Digital marketing…personal branding…transmedia storytelling…three hot topics everyone loves to talk about when it comes to writing for social media. But what exactly do these terms mean and more importantly, how do they apply to different users? What are some of the most useful best practices we can implement and put into use quickly? Are there tips and tricks to make navigating these complex yet hugely important areas easier for end users? Over the next 7 weeks, we’ll explore these areas in detail as we discover how to make the biggest impact in whatever digital corner of the world you happen to inhabit….
Before we get started, perhaps a quick overview is in order:
Digital Marketing
The term “digital marketing” covers a broad area of content and a huge array of services. Basically, when we speak of digital marketing we primarily mean marketing (or promotion) of products using electronic media. This is a constantly changing and fast-moving type of marketing, with new twists and turns routinely sending marketers scrambling to get in on the newest/greatest way to reach customers. Even so, there are 7 basic types of digital marketing that make up the core topics needed to gain an understanding of the field. For now, we’ll just list them for review. Each of these seven topics are important and interesting enough that they deserve their very own posts….so we’ll explore these soon in-depth and see how to get the biggest bang for your efforts when it comes to purchasing ads, choosing affiliates, beefing up your content marketing, etc. The 7 core online digital marketing avenues are:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
Check out MarketingProfs excellent article Five Tips and Examples for Digital Marketing Success
Personal Branding
So much has been said about personal branding that it’s easy to think you need a full-time PR person to effectively manage your brand. Not true. Personal branding is simply managing the way you are portrayed online. Think of it this way, in those long ago pre-Internet days your personal brand would have been your “reputation” and you would have managed it by your actions in the community, by word-of-mouth, or perhaps a news story in the local paper. In the past, only celebrities and politicians actively worked at building their “brand”. This is another one of those exciting opportunities everyone can now take part in. Who would need to be concerned with their personal brand, you ask? Everybody! A few examples:
- New college graduates looking to gain career recognition, grow their business network, and build credibility in their field.
- Seasoned professionals desiring to share their business accomplishments, communicate with a national network of like-minded business people, and maintain a current and robust resume or CV.
- Writers, photographers, and other creatives advertising their creative outputs, broadcasting their availability to provide freelance or contract services, or simply building their online portfolios.
- Small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to connect with customers, establishing a ranking in their business arena, and broadcasting their products to consumers.
- Big businesses and corporations are kings when it comes to promoting their brands…and we can take advantage of their savvy in this area by copying some of what they do on a small scale. We’ll cover ways to beef up your personal brand in this 7 week series on digital marketing, personal branding, and transmedia storytelling so stay tuned. (p.s. Sign up for our email updates and never miss a post. Just click the “following” button on the right.)
For now, a few things to consider:
- Think about what kind of image you’d like to project online. Take some time and consider what you want to be known for….keep your message as concise as you can…too many different messages and you risk confusing people about who you are and what you’re about.
- Make sure your brand identity is consistent across all the digital platforms you utilize. Review your online profiles with a critical eye, do they look like they belong to the same person? Think about using the same professional photograph and if you have a tagline or quote you identify with, use it on all your online profiles. Following this tip alone will make a huge difference in the continuity and professional look of your “personal brand”.
- Choose one or two social media platforms to focus on. Unless you’re doing this full-time, trying to update and maintain a minimum of three to five exchanges on every single social media outlet you have a profile on is just too time-consuming. Establish and maintain profiles on all the biggies, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc., but concentrate your efforts on the ones you enjoy the most and/or fit your personal situation best. Tip from personal experience: don’t choose an outlet you hate or just don’t get, if so, it will be a chore to update and building a killer personal brand can and should be fun! If you can’t express yourself in 140 characters and hashtags annoy you, don’t choose Twitter, maybe Facebook is the place where you will concentrate your efforts. We’ll check out tons of cool ways to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn as we go through the series.
- Google yourself on a regular basis to see what shows up. Whether you’re just starting to work on your brand or you’re a seasoned pro at social media, it’s still exciting to see things you’ve written or shared show up in your Google results. Better yet, set up a Google alert and automate the process.
Before we leave this subject, I have to say I’ve found LinkedIn to be a valuable source of easy-to-follow and highly relevant articles on personal branding. Here’s a LinkedIn quick tip sheet just to whet your appetite! Please comment and tell me if you’ve used any of the ideas they suggest!
Transmedia Storytelling
Humans are hardwired to enjoy storytelling. Cave paintings fifteen thousand years ago reveal prehistoric man’s earliest attempts at sharing stories with other humans. Flash forward to the digital age and an exciting form of storytelling has emerged. Transmedia storytelling taps into our love of a good story. What makes it powerful is that it encourages interaction, wherein the audience becomes a participant (ideally!). In a nutshell, this form of media breaks a story up into segments, each of which are sprinkled across multiple platforms using a variety of different technologies. These stories can take on a life of their own and part of the appeal is the mystery of seeing how the story will unfold as people share segments across the web. Here’s a quick video that gives a beautiful example of how transmedia storytelling can work:
In the coming weeks we’ll delve deeper into this this type of online communication, and will look at ways it can be used in various mediums.
Well, that’s it for now folks….I’m looking forward to the next 7 weeks as we explore these 3 hot topics (and many others) in digital and social media.Check back weekly as we continue the series or better yet, join our email list and receive new posts directly in your inbox! By the way, I’m curious to know what social media and marketing areas you’d like to know more about, so please comment and let me know. And I’m also quite interested in hearing your experiences in this area….do you have any tips or best practices you can share to help people build strong personal brands? Thanks! – S.M.
Digital Writing and Social Media 