Why Personal Branding Matters: Benefits and Steps Explained
In an era where professional success is closely tied to online presence, personal branding has emerged as a powerful tool. Yet, many professionals mistake personal branding for a mere sales tactic. At Vanilla Skills, we believe that personal branding transcends sales, offering a multifaceted strategy for long-term success.
This blog by Vanilla Skills delves into why personal branding is more than just sales and how it can significantly enhance your career and business prospects.
The Essence of Personal Branding
Personal branding is about defining and promoting what makes YOU unique. It involves showcasing your strengths, values, and expertise to build a consistent and compelling online persona. Unlike sales, which often focus on short-term gains, personal branding aims at creating lasting impressions and relationships.
The Benefits of Personal Branding
1. Building Trust and Credibility
Trust is the foundation of any professional relationship. According to Edelman, 81% of consumers need to trust a brand to buy from them, be it B2B or B2C. Personal branding helps establish this trust by presenting a reliable image that resonates with your audience.
A consistent and authentic personal brand can turn you into a trusted authority in your field. For example, A report by LinkedIn mentioned that profiles with detailed professional summaries are 36 times more likely to receive messages. This increased interaction is a reflection to the trust and credibility a strong personal brand can build.
2. Establishing Authority and Thought Leadership
By sharing valuable insights, industry trends, and personal experiences, you position yourself as an authority in your field. This not only enhances your credibility but also opens up opportunities for speaking engagements, media features, and collaborations that go beyond traditional sales tactics.
A study by LinkedIn revealed that 92% of B2B buyers engage with sales professionals who are known as industry thought leaders. This statistic underscores the importance of positioning yourself as a thought leader through personal branding. When you provide consistent value and demonstrate expertise, your audience views you as a go-to resource, thereby increasing your influence and professional opportunities.
3. Expanding Your Professional Network
A strong personal brand attracts like-minded professionals, potential clients, and industry leaders. LinkedIn data shows that profiles with photos receive 21 times more profile views and 36 times more messages. An expanded network can lead to new opportunities and partnerships that are out of reach through direct sales alone.
Personal branding is not just about making a sale; it’s about creating a lasting impression, building relationships, and establishing yourself as an authority in your field. The network you build through a strong personal brand can be invaluable. It can lead to mentorship opportunities, strategic partnerships, and even new business ventures.
Case Study: The Leather Goods Manufacturer’s Transformation
Consider the example of a leather goods manufacturer we recently worked with. Despite sending numerous cold emails and messages, he received no responses. When we reviewed his LinkedIn profile, it was evident why his efforts were failing. His profile was under-optimized and lacked engaging content.
At Vanilla Skills, we took the following steps to help him:
✅Profile Optimization: We updated his profile with a professional photo, a compelling headline, and a detailed summary that highlighted his expertise and unique value propositions.
✅Content Strategy: We guided him to share regular updates, articles, and industry insights, along with showcasing his products and customer testimonials.
✅Engagement: We encouraged him to actively engage with relevant posts, join industry groups, and participate in discussions to boost his visibility.
⭐Result: Within a few months, his profile views increased significantly, and he started receiving connection requests and inquiries from potential clients. This transformation illustrated the power of personal branding in creating a ripple effect that traditional sales efforts could not achieve.
How to Build Your Personal Brand
To effectively leverage personal branding, follow these steps:
- Define Your Brand: Identify your unique strengths, values, and what sets you apart.
- Ensure Consistency: Maintain a consistent and professional online presence across all platforms.
- Create Valuable Content: Share insights, experiences, and trends that resonate with your audience.
- Engage Authentically: Respond to comments, participate in discussions, and support others in your industry.
Step 1: Define Your Brand
Start by identifying your unique strengths, values, and what sets you apart from others in your field. Ask yourself:
🤔What are my core skills and competencies?
🤔What are my professional values?
🤔What unique experiences and perspectives do I bring to the table?
Creating a personal brand statement can help clarify your brand. For example: “I am the CXO of a B2B Gen AI Company and I can help your business streamline its operations using the most advanced tech solutions”
Step 2: Ensure Consistency
Your online presence should be consistent across all platforms. This includes your LinkedIn profile, personal website, social media accounts, and any other online spaces where you engage professionally. Consistency helps reinforce your brand and makes it easier for others to recognize and remember you.
Step 3: Create Valuable Content
Content is king when it comes to personal branding. Share insights, experiences, and trends that resonate with your audience. This could be in the form of blog posts, LinkedIn articles, social media updates, or even video content. The goal is to provide value and demonstrate your expertise.
Step 4: Engage Authentically
Engagement is crucial for building relationships and expanding your network. Respond to comments on your posts, participate in discussions, and support others in your industry. Authentic engagement helps build trust and strengthens your professional connections.
Conclusion
At Vanilla Skills, we understand the transformative power of personal branding. It is not just about making a sale; it’s about creating a lasting impression, building relationships, and establishing yourself as an authority in your field. By focusing on building your brand, you can unlock opportunities that far exceed the reach of traditional sales tactics. Start investing in your personal brand today, and watch your professional world transform.
If you have more questions about personal branding and how we can tailor it for you, reach out to us at: contact@vanillaskills.com today.
Unlocking the Secrets of Successful B2B Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide
In the dynamic landscape of B2B marketing, staying ahead requires not just innovation but a deep understanding of both conventional and modern marketing strategies.
This guide by Vanilla Skills delves into 20 key components of successful B2B marketing, providing actionable insights and practical advice to help you drive measurable outcomes.
1. Embrace Outcome-Based Marketing
Outcome-based marketing is about aligning marketing efforts directly with business objectives to deliver tangible results. This approach ensures that marketing is not just an expense but a strategic investment.
2. Short-term and Long-term Balance
Effective marketing strategies should balance short-term objectives, like sales and lead generation, with long-term goals, such as brand building and customer loyalty.
3. Measuring ROI
Utilize social media analytics and metrics to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) for all marketing activities. This transparency builds trust and secures a seat at the strategic table.
4. The Importance of Performance Marketing
Performance marketing focuses on results-driven strategies which play a crucial role in demonstrating the direct impact of marketing efforts on business growth.
5. Pay for Results
Performance marketing involves paying for specific outcomes, such as clicks, leads, or conversions, ensuring that marketing spending is directly tied to measurable results.
6. Qualified Leads
Emphasize on generating high-quality leads by targeting the right audience and nurturing them through the sales funnel with tailored content and engagement strategies.
7. Effective Lead Scoring
Implementing a stringent lead scoring system helps prioritize and manage leads effectively, ensuring that marketing and sales teams focus on the most promising opportunities.
8. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Define your ICP based on demographics, industry, and company size to guide your lead scoring process.
9. Behavioral Scoring
Track and score leads based on their interactions with your content, such as email engagement, website visits, and content downloads.
10. Negative Scoring
Implement a system for negative scoring to disqualify leads that show disinterest or unsubscribe from communications.
11. Leveraging Brand and Performance Marketing
A successful marketing strategy integrates both brand marketing and performance marketing to create a comprehensive approach that drives both awareness and revenue.
12. Brand Marketing
Invest in building a strong brand identity that resonates with your target audience. This includes content marketing, thought leadership, and social media engagement.
13. Performance Marketing
Focus on campaigns that drive immediate results, such as paid search, social media ads, and email marketing. Ensure these efforts align with your brand’s overarching goals.
14. Social Media’s Role in B2B Marketing
Social media is a powerful tool for B2B marketers, not only for building brand awareness but also for engaging with prospects and nurturing leads.
15. Thought Leadership
Encourage company leaders and customer-facing employees to be active on social media, sharing insights and industry knowledge to build credibility and attract followers.
16. Employer Branding
Use social media to showcase your company culture and attract top talent. Highlight employee achievements and company events to create a positive image.
17.Continuous Improvement and Adaptation
The marketing landscape is constantly changing, and staying ahead requires continuous learning and adaptation.
18. Data-Driven Decisions
Use data analytics to inform your marketing strategies, identify trends, and make informed decisions.
19. Feedback Loops
Establish feedback loops between marketing and sales teams to continuously refine lead nurturing processes and improve conversion rates.
20. Innovation and Experimentation
Encourage a culture of innovation where new ideas are tested and evaluated. This could involve trying new marketing channels, formats, or technologies.
Tips for Implementing Key B2B Strategies
To put these concepts into action, consider the following practical tips:
1. Develop a Comprehensive Marketing Plan
Outline your short-term and long-term goals, target audience, key messages, and the channels you will use to reach them.
2. Invest in Technology
Use marketing automation tools, CRM systems, and analytics platforms to streamline your processes and gain deeper insights into your campaigns.
3. Create High-Quality Content
Produce valuable content that addresses the pain points and challenges of your target audience. This can include blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and videos.
4. Engage with Your Audience
Regularly interact with your audience through social media, email, and live events. Personalize your communications to build stronger relationships.
5. Monitor and Adjust
Continuously monitor the performance of your marketing efforts and be prepared to adjust your strategies based on what the data is telling you.
6. Collaborate with Sales
Ensure there is a strong alignment between marketing and sales teams. Regular meetings and shared goals can help both teams work towards the same objectives.
Conclusion
All in all, successful B2B marketing requires a balanced approach that combines outcome-based marketing, performance marketing, effective lead scoring, and strategic use of social media. By implementing these strategies, marketers can ensure they are not only meeting their business objectives but also positioning their organization as a leader in their industry.
To know more about this, tune into our flagship podcast with our guest speaker
Ms. Poornima Cuoto, CMO & Global Head, Market-Making at SLK, and Ms. Benita Bhatia Dua, CEO at Vanilla Skills. You can watch the entire episode here: https://youtu.be/CGrnHFLyY9I?si=Is0oII6U4BZbwzNG
Why Your LinkedIn Impressions Are Dropping and What You Can Do About It
Linkedin was kicking my behind. I mean I went from 10,000+ impressions per post to less than 2,000 impressions 🥶.
I went into a slump, wondering what I was doing wrong. And “Why me?” was a question that crossed my mind at least once a day.
It wasn’t that my clients’ posts weren’t performing. If anything, 7 out of the 10 Linkedin personal accounts my team & I consult on were named Linkedin Top Voice. Of the other 3, 2 have been invited to contribute and work is in progress. But me? I don’t even have an invitation to contribute! And believe me, I have tried to be patient.
Then, I realized it wasn’t just me. There are so many who are complaining about the drop in impressions. So, what is happening?
Clearly the algorithm had changed. That is evident. But there is more.
In October ‘23 Linkedin fired 668 of its employees*, of which 563** were from R&D. And as you might have known, it’s the people who make the organization. So when these people left, they took a part of the company with them.
Recently, there seems to have been some recruitments, and enthusiastic ones, I would venture to say. I mean, you have seen that LinkedIn introduced games, haven’t you?
And these new people, they are what the new Linkedin is becoming. So, love it or hate it, this is what you have from Linkedin.
Now, some people may jump ship when such a big change happens. Afterall, change is not easy. But the issue is, where would the said people jump and go to. It’s not like there is another equally good professional networking platform they could hop on to.
So what’s ahead? In my opinion, here is what the various possible scenarios look like:
a) As B2B Marketers, we try out newer platforms and see if anything works. Some options that one could explore would be Quora, Reddit, and maybe, just maybe, Instagram can be given a chance though personally I am not optimistic about it.
b) Accept that LinkedIn is changing and adapt quickly. Agility will be key here. E.g. when I was invited by the new Linkedin team to attend a workshop, some of the feedback I got was in line with what I had been doing and yet, different. Here is a snapshot of what they said:
Basically, it asks me to make my post more detailed, provide more insights. And reduce line breaks. I was not originally comfortable with this part of the feedback. My logic: People read on the phone and when you make long and lumpy content, it is not user-friendly.
But if that is the advice being doled out, we better test it out before we decide to follow/ ignore it. And so, that is what I am doing.
c) Own your platform. If you watch Shark Tank, you probably have heard this advice before, albeit for D2C businesses. I think it is equally applicable for B2B businesses: Instead of depending on third-party platforms, it is prudent to build a platform you own and control. I recall one episode where the owner spoke about how they had a thriving page on Facebook from where they were getting massive business orders until one fine day Facebook decided to take down their page and no matter what they did, it was not coming up.
In a way, this is what happened to many businesses. LinkedIn pulled the rug from under us. And we had nowhere to turn to.
That raises the question, which of these is the best way forward? If you ask me, I will always talk about a balanced approach. I don’t think it should be either/or. I am strongly of the opinion that it needs to be all of it.
Need to explore this further? Book a 30 minute FREE consultation with me on https://calendly.com/benitadua/interaction-with-benita
Decoding Content Marketing: The What, Why, and How!
In today’s crowded digital landscape, where information is abundant, content marketing remains essential for B2B businesses to connect with their target audience, drive engagement, and achieve their sales and marketing objectives.
In this blog by Vanilla Skills, let’s start by understanding what content marketing really is, especially from the point of view of a B2B.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is all about creating and sharing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain your target audience. In B2B, this means producing content that addresses the specific needs and challenges of your business clients. By offering insights, solutions, and expertise, you build trust and position yourself as a thought leader. This strategic approach not only helps your clients make informed decisions but also fosters stronger relationships and generates high-quality leads for your business.
What are some of the effective formats of content on social media platforms?
- Social media posts, primarily on LinkedIn for professional engagement
- Video content
- Blogs
- Infographics
- Case studies
- Newsletters
- Memes
- Webinars
Why Does Your B2B Need Content Marketing?
Content marketing offers numerous benefits and holds significant importance for B2B businesses across various industries:
- Increases Brand Awareness: By creating and distributing valuable content, your business can increase their visibility and reach among their target audience. Consistent content creation helps to establish brand recognition and familiarity.
- Drives Website Traffic: High-quality content attracts organic traffic to your website. By optimising content for search engines and promoting it through various channels, businesses can drive qualified traffic to their site, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
- Generates Leads: Content marketing serves as a powerful lead generation tool. By offering valuable resources such as eBooks, whitepapers, or webinars gated behind forms, businesses can capture leads and nurture them through the sales funnel.
- Improves Search Engine Rankings: Content marketing plays a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO). By regularly publishing optimised content that targets relevant keywords, your B2B business can improve their search engine rankings and increase organic visibility.
- Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy: Compared to conventional advertising methods, content marketing is often more cost-effective. While it requires time and effort to create high-quality content, the long-term benefits in terms of lead generation, brand awareness, and customer engagement outweigh the initial investment.
- Supports Sales Efforts: Content marketing provides valuable resources that your sales teams can leverage to educate prospects and move them through the sales funnel. Sales enablement materials such as case studies, product guides, and comparison articles help to address buyer concerns and objections.
- Fosters Long-Term Growth: Content marketing offers long-term benefits by creating evergreen content that continues to attract leads and drive conversions over time. Consistently producing valuable content builds a sustainable growth engine for businesses’ marketing efforts.
How can you build an effective content marketing strategy?
Drawing from our Vanilla Skills’ expertise, here are 10 steps on how your B2B businesses can build a full-proof strategy!
- Understand Your Audience: Begin by thoroughly researching and understanding your target audience. Identify their pain points, challenges, interests, and preferences. This will guide your content creation efforts to ensure they resonate with your audience.
- Set Clear Objectives before Audience: As objectives change, audiences change. Define specific goals for your content marketing strategy. Whether it’s generating leads, increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or nurturing existing leads, having clear objectives will help you measure the success of your efforts.
- Develop a Content Strategy: Based on your audience research and objectives, develop a comprehensive content strategy. Determine the types of content you’ll create (e.g., blog posts, videos, eBooks, webinars), content themes/topics, frequency of publishing, and distribution channels.
- Create High-Quality Content: Produce content that provides value to your audience. Whether it’s educational, informative, entertaining, or inspirational, ensure that your content is well-researched, relevant, and engaging. Use a mix of formats to cater to different preferences and learning styles.
- Optimise for SEO: Incorporate relevant keywords and optimise your content for search engines to improve its visibility and reach. Focus on creating content that answers common questions or addresses common pain points within your industry to attract organic traffic.
- Promote Across Channels: This includes your website, social media platforms, email newsletters, industry forums, and third-party publications. Tailor your content promotion strategy to each channel for maximum effectiveness.
- Engage with Your Audience: Encourage interaction and engagement with your content by inviting comments, questions, and discussions. Respond promptly to comments and messages, and actively participate in conversations related to your content.
- Measure and Analyze Results: Regularly monitor the performance of your content marketing efforts using relevant metrics such as website traffic, engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments), lead generation, conversion rates, and ROI. Analyse this data to identify what’s working well and areas for improvement.
- Iterate and Improve: Use insights from your performance analysis to refine and optimise your content marketing strategy over time. Experiment with different content formats, topics, distribution channels, and promotion tactics to see what resonates best with your audience and drives the desired results.
- Stay Consistent and Persistent: Consistency is key to success in content marketing. Stay committed to your content strategy and maintain a regular publishing schedule. Building a loyal audience and seeing significant results from your efforts may take time, so be patient and persistent in your approach.
All in all , content marketing is a versatile and effective strategy that can help your B2B business to connect with your audience, establish authority, drive engagement, and ultimately, achieve marketing and sales objectives.
You can learn more about content marketing by connecting with us! We have an in-house team of experts who can help you and your B2B put the best content forward.
Talk to us at: contact@vanillaskills.com
The 95-5 Rule: What Is It and How It Can Help Boost Your B2B’s ROI?
Ever wondered how some brands do not advertise for the longest period of time but still have sales? This is because the best ads have the power to build memories and influence our buying decisions years later.
This long-lasting impression of brand advertising is based on the research conducted by LinkedIn which is known as ‘The 95-5 Rule’. This practice lays emphasis on the fact that 95% of your potential buyers aren’ ready to buy today. Only 5% of your entire TAM is in the journey to look out or buy at the moment; the rest 95% may not be your customers for today but they might be for tomorrow.
Here are some factors to consider when implementing this approach:
- Lead Nurturing: Develop a systematic process for nurturing leads over time. This involves regularly engaging with prospects through various channels such as email marketing, social media, content marketing, and personalised communication to provide value, answer questions, and address their needs.
- Segmentation and Targeting: Segment your leads based on factors such as demographics, behaviour, interests, and buying intent. Tailor your communication and marketing efforts to each segment to ensure relevance and effectiveness in engaging potential customers.
- Education and Thought Leadership: Position your brand as an authority in your industry by providing educational content, thought leadership articles, webinars, and workshops. Offering valuable insights and information not only helps to establish trust but also keeps your brand top-of-mind when prospects are ready to make a purchase decision.
- Relationship Building: Focus on building genuine relationships with potential customers by understanding their needs, challenges, and preferences. Engage in personalised communication, listen actively, and demonstrate empathy to strengthen connections and foster trust over time.
- Customer Experience: Provide exceptional customer experiences at every touchpoint of the buyer’s journey. Offer seamless interactions, personalised recommendations, and responsive customer support to enhance satisfaction and loyalty, even before a purchase is made.
- Lead Scoring and Qualification: Implement lead scoring and qualification criteria to prioritise leads based on their likelihood to convert into customers. Focus your efforts on leads that exhibit higher levels of engagement and buying intent while nurturing others to progress them through the sales funnel.
- Data Analysis and Iteration: Continuously monitor and analyse customer data, engagement metrics, and sales performance to refine your strategies over time. Identify patterns, insights, and areas for improvement to optimise your approach and maximise the effectiveness of your efforts.
This strategy offers several benefits to businesses such as:
- Long-Term Relationship Building: By focusing on nurturing relationships with potential customers who may not be ready to buy immediately, businesses can cultivate trust and rapport over time. This can lead to stronger and more loyal customer relationships, resulting in repeat business and referrals.
- Increased Customer Lifetime Value: Investing in long-term relationship building can contribute to higher customer lifetime value (CLV). Customers who feel valued and supported throughout their journey are more likely to make repeat purchases and engage with additional products or services offered by the business.
- Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs: Engaging with potential customers early in their buying journey can help businesses reduce customer acquisition costs. By nurturing leads and building relationships over time, businesses can convert prospects into customers more efficiently, minimising the need for costly advertising or promotional efforts.
- Improved Conversion Rates: Building trust and credibility through ongoing engagement and relationship building can lead to higher conversion rates. When prospects feel confident in the value proposition and trustworthiness of the business, they are more likely to move through the sales funnel and make a purchase decision.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: The “95-5 rule” emphasizes providing value and support to potential customers throughout their journey. This focus on customer-centricity can result in higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfied customers are more likely to become brand advocates, promoting the business to others and contributing to its long-term success.
- Better Understanding of Customer Needs: Engaging with potential customers over an extended period allows businesses to gain deeper insights into their needs, preferences, and pain points. This understanding can inform product development, marketing strategies, and customer service initiatives, enabling businesses to better meet the needs of their target audience.
- Competitive Advantage: By adopting a long-term approach to customer relationship management and sales, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors who may focus solely on immediate sales transactions. Building strong relationships with potential customers can become a competitive advantage, as customers are more likely to choose businesses they trust and feel connected to.
Overall, the “95-5 rule” can help businesses foster meaningful connections with potential customers, drive customer loyalty, and achieve sustainable growth in the long term.
To know more about this, tune in to our flagship podcast with the guest speaker Mr.Deepu Nair, Senior Account Director at LinkedIn and Ms.Benita Bhatia Dua, CEO of Vanilla Skills. You can watch the entire episode here: https://youtu.be/gkTNsjiUzS4?si=xXQreaKBfHGxdn6s
Mastering B2B Sales with Webinars: A Starter Guide
Introduction
Webinar has emerged to play a crucial role in B2B marketing strategies. Some of the growing benefits of webinars include lead generation, customer engagement, and establishing thought leadership.
If you are planning to hold a webinar, below are some of the things to keep in mind:
1) Planning Your Webinar
- Topic Selection: Choose a topic that adds value for your audience and positions your company as a thought leader.
- Target Audience: Identifying your ideal attendees and customizing the content to meet their needs.
- Speakers: Select internal experts or invite guest speakers who can attract a larger audience.
- Platform Choices: Overview popular webinar platforms like Zoom, GoToWebinar, and WebEx.
- Equipment Checklist: Do check all the technical requirements, including camera, microphone, and lighting.
- Rehearsal: The importance lies in running through the webinar to troubleshoot potential technical issues.
- Email Marketing: Craft an effective invite and reminders to maximize registrations.
- Social Media: Use platforms like LinkedIn to promote the webinar through posts and direct messages.
- Partnerships: Leverage industry partners or influencers to broaden your webinar’s reach.
- Interactive Elements: You must incorporate Q&A sessions, polls, and interactive tools to keep the audience engaged.
- Presentation Tips: How to present information clearly and effectively to maintain viewer interest.
- Recording Distribution: Offering the webinar recording to registrants as a value-add and to extend the content’s lifespan.
- Feedback Collection: Using surveys to gather attendee feedback for continuous improvement.
- Lead Nurturing: Strategies for following up with attendees to move them through the sales funnel.
Conclusion
Considering webinar as your B2B marketing strategy can prove to be a game changer. It is imperative to ensure that you work with different content forms to increase and establish your brand’s thought leadership. LinkedIn has emerged as a key social media platform to support brand building, if you need help with how you can leverage the power of webinars to the full capacity, reach out to us at: contact@vanillaskills.com
10 Easy Ways to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile
1. Optimise Your Headline : Your headline is the first thing people see when they come across your profile. What sets you apart from others in your field? Incorporate keywords relevant to your industry to increase your visibility in searches.
2. Choose a Professional Photo : Use a high-quality photo where you’re professionally dressed and have a friendly yet professional behaviour. A clear headshot with a plain background works best.
3. Craft a Compelling Summary : Use this section to showcase your skills, experiences, and career objectives. Keep it concise, engaging, and focused on what you can offer to your audience.
4. Highlight Your Achievements : Instead of only listing job responsibilities, emphasize your accomplishments in each role. Use quantifiable metrics whenever possible to demonstrate the impact you’ve made. Did you increase sales revenue, streamline processes, or lead successful projects? Showcase your results to validate your expertise.
5. Customise Your URL: Ideally, use your full name or a variation that’s easy to remember and represents your personal brand.
6. Expand Your Network : Actively seek out professionals in your industry, alumni from your alma mater, and individuals you admire. Engage with their content, join relevant groups, and attend networking events to expand your reach.
7. Showcase Your Skills: Consider acquiring new skills through LinkedIn Learning courses to stay competitive in your field.
8. Share Relevant Content: Position yourself as a thought leader in your industry by sharing insightful articles, industry news, and your own professional insights. Engage with your network by commenting on and sharing their posts as well. Consistent activity demonstrates your passion and expertise.
9. Request Recommendations: Genuine recommendations from former managers, colleagues, and clients can significantly boost your credibility. Reach out to people you’ve worked closely with and request personalised recommendations that highlight your strengths and contributions.
10. Regularly Update Your Profile: Your LinkedIn profile should evolve as your career progresses. Regularly update your profile with new experiences, skills, and achievements. Share updates about career milestones, job changes, and professional development activities to keep your network informed.
By implementing these best practices, you can create a LinkedIn profile that not only captures attention but also helps you achieve your professional goals.
Remember, your LinkedIn profile is not static but a dynamic representation of your personal brand and professional journey. Keep refining and optimizing it to maximize your impact in the digital professional landscape.
For more LinkedIn best practices, keep in touch with us at Vanilla Skills by writing to us at: contact@vanillaskills.com while we help you understand how you can make the best of your LinkedIn journey.
Unlocking the power of thought leadership boosting brand visibility
Do you want your brand to be more than just another name in the market? Thought leadership might just be the secret sauce you’ve been looking for. It’s not just about being a knowledgeable voice; it’s about becoming a beacon of authority in your industry. Here’s how it can increase your brand’s visibility:
Credibility that Shines: Imagine stumbling upon a blog post or video that’s full of insights, backed by solid research. The brand behind it instantly gains credibility points. People trust experts, and by positioning yourself as one, your brand becomes a trusted source of information.
The Google Boost: Ever wondered why some blogs or videos rank higher in Google searches? That’s the magic of thought leadership. When you consistently produce high-quality content, Google takes notice and rewards you with higher search rankings. Hello, organic visibility!
The Social Ripple Effect: Share-worthy content spreads like wildfire on social media. Thought leadership pieces, filled with wisdom and fresh perspectives, are magnets for likes, shares, and comments. Each share increases your brand’s reach.
Networking that Pays Off: Ever attended a conference or a webinar where an industry influencer shared their insights? Well, you can be that influencer. Thought leadership opens doors to networking opportunities, partnerships, and collaborations that put your brand in the spotlight.
Media Spotlight: Journalists and media outlets love thought leaders. They’re the go-to experts for interviews and insights. When you’re a thought leader, you’re more likely to get media coverage, and that means even more eyeballs on your brand.
Engage and Conquer: It’s not just about talking; it’s about listening too. Engage with your audience, answer their questions, and be part of the conversation. Interaction fosters a loyal community and drives your content further.
Growing Your Fanbase: When people consistently find valuable content from a brand, they’re more likely to follow it across various platforms. This increasing follower base further amplifies your content’s reach and visibility.
Educate and Illuminate: Share your industry knowledge. Help your audience understand trends, best practices, and innovations. When you become a trusted source of education, your brand’s visibility soars.
Be Outstanding: In a sea of competitors, thought leadership is your lighthouse. Thought leadership helps your brand stand out. You can offer unique insights and perspectives, differentiating yourself from competitors, attracting attention and increasing visibility.
The Long-Term Game: Consistency is key. As your content library grows, so does your brand’s reputation, making it a go-to source for trusted information.
In a nutshell, thought leadership isn’t just about sharing your thoughts; it’s about becoming the thought leader. With a solid content strategy, a deep understanding of your audience, and a commitment to producing top-notch content, you can skyrocket your brand’s visibility and influence in your industry. So, what are you waiting for? Start leading those thoughts and watch your brand shine!
Copyright Free Image Sources You Can Bet On!
Struggling to find copyright-free images for your website? Well, copyright-free image sources are crucial as they will allow you to use images legally without infringing on someone else’s intellectual property rights.
Understand more about intellectual property rights from Mr. Abhishek Malhotra, Managing Partner, TMT Law Practice in our podcast:
We understand that it can be quite a task to find copyright-free images for your work! After having faced this problem time and time again, we decided to put together and share a list, to give you one less thing to worry about!
Enlisted below are seven Vanilla Skills approved websites that will give you a huge range of good quality, and as we promised, copyright-free images to choose from. We hope that this helps!
1.Pexels:
The first website that comes to our mind when we think of copyright-free images is Pexels. It provides stock photos, which helps designers all over the world, to create beautiful, well finished designs. You can download images in the size you desire and modify them as you please, making them suitable for commercial use. Pexels runs a photography challenge every month allowing users to upload their best pictures and awarding the best one!
2.FreeImages:
With a name like Freeimages, you cannot go wrong! As the name suggests, this website also gives you access to hundreds of thousands of high-quality, hand-picked stock photos and graphics, which, needless to say, are all free! Want to spice up your commercial website design project? Looking for inspiration? Need a wallpaper for your desktop or an illustration for your blog? You will find everything on FreeImages easily and quickly.
3.Unsplash:
In the past, Unsplash has been cited as one of the world’s leading photography websites by Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNET, Medium, and The Next Web. And we tend to agree! It has an ever-growing library of over 1,000,000 free (do-whatever-you-want-with) high-resolution photos. It also curates and lists pictures as per search!
4.Picjumbo:
Picjumbo has a range of photo categories from business, food, nature, technology, and abstract images. Within each of these categories, there are similar or different images from a particular photoshoot. You can subscribe to get the latest updates.
5.Kaboompics:
A website developed by a Polish photographer, Kaboompic offers a wide variety of high-quality images, ranging from landscapes and cityscapes to food and fashion. A unique feature provided by the platform is its color search functionality, that allows users to search for images based on a specific color! Isn’t that cool?
6.Freestocks:
Would it excite you to know more about the picture you were using? Where it was shot, who the photographer was, what the different elements in the picture are. We thought that this was an exciting feature of Freestocks because you have all these details available to you, at the click of a button.
7.Pixabay:
We also love Pixabay. It offers a range of images, vector graphics, illustrations, and even HD videos to choose from. This website has an advanced search tool option, which helps you to find just the right image you need. The best part? You can also download things like GIFs, sound effects, and even music!
A word of caution: Although these websites offer free images that are labeled as copyright-free, it is still a good idea to read the licensing terms and conditions carefully before using any of them to ensure that you’re using it legally and ethically.
Additionally, not all pictures are free, some may require you to upgrade to a premium version, so choose accordingly.
We hope this helps you find the best suitable images for your need, choose the website as per your requirements, and don’t forget to have fun exploring them!
Do let us know which website you loved the most!
4 Key Constituents of A Good Social Media Team
Quoting Mark Zuckerberg, “the best digital media teams are those that are always looking for ways to improve and innovate”. Today digital media has been developing views and opinions of the world. However, the way a business is performed is constantly evolving and it is key to change according to the era. The introduction of advanced digital marketing tools has propelled companies to restructure their goals and define their way forward.
A strong social marketing team constitutes the following roles:
1) Researcher- Research is an important step with regard to the collection of information. Researchers can help you with raw materials as well as make your knowledge grow. He/She can help your business grow by sharing your ideas, thought processes, or opinions.
It is important that the information being presented by your company is taken from credible sources, primarily data furnished by the government and other reliable sites. This is where the need for a good researcher comes in. Research can be in any form; it could be in a written format, video format, or in a form of audio format.
2) Content Strategists- This includes both content writers and copywriters. Content writers will help you curate meaningful content and help drive more traffic to the information you present on various social media platforms. It is necessary to hold regular meetings with content writers and inform them about what you wish to tell your customers or potential customers about you. Their main role in your company is to develop engaging and creative content like articles, videos, social media posts, and numerous other multimedia content.
While, the role of a copywriter is to create compelling and persuasive copy for digital ads, emails, and other marketing materials. In this regard, a copywriter is a professional who specializes in curating content for various media channels like advertisements, brochures, websites, and social media.
It is necessary to know the difference between a content writer and copywriters.
Well, while both create written content for business, content creators focus on presenting informative and engaging content, while copywriters focus on creating promotional and persuasive material.
In addition to this, copywriting is often focused on creating short, snappy, and attention-grabbing content. On the other hand, content writing can be more in-depth and informative, offering readers detailed information about a particular topic.
3) Creative Designer- A creative designer is essential for creating visually appealing and engaging content, such as graphics, images, videos, and animations. They work closely with the content strategist to ensure that the brand’s visual identity is consistently represented across social media platforms.
This includes graphic designers– those who will visually communicate your ideas and messages to your audience. This using numerous design techniques and software to develop visual representation of concepts, services, and products.
Simply put, these artists put life in content through the use of visuals which may be in any form such as images, infographics, videos, etc. One should always remember your graphics, multimedia, and visuals should be to the point and should always make sense. It is always important that your viewers get your message easily and don’t have to nag around for answers. Graphics, multimedia, and visual designers are the individuals who get your content to a proper format and make new advancements in your growth.
4) Social Media (Operations) Specialist- Social media management plays an important role. A social media operation specialist manages social media accounts, studies engagement rate and data to optimize social media campaigns, and design strategies that push the social media reach.
You must note that social media is beyond Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Snapchat; it is a vast branch and one requires patience to understand the whole process.
The person you appoint should know how he/she can grab viewers or readers’ attention.
In addition to the role of managing an agency’s operations for a client, an Ops team member will be a primary point of contact for your social media company. Additionally, an operations strategist also provides regular updates on campaign progress along with addressing any concerns or issues that arise such as negative comments on your social media page.
In this sense, an operations stratrgist will help catch any red flags and help you in the best possible way.
We can best explain this through our case study where our team was managing the social media account of a CEO of a multinational company. Our team spotted that one of the senior member from the same company who had sent a connection request to the CEO had an ‘#OpenToWorK’ status on LinkedIn, meaning he/ she was looking for another job. We quickly informed the CEO and then a meeting between him and the senior team member was arranged and any work concerns by the latter were addressed. This prevented the company from losing a senior personnel which not only saved them the cost of recruitment and training, but also kept with them an experienced resources whose lose couldn’t not have been measured in monetary terms. Safe to say, Vanilla Skills led by Benita Bhatia Dua played a key role in preventing a huge asset loss to the company. You can read more about our case studies here.
By the way, we have played many such pivotal roles in helping companies leverage social media through outstanding operational practices.
Book a 30-minutes complimentary consultation with us and know how we can help you!
Along with constituting a team with all the above job roles it is necessary that a good social media team focuses on upskilling themselves from time to time. With rapid changes in the social media front, you must motivate your team to learn new things and innovate in what they have to offer.
Vanilla Skills as specialists in social media will help you optimize your digital content for search engines, enhancing website visibility and driving organic traffic to the website.
Contact us to know how you can improve your business outcomes and help you with all things social media!