In conversations with small business owners, I have realized that my conversation with them takes the following structure.

Business owner: I want to add viral marketing / social media / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn (pick your favorite platform) to my marketing efforts.
Me: Of course, great idea but first who are your ideal customers as that will determine which platform may make the most sense?

This is post four in the year end marketing review series to help you get ready for the new year.

Whether you discovered that your ideal client has changed or not, reviewing what makes you different is something you should be doing on a regular basis because you need to be sure that what you think makes you different continues to be true as new competitors enter the market.

Whatever you call it, you still need to manage it!

There’s a lot of conversation about the term personal brand. My favorite personal brand is Bono (no surprise here), but Tom Brady, Madonna, J. Lo, Manny Ramirez, Britney Spears and many other celebritites all have personal brands – some good and some not so good at times.

Introducing your business to a prospect can make many small business owners break out in a cold sweat. When they ask the dreaded question, “So what makes you different from the others?”, you hesitate, stutter, or worse, look like the proverbial deer in the headlights. And on top of that, the totally sweaty, pasty look just doesn’t do anything for great first impressions.