Marc Guberti

The True Definition Of A Personal Brand

July 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It took me a while before I learned what a personal brand is. I knew I was building a personal brand for myself, but with so many confusing definitions on the web, I got confused about the definition of a personal brand. Some articles say that a personal brand is defined by the logo while other articles say that a personal brand is defined by the size of the audience. The bigger the audience, the better the brand. With all of the confusion, I finally figured out a clear definition of a personal brand on the day I got my 96,000th Twitter followers (don’t make fun of me). To clear all of the confusion that others may be having, here is the true definition of a personal brand:

A personal brand is how people think of you after they see you in action.

That means the definition of your personal brand depends on the individual. If an individual sees you as a hard worker, that is how the individual would define your personal brand. If an individual sees you as a newbie, that is how the individual would define your personal brand.

I hope that clears up any confusion people were experiencing about defining a personal brand.

3 Things About Twitter You Are Mixing Up

July 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Twitter is a bustling social network that can be very helpful for your business. Many business owners and entrepreneurs create Twitter accounts hoping to be successful right away following an easy method. These people quickly learn that success on Twitter is not linear. It involves twists and turns, getting lost, and finding your way. Some people hear about different methods about growing their Twitter presence but get those methods mixed up. These are the three common methods that people get mixed up.

Using too many hashtags. Twitter users learn that hashtags are good for SEO on Twitter, but that results in some users including too many hashtags in their tweets. Most of your tweets should only have 1 hashtag, and you should have no more than two hashtags in the same tweet. Including 10 hashtags in the same tweet will make that tweet harder to read. If someone finds it difficult to read your tweet, that person won’t bother to finish reading that tweet…even if it is under 140 characters.
Not tweeting about your blog enough. Remember that 80/20 rule where you only tweet about your blog 80% of the time? That rule is preventing your blog from getting more traffic. I decided to tweet about my blog 95% of the time (the only tweets without links to my blog posts are inspirational quotes). I get numerous messages every day about people being grateful for the content on this blog and for my tweets. The reason is that your followers do not care who wrote the content. They only care about the content’s value. If your blog posts are valuable, and your followers would enjoy reading them, you can share them on Twitter as many times as you want.
Not tweeting about your products. There are many people who believe Twitter users would be unlikely to buy a product if you tweet it out. These people believe that you need to get these people to visit your blog and then buy your product that way. However, if you are selling a product for under $20, you can tweet out that product and make sales straight from Twitter. Tweeting out discounts and having a product that your target audience would enjoy will also help boost your sales.

Twitter mistakes are easy to find, but some people who think they are not making any mistakes are getting some things mixed up instead. By not getting these three things mixed up, you will be able to get more engagement from your Twitter audience. In addition, this engagement will help you get more blog traffic and sales.

How To Remove Yourself From The Competition With Blue Ocean Strategy

July 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It has become an imperative to make yourself stand out from the competition. Removing yourself from the current competition and tapping into a new market is one of the best ways to stand out and get more attention. However, the idea of finding an entirely new niche sounds daunting. Luckily, I had the privilege of reading Blue Ocean Strategy which has been sold over two million times. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about how different businesses were able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but all of these businesses differentiated themselves with the same rubric. These are the components of the rubric that will allow you to differentiate yourself from the competition:

Reduction. What are certain aspects of your niche that can be reduced. Do the people in your niche push out too much content? Do they post too much on Facebook? Find something that you can reduce that your competitors overuse.
Elimination. There will be some aspects of your niche that can be completely eliminated. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about Cirque du Soleil eliminating the need for animals and rings in their performances.
Raising. There are some aspects of your niche that can be raised. McDonald’s and most of the other fast food restaurants do not focus on providing healthy food options. Elevation Burger on the other hand, focus on providing healthy food options, and their slogan, “Ingredients Matter” enforces this message.
Creating. There are going to be some things that no one in your niche would think about doing. This is where the creation process comes into play. In order to make the creating process easier, look at what different niches do and see how you can apply concepts from different niches into your niche.

That is the rubric you need to create something that stands out from the competition. This plan will allow you to get out of the red oceans and go into the uncontested blue oceans. If you want to learn more about leaving your competition and creating an uncontested market space, then Blue Ocean Strategy is the right book for you.

The 1,000th Blog Post

July 17, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

1000

Writing two blog posts every day definitely allowed me to reach this milestone faster. Writing three blog posts every day would help me reach the 2,000th blog post milestone much faster than I am currently projected to reach it. I publish two blog posts every day (that number is not going up), which means I write 730 blog posts every year. Sometime in 2015, I will have written my 2,000th blog post.

We all have milestones that we want to reach. Some of us may want our Kindle eBooks to make 10 sales every day while others may want to have over 10,000 Pinterest followers. It’s great to have a milestone in place. Milestones give us something to strive for.

What we also need to figure out is how we can reach those milestones faster. I would probably have less than 700 blog posts on this blog if I only published one blog post every day. I would still have under 100,000 Twitter followers if I used the same methods I was using back when I only had 10,000 Twitter followers.

The difference between a milestone that gets accomplished and a milestone that remains a memory is the individual in charge. In order to accomplish your milestones, you need to identify a way that you can get there faster. You may be projected to reach 10,000 Twitter followers in two months. Instead of accepting it, ask yourself how you can trim down the time from two months to one month. I thought I would reach 100,000 Twitter followers in my senior year of high school. Now, I will exceed 400,000 Twitter followers at the same time I thought I would be at 100,000. I may even be able to pass the 500,000 milestone before I graduate.

Even though I have trimmed down the time it took for me to amass my Twitter followers, I want to trim it down even more. If I learn how to gain 1,000 Twitter followers every day very soon, I could end up with over 700,000 Twitter followers by the time I get out of high school.

There is always a way to reach a certain milestone faster. When you reach the milestone once, it gradually becomes easier to read other milestones. The 1 billionth tweet was sent out 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day after Twitter was created. Now, Twitter sends the same number of tweets every week.

Twitter really trimmed down the time for that one. Your milestones will happen if you remain dedicated, but you also need to find out how you can make your particular milestone get accomplished faster. Getting that milestone accomplished will make you want more, and as a result, find more ways to trim down your time once you seek another milestone.

10 Ways To Grow Your Brand On Social Media

July 17, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Your brand is a big piece of your credibility. If the brand does well on social media and builds a large audience, it builds the brand’s and your own credibility. Creating a brand was never as easy as it is now, but growing a large social media audience is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Just because something is challenging does not mean it is impossible. Growing your brand on social media is a big goal with big long-term benefits. In order to grow you brand on social media, follow these 10 tips.

Boost your engagement. Boosting your engagement shows activity with you and your followers. In addition, some of those followers will share your content and allow it to spread. Here are some tips to boosting your engagement.
Be omnipresent. The more social networks you have, the more audiences you have. I have over 100,000 Twitter followers, but I also have over 10,000 Pinterest followers, over 8,000 Vine followers, and over 350 YouTube subscribers. That’s an extra 20,000 people in my social media audience.
Focus 80% of your time on your three best social networks. Not all of your social media audiences will be equal. My Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Vine audiences are the largest ones I have. I spend most of my time on Twitter and Pinterest. I spend close to the same amount of time on YouTube and Vine. This method forces you to identify your priorities and spend most of your time on those priorities.
Offer giveaways on your social networks. The giveaways will attract people who would have never came. Esurance was able to get 200,000 new followers overnight because of its $1.5 million giveaway. The only mistake (but it’s a big one) that Esurance made was not giving the followers a reason to stick around. After your giveaway is over, some of the people who did not win will unfollow you. In order to prevent that from happening, tell your followers that you will be hosting 1 giveaway either every month or every quarter depending on your preference.
Post valuable content. If your content is valuable, your followers will share that content and help it spread. Posting valuable content will also boost your credibility and attract people to your brand who would have never shown up.
Build a targeted audience. Having a large audience is not enough. Anyone can get a large audience with some money and a fake followers provider. Building a targeted audience will result in you having an audience that already enjoyed your niche before they learned about your brand. These targeted people still enjoy the niche, but now they also enjoy getting your social media posts because they are related to the niche.
Post regularly. In order to get more visibility for your brand, you need to post at a regular basis. With HootSuite, I am able to send out 1 tweet every 20 minutes. On Facebook, I am able to schedule 4 posts every day. Posting regularly will make sure you are not forgotten and that you continue to thrive on social media.
Include pictures in your posts. Tweets with pictures get 10% more engagement than tweets without pictures, and Facebook posts with pictures get twice as many comments as Facebook posts without pictures. Pictures increase engagement and will allow your content to spread faster.
Promote your social networks on your other social networks. Promoting one social network on all of your other social networks will not only boost your traffic, but it will also boost your chances of going viral. Here is how you can make your brand go viral with this method.
Make it easy for your blog visitors to follow you on your social networks. Some people will first learn about you by visiting your blog. When you get these types of people, you should make it a goal to get as many of these people as possible to follow you on your social networks. Include social media buttons on your sidebar that link to your social networks. The best social media follow buttons to include on your blog’s sidebar are the ones that allow people to follow you on those social networks without leaving your blog.

Growing your brand is an important way to reach more customers and get more sales. Social media is one of the best tools available to grow your brand and build a large, targeted audience. What are your thoughts on using social media to grow a brand? Do you have any additional tips to grow a brand on social media? Please share your thoughts and advice below.