Personalize Your Businesses Social Media

I Have A Reputation To Uphold! Developing A Social Media Policy.

In building your business and growing your reputation, social media is always a great way to start; especially with its cost of entry.  In your quest to become a social media star and have the highest reputation in the industry, you’ll learn that its important to mix up the message.  Bringing content to followers is an absolute must; after all, that’s the reason they began following you in the first place.  However, filling people with content alone is about as boring as those old, out of date, history textbooks you were forced to read in grade school.  You must mix up the message and deliver your own personality.

In between article delivery and video productions, add a video that you found humorous or tell about something that you encountered recently that brought laughter to your life.  Talk about things of interest to you, outside of your industry, or deliver an unrelated article to bring motivation to your followers.  Anything that tells who you are as a person and helps others to feel a little relief from their own stuffy lives.

Now, on to the meat of the matter!  Be mindful of what you are posting as your interject your own personal touch.  Saying the wrong thing, delivering the wrong message, the unflattering picture of your gut hanging out under your shirt with a beer bottle in your hand, could all play a big hand in jeopardizing your business’ reputation.  To avoid these pitfalls, it’s a wise move to put together your own social media policy.

According to Entrepreneur.com, there are at least 3 significant reasons to enforce such a policy:

1)   Protect your company’s reputation

2)   Minimize confusion about murky legal issues

3)   Raise awareness of your brand

A policy can go a long way in protecting your reputation by ensuring only appropriate, flattering, and business producing items are published under your name or your company’s name.  With the right precautions taken, you can deliver your message, along with your personality, and still maintain your position as an industry professional.

Have you ever wondered, “That’s a fantastic point, but is it legal?”  We all have at one time or another and the rule of thumb is, if you can’t answer that question, don’t make assumptions.  Yes, the name of the game could very well be, “Ask for forgiveness, not for permission.”  However, when it comes to your businesses reputation and your paycheck, don’t assume; it could destroy you.

Finally, with a clear policy in place, you have to realize that you’ve given yourself clear directions for what you can and can not post or comment.  With this in mind, you can now better direct your message and come across with a keen since of knowledge to raise all important awareness for your brand.

So, don’t kill your followers with boredom that definitely could be bad business.  Murder in the first degree shouldn’t be a goal in life.  However, whether you are or not, don’t let your followers know you are the president of the Redneck Yacht Club.  Create a policy that nails down who you are and what should and should not come out of your mouth (or fingers in this instance).  Find direction, stay safe, and get noticed!

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New Starbucks Logo- A Brand is Worth a Thousand Words...

It was released today that Starbucks will be unveiling their new logo for their 40th anniversary. At first I was drawn back in thinking oh no here comes another Pepsi logo. But when I took my first glance I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of trying to make their logo 3D to be considered "modern" they took away the words and just went with a clean Siren.
I think it will be pretty clear that when you are walking around with one of these, that you are drinking a Starbucks Coffee. (Or tea, or Juice, or whatever it is they make there) This brings me to a point when I start to think of my own clients who are in the process of designing a logo and their branding strategy. Of course clients always want their logo to include every aspect of their business. Ex. A real estate group that deals with buyers, but would like sellers, deals with short sales, but would like to deal with luxury real estate comes up with a name like- Los Angeles - Westside Luxury Home Sellers, Buyers Experts and Short Sell Specialists LLC. Of course Starbucks has been building their brand since 1971 so it makes sense for them to go sans words, but including every thing you do in your name is just a bit much so take notes!

Social Media and Real Estate Sales

In today’s market you simply MUST be harnessing the power of the social web. Did you know that the average person spends over 20 minutes a day on facebook?

Using social media you can reach out to hundreds, even thousands, niche specific consumers with a targeted message for FREE in just a few minute. No other platform provides this kind of power.

Old school real estate like politics had always been ‘shaking hands and kissing babies.’ But, the issue with shaking hands is that it takes a long time to shake a lot of hands (not to mention the germs.) After you shake hands you may or may not connect later. Social media gives you a chance to shake virtually with higher odds of connection.

Think about this simply….You can pay to sponsor the local softball team and go to a few games to mingle with the masses. Or, you can mingle with every softball team in the region in five minutes by posting or tweeting.

These are the sites you should, at the least, be taking advantage of: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Active Rain

A few basic rules: First, always follow basic social media etiquette rules when posting. Friends that don’t appreciate your overly sales approach will simply ghost or block your posts and tweets. When this happens, your effectiveness will wane.

Secondly, remember that social media posts are easy to post but don’t last long. In fact, a tweet is only “alive” for a minute. New posts are being added every minute and yours will be lost in the stream. So, you need to create a daily routine for posting so that you stay in the minds of your ‘friends’ while not overwhelming.

Thirdly, always follow the 90% content rule. When posting, you should provide tons of useable, entertaining, or helpful content. Your ‘friends’ will follow, re-tweet, and share solid information. This will draw even more people to you. Not overwhelming people with sales will also encourage them to keep your posts live on their walls and in their feed.

Finally – don’t forget that you want to lead people to interact and opt-in. The lead capture cycle should always be a part of your social media strategy.

We use social media to generate motivated seller leads, cash-buyers, rental leads, students, new recruits, etc….

Follow us for an upcoming lead generation sales cycle free webinar series starting in November.

To your short sale success!

Source: Short Sale Daily News

Contact Business Aesthetic today so we can get your businesses social media campaign up and running businessaesthetic@gmail.com

Oregon BCS Uniform too much?

Oregon has always been known for it's avant-garde uniform design. For their BCS Championship game versus Auburn at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10 they will bring a similar uni they wore for the "Civil War" game versus instate rivals Oregon State. The one subtle noticeable difference is the addition of the safety yellow trim. I like the clean white and gray uni, but the tennis ball socks and shoes gotta go. I feel that Oregon has had too many uniform changes and now they are just running out of ideas.
Even their Carbon fiber helmets are getting too busy for me, but I guess if the objective is to distract your opponent, then kudos to you Ducks.

I'll take flat black any day over safety yellow. Let me know what you think.

Establishing Yourself As An Expert Via Social Media

5 Guaranteed Ways to Establish Your Reputation as an Expert in Your Field via Social Media

By Susan Gunelius

Social media presents an incredible opportunity for professionals to establish their online reputations as experts in their fields. Using the free (or inexpensive) tools of the social Web, you can easily develop your online reputation as the go-to person in your field.

Following are five guaranteed ways to help you establish your own reputation as an expert in your field by leveraging the opportunities and tools available to you through social media and the social Web:

1. Publish shareworthy content.

The term I use to describe amazing online content that people find useful and share with their own social Web audiences via their blogs, Twitter, social networks, and so on is shareworthy. When you create and publish shareworthy content online, people find value in it and want to share it with their own online connections thereby increasing your online exposure to broad audiences and raising awareness of who you are and the knowledge you bring to the online conversation.

With that in mind, find the tools and media that you enjoy using to express yourself and start creating shareworthy content. For example, start a Google blog, use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on to publish your shareworthy content. Don’t limit publishing to your own blog and profiles though. You can also write guest blog posts for other influential blogs and Web sites in your niche.

2. Go multimedia.

Shareworthy content isn’t limited to written words. You can also create shareworthy content and share your knowledge and expertise via audio and video. For example, start an online talk show on Blog Talk Radio or a podcast on Blubrry (both tools enable you to upload your content to iTunes for further exposure and sharing). You can also create online video content and upload it to your own YouTube channel and other video publishing sites such as Tube Mogul, which enables you to automatically share your video content with a variety of other popular video sites.

3. Leverage the features of social media tools.

You can do more than publish shareworthy content on the social Web, and each social Web tool offers different features that can help you further establish your reputation as an expert in your field and build your online audience. For example, you can answer questions related to your field of expertise using LinkedIn Answers. You should also request recommendations from your LinkedIn connections to boost your credibility.

4. Join organizations and groups that actively seek experts for media opportunities.

Sites like Profnet from PR Newswire and Help a Reporter Out (HARO) offer journalists, authors, and so on the ability to connect with experts in a wide variety of disciplines. Join both sites and respond to queries that enable you to offer your expertise and gain some publicity. You can also search LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups to find people interested in your area of expertise. When you find those groups, join them and actively participate in the conversations to demonstrate your expertise and add value.

5. Integrate and cross-promote your efforts.

Your social media efforts are more powerful if they’re connected. Use tools like Facebook social plugins to integrate your Web site and blog with Facebook activities, and use tools like Twitterfeed to feed your blog to Twitter. You should take the time to feed your blog posts automatically to your Facebook profile and page as well as your LinkedIn profile and groups.

You can also use widgets and tools to promote your Facebook and Twitter content on your blog or website (Facebook widgets, Twitter widgets and buttons), and so on. Furthermore, add social media icons and links to your blog, Web site, online profiles, email signature, forum signature, and anywhere else you can think of to boost your visitors and connections.

The social Web offers a place where you can not only establish yourself as an expert in your field, but you can do so across a global audience. What are you waiting for?

http://blogs.forbes.com/work-in-progress/2010/04/28/5-guaranteed-ways-to-establish-your-reputation-as-an-expert-in-your-field-via-social-media/

From forbes.com

For more information and help on starting your companies Social Media Presence contact us @ businessaesthetic@gmail.com

The Block at Orange Outlets?

According to the OC Register The Block will be changing it name and branding in the near future to become more appealing to tourists visiting Disneyland.

"We’re not prepared to announce that name yet, but rest assured it will have the word outlet in it. I’m not sure if ‘Block’ means anything." The new name will also have Orange in it.

My guess is the branding will look something like this.
It would keep the streak of terrible branding for anything "Orange". I took 5 minutes out of my day to come up with this logo.



Let me know what you think, and post links of your ideas. Here is the article from the OC Register:

November 30th, 2010, 1:31 pm posted by HANG NGUYEN, Retail Reporter

The Block at Orange, which has been under new ownership for about three and a half years, will soon get a new name.

Simon Property Group, which also owns Brea Mall, Laguna Hills Mall, Westminster Mall and The Shops at Mission Viejo, bought The Block a few years ago from the Mills Corp. The Block is one of Orange County’s largest shopping centers at more than 700,000 square feet.

“This has been a center high on our radar since acquisition,” said Gregg Goodman, president of The Mills, a Simon subsidiary that owns The Block.

He likes that the center is less than four miles from Disneyland and wants to capitalize on its tourists. “We know how much tourists like the outlet experience,” he said. The Block has recently announced new outlet tenants such as Carter’s, Tommy Hilfiger Company Store, Original Penguin Company Store, Perry Ellis Company Store and Levi’s Outlet Store.

“We will rebrand the property,” Goodman added. ”We’re not prepared to announce that name yet, but rest assured it will have the word outlet in it. I’m not sure if ‘Block’ means anything.” The new name will also have Orange in it.

Also, this past June, the city approved a 105,000-square-foot expansion at The Block behind Hollister. About 35,000 square feet of that will be occupied by Nordstrom Rack, which is slated to open in spring 2012. Shoppers should expect several more outlet stores in the expanded area, Goodman said.