Tag Archives: blogging

social business tip: let the real you shine through!

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Entrepreneurs who are active on social networks and/or write blogs often worry about the fine line between transparency and TMI. When it comes to sharing information with your audience the question arises, “what is too much and what is just enough?”.

While you will of course want to provide your audience with valuable content, you should not be afraid of allowing your personality to shine through. Your personality and your spin on topics is what makes you different and will hopefully be what keeps your audience coming back, and if you are selling a product or service, it will hopefully help close the deal.

I recently read a post on Big Feet Marketing – Why You Should Stop Trying to Write Unique, Original Content. This post really spoke to me because when you think about it, as the saying goes, “there’s nothing new under the sun.” There’s almost always going to be someone who is doing or saying something similar to what you are doing or saying. What is going to make you stand out is being true to yourself, your point of view, your spin on things, your sense of humor, etc. Don’t whitewash your content because you are afraid that people won’t take you seriously unless your blog posts, tweets or Facebook posts are “strictly business.”

Be yourself. Let the real you shine through (within reason) and it will help people to see you as more than a talking head. You know what they say, “people do business with people the like” and people like people who are real. So go out there and be transparent!

Have you dealt with this issue? Do you have any questions about maintaining an appropriate level of transparency online? Please share your experience/questions in the comments section.

YOU are your brand. Represent!

insight: why I have only one twitter account

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there's only one of me; so there's only one of me on twitter.

I recently asked the question on the ms. rasberry inc. Facebook page “Do you have separate Facebook and/or Twitter accounts for business and personal use?” I was the only person that responded that I have one account for each. Am I an anomaly?

When I first became acquainted with the wonder that is Twitter, I had one account and it was private. I hadn’t quite yet figured out how I was going to leverage this tool and felt like I didn’t want any and everyone accessing my tweets. I soon discovered how boring that makes it. Additionally, it’s more difficult to engage the masses and I had to log onto Twitter.com to approve follow requests which was annoying. So I unlocked my account and life in the Twitterverse became a lot more interesting.

Soon thereafter, I decided that I should have multiple accounts to share different content. At one point, I had a whopping total of FOUR Twitter accounts. Several months ago, I decided to consolidate and maintain only one account. You may be thinking, “don’t you want to maintain separation between your personal and professional lives and varied interests?” My answer to that is “No; I don’t. Not anymore.” After all, I have nothing to hide.

When it comes to branding, I am my brand. ms. rasberry inc. is ME. So I have no issue with my Twitter account reflecting that. Having separate accounts gives comfort to some; but I began to realize that it was somewhat disingenuous. It allowed me to pick and choose who saw what to the nth degree. Having separate accounts began to feel to me like wearing a mask and I didn’t want to do it anymore. So I stopped.

Will having one account work for you? Maybe; maybe not. As an individual, you have to consider your overall situation (work, family, etc.). As a business owner, you have to consider your business goals and intended audience. In either case, ask yourself Who am I tweeting to? What am I tweeting about? Is there any conflicting interest? I no longer have the added weight of being associated with an employer who might take offense at something I say. I also don’t tweet highly sexual content or profanity laced tirades. For people who have those concerns, having separate accounts may be their best bet. Another option is to have a private (locked) account that allows you control over who follows you. I know several people who don’t necessarily tweet anything outlandish, but in this day and age of potential (and current) employers checking social profiles, I suppose they figure it’s better to be safe than sorry. I can respect that. It’s just not for me. I highly recommend that business owners not have locked accounts though, at least not your “business” account if you have separate ones. You want people to be able to access your content readily.

A while ago I wrote a post on tattoos and not wanting to work for any employer that would have an issue with me having one. I could say the same thing about anyone who will make a biased judgment against me based on a snapshot of my Twitter feed at any given time. For example, I participated in a lengthy discourse about Christopher Meloni (Elliot Stabler) leaving Law&Order:SVU. If you saw my Twitter feed during that exchange you would know that I think the show will fail without him. Would you make a decision on my qualifications or services based on that? I sure hope not. However; if you did, I probably wouldn’t want to work with you anyway. Unless, of course, the bias was in my favor. :)

I discuss a range of topics, so my Twitter account will give you an idea of how I think and what interests me. It’s still not the complete picture though, which I’m sure can be said for anyone. My Twitter bio tells you what I do. Have specific questions about me, my business/services? Just ask. I’ll be more than happy to answer. Yes; I can manage your social outposts. Yes; I can build a WordPress site for you. Yes; I can write articles or blog posts for you. I will tweet about those things; but I will also tweet about my favorite artists, events I’m attending, etc. I will also tweet about my makeup/image consulting sessions. I’m multi-faceted and so are my tweets. Who says business and pleasure can’t peacefully coexist? Certainly not I. Follow me @msrasberryinc and join the conversation.

Do you have separate business/personal/other Twitter accounts? Why or why not?

social business tip: don’t play hard to get

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One of the worst mistakes that a business can make is being difficult to reach. Make it easy for clients and potential clients to contact you by placing your contact information, including your social outposts, at every touch point. Include your Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts on your website, in your email signature, on marketing materials – anywhere that your audience (clients and customers) will look.

Don’t forget to include a contact number also. Contact forms are wholly impersonal and for all your audience knows, they could be going into the great online abyss.

Playing hard to get may work for some personal interactions, but when it comes to business – be accessible!

social business tip: you don’t have to be everywhere!

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Often when I am speaking with a potential client, they bring up every type of social platform that they’ve ever heard of and want to know how to start using them. The more important question is “Should you start using them?” Of course I believe strongly that every business should have a social presence; but where the time and effort is spent is important.

When determining a social strategy, I take into account the audience and the business goals. Building brand awareness is not necessarily best done by trying to be everywhere. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. It’s important to have an understanding of which tools would be most effective for each individual/business/organization.

Considering taking your business social but not sure where or how to start? I can help!

check out these 5 fabulous bloggers!

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I enjoy reading other people’s blogs for motivation, inspiration and sometimes just plain fun. The Clever Girls Collective has given me the opportunity to share with you a few of my favorites – five to be exact. As you can see from my blogroll, my interests range from beauty to design to social media, so it was tough narrowing down just five great blogs, but here goes:

1) Young, Fabulous and Self-Employed. -

The name pretty much says it all here. If I were young, this would be me, but I’ll have to settle for two out of three. Business owner and blogger, Erica Nicole, offers information on running a business and stylish gadgets as well as ‘success profiles’ of other entrepreneurs. This is definitely a good source of entrepreneurial info, presented in a fresh way.

2)Thirsty Roots. -

Sharina Hill has put together a dynamic blog focused on teaching you “how to care for, style, and maintain your African American hair.” The site showcases the plethora of beautiful hair styles available whether your hair is kinky or relaxed, natural-hued or colored, short or long – and everything in between. Lest we think it’s all about the looks, proper hair care is also discussed. Thirsty Roots shows that when it comes to African-American hair, the options are endless.

3) Kim Myles.-

I was so glad when Kim Myles won HGTV’s ‘Design Star‘ because all too often on these “reality” competition shows, the people who should win, don’t. Well, she should have and did. She went on to host her own show, ‘Myles of Style‘, and remains one of my favorites. Myles states “I live for beautiful things” and her blog allows the reader to see what Myles finds beautiful, be it a lamp or a dress. Not only is this blog aesthetically pleasing (as I would expect) but her personality shows through which makes it all the more beautiful.

4)Get ‘Em Girls. -

I knew about the Get ‘Em Girls from their cookbook before I knew about the blog. Though I only cook out of necessity, I purchased it for the same reason that I subscribe to Food & Wine and Bon Appetit – because I like the idea of cooking fabulous meals. Not to mention, the pictures are so pretty. The Get ‘Em Girls blog; however, is about much more than food. While there are plenty of recipes, co-founder Jeniece Isley and the rest of the Get ‘Em Girls contributors discuss topics such as finances, fitness and relationships.

5) Desire to Inspire. -

The name of this blog is completely apropos because it is indeed inspirational. I love design blogs primarily because they tend to have a lot of pictures and when the pictures are gorgeous, that’s all the better. I am a fiend for a pretty, bold picture (hence my obsession with InStyle and Elle Decor magazines. Bloggers Jo and Kim have apparently never met but they do a great job of putting together a cohesive and visually stunning blog.

UPDATE: The fabulous Ms. Myles responded to my post via Twitter!

social presence: personal vs. professional

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It’s important to have a social presence; especially if you have something to sell, and EVERYONE has something to sell. Be it a mission, a product, or, the most critical brand of all, yourself, everyone needs to know how to best navigate the worlds of social media and networking in order to accomplish their goal, which is to get people to buy what you’re selling. For those of us who are not (yet) self-employed, the waters can become murky when you are trying to distinguish between your social presence and that of your employer. For some people, the two are indistinguishable. For me, they couldn’t be farther apart.

True story: I attended a social media seminar recently, which I live-tweeted. It was on a weekday, my company paid for it and they will definitely benefit from the knowledge I gained, but I did the live-tweeting from my personal Twitter account. During a staff meeting following the event, I discussed the seminar and that I had live-tweeted it. My supervisor asked if I had used my own Twitter account. My response, “Yes. I represent brand ME.” I didn’t attend with the understanding that I would live-tweet for the firm and it’s second nature for me to do this when I attend events. This is what I do. This is not; however, what my company does. Of course my supervisor’s primary concern was how the company would be represented via my tweets. Well, she needn’t worry because no one in my Twitter network even knows where I work, unless I know them personally.

On my social networks I don’t brand myself as an employee of this firm. I don’t even mention it, except on LinkedIn, which is pretty much an online resume. People don’t know me as “employee of XYZ company.” They know me as “ms. rasberry.” That is MY brand and the one I choose to promote. A few months ago, my company wanted to link our LinkedIn profiles to our profiles on the company website and I fought against that. Why? I don’t want the lines to be blurred. Though my profile lists the company that I work for as part of my employment history, that’s not the purpose of it. I’m not representing, or selling, them; I’m selling ME. I’ve never sent a tweet or written a blog or Facebook post as a representative of my firm. If I mention anything about work, I’m never specific. When I live-tweet our annual conference, that’s when I use the firm account.

Though more and more companies are embracing and even encouraging the use of social media by employees, employers remain concerned as to the potential negative effect this could have. The solution is for companies to put social media policies and guidelines in place. These guidelines will set the stage for how employees can utilize social media in the name of the company and under what circumstances they can mention their relationship to the company. Even companies that do not currently have a social presence should establish these guidelines. Better safe than sorry.

For employees, better to err on the side of caution. We’ve all heard the stories of the person who was fired because of a tweet or blog post mentioning their employer. Be mindful of your social presence and any potential impact it may have on your employer – if you want to keep your job. Keep the personal, personal and keep the professional, professional. Don’t be a social media casualty!

event recap: blogging while brown dc meetup

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Blogging While Brown DC Meetup Organizer, Aleysha Proctor

On June 18-19, 2010, Blogging While Brown held it’s third annual conference in Washington, DC. I attended, but, ironically, I didn’t blog about it. How crazy is that? The attendees were a mix of newbie bloggers and more experienced ones and everyone was happy to be there to gather, share information and spread blogger love.

As always, for me the greatest takeaways from the event were the connections that were made. I had the opportunity to meet people whom I had interacted with on Twitter for months and to meet a lot of new people, in particularly, people based in my area.

After the conference, attendees decided that it would be great to build on the momentum of the conference by having local meetups. Last night was the first Blogging While Brown DC Meetup, held at Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC. The meetup was organized by the wonderful and gracious Aleysha Proctor and attended by 10+ bloggers who were looking to reconnect and discuss all things related to blogging, from overcoming the fear of utilizing the different tools available to finding the time to maintain a blog and keep it fresh. We also threw a little Twitter and Facebook conversation in there for good measure.

All in all, it was a great event. Good times, good people, good conversation – just like I like it. The Blogging While Brown DC Meetup is going to be a monthly event, so if you missed this one, there’s always the next one. Follow the hashtags #bwb and #bwbdc on Twitter for more information.

Blogs represented at BWBDC Meetup #1: NeoSoulAlterEgo, Hell in a Handbag, That Kellie Girl, chic.seven, Core Connection, BizChelle, diary of a happy black woman, Professor Diva Diaries, Mopwater PR + Media Notes, Be Prestigious, Frank Love, PR Prescriptions, In Other Words and Legal Maven.