Are you ready for the new way of THINKING and COMMUNICATING?

A trio of thought leads fused their knowledge with a group of Chamber of Commerce and Industry members yesterday at Vodacom World. 

The trio all echoed one message, that the 21st century has arrived and Social Media is here to stay and grow. If you have not added Social Media into your existing media strategy, then you are heading for disaster - FAST!

If you are part of the minority who thought the telephone came and went far too quickly, then I strongly suggest that you find a 9-5 job doing someone’s admin because Social Media is about exposing yourself and using your networking and marketing abilities to get ahead.

Meet Erik Vermeulen

“Social Media is the next ‘Y’ generations explosion to the world.” says Erik Vermeulen, a Global Business Speaker and Entrepreneur who looks at the world through a different looking glass. His style of presenting and engaging with his audience is truly something to witness. You will be captivated by his manner and totally authentic way he presents, collecting facts and figures from his online network within minutes of presenting at our conference. Giving us a taste of what is happening right now on Social Media and the awesome power it holds.

It’s refreshing to see that someone else also encourages the use of technology, from the smart phone to the IPad, Erik Vermeulen message is clear – “Be Authentic and Real” – and above all practice the simplicity of “WYSIWYG” (What You See Is What You Get), when dealing with your Social Media strategy.

Meet Peter du Toit

Peter du Toit, Co-founder of Social Media IQ, who presented his insights into getting a business prepared and ready for the Social Media stage. The entire experience might be very daunting to some of us who still seem to think that Social Media will hurt our brands. Peter du Toit and his team, encourage you to think out of the box when it comes to online reputation. While he understands that an unhappy customer is not good for brand marketing, but by simply offering a solution will also, nine times out of ten, have a positive effect with your network who will remain loyal to your brand because of it.

Peter highlighted the common mistakes that business people make when building an online Social Media Network and gave us a clear roadmap in which to follow to gain online presence. His casual persona and unique way of explaining Social Media tactics, I found to be very inspiring, and often found myself nodding my head during his presentation, filling in the blanks to my own Social Media strategy.

Meet Andrew Horton

Andrew Horton who is an Inspirational Speaker, has had so much success using the Social Media platform. He was awarded a speaking tour over in the USA and has been invited back for more. He owes most of his online success to his continuous message of hope, vision and focus that he sends to his network of people. Andrew highlighted how he used his own method to spread the word and shared his magic formula of how he used the power of Social Media to help his business career. Andrew is a natural marketer who uses the power of Social Media to create the right presence for himself and his brand online.

His ways of gaining trust with his clients is very insightful, and he truly uses this technology to his benefit. His strong message to network with Social Media connections, is a message that has imprinted a reminder for me to continue doing what I do well - Network.

My Conclusion

This is proof enough for me that Social Media has the ability to expose you and more importantly your business message. You can in effect, re-invent yourself using the step by step strategy that these top experts and other experts online teach. This platform has the ability to make or break you, and there are a limited amount of professionals out there who can offer a full house solution for you.

That is why on site training with teams who make up your Social Media structure is an option that most companies should begin to look into now. Outsourcing your Social Media is brand suicide, because the person promoting your brand has no idea who you are or what your services are - better than you. Unless they have the experience and knowledge and are continuing to push the boundaries daily to keep learning, you will never make it in this industry.

Nonetheless if you have a passion for socialising and network while also understanding how to compile a projected forecast of Social Media marketing messages, that suit your product or service and combines your off line marketing campaigns with your online campaigns, then you pretty much have it made. If you don’t have the formula or recipe to build your Social Media then you pretty much will be dead in the water.

More about with Lucille:
Lucille Divine is an eCommerce expert who specialises in network & knowledge training and partnerships. Co-founder of Intelligent Wealth Solutions a company who are changing the way you think about starting an business online. You are invited to view our website and download your first steps to empowering yourself. Ignite your passion within and began to change the way you THINK. Go to our website now www.intelligentwealthsolutions.com to download your free copy of “THINK & GROW RICH” by Napoleon Hill. Intelligent Wealth Solutions giving you the power to change.

How to Network like a Professional

Networking Tips

 Professional Always prepare yourself well for networking events, take a small black book and pen just in case you need to write down a number or new contact without using your cell phone, especially since most people will introduce themselves using eye contact and instead of you thumberling with a cellphone, take notes so that they can see you are interested in what they are saying and keep eye contact with the person.

Your pen is the most important tool as you can write on the back of each business card certain details. I always like to take down the following details when meeting someone new.

• Where I met them – this could be the event name.
• What we spoke about and what I promised to help them with or what they promised to help me with
• Write down the date you met

Writing down these simple details will allow you to update your database back at the office and will allow you to not only follow up with the person, but will also give you more background as to how you could pass on other work or exchange a contact with another.

This follow up will give you a reputation for being accountable, leaving your contact feeling as though they can not only trust you, but also come to you for more advice.

Always network with everyone, even if they have stuck themselves up against the wall, and have not spoken to anyone. Go and approach them. Make sure that you extend your hand and open your face by smiling back at them.

Ask them what their name is first and repeat their name after they have told you. Introduce yourself and ask them who they have come with to the event or ask them what industry they are in. Try to find common ground so that you are able to continue communicating with ease.

Networking can be fun and is a direct way for you to advertise your business and personality. This will help you gain more leads and also build a network of people who not only want to help you, but who you could help too.

5 Reasons Why Blogging can enhance your BRAND!

Blogging is a concept that started in the late 90s.  It used to be a way to comment on an existing web-page, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out their opinion using the written word online.  What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything you can imagine.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blogging world's potential.  

Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging to promote your BRAND.

1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the Internet is through blogging.  No skills are necessary even an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your own ideas, experiences, new products, and allow the truth behind your articles to come out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection, come to think of it who doesn’t nowadays, then you to can begin to blog and advertise yourself or product.

2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free web time is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  But always do Remember that your Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  Although this in reality is the case for some, lets take a look at some other idea's on how to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blog-site.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more blogger are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

About the Author: Lucille Divine is a SEO expert and co-founder of Intelligent Wealth Solutions, a company who teach and share their knowledge of how to build Wealth using online marketing strategies and tactics.

WHAT IS PERSONAL BRANDING?

Personal Branding is your outward package. It’s what you want and sometimes don’t want the world to see. It contains the things you do, why you do them and how you do them. You see each of us are very unique and individual, we each have a special skill or talent that is very unique to us.

Not everyone thinks the way you do, because their experience in life has been that much different to yours, with many different influences and life lessons that make them different in ever regard. You are who you are because of all of these outside shaping elements.

So I guess the question is how do I create my Personal Brand?

Creating your personal brand is not difficult, and in fact, most of us do it daily. Whenever we make a decision, we are tapping into our personal preferences, our brand. Just think about it for a moment. Everything you do daily is creating who you are – your Personal Brand. From what you want to eat to how you wear your hair adds to the flavour of your Personal Brand.

In order for you to create your Personal Brand online, you would also accumulate these elements into your online existence right. You would not go and LIKE a sports page if you Hate the sport right? You would rather look for something that you LIKED and become a member to that, like dancing.

So where do you begin?

The best place to start is with you. Who inspires you, what ignites your FIRE and gets you revved up? Think about what music you truly enjoy, or how your personality type loves helping others. Start making a list of all of these things that inspire you and give it a name, like INSPIRATIONAL ME! Create a folder that carries this name, and continue to add to its contents. Now begin looking for images, blogs and words that you could add to this to create YOU. 

Next, begin looking at what you do during the day, are you a writer, an artist, do you love reading poetry? What sort of things do you do on a daily bases? Make a list of the things you do on a daily bases and begin looking for images, content through blogs and any other items. School projects are a great way to getting your Personal Branding out there. People can really get to see and understand who you are.

Look at your history, where have you come from, what type of influences have you had, have you met anyone worth mentioning, and have you joined their network? Do you belong to a band, a tribe, or any other organisation that is worth mentioning? Again start looking for images, and content that supports this. Open up a folder with images and contents too.

The next is to begin looking at what you want to achieve. Become what you want to be. Begin making decisions of what you want to be in life. What do you want to do in life and where do you want to go. Is there a charity that you have wanted to become involved with? Ask yourself questions like do I want to be involved with animal typed groups, or people groups or political arenas.   

Personal Branding plays a huge part of your life, both online and off line. It can influence a future employer to hire you, it can also define you and allow others to view the successes and failures you have had in your life.

Pretty powerful right! You have the ability to make your Personal Brand powerful or as weak as you want it to be. The only difference between off-line and online is that your entire existence is displayed online for more people to see. The online world is not any more different than the real world, and simply understanding this will allow you to begin creating a Personal Brand with a punch.

Begin focusing on YOU, and create an online presence that informs people even if you’re not online, about who you are and what you want from life. It’s the only one you have so don’t throw it away, just because you are being influenced to do it. Take charge and make your online presence the best yet! Not a lie about you.

Lucille Divine

Divine Articles 2011

ABOUT THE AURTHUR:

Lucille Divine is an expert SEO e-Commerce expert. Want to learn more about Personal Branding, then contact Lucille fusionballoon@gmail.com or book her as a speaker at your next event.