasive and pervasive force in the marketplace for decades. It is a powerful marketing tool that has been proven, time and again, to have influenced people's purchasing choices. It is designed to work in concert with basic conscious and subconscious factors to affect decision making. If it's doing the job correctly, the customer isn't even aware of this influence or affect. Branding is amazing, almost magical, in it's ability to impact opinion and, with the development of technology, that ability has grown exponentially.

The best way to understand the power of branding is to look at a few examples. If you were shown a picture of a stylized arch that happened to be a yellowish gold in color, what would be your first thought? What if you heard someone say the words "golden arches"? I suspect that nearly everyone's knee jerk reaction to these stimuli would be the same, whether they approved or enjoyed the underlying product or not. Let's try a couple further examples. What's your first thought when you hear the word "apple"? How about when you see a picture of a stylized apple in silhouette with a bite taken out if it? How about a stylized black and white mermaid surrounded by a circular green border? Each of these examples probably caused you to instantly think of the particular product or business they are associated with. You likely had no conscious choice in the matter. You read the description and you thought of the product. This connection happens even quicker, and more uncontrollably, when you can see the brand. The point is, these brands do what they are supposed to do. You see and you make a connection.

So, why should you be branding yourself? Well, there are numerous reasons. Maybe you have a business. It is priceless to have your face be associated with that business. Think about Steve Jobs and Apple or Walt Disney and the DIsney Studios. The face becomes the logo. Maybe you're offering a product or service. The way you present yourself on social media is a way for people to associate you with that product or service. If people find you likable or memorable, in any way and for any reason, they will associate that emotion with what you sell. You are your business. Why not be the brand for that business as well.

There Is No Difference Between Brick And Mortar And Electronic

There is no substitute for positive customer experience when building a brand. Your aim should always be to satisfy your customers. After all a satisfied customer is a happy customer. Happy customers are more likely to become repeat customers. In addition, a happy customer is much more likely to be willing to leave you a positive review or recommend you to friends and family. You can't ever buy this type of publicity or good will. Many successful personal brands were founded on the philosophy that the customer's satisfaction is first and foremost.

At the same time, keep in mind that a dissatisfied customer can have exactly the opposite effect on your business that a happy customer does. An unhappy customer can cause untold damage to your brand and it's reputation. They are almost certainly never going to give you their repeat business. What's worse, they are not going to recommend you to other people. In fact, they may actually go out of their way to let other's know about their negative experience.

Now, as Abe Lincoln said, we all know that you can't please all of the people all of time. Sometimes, a customer will not be satisfied no matter what you do. Should this occur, you just chalk it up to experience. Also, this customer is so rare, that they really can't do a great deal of damage to your brand or business. However, if the reason that your customer had a bad experience was preventable on your part, then you deserve the hit your brand takes. This is especially true if you knew a bad experience was possible, but failed to take steps to stop it from happening.

One of the primary ways to prevent a negative customer experience is to treat your online business as if it were on offline, brick and mortar, store. In theory, there should be no difference, from the customer's point of view between the two, except of course that an online business has no physical presence. In practice, however, this is not always the case. Some people treat their online business as if the real world of customer satisfaction cannot affect them. They seem to believe that, because their brand exists online, the rules of common sense, and courtesy do not apply. Nothing could be further from the truth. An online brand is no different than an offline brand. There is not difference between a brick and mortar business and an electronic business when it comes to customer service. Remembering this can give your brand a leg up over your competition.

Selling Yourself In The Age Of Communication?

You may have heard the term "personal branding" and wondered what it was all about. You may have also thought that whatever branding was, it didn't apply to you. If this was the case, you couldn't have been more wrong. This is the age of social media. Communications are quick and to the point. Impressions matter because, more than ever, time counts. Clicks, views and likes define who sets trends and who follows trends. In this world of instant expertise, branding matters. It matters a lot.

So, why should you care about branding? Well, we are all interconnected like never before. One person has the potential to reach thousands of other people with the flick of a finger and without every leaving home. One result of this is that a pointed comment, a funny joke or a helpful piece of information has a naturally larger audience with a resulting greater reach. This increases the power of personal communication. This is just a fancy way of saying that social media has increased the power of you.

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• License: Personal Use
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• Tags:2015 Ebooks With Audio Personal Use