Reputation - online Branding and Platform

Our reputations and the reputation of people we partner with and represent is just as important online as it is offline. Reputations offline may take years to build. Reputations online may take a matter of months to build. In the online world our activities are a Search away and we can be judged by the places we go to and the company we keep in a matter of minutes. 

Building a personal reputation online is a recent concept with the rise of social networking and other online media. These allow us to very easily put up information about our business and personal interests. It also allows us to 'walk the talk' too. 

• If we want to be seen as an authority then we can demonstrate that very effectively by what we publish. 
• If we want to be seen as supportive and helpful then we can demonstrate that too through our networking.
• And if we want to be the 'go-to' person for the latest and greatest solutions we can set out our stall online and attract people to us. 

Being able to build relationships with people locally and globally remains at the core of our reputation. Being memorable in such a vast market is a challenge for us all to contend with. 

In this fast developing area it pays dividends to team up with market leaders.

Information overload - six steps to avoid it

Clarity and 20/20 Vision is a blessing when it occurs but without it a whole range of issues and emotions can occur. If you’re reading this Blog you may well be interested in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Social Networking and Internet Marketing. These rapidly developing topics have the potential to very quickly lead to information overload. Unless recognised and dealt with quickly, information overload can be very damaging and de-motivating. Here is a quick outline of my journey over the last couple of months and some lessons I’ve learned.

Enthusiasm

I was keen to get to the cutting edge of Internet Marketing very quickly. Initial Google searches quickly took me to sign-on pages for various ‘offers’. It’s very tempting to subscribe to these attractive offers, so clearly their marketing is working. I also ordered some (4) related books from Amazon, two about ‘Personal Branding’, two about cutting edge marketing thinking. The Amazon books arrived quickly and the content looks very attractive. Also, my in-box was quickly filled up with emails, triggered by the follow-up marketing activity behind the initial offers I subscribed to.

Exponential opportunities

So the reading starts, with a chapter or two from each book, to get a feel for their style, and the journey they would take me on, so that’s a few hours. Going through the in-box went up from a few minutes a day to maybe a couple of hours a day. Initially this was all in the name of ‘education’, and the enthusiasm is still high. Very quickly there were additional ‘attractive offers’ coming through. This also included various video pitches and webinars – which can be 30-60 minutes each. These are very cleverly constructed, initially providing great insight, value and education but all the while building desire for the ‘closure’. Subtly their message is that there’s loads more that you need to learn. Then the finale arrives, with the offer to ‘sign-up for the chargeable plan’. Don’t get me wrong, it’s usually good material and it’s also clever marketing. But it quickly generates information overload, and also anxiety that success will be elusive without various additional information and training resources.

Unfinished business

OK, so the information keeps coming, but now there’s a big additional element. ICT, Social Networking and Internet Marketing all need to be put into action in order to bed in the knowledge and gain some experience and results. So now the task list starts growing as to-dos are added in increasing numbers. At this stage there is a danger that ideas from the latest email go to the top of the priority queue on the basis of ‘I’ll just do X, while it’s top of mind’. Also, going into a new area with lots of new content there is no frame of reference. Quite deliberately, in order to take on new concepts it can be helpful if judgement is suspended. When you learnt to ride a bike or to swim, logic said you would fall off or sink, but somehow you had to block that out and give it a go. Learning new Online marketing topics I think are similar.

Going under...

So the emails keep coming, the books are half read and the task list is still growing. Unfortunately the tasks being tackled are never as simple as the ‘author’ suggests. If only it was Step 1, 2, 3 done. Each task seems to turn into a mini-project. And it seems that every project being tackled require further reading to understand them to the next level. So now the prioritisation really starts to kick-in. No longer is it a case of prioritising individual tasks, but now whole sections are prioritised. And unfortunately in the early days there are few results to show for it, especially if the updating of social networks, blogs etc. is not done regularly.

The ‘light at the end of the tunnel’

There does come a time when the mist starts to clear, believe me. I’m now at a stage where I feel I can look back at the process I’ve been through, what I’ve learned, what I’ve done, and how I’ve developed. Things that have helped are:

• my frame of reference has been sufficiently updated to enable pretty good prioritisation to take place
• tasks are now taking less time and mini-projects get delivered
• maintenance and updating of social network sites is becoming part of the daily routine
• my email in-box can be processed quicker as I can sort the wheat from the chaff easier
• results are starting to come in, which is increasing my satisfaction levels

Lessons learned

There are too many to itemise, but to pick six big ones:

1. Get organised and stay organised: have a structure for filing documents, emails and userid/passwords so that you can file and find them quickly and easily
2. Plan the use of your time: allocate time slots and stick to them, and stick to the task in hand
3. Don’t take on too much in parallel, or at least be prepared to drop things before you drown
4. Realise that you won’t understand everything first time round, but do ‘give it a go’
5. Accept ‘adequate’ and don’t aim for perfection, mistakes are not the end of the world
6. Appreciate that progress and success means ‘going public’ on social networks, so be bold!

I have also been very fortunate to link up with a mentor and a support organisation that provides education materials about social networking and internet marketing.

If you’d like to find out more about this group from me and my colleagues then visit my website at www.blueprint2020.com

If you want to enter your details I’ll get in touch with you ‘on the other side’

Mark.

20/20 vision

Clarity, acuteness or clearness of vision depends on the sharpness of the focus and the sensitivity of the interpretative faculty, well, according to Wikipedia anyway. The abundance of information on the Internet can easily be overwhelming. How do you sort out what is relevant from what is, frankly, a waste of time. 

This website is part of a programme that works on many levels to help you achieve just that. Together we provide the focus and clarity to demystify complex topics around internet marketing and wealth creation and wealth management. 

We will also help to develop your skills to discern the value of information you receive from the many other sources in daily life. Developing a new frame of reference helps to make better and quicker judgements is a new area. Clarity of vision is just part of that, to help to clear the fog and the blurred images.

What do you want a Blueprint of?

What is it that you want to create or build?.

What is the end result for and what does it look like?

Setting down some clear goals and parameters is a great, and essential, starting place.

Is it for yourself or does it include your nearest and dearest? Is it for a new venture or a step-change for something you’re already doing? Is it for a primary or secondary income? Are there some other essential goals? What are your timescales and resources available?

From these and other top-level questions the Blueprint can start. Key elements are: where are you today, where do you want to be in the future, and how can we work together to help you to get there.

Sharing and working with others adds to the richness of the experience, and is a massive motivator along the way. And ultimately, working as part of a team contributes massively to the success at the end.

Blueprint for success

Historically a blueprint is a paper-based reproduction of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan, which is exactly what is available here. 

This blog and associated sites provided detailed plans to help you develop the skills to start and grow a business, to develop effective online marketing campaigns, to manage your budget and investments and to grow your wealth. 

But more than that, it’s a route to membership of an organisation which helps people like me and you to continue to grow our skills, and to meet and mix with leaders, entrepreneurs and millionaires.

Learning from leaders, and applying that knowledge, will make a massive difference to your success.