“Brand Yourself in Four Simple Steps” plus 1 more

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT

This guest post is by Crissie Fuller of Independent Fashion Bloggers.

Think about your resume. You stress over making it perfect, sweat every little detail—from the wording, to the layout, all the way down to your "Special Skills." It's your ticket to your dream job and you know it needs to be good. But hold on! Your resume might not be the be-all-end all of potential employer wooing anymore. We heard it over and over again: The Blog is the New Resume.

It makes sense when you think about it. When you’re applying for a job in the digital world, your new boss is going to want to know what your digital life looks like. How do you stand out from the crowed of others scrambling for an open position?

Brand yourself.

It’s not as scary as it sounds. You don't need billboards or even crazy design skills! Let's start small.

Choose a color scheme you love and few fonts you can't get enough of, and use them across the board: on your blog posts, your Twitter profile, business cards, letterhead—even your traditional resume (the list goes on and on!). That wasn't hard, right?
Streamline your profile pictures. You want your Google + page, Linkedin profile, Twitter profile, and Pinterest account to all have the same image, so that people who don't really know you still know they are looking at the same person across all digital channels. When your future employer see this, they'll spot your attention to detail, dedication to your craft, and above all, your understanding of the digital space. It's a simple technique, and yet very, very effective. For example, when I applied for my current job, I sent in my resume and cover letter, both of which linked to my web page. The font on my web page matches the font on my resume, and I use the same background image across all my spaces (my blog, Tumblr, Twitter, even my Facebook page, which might be a little over the top, I admit…).
Standardize your user names. This is an area in which I am seriously lacking. In some places I'm Crissie Fuller, in others Fuller.Cris and sometimes just the name of my blog, Chicasaurus-Rex. Ideally you want to use the same name across all platforms, but whether you choose your name or the name of your blog is really up to you. However, Erica Domesek of PS – I Made This suggested using your blog name during IFB's semi-annual blogging conference (and really, if you want to see great branding, check out her blog, Twitter account, book, etc.!) But whichever you choose, keep it consistent. And don't forget: you want to have exactly the same handle on Twitter and Instagram (if you can)!
Besides the look of your brand, you want your voice to be consistent as well. You should always sound like you. It's fine (good even!) if you are slightly more formal on LinkedIn and in cover letters, but you should never use big words and fancy phrases just to sound smart; your employer (and especially one hiring in the digital space) wants to hear your voice, not some regurgitated version of "the ideal cover letter" you found on Google.

To summarize, there are four easy steps to creating your personal brand:

Use uniform fonts and colors for all your online and offline collateral (blog, Twitter, business cards, etc.)
Streamline your profile pictures. Use the same one for all your online accounts.
Make sure your user names all match!
Find your voice and always write in it. Alter the tone to fit the audience that you are speaking to, but be sure you always sound like you!

What other tips can you add?

A University of California Santa Cruz and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, Crissie Fuller is the Digital Strategist at Independent Fashion Blogger (IFB), a collective mentorship dedicated to enabling bloggers reach their social media goals. When she isn’t busy writing and developing digital content for IFB, Crissie spends her time exploring New York and documenting her personal style adventures on her blog, Chicasaurus-Rex.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Brand Yourself in Four Simple Steps

The Taylor Swift Guide to Growing a Massive Fan Base

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 07:08 AM PDT

This guest post is by Jennifer Blanchard of InkyBites.

If you haven't heard of Taylor Swift, you've probably been living in a cave the last few years. Swift is the teen country sensation who took on the music industry starting at the ripe age of 13, and became one of the biggest musical acts in the entire world only a few short years later.

On Twitter she has more than 10 million followers. On Facebook, she has a whopping 27.8 million likes—that's more than all three of the Kardashian sisters combined!

Not only is Swift one of the most popular musicians in the world (her concerts usually sell out in under two minutes), but she's also critically-acclaimed: she's won two-thirds of the awards she's been nominated for.

There's a reason for all of Swift's success. And it's not because she's the best singer-song writer in the world (although she's actually pretty darn good at that, too).

It's because she knows how to connect with people. She knows how to tug at their heart strings and wrap them around her finger. Funny thing is, she doesn't do it with her music alone.

While she has received criticism for being just a tad too open with her personal life (she's known for writing songs all about her exes), it's being so open about her life that helps people connect with her. She sings of stories her fans have experienced, too. Her music has touched the lives of millions of people and she has become the voice of her generation. But even that isn't why she has a massive fan base that supports her unconditionally.

She has a massive fan base because she's mastered the one skill most people spend their lives ignoring: gratitude.

She lives gratitude day-in, day-out. She uses the words "thank you" more than any other phrase in her vocabulary. And she goes out of her way to show her fans how grateful she is for their love and support.

A couple years ago, Swift held a meet-and-greet for her fans where she stayed for 13 hours and met every single person who showed up to see her. Thirteen hours! How many celebrities do you think would do something like that? T

This is all part of what makes Swift special and what makes her fans love her and support her. If you want to grow a massive fan base of your own, here are some tips you can take straight from Swift:

1. Go above and beyond … and then go another mile

Swift's fans will follow her anywhere, because she always meets them halfway. During her "Fearless" album tour, she went out into the crowd in the middle of two of her songs to hug fans and thank them for coming to the show.

And this was not an impromptu occurrence like you sometimes see at concerts. This was a planned walk into the crowd during the same two songs at every stop on her tour.

"It was really important for me to go out there and actually say hi to people and thank them for coming and be right there next to them … I'm always gonna wanna go the extra mile for them because I can't believe the extra thousand miles they're gone for me," Swift said in the HUB Network documentary series, Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless.

If you want to grow your fan base, you have to figure out where your fans are and meet them there. Find ways to go above and beyond for them.

If your fans are all hanging out on Google+, that's where you need to be. Host a series of Hangouts and invite them to join in. Or if your fans are all about Pinterest, logon and start building some boards for them to follow.

Post special content you only share in that one place or host special events for fans in that channel. Go out of your way to show your fans you appreciate each and every one of them.

The more you do this, the bigger your fan base will grow.

2. Reward your super-fans

Swift wanted a way to thank her super-fans, so she put together a T Party event that would happen after the show every night she was on tour. Each night during the concert, her crew went out into the crowd to find the craziest Taylor fans and give them passes to the T Party.

When the show was finished, the super-fans went backstage to the T Party area, which was a Moroccan-style tent set up like a living room with ping pong, TV, and pizza. Swift showed up shortly after the guests arrived to hang out, meet everyone, sign autographs, and thank them for being there.

"The T Party is a way for me to get to meet people after the show … who I just felt so grateful to have on my side. The T Party room gives me an opportunity to say that to them and to give them a hug," Swift said in the same documentary series.

Do you have super-fans? You know, the people who buy everything you put out there and will drive a ridiculous distance to see you speak/play/perform? Show your super-fans how much they mean to you by personally reaching out to them and offering up something of value—a free coaching session, signed copies of all of your books, whatever it is you do.

When you show your fans—and especially your super-fans—how much they mean to you, you're stoking the fire of building an incredible fan base.

3. Find ways to surprise people

One last way Swift showed fans how much they mean to her during her "Fearless" tour was she would pop up at the back of the arena during the intermission of the show and play one of her songs on the landing of the stairs, surrounded by fans who weren't able to get seats up front.

Then she'd continue the show for a little while on a stage near the back of the arena before eventually going back to the front stage. She did this so the "worst seats in the house became the best seats in the house."

How do you show up for your fans? Is there a way you can surprise them?

For example, if you're on a blog book tour, do your reading, sign autographs, and then invite everyone who showed up to meet you at a restaurant nearby for dinner. Bonus if you pay for everyone's meal.

There are literally thousands of ways you can go out of your way to make your fans feel loved and appreciated. Practice gratitude in your life, on your blog and in your business, and in no time you'll be on your way to growing a Taylor Swift-style fan base.

How do you go out of your way for your fans? What have you done to show them how grateful you are for them?

Jennifer Blanchard is the founder of InkyBites, where she helps artists nourish their creativity by making simple diet and lifestyle changes. Visit the site to grab her free "Clarity Smoothies and Other Energy-Sustaining Snacks" eGuide.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The Taylor Swift Guide to Growing a Massive Fan Base