Archive for January, 2010

Tips for Creating a Personal Brand.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

JAMA Building your brand event.

JAMA, the American Marketing Association of Jacksonville had a great event in Jacksonville today about creating and managing your personal brand. JAMA puts on monthly events that are geared toward networking and developing skill sets in the marketing industry. You don’t have to be a member to go to an event but it is encouraged.

Marylin Feldstein, of Career Choices Unlimited, put on the presentation which was a refresher course on branding and focusing on one’s self image. I personally can relate to the topic, in fact it’s exactly what I am currently working on in 2010. In the past several years I focused so much on my clients and their projects and put my own personal brand on the back-burner. That’s one reason my site is still “under construction“. I have developed award winning projects but my own site does not reflect that… doh! But it’s never too late to start re-defining or re-branding yourself.

Your brand = your image + how people perceive you +  your essence

If you want Marylin’s branding tips you’ll have to track her down. Below are my thoughts.

My top 10 tips for defining your personal brand.

  1. Determine what makes you special. If you possess unique skills or charachteristics use them to your advantage.
  2. Be yourself. If you’re a little edgy that’s ok there is a market for just about all kinds of personalities.
  3. Network. Social media is great but noting is like meeting someone in person. If you build a rapport it will go noticed.
  4. Research. See what others have done that have worked… see what others have done that have failed.
  5. Develop goals towards re-branding yourself, set objectives and try to schedule a time-line. There is no rush but you’ve got to keep on it.
  6. Get feedback from multiple sources. Typically friends aren’t always the best to ask as they aren’t always objective.
  7. Get professional help. If you aren’t a marketing pro, perhaps you should consult with one before creating an identity, logo or branded messaging.
  8. Don’t be overly critical. Although your brand is extremely important, you don’t need to achieve perfection as it doesn’t really exist.
  9. Know your audience and who you’re trying to sell yourself to, you can’t please all parties. If you have fans, you’ll have haters.
  10. Continue to grow & re-evaluate where you are and push towards refining yourself to where you want to go. Defining your own brand can take quite some time and isn’t usually hit right the very first time. Ah hem…

While you’re here if you’re not a Fan of Key Theory on Facebook. Take a quick sec and check it out. http://facebook.com/keytheory

Natalie Halpern & Tom Brennemen

Natalie Halpern & Tom Brenneman

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Custom Facebook FAQs

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Facebook Web Design

There has been a lot of interest in the custom Facebook pages that I had mentioned in an earlier post. Here is a bit more information about the Custom Facebook pages and the pros and cons about them.

Reasons to have a custom Facebook page:

  1. Stick out of the crowd of other Facebook pages.
  2. Create a branded experience and establish consumer recognition.
  3. Break free from the restrictive layout and design choices of Facebook.
  4. Increase the pull to drive traffic to specific destinations by changing site hierarchy.
  5. Make your page look fun and interesting.
  6. Create the tabs you want, with the names you want.
  7. Use Flash to create a unique user experience for people to want to share.
    http://www.facebook.com/target#/target?v=app_4949752878**
  8. Your competition will eventually get around to doing it, beat’em to it.
  9. Make your Facebook experience more engaging.
  10. Having an interesting page will help people remember your page from others.

Drawbacks of Static FBML:

Although there are definite advantages of creating a custom Facebook page with Static FBML there are some drawbacks as well.

  1. Static pages do not have the same dynamic functionality that core pages do.
    The wall, discussion, photo gallery and a few other tabs have functionality built into them that are easy to use and dynamic.
  2. Changing elements on the static page will not be as easy, it would be recommended to create static pages for things that will not change frequently. http://facebook.com/sunkistsoda**
  3. You can not add much actual functionality to the pages as they do not allow connections to scripts, for this you may need to develop an application.
  4. Flash elements must be clicked on first to enable. http://facebook.com/artizanmetal
  5. Creating links out of Facebook will take users to a warning page before they will go to the new link.
  6. Not all elements of the Facebook are customizable, this isn’t MySpace. Look at the examples provided here for an idea of what can be accomplished. http://facebook.com/wenourishhope

Deciding if you want a really custom Facebook Page:

  1. Do you a Facebook page already created?
  2. Can you provide admin access to your Facebook page?
  3. Do you have a need for a branded page that will be static, for the most part, and not change very often?

Custom Facebook Process:

  • The first thing to be done is discuss what the goal of the Facebook tab(s) will be.
  • A wireframe (blueprints) will be created to outline the layout and functionality of the page.
  • Once the wireframe is approved a design will be created based on the wireframe.
  • Once the design has been approved the page will be developed in XHTML and be deployed in Facebook.

How much does a Custom Facebook Page Cost?

Everyone wants to know the cost but it all depends on the scope of the work. Think of it this way, if you asked for construction company how much to build a new house, the answer would depend on what type of a house you’d be looking for. The same goes here. Before giving a price quote the job must be fully specked out.

Prices range from $500 and up depending on the goals and requirements of your particular project. This may seem like a lot of money to some people for a custom FB but I have made the decision to only work on projects that I can put enough time into to be proud of and be a success.

Cost Break down:

  • Discovery
  • Strategic Planning
  • Wireframe Design / Content Hierarchy
  • Graphic Design
  • XHTML / CSS Development
  • Facebook Implementation

Price Influences:

  • How complicated is the project. (Simple layout text and images vs Complex layout page)
  • How many pages / tabs will need to be created?
  • Do you have an existing brand (look & feel) or will you need one created.
  • There is time allocated for a couple rounds of revisions in the cost of the design but revisions outside the allotted amount may increase the cost of the project.

How long does a Custom Facebook take?

Depending on the current volume of work and the scope of the project a custom Facebook page can take anywhere from a few weeks to two months. Once your project has been fully specked out a time estimate can be provided.

If you have decided you are interested in creating a custom Facebook tab feel free to contact me.

** I did not work on the Sunkist Soda or Target Facebook pages used as examples above.

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How to Create and Manage Your Personal Brand

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Branding yourself

JAMA Event:

How to Create and Manage Your Personal Brand

  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Thursday, January 28
  • 7:30am – 9:00am
  • Fairfield Inn & Suites, Jacksonville Butler Blvd
  • Breakfast via Panera Bread
  • Click here to register (http://jamajan2010.eventbrite.com)

Eat, Learn and Network

Marilyn Feldstein, certified professional coach, CEO of Career Choices, Unlimited will be sharing tips on how to create and manage your personal brand.

Even if you are aware of branding sometimes it’s good to get a recharge and networking with others interested in doing the same can help your efforts.

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Measuring Social Media ROI (Return on Investment)

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Social Media Chart

Well a lot of people have been asking me about doing social media. Most people think it’s free advertisement which in a way the tools are free but it does take time to plan and time to do which is worth money. If you pay a social media marketer or an agency to do your SMM for you then it can cost a lot of money as well. So how can you make sure your getting your money’s worth? You’ve got to do a lot of work to track it but it’s possible.

I did some googling and found a very helpful article on Mashable.com -  HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI which I break down below.

Here’s some highlights on Social Media ROI:

Conversion Formula:

(final value – starting value) / starting value = Return on Investment

Define Clear Goals:

Know what you want to accomplish and be sure to monitor the progress before and after the campaign.

Metrics Tools:

These won’t tell you a direct ROI but they can be used to determine some patterns in consumer’s behavior.

  • Google Analytics – See detailed statistics of your site traffic. Track conversions and more… Free!
  • Omniture – Very helpful. Facebook and Twitter tools.
  • TweetMeMe – Google analytics for TweetMeMe
  • PostRank – Social Media Analytics
  • HootSuite – Twitter manager with good analytics

This is a witty cartoon of Social Media ROI.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

To be continued….

Next I’m going to dig further into Sentiment Analysis, Social Media Product Suites and review some of the techniques. I’ve been getting into social media more with my father and his company JaxSEOWorks.

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Jacksonville Web Video & Motion Graphics in the house.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

First Federal Moolah Checking

First Federal Moolah Checking

In the fall of 2008 at On Idea’s I developed an animated spot for First Federal bank. I got to work on designing and producing the project with a great team of people. We designed storyboards and executed in After Effects. We focused on creating the commercial using simple animations and visuals. The campaign had good success and On Ideas has produced several more animated spots since then.

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Setting goals and staying on target in 2010.

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Inspiration
Well Happy New Year 2010!

The year is here and it’s that time of year when people start over, get inspired and set resolutions for the new year. I tend to set my goals high and usually achieve most but not all of my goals. Some people don’t make any of theirs so I feel pretty good with my track record.

There are many different resources online that can assist planning and setting your goals. Below are a few sites I found that seem worth looking into.

Five great resources for setting goals and keeping them.

Kenny Harper’s Goals/Resolutions for 2010

Well I’m sure I’ll set more goals through out the year but I’ve set some resolutions to work towards in this new year.

  1. Continue working with my family on growing our business.
  2. Post at least one post a week on my blog. Thanks to Project52
  3. Finish re-branding KeyTheory and growing my on-line presence.
  4. Focus on quality over quantity, take on fewer projects but make ‘em count.
  5. Continue to develop skills in Facebook programming.

That’s it! So far I’m doing great, it’s only day 2 but I’ve worked on all five of my goals. Good luck with yours and Happy New Year!

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