Hey Hey Hey… In yesterday’s post I highlighted the 5 Basic Skills To Creating A POWERFUL Personal Brand.  If you haven’t read it yet, swing by there and give it a peek and today’s post will make much more sense.

Let’s dig right in and start breaking these steps down in more detail…

Step 1:  ”Design Your Cash Flow Map”

I’ve already created a few great trainings on this topic.  Think of your ‘Cash Flow Map’ as your ‘back-end’… or your funnel as a lot of people like to call it.

• Have You Created Your ‘Cash Flow Map’ Yet:  In this video I talk about the importance of having a ‘back-end’ set up for your business.  The back-end is where the money is made from your Personal Brand.  Watch this video to hear my thoughts on this
• How To Design Your ‘Cash Flow Map’:  Here I created a quick PowerPoint presentation where I walk you through, in detail, setting up your ‘back-end’.  I share with you a common mistake that most marketers are making that could stop you from creating a solid brand.

Step 2:  Build Your Social Media Following

As we spoke about yesterday, you want to make sure that you are hangin’ out on the big boys.  Basically Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Now there are other niche social media sites that are excellent places to connect with people within your industry, but if you use the big boys consistently, you can create a laser targeted following.

Let me share with you a little bit of how I use all three of these sites…

• Twitter – This is such a POWERFUL marketing tool, and most people using it don’t even understand it’s true power.  You are able to target people who are tweeting/talking about a certain keyword or keyword phrase.  This is why I really LOVE Twitter.
  • Twitter Search – This is basically Twitter’s search engine of all the tweets that happen on Twitter.  This is where the real VALUE of twitter is.  You can type in a keyword or keyword phrase within you niche, and you will find people tweeting that keyword.  This is a great opportunity to jump into conversations that have to do with your industry.
  • Add Followers On Twitter – I like to use a software to automate things.  I’m not spamming tweets or anything, I’m just using it to target people within my niche and add them as followers.  The software that I’ve been using for a while now is Twitter FriendAdder.  There are not many automated following tools that still work today, but this one does as they are keeping up with Twitter’s rules and regulations.
• Facebook – One of my favorite places to hang out on the web.  Facebook now has over 500 million active user accounts and 50% of their active users log on to Facebook in any given day.  That’s a whole lotta people!
• YouTube – They have claimed the title ‘The 2nd Largest Search Engine’… that’s pretty awesome when they were designed as a search engine.  More and more people are searching directly on YouTube for what they want, instead of going to Google… and the beautiful part about it is the competition is so much LESS!

Step 3: Create Content

As we spoke about in yesterday’s post, you have a few different options to choose from when it comes to creating content on your blog. You have to find which one works for you.  I tend to like video, as I can get a lot more out in less time… and I feel I can build more rapport with my readers through my videos.  Let’s talk about each one.

• Video – Don’t go thinking that you need to get a ton of expensive filming equipment to get started with video marketing.  I’ve been using the same camera since I started with video, the Flip Camcorder.  It’s picture quality is awesome and it’s all you need.
• Audio – Audio is another great source of content.  The great thing about audio is you can upload them to podcasting sites like PodcastAlley.  Your readers can put the audio files onto their iPods and listen to them while at the gym, on the train, etc.
• Text – This is the most common of all the types of blog posts.  The biggest benefit that I see from text posts is it adds fresh new content to your blog… which Google loves!  There are a lot of video bloggers that just upload the video as a blog post, but I like to add some text as well to help with my Google rankings.

Step 4: Drive Traffic

This is where the rubber meets the road.  Without traffic, you have nothing.  If a store has nobody coming in, they are out of business… same goes for your blog if it’s a ghost town.  You can drive a great amount of traffic just from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

• Syndicate Your Content – Each time you publish a new blog post, head over to your Facebook page and put it in your status with a link to the post.  Do the same on Twitter… send out a tweet with a quick 140 character blurb and a link to your new post.  If you’re consistently connecting with the people on your social media sites, you’ll build the trust factor with them… causing them to click on your links.
• Tribe Syndication - If you want to step things up a bit and drive some quality targeted traffic, then Tribe Syndication is for you .  This one strategy has had a great impact on my business and my brand.  You’re basically connecting with others within your niche and joining forces… creating a blogging alliance where you each drive targeted traffic to each other.

This is quality traffic, as it’s others referring you… the credibility factor weights in very heavy here!

Step 5: Build Relationships

Now that you’ve done all of this work, you have to build and maintain your relationships.  Most marketers miss the boat BIG time on this one!  It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason…

• Reply to Blog Comments – When people comment on your blog posts, reply back… what a concept:)  You started the conversation, they answered/replied… and now it’s your turn to respond.  I get a decent amount of comments on my blog posts and I still manage to reply to 99% of them.  There may come a time when it gets too hectic, but I believe this is where the real relationship building happens.
• Reply To Facebook Comments – Same thing goes here.  If you post something on your Facebook wall, and people comment, comment back.  If I have time I reply to each and every person on the thread by typing the ‘@’ and then there name so they know that I’m talking to them.
• Reply To Twitter Direct Messages – If someone mentions your name out on Twitter, then reply back.  If they retweeted a piece of your content, reply back and thank them.

This might seem like basic communication skills, but you would be blown away by the amount of people that just aren’t doing these things.  The brand that CARE the most in the end, WIN!

I hope you enjoyed todays post.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the information that I shared with you.  What are you currently already doing?  What things can you add to what you are doing?  The community here gets so much value when you comment, so post a comment now.

Also, share this post with your Facebook and Twitter friends.  If they are out there using social media to build a personal brand, this post will help them a ton.  Thank you in advance!

I’ll catch you soon…

Yours In Success,

Eric Goldstein

Related Posts:

• 5 Basic Skills To Creating A Powerful Personal Brand
• Back To The Basics… Enough With All The Ninja Moves!
• Crush Your Brand Contest Winners…
• How To Design Your Cash Flow Map
• Have You Created Your ‘Cash Flow Map’ Yet?
• Are You Branding YOU Or Someone Else?
• 5 Steps To Clarifying Your Personal Brand
• Are You Truly Adding Value To Others?

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