• Visuals get absorbed quicker and deeper than written materials
• People prefer watching videos over reading text
• Visitors spend more time on the site if the video is truly engaging
• Videos project professionalism and a tech-savvy approach
• Visual presentations add credibility and authority to any campaign
• Videos increase a brand’s visibility across search engines and social media channels
• People like to share great videos with their network of friends
• The Internet retailer reports that visitors who view product videos are 85 percent more likely to buy than visitors who do not.

Videos create trust and facilitate relationship
building by providing value instead of a sales pitch.

There are several ways to produce attractive videos for a marketing campaign:

• Record footage with a video camera and post it on YouTube
• Create Animoto videos from digital images and/or video clips
• Make attractive Power Point slide shows and upload them to Slideshare.

Easily share and embed those clips with codes provided on these individual sites. Utilize their high page rank to achieve front page results in Google search.

How to create a video marketing campaign for your business? Just ask us.

These days, personal branding seems to be easy as pie, with tons of sites offering free blog hosting and comprehensive tutorials to boot.

Do it yourself and save a bundle, right?

The question is, really…

Why should you outsource your personal branding activities?

The answer is don’t – if you meet the following criteria:

• You are thoroughly familiar with the crucial steps you must take before you even register your domain name
• You know how Google search robots operate
• You’ve studied the intricacies of keyword research and own the best supporting software in this field
• You could talk for hours about the ins and outs of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• You know how to get your web site/blog posts indexed by Google, and, most importantly, how to get ranked into the search results’ front pages
• You’ve designed an efficient posting schedule on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, RedGage, and other social networking sites to attract followers and keep them interested with valuable information
• You know how to maintain your web assets in terms of security, technical updates, and relevant content for visitors and search engines alike

Considering this list of basic necessities for a personal branding campaign, you’ll probably agree that it looks like a full-time job.

And if you’ll do it – who will take care of your business?

The team behind Online Branding Architects is knowledgeable and experienced in all branding aspects listed above. And then some…

Let us take care of your personal brand, so you can do what you do best: running your business.

And that’s when outsourcing your branding campaign will increase your profits!

Image courtesy of ffuentes. Thank you!

One of our key strategies to establish brand consistency and build a professional image is to have each of the 20 HR consultants of Merit Solutions Brisbane establish a profile on LinkedIn, the worlds largest online professional network.

Some of the branding themes I have been emphasizing are:

• own professional career promotion through LinkedIn
• consistent branding for Merit Solutions Brisbane around ” human resource consultants”
• use of a consistent company name (because the company name is common globally and across industries)
• emphasis on keywords that reflect Merit Solutions’ roles – e.g. psychometric assessment, selection services, recruitment services, customized reporting, executive recruitment, selection scribing, managerial coaching,  job applicant training, training for selection panels
• comprehensiveness of public profile
• creating connections with each other and members of related networks

To assist Merit Solutions staff I have created two tailored videos to help the HR consultants build the Merit brand on LinkedIn:

1. building your own professional profile on LinkedIn and branding Merit Solutions Brisbane:

http://bit.ly/7eiqnI

2. creating connections on LinkedIn:

http://bit.ly/7hlYVi

We will continually review progress towards building this consistent online branding.

Merit Solutions Brisbane – Company Background

Merit Solutions Brisbane is a networked organization comprising 20 home-based, professional human resource consultants.   The primary focus of Merit Solutions Brisbane has been providing selection services to public sector organizations in Queensland, Australia.  The organization was established in 1996 and grew very rapidly driven by word of mouth and outsourcing of HR by government departments.  Merit did not have to advertise as demand frequently outstripped capacity.

Market Situation

The global recession has impacted Merit Solutions Brisbane because some government departments have moved to “insourcing HR” and the State Government has ordered a reduction by 50% in the amount of consulting fees paid by departments.  So there has been a dramatic erosion in demand for the “selection services” by the public sector.  In response, Merit moved to broaden both its target market and product range.  This included moving from local to global offering of more flexibly delivered products/services.

Online Presence

Merit Solutions Brisbane had a static website that did not differentiate products/services very well and was locally focused rather than globally oriented.   There was no involvement in blogging or other social media.  Merit Solutions Brisbane was used to organizations coming to them – they did not have to market to their customers.

Branding Strategy

The core branding strategy is to move Merit’s branding from “selection ‘experts” to the broader branding – “professional human resource consultants”.    Additionally, helping to personalize the company and promote differentiated branding for individual consultants based on their primary product/service focus – e.g.  job applicant trainer.   The focus at this level is to build the personal online presence of the trainers and the visibility of their expertise.

Marketing Strategy

• progressively refine the Merit Solutions Brisbane website.
• build the broad branding, “professional HR consultants”, through social media
• engage each consultant is some form of marketing via social media e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
  
• tell the company story
• build an internal consultants’ blog that each consultant contributes to (information sharing and skill development)
• build in-depth branding for each core product area and personal branding of consultants delivering those products – e.g. job applicant training
• developing new, flexibly delivered products with Merit consultants
• develop new content – videos, podcasts, articles, blogs, Squidoo lenses (on the “who” and “what”)
• disseminate new content via social bookmarking and social networking and, in the process, build social equity
• identify limited, highly selective paid advertising
• create press releases
• develop complementary offline marketing, eg. ad-editorials in local newspapers

• It’s all about the story. Every tool we use – videos, text, photos, graphics, animation, blogging, social networking – serves to better tell the brand’s story.
• Protagonist A (customer): A good story is dramatic and engaging when its protagonist faces a problem in the beginning, then learns something and is much better off in the end. (The brand fulfills the customer’s needs.)
• Protagonist B (brand): Similarly, the brand faces a problem as well (insufficient recognition) and must go through a learning process. A personal branding campaign creates a dialog between brand and customer. Along the way, more of the customer’s desires will be revealed and the brand can adjust itself accordingly. A mutual learning experience leads to a win-win situation with unlimited growth potential.
• As branding architects, we build the structure of the brand’s story – a solid foundation for the ever expanding network of viral activities.

Online Branding Architects design the blueprint for viral success!

And yes, we do Drama Branding.

Dr. Kracker has a well-designed website and blog, featuring co-founder George Eckrich’s monthly updates on food and nutrition news. This is the company logo:

Summary: Dr. Kracker owns a popular brand which requires a substantial PR budget to maintain the status quo of brand recognition while providing for a moderate increase in sales.

Our goal: A viral explosion of Dr. Kracker Wholegrain Flatbreads through a personal branding campaign for co-founder George Eckrich. Customer love to buy from people they know and trust!

• New blog: breadhealthy.com provides G.E. with a platform to share his extensive knowledge on food and nutrition
• Networking with relevant food bloggers helps spreading George’s ideas and introduces him to a huge online community of health-conscious folks
• New Twitter account to promote breadhealthy posts and engage with a like-minded community
• Videos with recipes and nutritional info for blog post, YouTube and other video sites
• Single-page websites on Squidoo and Hubpages about G.E.’s various topics of expertise
• Ezine articles on bread recipes and nutritional info
• Social bookmarking of blog posts and articles to further increase G.E. visibility and improve the search rankings of his published works

To be continued…

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