I am a brand.  I want to market myself in the best possible way, just like I do my clients, and of course my niche area is social media.  However, it amazes me how many brands and companies only spam our Twitter streams with links or Facebook us with BUY NOW status messages.

One thing you can say about me, without a doubt, is that I like a natter.  I am social.  I am unfortunately, though, one of those types who find it incredibly hard to be corporate.  As Emma Warren and Sarah Bradley said to me last month “Sal likes clients who she can ‘eff and jeff’ with” which made me chuckle.  But I spent a lot of time trying to be corporate (and failed miserably) and it just isn’t me.

On Twitter, 90% of my tweets are just me chatting away to other Twitter users.  I love tweeting because my Twitter pals are an extension of my friends, my clients and potential clients and to me it is important to be able to build up a natural rapport with people just as I would do offline.  I have tried to stop using words such as ‘cracking’, ‘stonking’ and ‘dude’ but that’s not me and that’s not my brand either.   But from being how I am, my brand has promoted itself more than you can imagine, because people know that they can come to me for advice and I’ll do my best to help them.   People refer to others because they know I will ‘give it to them straight’.  That is me, THAT is my BRAND.

Part of brand management is making sure that your ‘tone’ is the same across all platforms, whether it is how you act within your office to your staff, or how you market your products.  My tone is ‘chatty’ but that’s fine, it makes me who I am and it makes my brand what it is.

3 weeks ago I met Susan Odev who is the author Mum Ultrapreneur.  Susan, myself and Charlotte Burford all went to the Mums In Business networking meeting in Medway.  Susan was the guest speaker and as she started to talk, the room went quiet and we all listened.  She was bubbly, confident and inspiring but natural.  Since then I have had the honour of working with her and her brand is completely true to her.  She is passionate about her job and her brand ‘Mum Ultrapreneur’ is incredibly strong and consistent.

Sarah Bradley, through one of our Skype chats said to me this morning “You are what you are – don’t change” and this is exactly the same principle for marketing your brand.  Don’t change.  Keep consistent.  It’s easy for me, I am my brand, I have no choice but to be myself and I love that I can be myself and can ‘throw the rulebook out of the window’.

Branding is hugely important no matter whether you are a mum working from home or a large corporate company, be consistent, be true to yourself and to your brand, if you can do that, then you are already half the way there.