Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIn’

How to design your own corporate identity & website? It’s simpler than you might think. The big secret was:

“what questions do you need to answer in order to get the basis for your design?”

Here is a simple way to get you started in creating your own visual identity on print and the web.

Deciding on colours

Let’s start with you. What are your three core values? Values could be flexibility, fun, efficiency, responsible, … For each value that you have, try to visualise a colour. If that sounds difficult, listen to what sounds you hear when thinking of that value and give that sound a colour. Or better yet, your value may give you a strong feeling! What colour would that feeling have?
Now you have your 3 base colours that you can start playing around with in color scheme designer.

Deciding on font-types

Are you modern/ creative person or someone who prefers tradition? This is the key to decide what font-type you should use (serif/ sans-serif). Choosing a font-type is more important then you think, if you need some help choosing I recommend looking at this or this article.

A name for your website or business

What does your customer get from you or the service/ product you are offering? Think about what a person gets from you and capture this is one or two words. Then it’s time to get creative and brainstorm on the name.
It also tells you how you should structure your website. Position yourself in a customer and make it fun and logical for him to find the information he’s looking for.

Who is your audience/ target customer group?

This is key to decide what social media you want to implement on your site and on which platforms you want to be active. Go where your audience is, if they like what they see they will be curious enough to check your site out! When knowing your audience, you can also do a sanity check to ensure that the logo and webpage you have designed also catches their interest.

Building a website

Today, building a website can be done in less than 1 hour which doesn’t require any programming done. There are plenty of open source CMS or Blog platforms out there that offer a wide range of possibilities for free. I found WordPress and Artisteer a great combination to work with.

A final thought

Combine these and you have a good starting point that needs to come of age. Get input from your audience, friends and foes. It can help you to tweak your design and create that special look & feel you are searching for!

With so many different services available, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here is one way of approaching social media for spreading your word. The services that I use in this example are the ones that work for work me, so feel free to substitute these with ones that work best for you. Before you start creating all kinds of profiles and making all kinds of accounts, think about the following:

• What do I want to achieve with my web presence? (work, private, just for fun)
• Who is my audience? (young, old, rich, poor, conservative, open-minded, and and and…)
• On what service is my audience already? (go where they are, they feel cosy there)

Once you know this, all of the below will become clear quite quickly. And when it does, you will will need a uniform message and identity across all your internet presence to make people recognise it is you.

• Have 1 profile description of yourself that you use everywhere
• Select a set of colours and 1 font type (and maybe even your own logo) that you love and apply them everywhere in a consistent manner
• When selecting a service, see how it integrates with other services. This will save you time setting up and maintaining multiple services in the future
• Use 1 email address for all your services, by that it will be easier for other people to find you on there

Now it’s time to get started. It’s a generic structure that you should adjust to what you think is right for you. In brackets I’ve put the service that best suits my needs.

Create your professional online identity (LinkedIn)

Remember meeting that new person at work? Who didn’t search for this person on the internet to find out more about them? That is exactly what people do with you as well. So why not help them find what they are looking for? You are then in control of the information they see. Connect with people you actually met and that you are proud of having in your network. Your profile visitors will go through your contacts inevitably and determine your value on that of your connections.

LinkedIn works for me as it ranks high in google search results and is seen by many as the “professional network”. I am finding it an excellent online resume site. Other than that, LinkedIn is too static and the Q&A section turned into a self-promotion forum.

Create a personal life online identity (FaceBook)

Work and personal life are two different things. Well, it used to be. Lines are starting to become more vague with social media. Still, creating a second profile that allows you to connect with friends will give you an extra presence on the web that search engines will find. And so, you are now having twice the influence of what people are finding about you on the net.

Facebook has, at time of writing, >400 million users. That would be the 3rd biggest country in the world. Finding a big chunk of your audience here is pretty likely.

Create a Facebook FanPage for your cause (FanPage)

Facebook has a lot of users. Make use of the platform where people are already. A FanPage allows you to blog, share photos, videos and links. By getting fans to your page, you can reach out to people that you don’t know yet and increase your reach. As they choose to become a fan, you have the right to speak to them and they will listen to what you have to say.

My FanPage for my business allows me to give people insightz in what is happening behind the scenes but also update them on news that I am finding interesting and relevant to what I do.

Start talking to others and connect on a private level (Twitter)

Though still at the very early stages, services like Twitter and Google Buzz are redefining what social networking is about. The shift to real-time social networking is now allowing you to meet like minded people in a way that you do in real life: you start talking to them because they said something that caught your interest. As your relationship develops, they will ask you what you do professionally: it’s a humans curiosity to do so.

Through Twitter I have met loads of interesting people that either became a service provider or client after we established mutual interests. Twitter is one of my main acquisition channels.

Create a blog (WordPress)

A blog is a great way to share your story. A private publishing platform that allows for interaction with your readers and create a loyal fan base.

I am using my blog to give people insightz in the person behind the company insightz. It’s an additional way for people to get to know me and decide if I could be someone that can assist them.

Create a video sharing account (YouTube)

This is useful if you want to share videos on your blog. On sites like FaceBook you can directly upload videos, making this step optional. Then again, if you use video to share your message, it is worth creating an extra channel for people to find you.

My YouTube channel is only used for posting the references I get and allows for quick integration in my WordPress blog.

Create an online business card (MyNameIsE)

Having an online business card allows you to quickly exchange details with others. It’s also useful for adding to your e-mail, avoiding to have multiple lines of information.

MyNameIsE offers that what I need. It could do with integrating into my OS X Address Book, but for now it serves my needs well.

Create an e-mail signature that includes you online web presence

No point in having invested all that time if no one knows about it. Add a simple link to your e-mail to make people curious.

Integrate all your services

Through linking Twitter with FaceBook and LinkedIn I can update all 3 services through Twitter. My blog could be integrated with my LinkedIn profile page, but I choose not to. By integrating all your platforms, you can save time and replicating information. By doing so, you also avoid having 2 different versions of the same text.

If you are hungry for more, I suggest reading:

• Twitter GuideBook (Mashable)
• FaceBook GuideBook (Mashable)
• HowTo use the latest social media tools (Mashable)

Enjoy joining the social media revolution!

If you want to brainstorm or simply talk, I would be happy to!

Following the event of getting my own NLP session with Ravisie/ Ben Licher, I have gotten new insights. Answers to questions that have been costing me a lot of energy in my life were discovered. That is leading to me changing my focus. The first step was to “restart” my own weblog. Now I am writing more personal blogs and keep my focus on a couple of specific topics, shying away from only writing about marketing.

Along with this new focus I realised that my profile on LinkedIn doesn’t reflect the “current” me. Now it does, thanks Ben for the insights you have given me! Next step: rewrite my CV. I wouldn’t want my future employer be unable to see how wonderful I am!

Next to my LinkedIn Profile, I have also updated my own About page already.