Brand Yourself with a Blog

The concept of branding yourself isn't a new one - in fact Tom Peters introduced the full concept of personal branding in 1997. In a nutshell, Peters says that your image determines your level of success and your future in today's business world. Peters says the same image building principles that apply to major corporations like Nike and Coca Cola apply to the way people choose an accountant or other business professional.

What better way to craft your image as a cruise specialist than blogging? Writing authoritatively on a variety of cruise topics allows you to put your expertise on public display. Clients researching topics you're writing on will stumble across articles you've written and if properly done - your blog will lead that consumer to you and your cruise website.

As a bonus, you become a recognized authority by consumers and journalists alike. Journalists often quote bloggers as experts on various topics.

Blogging isn't difficult...anyone can build one by filling in some short online forms. What's standing between you and new and improved brand of you? Not much....Blogging takes minimal technical expertise. All that's really required is a time commitment of at least 20 minutes a week to write your blog. For more info on blogging see our Business Center presentation under Marketing > ECommerce > Blogging> Blogging 101.

A good blog will expose your talents and skills to your best clients, and all are sure to benefit from what they learn about you. Brand yourself with a blog and watch your business boom.
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Are You LinkedIn ?

If you haven't heard of LinkedIn, it's definitely something you should look into. LinkedIn is a networking website where you place a profile and make online profile connections with other members you know.

Why network online? It's a great resource. For example when a vendor now calls me pitching his product I will often do a quick check via LinkedIn. If nobody recommends him, well chances are not even his own mother is proud of his work. On the other hand, if I find that many people call this guy an invaluable resource, then I tend to trust him a bit more. Even better, if I find that someone in my extended network knows this guy, I'll email my contact quick question about this guy's skill set.

How big is my network? Well I've made 21 Linked In connections over the past year or so and my 21 connections have created an extended network of 4100, and if you add in another level of contacts it extends out to 394,400. So you can see that my tiny little 21 connections quickly expand my reach quite well.

LinkedIn really facilitates in-person networking via an online search able interface. It's easy to use and IT'S FREE. As you collect business cards from chamber of commerce events, you rarely know anything more than an name and a title. In LinkedIn you can post your background and qualifications, even a work history. I often will type in names from business cards and find people with linked in profiles and usually learn much more about them quite quickly. People know as little or as much as you want them to know. During in person events you might be surprised to find out that if you ask people if they're LinkedIn how many will say yes.

In today's marketplace it's important to know who you're doing business with, and in the cruise business referrals are gold. Good online networking can overcome the credibility gap and help you build referrals like nothing else - so market yourself using a full and complete profile, and collect real world contacts that connect your online life with real people. If someone has provided you good service, recommend them - you'll find others within their network will also want to try your services.
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A Very Successfull National Conference

National Conference was great ! Preperation from conference caused me to miss some postings that I would have normally done to my blog, and I'm finally through most of the emails and phone messages....so once again I'm ready to focus.

Conference was an outstanding opportunity to meet many of our agents and franchisees, there were quite a few that I haven't met with in quite some time. The HQ staff had a great opportunity to discuss what's working and what isn't with all of our agents. I'm truly amazed at the diversity of our agent's marketing plans and the unique niches that they target.

The one theme I heard loud and clear from many different people was the increasing role that technology is playing in the sales process. Consumers have truly raised their expectations and now expect to read reviews, see virtual tours, be sent shore excursion info and perhaps even view videos prior to stepping aboard a cruise ship. The trick is integrating all of this technology in a relevant way that doesn't lose the personal touch. Blogs are a piece of this puzzle, but we'll be working on other innovative solutions as well... stay tuned.

Another key take-away from conference was the desire of our agents to learn more about the technology we use everyday. Agents want to become more tech savvy - even if they don't necessarily want to be Cruise Geeks. :-) We're working right now on increasing our tech training and have even proposed some advanced in-house training sessions to help our agents take their web & email skills to the next level....stay tuned for that as well.

Personally, One of my favorite parts of conference is the marketing panel. Many of our agents heard the Marketing Panel speak - and the ways each panel member grew their business was truly different. One of Marketing Panel's key points, and the one thing that the entire panel agreed upon was to focus on your marketing plan.

Now is the time to ask yourself, do you have a marketing plan ? A written plan will have goals, objectives, milestones and a media plan. Where do you want your business to go? Would you leave on a road trip without a map? Don't let your business get stuck driving in circles, let your marketing plan be your GPS.
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