« I’m A Songwriter As Well, Here’s A Song To Download… | Home | The TRUTH About The Quickest Way To Make Money Online »
Branding Yourself Online (I’m Son Of The Mother Of The Year!)
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | May 6, 2008
John Reese just announced that the days of Anonymous Marketing online is dead. I’m going to qualify his statement by saying that it’s dead if you want to use any emerging Social Networking methods online.
When it comes to participating in discussion forums, Facebook, Twitter, and other avenues directly related to your business it’s downright stupid not to use your name. Personally, I’m not even accepting Friend Requests from people using obviously fake names and who don’t have a real photo in their profile. What are they up to?
And posting to marketing forums in your niche using a fake name simply misses the point of what forums can do for you: If you’re providing useful information or even just asking honest questions in a polite way, you’re building credibility with the forum members, which could lead to sales of your future product (assuming you don’t have one yet).
The exception is if you’re posting to unrelated non-business forums for other reasons… If I have a question about complicated music recording software or a question about motorcycles or what it means if my dog keeps chewing his foot (answer: allergies), I’ll post to those related boards with an assumed name, because if someone’s researching me online, whatever problems my dog’s motorcycle’s stereo is having is none of their business and not relevant. 
I HAVE recently written a very successful online ad for a client that didn’t list anyone’s name on the ad at all, making it essentially anonymous - But there were a lot of other well-crafted credibility signals including photos and testimonials on the page. The ad was very successful through a paid advertising campaign. (Straight paid advertising online is still a bit of a hold-out to old-school marketing. Of course, your credibility still matters because anyone finding you from paid advertising can still do a quick search online to find out if you’ve got positive/negative comments about you or your product online, which brings us back to the fact that… the credibility net is closing in.)
You remember George Burns’ famous quote that “Acting is all about honesty, once you learn to fake that, you’ve got it made”? Well, same with doing business online. I don’t mean that you should FAKE being honest or credible, but when it comes to making sales, it’s not who you are, it’s what you appear to be that matters, which is why it’s so important to manage your online reputation.
It’s easy to assume that because you know you’re an honest person, that everyone should just be able to tell that… But it doesn’t work that way. Unless your Mom follows you around and does your bragging for you, you’ve got to tell them yourself why they should trust you.
(Which reminds me - When I was 21, my Mom was voted Mother of the Year by a local organization in Santa Barbara, and my family’s photo was in the local paper with a big article. Did I let that go to waste? Nope… For the next several months, my opening icebreaker to girls was, “Hi, I’m the son of the mother of the year!” (worked like a charm, instant credibility, heh)
Topics: Marketing | Trackback URL
May 6th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Tim,
Cool post. A very important lesson I’m still coming to grips with is managing your online presence.
Cheers!