Personal Branding: Brand Exposure at Maximum Capacity!

How do you get your personal brand maximum exposure? Your products are great, your services exceptional, but the people who are looking for you can’t find you.

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve listened to an independent artist that made some of the best music you’ve ever heard, but only you and a few other fans are aware of their existence. This is a text book case of, value there, visibility gone. If only the right people could hear them, this awesome band could be opening in madison square instead of playing the Wednesday night showdown at Porky’s Pig Shack (to the owner of the Porky’s no offense).

So, you want to get your brand maximum exposure?  Change your approach.

“The true art of memory is the art of attention.” -Samuel L. Jackson

Let’s get some basics out the way:

You’ve just started building your personal brand, and you have a message to share with the world. Here’s what you don’t do: Walk into the loudest area of the market, and attempt to out scream your competition, it won’t work. New players have to play it smart, and since you have less resources, you have to be more efficient at being heard.

Here are the basic problems you’ll face as you build your brand:

1. You Start a Blog- Your new blog will usually generate next to zero traffic in the first few months, because your biggest keywords will most likely be dominated by larger sites, and the one keyword (your name) that you probably rank high for isn’t being searched for, due to the fact that no one’s heard of you.

2. You Attempt to Dominate High Traffic Keywords- Unless you’ve stumbled upon an unguarded specialty niche, you’re going to have to put up a decent amount of cash to remain on Google’s page 1 using PPC Ads, and you don’t have those kinds of resources.

3. No one makes references to you or about you- The conversations are happening and not only are you not in them, your contribution is neither missed or anticipated.

4. Your blog looks like 100 other blogs- Your blog is can of soda with no Co2, it’s Flat!. You’ve left the default everything on your blog so it sparks zero interest.

5. You’re saying the exact same thing your more influential competitor is saying- That’s like a strange company promising you to choose their cola over Coca-Cola and offering no incentive. Wow, that’s a hard one. Do you think mystery coke has a chance?

Here’s What You Should Be Doing:

1. Plan on optimizing your blog regularly, and brand your design- Visit successful blogs and check out what they’re doing that you’d want to incorporate into your blog, like your facebook fan page, an automated script that asks new users to subscribe to an RSS feed, and any cool apps that engage interaction.

2. Write SEO articles on your niche- If you want to attract readers to your blog, the first thing you’re going to have to do is convince Google your site can deliver the goods. Here’s a link to one of my favorite websites on SEO writing for your blog.

3. Join the online conversations regarding your niche using Search Twitter and Google Alerts- For Search Twitter, simply search the name of your niche and start responding to what people are saying about it in real time. For Google Alerts, read through their step by step instructions, and set yourself up to receive emails on any updates on specific keywords.

4. Do more offline promoting of your brand then online- Yes, I know there are internet made stars out there, but if all your promotions are online, you’re missing out on a huge market. Think about this: How many people are doing what you do in the world? How about your country? What about your state? Did you think about your City? And finally, who’s doing this in your neighborhood? I hope this puts a perspective on the market size you’re missing out on when you think of local competition.

5. Be memorable- Create a unique brand promise to your audience, something your competition isn’t doing. Clearly differentiate yourself, it might be through your services, products, or image, either way Do Something New!

Don’t wait another day to implement these steps into your brand, you’ll be surprised at what a few small changes can do for your success.

I need your comments!  What are you doing to gain visibility of your brand?