Tired, Uninspired but You Need to Write a Blog Post?

Time is running out, the clock continues to tick and you haven’t written a blog post in over a week now. Typically, you post twice per week. You’re tired, uninspired, busy, overwhelmed, under tight deadlines with a new project – what can you do?? You haven’t even had time to send a Tweet! Surely, you don’t want your community to start wondering what happened to you.

Here are some tips to help get your creative juices flowing and help inspire you:

-What’s going on in the world? Take a brief break and listen or watch the news. Is there anything going on that you can comment on and relate it to your personal brand?

-Take a look at your personal life – is there anything going on that you can write about that connects to your personal brand? An example: you’re a botanist and your blog helps people master the science of botany at home or work. You want to Aunt Matilda’s for a BBQ this weekend and noticed her tomato plants had turned black. Write about it.

-Take a walk through a good museum, listen to some music – what are the artists painting, drawing or singing about? Is it something you can tie into your brand and write a blog post about?

-Go to the gym or the local coffee shop. What are people talking about? Does it give you some ideas?

-Browse the aisles and shelves at your local bookstore. Whether Barnes and Noble, Borders or something else you’re sure to find some content you can make relevant in your own blog.

-A very quick fix is to use the search tool on Twitter and type in http you’ll find lots of links with a few words of intro copy to let you know what the link is about. Skim until you find something relevant to your personal brand then add your own spin to it.

Hope this post inspired you. Have a great day.

This blog post also appears in the latest issue of YOUNique Personal Branding

Building a Site That Can EXPRESS Brand YOU!

You know you need to develop your presence online but you’re not sure how. Where should you begin? After contacting a Reach-certified personal brand strategist (yours truly wink, wink), you might want to consider developing a website or blog site for yourself. While working with a personal brand strategist you will clarify your communications goals, target audience, mission and purpose – all very necessary before developing a website.

The next step will be to develop tools to help you convey and exude your personal brand. One of the most popular tools is the blog site or website. The only difference between the two is that a blog site is a website and blog in one. If you’re going to be a blogger definitely build the “all in one.”

If you haven’t already done so you should purchase your own URL (preferably your name) ex: www.rachelgogos.com. If your name doesn’t exist because it may be more popular ex: www.MarySmith.com you can purchase www.MarySmithDentist.com or something like that to describe your profession or expertise. Many sites exist where you can acquire domain names. The one I use is called www.mydomain.com. It will cost $9.75 to own the domain for one year.

Your brand attributes and other results from your Reach360 http://www.reachcc.com/360reach will help you and your personal brand strategist determine the color palette for your site. William Arruda developed an excellent video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDohoPavchc on YouTube to let you know what personal attribute is associated with a specific color.

Developing the navigation, content and logo for your site are the next most important steps. The navigation will be determined by the purpose of your site, the content and your target audience. Your content is completely driven by who your ideal target audience is. Content you should include on your site are a bio, photo of yourself and your contact information. Your logo or signature look can be developed with the help of a graphic designer and your brand strategist.

The site itself should be developed by a programmer or a very talented graphic designer who can do both. The most popular tools to build blog sites in these days are WordPress and TypePad. One final VERY important element is search engine optimization or SEO. This too is something your programmer should help you with. It involves meta-tags and adwords if you want to pay for them. If your site is built with SEO and it should be it will help it get recognized on Google and other popular search engines. This is a lengthy topic so I will write more in about it in a future issue.

This is the super simplified version of building a site for yourself that is developed, branded and exuding your characteristics. It’s a big step towards establishing your presence on the web. It’s a time consuming project but will fill you with great happiness once it’s done.

This post was also featured in YOUnique @ www.reachpersonalbranding.com/newsletter

Your Brand ENVIRONMENT and What it Says About Your Personal Brand

Have you heard of the term “brand environment?” Wondering what it means? It’s all the seemingly “little things” that comprise the environment around you. Your brand environment includes everything from the carpeting in your office to your clothing, your techno-gadgets, and even where you might choose to host a dinner for your clients. Each and every decision you make that might give others a “clue” about who you are and what you’re like equals your brand environment.

As many of you may have already figured out I live in Pittsburgh, PA the upcoming host to this year’s G-20 summit, attracting political leaders that comprise 85% of the world’s economy. The White House announced its venue locations for various aspects of the Summit. The venues chosen by the White House are “on brand” for Barack and Michelle Obama since they tie into their values, initiatives and political goals.

Michelle Obama, for example, is hosting a luncheon at the Andy Warhol museum near downtown Pittsburgh. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, they chose the venue because of the worldwide popularity of Warhol art and due to the museum’s reputation as a hub for community dialogue. It also continues to exude Michelle’s “hip and cool” persona.

Michelle is also leading a tour of world leaders through the Creative and Performing Arts School to exemplify her commitment to arts education.

President Obama is hosting a working dinner at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that the White House chose this venue, in part because of the green-friendly features of the facility that include an earth-sheltered welcome center and a Tropical Forest Conservatory described as the world’s most energy efficient.

The Obama’s and White House officials do an incredible job of keeping this administration on brand. It’s all in the details – see what else you notice.