The Business Growth Blog by Rob Cuesta

Before you get into social media, what does your audience look like?

I just found a new online tool that could just be ESSENTIAL for any business that is serious about using social media to reach its target audience.

Forrester Research's Groundswell Consumer Profile Tool will give you a "technographic" profile (think demographic for the internet age) of your audience based on country, age and gender. There are 8 categories of user and a link to an explanation of each category. More detail and analysis can be found in Forrester's new book "Groundswell".

Unmissable :)

Motivation, success and wealth 2

Last week I posted a link to the first of success-guru Tony Robbins' videos on weath and success. Here is the second video, in which he interviews internet marketer John Reese, who managed to generate $1m on the web in the midst of chaos and destruction in the wake of a tornado strike.

Again, watch it once as an inspirational piece to remind you that however bad the economy seems, at least it's still there, generating wealth and prosperity. Then watch it a second time as an example of masterful use of video to build a personal brand.

Enjoy!

Motivation, success and wealth 1

As anyone who has attended one of my courses or workshops knows, I'm a huge fan of personal development guru Tony Robbins.

Lately, Tony has issued a couple of motivational web videos around the subject of wealth and success. the first of them is notable not only because its a deeply motivational story, but because it's one of the best web videos I've seen. Granted, it was filmed during a break in the filming of something else more substantial, but even so, it's definitely raised the standard that anyone using video to build their brand should aspire to.

So watch it, enjoy the message, and learn from the production values.

Enjoy!

Even the homeless are getting in on Personal Branding

I was fascinated by an almost throwaway comment on the Workshifting blog that describes how the homeless in Orlando are making the best of the resources and opportunities available to improve their lot. It's easy for all sorts of prejudices and preconceptions to cloud our ideas about the homeless, and lead us to make all sorts of generalisations, so I found this story truly heartwarming.

"

Jeff told me that any homeless person in Orlando that had ID and no outstanding balance could have a library card, which entitled them to time on the public computers. [...] Some were even attempting to start their own business, find contract work or rebuild their lives via research, personal branding and financial education."

If people like Jeff can make so much of the little that they have available to them, just imagine what you can do with all the resources at your disposal...

6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan

Social media can be a bit of a maze. It's no longer just about telling your friends what you've been up to: alongside blogs we have mashups, file sharing (the legitimate, business-useful kind like Slideshare.com), podcasts, wikis, video hosting, music sharing, bookmarking...

How do you make sense of all of those and use them to support your marketing efforts - personal or corporate? For one approach, take a look at this post by Lorna Li.

Ever wondered how to use Twitter in marketing for real?

Here's how one company did it: http://socialmediatoday.com/school/80680

Ask yourself: how could you use a similar approach on another network: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn...

Starting a Social Media Team

Social can seem like a bit of a minefield in the corporate environment - after all, who wants their staff mouthing off online about their petty gripes in the workplace (at least that's how a lot of corporate executives still seem to view the medium), so I was pleased to find this post about how to set up a corporate social media team, though it's applicable to organisations of any size, and just as relevant in the not-for-profit sector.

Keeping it all together

At the last count, I had 14 profiles on different web sites. I'm not talking about the type that just say "tell us about yourself"; I mean full blown profiles where you describe your experience, what you do, and basically express your personal brand.

I've thought for a long thime that what the world of online personal branding needs is a service that lets you feed all those from a single source. In the days of XML and RSS and all those other TLAs that mean something about passing information between sites you, you'd think it would be easy.

The matter has been brought into even clearer focus this week, because I'm moving offices. So I nowface the prospect of going into every one of those profiles to see which ones have my office address, and updating it. Wouldn't it be great to have a single dashboard where I could log in, make the change, press the button, and *abracadabra* all my profiles changed at once.

When I heard about new startup Nombay.com I thought my prayers might be answered.

Safer Social Networking

When I'm helping a client to build their online reputation, one of the key tools at our disposal is social network sites - you know the ones: Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Alongside concerns about how to keep the profile 'professional', the next most common concern clients have is about privacy and fraud, so I was pleased to find a post on microsoft.com listing 10 very useful tips on how to use these sites safely.

Networking through Meetup.com

I recently discovered meetup.com, a site that allows you to connect with people with similar interests in your area. As soon as I saw it I was struck by the fact that you could just as easily use it to connect with people who share your passions while you're travelling. And that's exactly what I did.