Personal Brand Tip 6 - Using Your Personal Social Media For Your Business & Career Benefit

When you are starting out in small business or in a service-based industry where the product you sell is your time and advice, you are the main attractor of new clients. Like it or not, people want to know about the person delivering the service, not just about the product and price. They care just as much about your personality as your qualifications. Who you are and what you stand for is important in the age of digital transparency. More and more, prospects want to dig behind the business facade to really see who is running the operation. The more you show them, the more they can trust you and the more likely they will buy from you.

Social media is a great forum to showcase various parts of your life that you are comfortable sharing. I’m not talking about super personal matters you wouldn’t want to share online, I’m talking about your hobbies and activities that showcase your character, personality and values.

What to share online?

There are two parameters that you need to review which will assist you in deciding what to share online.

The first is the formality of the industry. The more formal, the less personal content, the less formal the more personal content.

The second element is how open you are to sharing yourself online. Rank both of these on a scale of 1-10 and this will assist you in deciding what you are comfortable sharing and what is appropriate in for your clients. Use the graphic below to help your choices.

• Informal industries

Think about the small talk you have with prospects when you first met them. You ask about their weekend, where they grew up, their family, holidays they have had, sports teams they follow, causes they are interested in. All of these chats are a way to establish rapport and build some bridges before you talk business. Forming trust with another person hasn’t changed, but the medium has. 

In today's digital world, prospects can easily find your information, see your activities and hobby through your Facebook and Instagram before meeting you. Chances are they are more likely to like you and do business with you if you share a common activity or hobby. Seeing your activities over time also makes them feel like they know you, just like when we talk about celebrities like we know and understand them despite having never met them. That’s why big companies hire people like George Clooney to advertise coffee because we like and trust him through repeated exposure to his brand.

A previous client of ours was a sales manager for high-end software that is looking for new prospects. He didn’t have a presence on social media and was finding it tough to break into new industries. After reviewing his personality and values, we realised that he is most passionate about surfing. He goes every weekend and loves talking about it. We suggest he uses that hobby for business and joins Surfers in Suits - a networking group for business people who surf. He attends and has an amazing time. Not only does he get to talk surfing with equally passionate people, they want to do business with him because they have a shared passion. Now when prospecting online, he can use his surfing credibility to link up with others who share his interest.

• Formal Industries

If you don’t like sharing non-business content and your industry is very formal, another way to use social media is to focus on blogging on your industry using LinkedIn Publishing. By writing longer articles about your experience in the industry, your beliefs on certain topics and sharing your opinions, you start to reveal what you are like to deal with to your prospects.

You are not revealing the social side of your personality, more your character and knowledge. Over time people will get to know your style and resonate and agree with your opinions or not. Building rapport and trust which has the dual benefits of speeding up the sales process and disqualifying non-matching clients who wouldn't buy from you once you met. It's simply more efficient. 

I’m sure you can see the benefits of warming up cold prospects with your online content before they start the sales process with you. But what happens if you have staff? This is the biggest untapped resource in business. Staff all have friends and networks that could benefit your business and they are the best people to recommend your services. If you support them in building their own personal brands and sharing appropriate content, you can save huge amounts from your marketing budget. The key is to ensure it is a win for the staff member, their friends and the business.

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our “E-ttractive Personal Brand Calculator” to measure how e-ttractive your current brand is and how to improve it.

Personal Branding Tip 4: Get Found For Your Niche Job, Product Or Service

In previous blogs, we have discussed the importance of referrals. Having clients and friends recommend you by name will lead to the best jobs and clients. In this process, being found for your name and business name is the best use of your marketing time and money. However, there are many cases where referrals are not enough to give you the e-ttraction you need. You may have moved to a new country, be just out of university or changing industries. In these cases your name and company won't be enough, you will need prospects to find you for your service. Being found for what you do is a whole different marketing approach. This blog will help you identify your niche and give you some strategies of how to be found for it.

Company niche

If you are running your own small business, the methodology is the same. Think about what problem are you solving for the customer, and what value can you create for them. This isn’t the product you sell, but the solution. An old marketing adage is people don’t buy a drill, they buy a hole. If you really understand your customer's pain, it is a lot easier to create a product that solves his problem and marketing that will grab their attention.

The niche solution you provide needs to be super specific. To ensure you have it clear in your mind, follow this simple process. Start by writing a description of your target client. Picture them as a single person and detail their habits, behaviours, demographics, lifestyle and problems. In a job situation, this is the person hiring you. For a business, it’s your preferred client.  Then write the way you can solve their problem with the skills you have and also why they would get you to solve that problem.

Let’s take an example of a real estate agency. You open in a new area and need to stand out amongst the many other competitors in the area. It is an affluent area and so you define the target client as Mary the mum. She is educated, 42, with 2 children at private school, works part time in a corporate role and very savvy. In this household, she makes the decisions and demands quality service. Mary is wary of salespeople and doesn’t trust agents easily. You decide your niche will be providing advice and education to Mary and her friends to achieve word of mouth marketing. Your business runs monthly sessions in their homes to educate them on property investing and portfolio management. Over time you establish trust with Mary and her friends and receive many referrals for house listings because of this relationship.

Job niche

The first step is to establish what exactly is your niche. If you are reading this to boost your career, a niche is a specific job you are looking to do. It is the service you are providing to the company who is employing you to solve their problem. It is important to realise that the value you provide to the business isn’t in your job title or even your skills, it is based upon what value you can provide to their customers which they can turn into revenue. When you begin to change your mindset to the employees' problems you can solve with your skills, rather than your own, you begin to open up a whole range of new career opportunities, some of which you might not have even thought of. These are the sort of roles that are created around you, rather than you apply with 1,000 other people.

Let’s use an example to clarify this process. Jim has been working in mining all his life and at 60 is looking for a final senior role for a few years in a large manufacturing or mining company reporting to the CEO. Jim would create a buyer persona for the CEO he most wants to work for. ‘Chris the CEO of X Mining is a 45-year-old first time CEO who has been an executive in a similar company for 10 years. He is a bit nervous taking on such responsibilities at his relatively young age, but has confidence in his abilities and know’s his MBA will help him navigate the role. His problem is he is new to this industry and hasn’t had any hands on experience so understanding the nuances of the business is tricky so he is advertising for a COO with industry experience.’ Jim knows that his hands-on experience and personal contacts in this specific industry will be of huge benefit to Chris. Now Jim just needs to look for changes in his industry where the CEO requires a more experienced mentor. 

Marketing your niche

Once you have clearly identified your niche, you need to market it in the same ways that you market your personal brand and your business brand. On your social media and website, you need to talk to your target person in the language you use. Highlighting the problem you solve, your solutions and your strengths. Then you need to take action. Connect to your target market in LinkedIn, write content that is useful to them on your blog, share articles that would interest them and answer their questions. Help them solve their problem and they will reciprocate with referrals for your niche.

Google will also look after you if you have a clearly defined niche. In the real estate example, if you were writing about your specific workshops for mums in a particular suburb a search for that would easily find your website. Google is looking for the best match to a search query and a lot of searches are very specific. You can be found for your generic service ‘Real Estate Agent Kew’ with the other competitors or try the niche process and be found for ‘Free Property investment seminars for mums in Kew’, and be the only result.

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our LinkedIn eBook here.

Now Hiring - Client Aquisition Role

Based in Melbourne CBD, this role is for a junior sales professional who loves chatting on the phone, social media and events. (who doesn't right...)

About Us...

You would be working at Social Star on the Dent Globalaccount. Two awesome small global business that are passionate about what we do and very motivated to make a difference in people's lives.

We genuinely love what we do and we want someone who has the same high value on work and serving clients. It would be handy if you like Friday drinks, going to business events, social media, Gami, meeting new people and good coffee.

About the role...

The role is primarily phone-based talking to people who have bought our books, listened to our podcasts or completed our entrepreneur quiz. They need help and we aim to help them with our award-winning training programs. You will attend our frequent strategy sessions and fun events too. Be quick as we have a team ski trip scheduled!

You need to be able to travel and work evenings and weekends as required, but we will be super flexible during the week in exchange.

Perhaps you have finished your Marketing Degree a few years ago and haven't really found your place in the workforce. You might be from overseas or are local, we don't mind. However, it's important you can show that you have a few years work experience doing something with customers and can stick it out for awhile. Also, think about how you could demonstrate your analytical and detail oriented nature.

Full training is provided and we will invest in you if you invest in us.

How to get hired...

Your measure will be based on your attitude and results. This will be measured in how many people you chat too and introduce to me and our clients satisfaction. Salary will be base plus bonus on meeting goals. We want a self starter that we can give a brief and they improve the process, not need hand holding. Entrepreneurs, artists and creative people welcome!

Next steps...

To see what we are like check our Social Star website, Andrew Ford's website and Lynn's website for a feel of the people you will work with. Also, check out Social Star University for our methodology.

Other benefits of working for Social Star is that we will build you personal brand in your career including a personal website, LinkedIn, professional photo shoot and more. When you leave in a few years you will be in e-ttractive and in demand!

To apply click here and send me a message of why you want to job, what you think makes you the best candidate and a link to your LinkedIn profile.

Best of luck!!

PS we do cool stuff like this...

Tip 3: Optimise Your Personal Brand on your Business Websites To Get More SEO

Business SEO is very similar to personal SEO, in that you are trying to get the first link in a Google search result. But they can be related as often when you Google someone's name, a business website will appear. To take advantage of this additional boost to your personal SEO from your company we have some tips and tricks to assist.

Leverage Company Website

Let’s begin with how to use a business website to boost your career. If you are working for a company it’s a great idea to leverage their brand for your benefit. To do this you want to be found when someone Googles that company. Obviously, it depends on the size of the business and your current role in it, but the strategy is the same. You want to be recognised for the impact you are making and no one will know unless you tell them.

There are several ways you can effectively do this with a little effort.

1. Volunteer to write some blogs for the company so your name gets some SEO love. Blogs don't have to be long and complicated, simple is usually the best and avoid company specific terms and acronyms. Start thinking about the questions customers ask you the most and write an easy to follow answer to that one problem.

2. If you are senior enough, your name, photo (with correct Alt tags) and biography should be in the About section of the company website. Board members, senior staff and anyone public facing should be on your business website so clients can look you up before meeting you. It's great for your personal SEO as it will provide another business link to your name and if your company is large then it should rank highly.

3. If you can get in front of the press to represent the company that can work wonders for your personal reputation. Volunteer to be the face of a particular project, it could be a high-profile business project a charity or social event. These are awesome for your LinkedIn profile and resume too. Be sure you have permission and media training for this tip.

4. Get one of your projects or articles published in an industry journal or magazine. Your company gets kudos and you get your name represented by a third party publication, win! These tend to rank highly in SEO as they get a lot of traffic to their website so will give you a great SEO boost.

5. Enter your company in an awards competition. The barrier to doing this is the amount of paperwork required. If you volunteer to do this, the company will thank you!

Leverage Social Media

1. Start with your LinkedIn profile and ensure you have your company URL link in your contact information (see below).

2. In the experience part of your profile, list your current roleand ensure the company logo appears. This will only happen if they have a LinkedIn company page. Add a paragraph or two about what the business does and what your role is. Then list your achievements, any projects you are proud of and don’t forget to place visual images (pictures, videos, slideshows) as they tell a thousand words.

If your company doesn't have a company page, then volunteer to build one for them and do our fast start LinkedIn course here. 

3. Add the company name to all your personal sites that could assist in building your brand. If you would be embarrassed for a referrer to see the site, don’t link it your business! For example, if you are a copywriter then a personal blog would be appropriate to link to the business, but Facebook might not be.

4. If you are a Twitter user post photos and comments related to the business and @yourcomany name and #theeventorconference

There are so many ways to link yourself to the business in websites and social that these are just a few tips to assist you in getting started. If you are interested in learning more about how to apply these to you specifically book in a free 20 minute brand assessment with Social Star.

Regards Andrew

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our “E-ttractive Personal Brand Calculator” to measure how e-ttractive your current brand is and how to improve it.

Idea Generation: Follow your passion, the Tribe Digital case study

I'm an ideas guy, a creator. Way back in 2012 I had several ideas that I was working on since finishing my Masters of Entrepreneurship; one was a beer app called Closest Beer(in the app store now), one was Social Star (my current company) and one was Tribe (owned and run by Jules Lund). 

I met Jules through a mutual friend and what an engaging guy! So respectful of learning from others and a sponge for my personal branding information. I gave him a manuscript for my book (now published 'Creating a Powerful Brand') and on a hunch pitched him, Tribe.

My pitch went a bit like this: "Imagine Tinder for celebrities and brand managers." He was a celebrity and I was the brand manager, a perfect fit. We worked on the idea together for 18 months and it grew and grew. I was full time in Social Star at this stage and didn't have the time or funds to devote myself to Tribe as it was required. 

In late 2014 Jules wanted to take the business further, it was only an idea at this stage, so I exited the business and wished him all the best. Ideas are free, execution is where the value is created and he created the value that Tribe is today.

Friends ask me why I didn't pursue the idea further knowing that it could be a global company. My response is simple. I am more passionate about helping small business owners build their brands and live a more fulfilling life and spend more time with their family than I am about helping famous people make more money. It all comes down to being true to your own values.

Jules is the heart and soul of Tribe, and although, I had the idea first and pitched it to him. He was the man that put his time, money and significant effort into what the business is today. 

I sat on this idea for over a year before pitching it to Jules. My mate, Sacha Mcmonagle-ihasz, and I built out the strategy, played around with concepts, but it never made much ground until Jules became involved. Jules made it happen because he is more passionate about the idea than I.

My advice for entrepreneurs is this. Share your ideas freely. People may try to copy your idea, but most will give it up when presented with a challenge as they are not as passionate about it as you are. Don't do it for the money or success, do it for the people you want to help the most. 

If I didn't share the Tribe idea on a whim all those years ago, it would probably have been gathering dust in my ideas book and someone else would have created the business. Share and collaborate. I would rather see the idea come to life with a guy that I respect and call a friend.

I wish him all the best with the business and know he will make it a massive success.

Follow your values,

Andrew

P.S. If you want to peek inside my ideas book just shoot me a message, I have heaps!

Tip 2 – Increase Your Personal SEO in Google To Boost Your e-ttraction

What is personal SEO?

Personal SEO is where your name appears in a search result for your name. It's what a potential client would see when they are looking for you when they have been referred for your service. E-ttraction is your level of digital attractiveness based on being findable, credible and contactable. 

It’s best to have at least 5 out of 10 results lead to you, but that will take time and we will cover more of that in future blogs. For now, let’s focus on getting you the first link. 

To do that you need to know what is going to be your core site. That’s the one you realistically can get to the top of Google because it has SEO strength and the one that will likely convert a referral to the next step in your sales process.

Have one core site

Have a think about the main site you want your referrals to find? If you are in the job market or running your own business I suggest you focus on LinkedIn. It’s the easiest way to get you to Number 1, with the least effort and lowest cost. 

Appearing as the first link is getting really important now that Siri, Google assistant and others will only read the first name in a search result. So as these artificial intelligent searches become more popular, particularly on mobile, the more vital it is to be at the top.

After working in the social media industry for over a decade, we know that when someone searches on a person's name, 80% of the time, LinkedIn will be the first search result on Google. The reason is that LinkedIn has a huge amount of evergreen content dedicated to individuals. By evergreen, I mean it doesn’t disappear like a Twitter or Facebook newsfeed post, it stays on your profile for Google to crawl and prospects to see. 

Use LinkedIn better

One site that outranks LinkedIn is Wikipedia. This site is designed for celebrities or people ‘of note’ so although we have created them for clients, you have to back up all factual statements with public articles from reputable sources. If you have many online news articles about yourself it is possible. This will be beyond most people so a personal website, one that is dedicated to your name, can be a good solution as it will achieve number one placement. e.g. www.yourname.com.au

If you have a weak LinkedIn profile then other sites such as Facebook, news articles or a website you are featured on may show up first. The issues with these options are they are not the best way to move a prospect forward to contacting you for a job or new business. Another issue is you are not able to control the information so they may not always be positive for your brand. They can be useful for creating first-page domination, but getting the first link is the most critical.

Therefore, for most people, the best chance of getting the first link in Google is going to be LinkedIn. This is great news as many people are already on this platform, yet most people really are not using it properly to convert referrals. 

Fear not! We will cover how to use LinkedIn in more detail in upcoming blogs or you can check out our free eBook on LinkedIn here. 

What’s your name?

One item we need to mention regarding SEO is that it all depends on the search term. If your name is the term we want to appear for, it is critical that you spell your name the same way every time. That means not mixing up nicknames (such as Andrew and Andy), last names remaining consistent and not using stage names on LinkedIn. The name people will use to refer you to others needs to be the name that Google is looking for in LinkedIn. 

For example, you are known as “Andy Ford”, or “Fordy”, and on LinkedIn, your name is Andrew Ford, that isn’t a direct match. Similar, but not the same. Try both searches and see the difference!

Name images

The final tip for your personal SEO is to name your images. When someone googles your name, it generally will have an image bar in the results with photos, so you can find that specific person. Google is smart, they know you are looking for a person and sometimes you need to see their face to recognise them. 

To make it easier for Google to find you, name any images you use online with your name, business name and product name to increase SEO on your photos. (e.g. "Andrew Ford, Social Star, e-ttraction marketing or personal branding" depending on the image.) In SEO’s language, it’s called optimising your Alt and Title tags, which you can read more about here.

I hope these tips give you a starting point for your personal SEO work. There is a lot to learn! If you would like to know more or need some assistance in how to remove negative articles and how to beat famous people who share your name contact our team here. 

Regards,

Andrew Ford

P.S. Why not take advantage of our free brand review by clicking below.

Tip 1 - How To Be Found On Google for your name: Get more referrals

The importance of Google

Most people realise the importance of Google when applying for jobs or getting clients for their business, but they don’t know how to manage it for their benefit. In this blog, we will show you a simple and effective way of getting you on top of Google.

We already know that a lot of the best jobs and clients can’t be searched or found online, they will have to find you, or in most case, will be referred to you if you have a great network.

Start with a strong personal brand so that you can be found online and e-ttract these opportunities via a referral. Other people need to recommend you and when they do, you need to be easily found in Google, otherwise, you will lose the opportunity. If you missed the first blog on this topic please check it out here.

Do great work

Before we give you the Google tips, it’s important to realise that you will only be recommended if you do great work. You need to delight whomever you serve or work for, otherwise, they will not talk about you with enthusiasm. Without providing quality work as the basis for your referral, the personal branding effort will be wasted. So ensure you get this right first.

A great way to measure your referral readiness is to ask the ‘Ultimate Question’. This one survey question called the Net Promoter Score trumps all others according to the creator Fred Reichheld, who wrote a whole book on the topic!

You can read a review of this book here, but to make it easy for you to adopt this method into your personal marketing, begin asking your work colleagues or clients this question:

‘Out of 10, how likely would you be to recommend me to your friend or client?’.

If you score between 0-6, you get a negative point, 7-8 is neutral and 9-10 is a positive point.

Add them all together and you have an easily measurable score on how others perceive your work. This is a very short summary of a complex system, so check their website if you are interested in learning more.

Three Google searches

Most people don't realise that there are three ways clients can find you:

1. Your name

2. Your business name, and

3. Your product name.

It's important you can be found for all three and it applies equally to job seekers and business people. When was the last time you did these three searches? Do you even know what your product search terms are? To help understand what we mean, let’s use an example.

Imagine Lisa is wanting to boost her career and be found for the perfect next role at a new company. She is a digital designer and is really passionate about merging the technology and design functions at her work as it speeds up development time and increases client satisfaction. Her current company isn’t keen to change so she wants to find a company that is adaptable to her ideas and also meets her package requirements. She has tried looking for a role on SEEK but they seem to be generic design roles.

At the same time, there is a smaller digital design business, called Milk Design, that is looking for new talent. They want passionate people with new ideas to help form their growing business. They can’t pay as much as the big guys but offer many other benefits. They stopped advertising on SEEK as it was too much work to process the hundreds of applications they received.

The CEO of the design agency, John, asks his employees and business friends to keep a look-out for fresh talented people that might make a move to his agency for creative freedom. One of John’s friends used to go to uni with Lisa and know’s she is looking for the next step. He refers Lisa and John checks out her LinkedIn profile, Instagram and Pinterest board of previous designs. He can tell she has the talent, but isn’t sure if she will move, so he reaches out on Facebook messenger to have a chat.

As you can see from this example, a referral is the most efficient way for companies to reach out and get quality talent. But what about in business?

Imagine that Lisa is now working with John at Milk Design and they want to grow the business. Their new work can come from three main areas. Firstly, the personal networks of Lisa and John. The people who know them and trust their work can refer them to others. The referral would likely be for their name, not the business name because that’s how they know them. We know the most popular search for a person’s name is LinkedIn so that would be the entry to the sales process. This is generally where most smaller businesses get their work.

The second referral is via the company name. This is when the business network, such as clients, partners and suppliers, refer you to others. When they refer you by the company name, your business website will likely come up first.

The final way clients can find you is via an unknown search on Google. That means they don’t have a referral and will search for your service. Getting found for a generic service, in this case, ‘design services’ in a large city is challenging. You can purchase Google AdWords to be the top of the page, but it is expensive and it is difficult to know the exact search terms to choose. Plus the click through rate for ads or unknown searches is only 1%. Much less than the 50% click through rate from a referral. The solution to this problem is having a uniquely defined niche, but more on that later.

It’s important that you can be found for all three searches so over the next three blogs we will provide details on how to maximise each one. 

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our

“E-ttractive Personal Brand Calculator” to measure how e-ttractive your current brand is and how to improve it.

P.P.S if you missed Blog 1 you can see it here.

10 Digital Tips To Build An E-ttractive Online Brand For Career Success

Over the last 10 years, social media and Google and mobile technology have massively changed the way we communicate and do business. No big surprise there. The biggest surprise, however, is the way people get information and network in just the last few years.

Whether you are in a job or running your own small business, the effects are the same. Some of the best jobs opportunities and the best clients can’t be found or searched for, they have to find you. We call this a referral.

Referrals are as old as business. The difference today is that the vast majority of people will do their research on anyone recommended to them prior to making contact. That means people are Googling you regularly; whether you like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you are in the job market, wanting to start your own business or already running your own small business. The best opportunities start with a referral, and the best way to get more referrals is to have an attractive (or e-ttractive as we call it!) online brand.

How to build an e-ttractive and authentic personal brand?

It’s no longer your choice to have an online brand or not. Whether it’s your Facebook or Instagram page or LinkedIn profile, we all have an onlinepresence. The challenge is how you use it to attract the opportunities you want.

Even if you choose not to be online, that creates a brand impact about you, of being conspicuous by your absence. Are you considered ‘behind the times’ because you don’t have LinkedIn or just a social person who is not serious about business, if all you have is Facebook or Instagram? It’s all about perception and “what Google says about you” is most people's first perception of you.

Luckily what appears in Google can be controlled.

I’m sure many people would be thinking, this is all too hard! Or I don’t know much about digital so how can I manage Google? I understand. However, it’s better to manage your online brand for the benefit of your career and business, rather than leaving it to chance.

We are here to help!

For most people the starting point is to know what your online brand is right now?

To find out, simply type your name into Google and you will see what others see. Can you even be found?

What is the top link? Does it represent what you would like your potential employers or customers to see? Any photos that you would rather not be there.

Do you like what you see?

If not, don’t panic!

Below are our top 10 tips to build and manage an attractive online brand for your career success to beat the competition: 

1. How to be found on Google

2. Maximise your personal SEO

3. Optimise your business presence on Google to attract referrals

4. Get found for your niche job, product or service

5. Build a website that performs

6. Using personal social media for your business and career benefit

7. Getting prospects to connect with you online

8. Create a clear call-to-action (CTA) for your personal and business brand

9. Email segmentation for effective communications

10. Leverage your brand with paid advertising

Want to get more details of these tips and take your brand to the next level? We have it all covered! A series of more detailed articles on these 10 topics are waiting for you.

Cheers Andrew

Simply subscribe below and these freshly drafted articles will be delivered to your inbox shortly.

Sign up here to get all the 10 tips in your inbox. 

What is a Key Person of Influence? More importantly, how do you become one?

A Key Person of Influence (KPI) is the go-to person in an industry. You know the types, they get the first bite of the good deals, seem to make money easily, turns down deals not suitable for them and are the leaders in their field. Sounds great right! I'm sure most business people out there would love to be a KPI in their industry.

In my Social Star lingo this would be someone who has established e-ttraction, or digital attraction. People come to them, rather than the other way around. For service based businesses I help them get to stage one of this process through my Launch in 12 Weeks course. That's from idea to getting your first client. For clients from $200k to $1m, there is the KPI Brand Accelerator which has proven the test of time to be one of the best programs for entrepreneurs and businesses. In summary, it is a 40 week training course with 5 top notch trainers, eLearning support and you even get to write a book!

To be completely transparent I have had a long involvement with KPI and am proud to count the founders as friends and their business as partners. My first interaction was about five years ago when they first came to Melbourne and Glen Carlson came to the Start up Weekend I was running. I attended the first preview event and meet the team and knew they were good people.

Since then, I have given them some marketing support, I judge their Pitch Fest days and they have given me a boost when I launched my business. We help each other. I wouldn't be associated with them if I didn't believe their product was first class. I know many of their graduates and some of them are smashing it in their industry.

So as a partner, they give me some benefits that I pass onto my clients. If you are a service based business that is looking to move to the next level then perhaps this course could be of benefit. My recommendation is to attend their preview day and see for yourself - can't hurt to check it out and I guarantee you will get a lot out of the day itself.

If you want to join me and my crew click here to get a discount from $137 to $57 - get discounted tickets

Dates: Melbourne Saturday 11th February, Sydney Saturday 25th February and Brisbane Saturday 11th March 2017.

If you want to check out their book for free before making a decision, just fill in your details below and I will send you one.

I know many businesses are struggling to get to the next level of size to take advantage of economies of scale. If you are prepared to be the KPI of the business, use your personal brand as leverage and work hard, please do check it out. At $57 is a small investment for a whole day of training.

Regards,

Andrew

P.S. if you do book a ticket, let me know and I will arrange for us to all meet in the morning prior as it's more fun in a group :)

P.P.S if you want to see what the event is like, check out the video here

5 ways to dominate Google for your personal brand

When I bump into old friends in the street they often ask me the classic question - "Fordy what are you up to these days?"

When I tell them I'm into Personal Branding and creating e-ttraction for small business owners. They sometimes look at me like I just said, "I'm a professional pole dancer, didn't you see the pics on Facebook?". 

To some, Personal Branding is some new age thing, but really it's been around for ages. The clothes you wear, your office, your business card are all examples of personal branding. My particular style is online branding - how you look when someone Googles your name. LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and that old MySpace account your forgot about. If you haven't Googled yourself lately, better do it now as your clients sure are!

It's nice to be popular, but the business reason to focus on personal branding is that it's vital for your client referrals to be able to find you online. Just think. A happy client tells their friend about you and when they go to check you out on Google or LinkedIn (because they will) they can't find you. What then? Most times they will give up and you just lost a potential client. I don't know about your business, but I rely on referrals for about 70% of my new business. Therefore, it is critical for my business success to be found online, look credible and they can easily contact me. It's like a 24/7 sales person working in the background.

As you can see by the picture above, I battle with one other Andrew Ford for first page dominance of my name. It's a common name with 25 other Andrew Ford's in Australia, so it's challenge to stay on top. For some of you out there, your name will be uncommon and your challenge is that they can find everything! 

So how do you keep on top? 

Here are my top 5 ways to dominate Google for your personal brand

1. Personal Website - the best SEO for your name is a website dedicated to you. Buy the URL www.yourname.com.au or for the country you are in. Google is highly geo-centric so you need to make sure you get a local URL. For more on how to make a personal website check out my other blog here.

2. Optimise LinkedIn - LinkedIn get’s the best SEO of any social media so this should come below your personal website. Fill in your profile so it is complete. For more on LinkedIn see my post here.

3. Get on Google Plus - Google plus is a great way to get a huge SEO boost in the sidebar. See the picture above, my face and details can easily be found first all because I optimised my Google plus profile. Check out my G+ work here.

4. One name - ensure all your social media you want to be found are using the same name. Alternatively, if you don’t want clients to find something use a former name or nickname. Consistency is key in branding.

5. Alt Tags - When you post pictures on your personal website or business website ensure to name that picture your name and what you do. This way it will have a chance of standing out in the Google picture search area. This features on the All view of Google and also in the Image view tab. This can be important if a referral thinks they have met you and want to confirm if you are the correct Andrew Ford, before messaging you.

There you have it, my top 5 ways to boost your personal brand SEO on Google. If you follow these steps you will be on your way to ensuring those referrals come your way. If you need a hand with these steps feel free to book a complimentary 20 minute brand consultation with me personally. Just click here for the application form.

Andrew

PS Best of luck on building your profile and just don’t Google Andrew Ford pole dancer as there are some things you just can’t unsee...

Let's talk CRM!

Hope you have had a great start to November!

It's an exciting time of the year and with Christmas approaching in 7 weeks, have you started thinking about sending out 'thank you' notes or surprised presents to delight your valuable clients? It's the small things that count and make a difference in your relationship with your clients that can create a great start to 2017.

​On this note​, we have recently received a lot of questions about CRM (Customer Relationship Management) from our clients about ​how to select ​the best CRM tool for ​their​ business​ & marketing automation​ and we are excited to run our next webinar on this topic. 

CRM is one of the most important tools that helps ​us manage, centralise and analyse data & helps us understand customer behaviour while avoid having to juggle a number of spreadsheets. The goal of CRM is to improve the relationship with our customers, and ultimately to boost sales. While ​CRM tools are no stranger to businesses, making the most of the tools and choosing the most suitable one can be tricky for many.

Automation is one of the superpowers of CRM that is often overlooked. Using it right, CRM can free your time and help you grow the business on a bigger scale. Overuse it or wrong application, however, can ruin your relationships with your customers.

​At Social Star​, we love to learn from the expert, s​o we are thrilled to have Kylie Harker - founder of Squirrel Hub and CRM system & integration specialist join us on a webinar to discuss CRM on Monday, 14th Nov at 3pm.

• We will discuss these topics:Tools in CRM - How do you choose the most effective CRM tool for your business? Does one size fit all?

• Implementation strategy - How to change our old habits and make the most of the automated system? 

• Marketing automation- How to convert prospects into clients using automated programs/email campaigns etc? 

• Personalisation vs Automation- How do we create personalised marketing campaign to build connections with clients while optimising conversion with automation?

Join us for this webinar on Monday, 14th November at 3pm and have these questions answered.

STOP STRESSING: Three Tips To Stay Stressless While Presenting

Do you love presenting in front of people? Standing in the spotlight, all eyes on you, hanging on every word, just waiting on some universal truth to spill forth from your mouth. Umm, err, ahh....Phew it's enough to make an Eskimo sweat.

If you are like 90% of people who count the fear of public speaking right up there, loosing your smart phone, these quick three tips might be helpful.

Tip 1. Control what you can control: 

'Ahhh..deep breath' he says, holding his chin and nodding knowingly! Unfortunately this isn't my line, I got it from Confucius at Content World 2010, who said, "when presenting using a Macbook Air always bring spare VGA and HDMI adaptor cables". Powerful stuff. I know he said it because I was in the audience. He nailed it BTW!

Half the presentation is won before you even enter the room. It's called preparation and it is kinda important to ensure you hit the mark with your material. The best presenter in the world, talking about an amazing topic is useless if the audience doesn't care about it.

Let me illustrate with an example. A speaker friend of mine did a paid gig and thought his material about bucket lists would rock. He had this great part where he would get the audience to draw 80 squares and cross them out for how old they were - making them realise that life was short. Unfortunately, the audience were retirees with an average age of 75. "Add another row" he said! Opps...

Ensure you know who the company is, the main executives in the room, the audience, the objectives, the room set up, AV requirements (always bring your own stuff) and of course build your own slides so you know them backwards. I have a little form on my website (click here) for the people hiring me to fill in. It helps me to get prepared. Feel free to copy it :)

When you arrive on the day, get there super early. Get to know the audience, chat with them about their business and needs. See the room, get a feel for the space and set up. 

Nothing is worse that arriving in a rush and having to go straight into your presentation. I once was running late for a University lecture at RMIT. I ran across town and got there just in time, breathing heavy and sweating. Lucky for me they were filming this presentation for their overseas campuses. Imagine this, I walk in and there are 40 MBA students looking at me, lights are beaming heat and highlighting every pore, I have to set up with everyone watching and trying to subtly wipe the sweat from my brow and seem cool. Not! Seemed to go ok but not the ideal situation.

Tip 2. Less is more

Another pearl of wisdom! I know, right. I learnt this from Gandhi who rocked Social Media World in 2014 and said to me "Too much powerpoint killed a good story". Profound. 

Visual aids are there to help the audience follow your story, not to tell the story. That's your job. No one remembers all the facts and information from presentations, we might remember 2 or 3 points. But we can retell a story if it is engaging, funny and heart felt. Take your material and make a story from it! It doesn't matter if it is a business presentation, you can still reinforce the points you made with examples and anecdotes. 

Remember that every time you transition a slide, the audience is taking their attention off you and looking at the screen. What a perfect time to break their concentration and let them just have a quick peak at Instagram...

Tip 3. It's about them, not you!

This gold came from an unlikely source. Sometimes it's hard to trust Memes on Facebook but this one looked reliable. It was from one of my favourite speakers Abraham Lincoln and he posted that: "To communicate effectively, stand in the shoes of those who listen." Good one Abe! 

Remember why you are at the front of the room, it's to share a message with others. Don't stay in your head and follow your own movie reel. Be present with the audience and focus your energy and attention to them. See how they are reacting and adjust your material accordingly. This only comes when you have prepared well, so revise Tip 1. 

The measure of a good presenter is how much the audience was impacted. It's emotional impact and recall of the content. Make it about them! Engage them with questions, get them to do activities, encourage them to think and tell stories that make them feel. 

Everyone likes to talk about themselves, and they might be interested in your story. But remember to help them apply this learning from yours to their own lives. That's the key.

Well there you have it, twenty years of learning in 500 words. If you follow my quick 3 tips to presenting, you will stop stressing about presenting and embrace it as the opportunity to build your brand and share valuable thoughts when you are next asked to step up the microphone. 

As a last thought from my good friend Thor when I was last in Asgard "the power is in your hands" he quipped. I think he was talking about a hammer or something, but you get the idea.

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As an added bonus all my visitors can download a complimentary copy of my book 'Creating a Powerful Brand' by clicking here. Tell your friends we have load of eBooks! It will change your life or you money back. Enjoy!

Tax implications if you rent out a room in your house a la Airbnb (from Nexia)

WOW watch out those partaking in the Airbnb trend to earn a few extra bucks. Remember the ATO has access to the internet too! This blog is from my friends at Nexia Accountants and I wanted to share with my connections as I know quite a few people who are participating in the sharing economy and might not be aware of the implications from the ATO.

"As mentioned in an earlier Top Tax Tips, the ATO is still focusing on money earned through the sharing economy (e.g. by providing ride-sharing services through Uber or by providing accommodation through Airbnb).

In particular, if you have earned money through renting out a room in a house that you have been using as your main residence, such income should be declared in your tax return and you will only be allowed to deduct the expenses that relate to the part of the house rented out. Furthermore, if you were to sell your main residence, you may have a potential capital gains tax liability (because the main residence was also used to generate income).

Please contact us if you are contemplating any such transactions which may affect your ability to claim the main residence CGT exemption on the sale of your property. The loss of this valuable exemption may well outweigh any benefit of renting a room in your main residence.

Please note that the ATO is not interested in taxing board-only arrangements entered into with family members because these are considered domestic arrangements. In such situations you also cannot claim income tax deductions for associated expenses (e.g. interest on your home loan)."

Contact your tax advisor if you need further information or advice on your personal situation. 

Source: Nexia Accountants http://www.nexia.com.au/