This blog post is WEEK FOUR of the personal branding strategies series. This post assumes that you completed the previous week’s assignments.  

If you haven’t completed it, click here to do it. 

I will warn you in the beginning, some of the recommendations in the series take time, effort & sometimes money to do it.

You need to be comfortable to get in there, roll up your sleeves, and get your hands dirty.

I can assure you that it only takes the time you spend watching a single Netflix series.

So let’s start WEEK FOUR tasks now

Submit CV Link to Google. 

Now it’s been a week since you activated a domain name for your CV. 

Now it’s time to let the search engines know that you created your CV. 

Follow the tutorial below to submit your CV link to google & bing. 

You’ll be using your google account & Microsoft account. I suggest creating a separate Google account for brand building. YourBrandName@gmail.com

Whatever new accounts you create, send the username/password to the Documents WhatsApp group you made.

If your work mobile device is Android-based, you can use this Google account to set up the device. 

Setup Google Analytics

Google Analytics can give you a detailed report on how many people visit your CV and how much time they spend reading your CV.

You can use this data to improve your CV.

Setting these two steps is very important because this is where you can see your brand-building work results.

If you haven’t requested a domain yet for your CV, you can order it now.

Now you need to start talking about your brand. 

You need to know something before you even start to think about talking about your brand.

No platform out there is FREE. 

These platforms want your knowledge & time.

Every platform measures something called engagement rate from the content you create. 

You focus on giving them that, you’ll get what you want in return for sure. 

If the engagement rate is high, they categorize your content as crucial & push it to even more people. 

I’ll talk about how to increase the engagement rate later. Now let us focus on how to create quality content. 

What content to create?

Create content in your industry that people seek.

It can be a detailed medium post, a quora answer, a youtube video (or) just a comment on Quora answer if I mean content. 

For example, let’s say you want to write about creative marketing. 

First, search google for creative marketing and see related searches. 

Next, Search for what questions people have about creative marketing. 

For this, Search Google for 

Creative Marketing Quora

Then know what services are in demand for “Creative Marketing.”

Creative Marketing inFiverr

Now go to google trends & see how popular the subject is & see popular news on creative marketing. 

In 10 minutes of research, you can find out the common problem people have with creative marketing. 

You focus on creating content addressing the problem. 

Whatever content you create, it should serve a community as a whole. 

Remember ROTI

ROTI – Return of Time Invested. 

The ROTI will be more only if you focus on a community rather than a person/business. 

How to create good engaging content? 

Now you are finalized on a topic, but you want to make it engaging. 

It would be best if you write good titles.

Use this free tool to analyze how engaging your headline is. 

https://headlines.sharethrough.com/

Then, Break the topic to 2 – 3 posts that you write & publish every week. 

For example, take this blog post. 

This post alone is valuable. 

But, this post, along with other ones in the series, is more valuable.

So if a user finds your content valuable, he will read & share your other articles too. 

This increases engagement rate. 

How to increase the engagement rate? 

The engagement rate depends on how you promote your content after you published it. 

It will help if you reach as many eyeballs as you possibly can. 

For this,

• You can take a photo/screenshot & share it on WhatsApp status/Youtube Status/Facebook Status 
• Share a gist of it on LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram.
• You can share a portion of the same post again and again. 

When the platform measures that too many people are coming from outside sources, they categorize your content as important.

You will do this for a minimum of eight weeks consistently, like one post per week. 

You’ll talk about the post on social media for one week. 

Then the momentum will automatically kick in. You’ll automatically get a lot of suggestions to create more content through comments/suggestions.

You’ll not even search for topics to write. The Questions will come to find you through your readers.  

Important Note: 

Do not create complete content on social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. You’ll use social media to direct people to your content on Youtube/Medium/Quora. 

Create a youtube channel for your brand

Once you create a youtube channel, you need to start creating valuable content in your industry.

No, you don’t need any expensive studio equipment to do the recording.

You just need a basic phone and a wired mic & a phone stand.

The following video is recorded with iPhone XR front camera.

Create Medium Account

Create a medium account using the same branding details & start creating content in your industry.

Create Quora Account

Create a Quora account using the same branding details & start answering questions in your industry.

Create Grammarly account

All the content you create, create first in the Grammarly tool so that you’ll have error-free, well-written content & also you’ll have a copy of your document saved online.

Don’t type in the content. Just speak them. 

Use Voice recognition on Android/iOS/PC on a tool like Grammarly to compose answers. 

Get JBL Lavalier Wired Mic @ 10USD for recording and voice recognition.

You’ll record voice in studio quality for your youtube videos & also use the same for voice recognition software. 

You will notice that the voice converts to text surprisingly well if you use a wired mic.

You simultaneously create well-written, error-free great answers in record time.

No amount of wireless technology can surpass the quality of the wired devices. 

Wireless technology is for convenience, not for quality. 

You’ll use the same mic for voice calls & your voice sounds awesome on the receiving end.
Doing these little things make a lot of difference in the quality of your work.

Create Dropbox Account

All the videos, pictures & content you create, save a copy of it in a free Dropbox account.

No this isn’t the account you already have, this account is a dedicated account created with your work email only for your branding work.

You’ll never need more than 2GB of space that is offered in the free account.

You’ll install the dropbox app on your dedicated work device & upload all the content you create to this account.

Tools to get royalty-free images

You need images to represent your content,

NEVER USE GOOGLE SEARCH TO GET IMAGES

Use below tools to get royalty free images at high resolution

pexels
unsplash
Pixbay

IMPORTANT NOTE:
WHATEVER ACCOUNT YOU CREATE FOR BRANDING, USE THE SAME EMAIL, PHOTO, TAGLINE & DESCRIPTION. 

I cannot stress this enough. 

Also, you’ll send all the new account credentials to your documents WhatsApp group immediately after creation.

How to use Social Mediums to create engagement to your content? 

Increase engagement rate. 

Every platform measures the engagement rate. 

Use all social profiles you have. 

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Linked In, etc. 

But you’ll share only a gist of your content & direct people to the website where you created the content. 

If the content is on Youtube, you will share a thumbnail of your video. 

If the content is on Medium, Quora, you will share a screenshot of important content alone & encourage users to read on that platform you used to create the content. 

Example1 : Social media share as image

Example2: Social Media share as video

This way, 

Social mediums get the engagement in the form of likes & comments from your content.

The platform you used to create content gets engagement from social profiles.

Your users get value from your content. 

Finally, you get the necessary eyeballs. 

No platform out there is FREE. These platforms want something from you.

You focus on giving them that, you’ll get what you want for sure.

Focus on satisfying every platform first & your readers, and then finally yourself. 

Once you complete this week’s recommendations, you’ll have the following.

Dedicated Work Device – WEEK ONE
Dedicated Work Number – WEEK ONE

Your Brand Name – WEEK TWO
Your Profile Photo – WEEK TWO
TagLine – WEEK TWO
Short Description/Summary – WEEK TWO

Dedicated Domain Name – WEEK THREE
Professional Work Email – WEEK THREE
Banner Image – WEEK THREE
Email setup on dedicated work device – WEEK THREE
Email Signature for Work Email – WEEK THREE
Whatsapp Business on Work Number – WEEK THREE
WhatsApp Group named Documents – WEEK THREE

Work Google Account – WEEK FOUR
Google Search Console Account – WEEK FOUR
Google Analytics Account – WEEK FOUR
Bing Webmaster Account – WEEK FOUR
Youtube Channel with Work Google Account – WEEK FOUR
Medium Account – WEEK FOUR
Quora Account – WEEK FOUR
Grammarly Account – WEEK FOUR
Dropbox Account – WEEK FOUR

Disclaimer:

This blog post is just ONE of the series of recommendations we offer to our platinum users to establish their brand. 

You need to complete all exercises & wait for a month to see the results.

You can implement this recommendation even if you don’t have a platinum account

Paint our recommendations with your personality, passion & purpose, and be creative in your own way.