Whether it is yourself as a professional or hobbyist, or as a business manager, having enough consistency to be able to build your brand online properly, is crucial.
The goal is to build an image or idea of you or your business, directly in the minds of those who come into contact with your profile or online presence, so that it becomes solid and persistent.
To do this, the watchword is: constancy. After all, how do you think you could achieve the desired result if, for example, you changed your image or way of communicating on every occasion?
Since this is a topic that is close to my heart and for which many people ask questions, I thought I would put together in this post a series of useful pointers for anyone who wants to start building their professional image or who wants to strengthen their online brand For a product, a brand, an enterprise.
BRAND ONLINE = USERNAME
Whatever online service you sign up for, I would say that it is not appropriate to use a fancy name. Always use the same one, which, of course, must match the Online brand you want to build or promote.
Use it for the tools with which you communicate (Skype, Messenger, etc...), in the various social networks, groups and profiles and fan pages (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Soundcloud, LinkedIn...) and on all those Web 2.0 sites such as aggregators or bookmarks (Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon...).
Your e-mail address should also match your online brand as closely as possible; it will be much easier for someone to remember it and immediately associate it with your product or service.
For example, think about my online brand and my e-mail: valerio@valerio.it
ONLINE BRAND = PROFILE IMAGE
If you register for any online service, it is always possible, if not mandatory, to include an image to associate with your profile.
If you are promoting yourself, your online brand is definitely composed of your face, so put a nice picture in it and make sure it is always the same for every social or website you join.
If you represent a company, you can exploit your logo in two ways. You can use it in its entirety or you can extract a more important and recognizable part of it. This can be a detail of your logo or the most representative graphic part, and you should also use this image as a favicon (that small icon that appears on the address bar when you visit some websites) for your site.
For example, Apple uses only the apple; it does not reproduce the entire brand name everywhere.
ONLINE BRAND = CONSISTENT DESIGN
Even on social you can have personalization of your profile or fan page. So why not make the image consistent with your communication, the design of your business website or blog, and thus with your online brand?
On Facebook you can play with your fan page cover and profile picture (the one in the square on the left), on Twitter you can change colors and background, on Youtube you can change the template of your video channel, and so on.
Giving consistency to everything will make you look like a true professional, careful and thorough.
BRANDING AND SIGNATURES IN EMAILS
Let's start by saying one thing right away: if the signature of your e-mails has all that hand-wringing about privacy, about the fact that the document is meant for a specific person and that if someone has accidentally received your e-mail they shouldn't read it, etc., well... you're in bad shape.
First, if you mistakenly send the e-mail to someone who is not your real recipient, it is only your fault.
Second, who's to say that a person receiving an email could guess that it was not intended for him/her?
Third, to get to read your disclaimer, he has surely already read the whole email, so all pointless to warn him that he shouldn't stick his nose where you don't want it.
Fourth, that text at the bottom of each of your communications in addition to being tedious and proving that you can not only be wrong but also be so presumptuous as to take legal action for your carelessness, makes you a bit ridiculous in the eyes of those who observe details like this.
Your online brand does not come out well....
Fifth, on mobile devices reading your emails becomes inconvenient.
Instead, think about clearly including your name, your position in the company, and your contact information. You only need 3 or 4: two telephone and two online contact details. For example: office phone, cell phone, Twitter, and Facebook.
If you've done the things I mentioned above well, you'll be traceable everywhere, so you won't have to report every single one of your online appearances. Leave the fax machine alone-it will be on your website if anything.
CONCLUSIONS
ONLINE BRAND = ONLINE BUSINESS
They may seem like obvious things to you, but if you do a careful analysis of your situation, you will see that you are definitely lacking or inaccurate in some things.
On the contrary, by following these simple pointers, you can come away with a definitely more professional and curated image, so that your online brand can benefit almost immediately, and be not only reachable but also recognizable everywhere on the Net.