Online Marketing Strategy – Your Online and Offline Persona

Online and Offline Persona

When it comes to the online persona of a company many struggle, the main question we get asked all the time, is whether or not they should be themselves, the company, or a persona that is completely made up.

The answer to this can be summed up as such – People communicate with people not with businesses. Online and offline persona have to be blended. Corporate language doesn’t attract people – this could be why you are getting a certain type of visitor to your site. Speak the people’s language and you’ll attract the people.

Online, you can feed into the Internet what you want people to really know about you. You are in control of what goes up on Facebook, twitter YouTube and your blog etc. What does need to be taken into consideration here though is just how you blend the professional with the personal. At the end of the day, people are always intrigued by the person behind the brand. Look at Branson and Gates and Jobs, people wanted to know about them and in many ways they created a blended persona, so that you could see them in their professional capacity, but also in their personal one as well, relaxing, spending time with their families etc. It makes them real and not just the super powerful head of a multi national machine. You need to look into creating the same thing – initially it won’t be on the same level, but perhaps your business goal is to become a multi national machine. If that’s the case, you need to create a persona that blends your personal and professional sides and transcends the offline/online platforms.

To do this, you need to seriously think about what image you want to portray to the world. Think about it for a minute now. What are your various virtual real estate saying about you? Do you have standardisation across them? Do you have professional photographs of you doing what you do? Do you have photos of you with people already credible and well respected in your area of expertise? Do you maintain your various virtual real estate?

The thing about the internet is that you are in charge of what is said about you. The flip side of that of course, is that if you choose not to put anything up there, people will fill in the gaps for themselves. You don’t want this, because people may well be jumping to conclusions about you and your brand, based on nothing but speculation and fancy. Take control and manage your persona. By looking at utilising the internet, either as an individual or as an organisation, you become public property – knowing this, manage that persona don’t let other people make it up on your behalf.

Create the image you want online – You as a brand is perhaps more true now than it was 10 years ago with the advent of the internet. Your brand attributes are for you to decide – you are also the best person to consult on this, after all, it’s your background, lifestyle, philosophy, views on right and wrong and your areas of expertise that make up You as a brand. No one knows this better than you, so put out there what you want to be recognized for.

As aforementioned, people communicate with people. People also buy from people – the relationship people form with each other is actually what facilitates business, even more so in this part of the world (Middle East) In the online world, it is very easy for people to hide behind their screen and tell whatever story they like. But as the online takes on a more prominent place in our lives, people are becoming wise to the scammers as well as those that are able to spin a good story without actually backing it up with anything. This is why the research into the person behind the brand becomes even more important. If you are a legitimate business owner, providing a quality product or service to the consumers, you have nothing to hide. So show people this, blend your personal and professional personas and have them available for all to see – showing that you are a real person allows people to connect and transparency makes for good business.

Resources
www.davecrane.tv
www.animus-creative.com
Apple iPhone 4S 16GB – AT&T – Black
GoPro HD HERO2: Motorsports Edition (2011 Model)
Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera – Black

Give me a call or drop me an email if you’d like to discuss this element of the jigsaw further – 0507198467 or strategy@maximumnetgain.com

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Barry Lee Cummings | About Me

Barry Lee Cummings

Digital Marketing Consultant and Lecturer helping companies generate more from their online presence

Digital Marketing Consultant, Trainer and Lecturer based out of Dubai. Providing digital marketing strategy and consultancy services to companies to help them generate more business through effective digital marketing strategy creation. This provides foundation, direction and focus for deliverables such as; Website optimisation, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Direct Response and Email Marketing

Passionate about Digital Marketing, travelling, scuba diving, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.

Also the creator of the highly sought after Barry’s Burgers – found at select BBQ’s in Dubai :-)