Your Facebook "Brand"

The problem with Facebook, as many see it, is that its new design and options blur the line between "business" and "personal life." While some individuals embrace this transparency, others have gone out of their way to avoid mixing business life with personal activities. Linda covered how to draw your lines in the sand at Facebook in the previous article with information about privacy settings and filters. In this article, you'll learn more about how to guide and develop your Facebook "brand."

Steps to Building a Brand

How do you build your brand? Take a look at the link list below to learn more:

·         Building your Brand:  Take articles like this to learn more about branding in the past tense. A sentence such as this one should alert you to how branding is changing with social media proliferation: "One of the truths of modern business is that there is almost nothing that your competitors can't duplicate in a matter of weeks or months. If you have a great idea, you can be certain that somebody will copy it before long. And not only will they follow your lead, but they may also be able to do a better job or sell the product or service at a lower price. The question then becomes, "What competitive edge do I have to offer that cannot be copied by anyone else?" The answer to this question is building a brand that is you – and you can do this with Facebook and other social media tools. No one can replicate you.

·         How to Build your Online Brand: Chris Brogan offers this article on how to find out what people are saying about you...and to discover how to create more buzz around your name or your company name.

·         Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand: Dan Schwabel states, "The key to success, and this isn't revolutionary, is to be compensated based on your passion. In order to find your passion, you need a lot of time to think, some luck and you need to do some research online to figure out what's out there."

·         You Might Not Love the New Facebook, But Brands Should: Adam Ostrow states, "Suddenly, Facebook's homepage re-design makes a lot more sense, not just from a "copy Twitter because it's so hot!" perspective, but from the "let's make a ton of money" angle too."

Hopefully that last link catches your eye...Ostrow has introduced you to Facebook Pages, and I'll continue that discussion next week...