The Big Picture of Your Online Branding

Some people write books, because writing a book seems like such a success-oriented thing to do. Others start blogs because they hear that blogging can make you rich and famous. And then there is social media with its promise of celebrity-making for the average people who don't live in Hollywood.

The problem is, too many people are dabbling. We're hoping that one trick, perhaps undiscovered by all the other hopefuls like us, will pay off with instant fame or fortune.

And it can. Some people have certainly become rich and famous by being early adopters of new technologies. But that's not a workable strategy for most people.

If you're serious about building something significant with your life, you have to think about the big picture. And when I sit down with a leader who is trying to find the picture, I show them this picture...

Looks kinda like a wheel, doesn't it? And that's purposeful.

Until I started seeing all that I was doing online through this kind of picture, I always felt my efforts were scattered, disjointed, and that I was spread too thin.

So let me walk you through this little chicken scratch diagram that I'm claiming can be so powerful for expanding your influence...

Think of the "YOU" at the center as either your personal brand, your professional online presence, or perhaps the particular business you're working on growing at the moment. Your goal is for the "YOU" to be successful.

And you're trying, aren't you? Or at least you're thinking about how to try. You're trying stuff out to see what sticks. But for most people who want to successfully influence their generation, we need to understand the relationships between all of those surrounding circles.

YOU need a blog. Or at least a nice website. Because people will find YOU from Google - people who don't yet know you exist.

YOU need an email list, and even if you don't use it much, you should have been building that a year ago, so start. Today.

YOU need a social media presence so that you're interacting with the world around you and showing up where conversations are happening.

YOU might offer a service such as coaching or consulting or copywriting - or anything else that starts with the letter "c" for that matter.

YOU might want to write books, if you're in a field that values books.

YOU might create products and host virtual communities or mastermind groups or set up workshops and seminars.

There are other things that might also fit into this. These six are just the most common among people building an influential online presence.

What really matters most is understanding how each one relates to the others and how they all interface and overlap to elevate the YOU in the middle.

Here's what I mean.

The purpose of your blog is to grab readers from Google or social media, offer them something of value in the moment and ultimately, get them to subscribe to your email list. Because "the money is in the list," of course.

And the purpose of your email list is to offer more value over time and direct people to the products and services you're offering, or the books you're writing, or perhaps the products or services you promote as an affiliate.

And the purpose of social media is to engage with people on a casual, conversational level, offering them value that suggests you have more to offer... over on your blog.

The people whom you coach are some of your most faithful brand adherents, and they're the most likely to read and consume the content you write and, more importantly, to share it with others.

But they're not likely to discover your coaching services in the first place if you didn't first meet them through social media or Google.

See where I'm going with this?

You can be a little bit successful doing a random assortment of success-producing activities, but until you see them all as relating to each other, you're going to struggle to reach your potential for influence.

In short, if you want to build something successful, don't just dabble. Develop a strategy and work it faithfully to serve others with the most value possible.

And usually, it starts with the three-minute long task of starting a website.