Building Your Brand: Practical Strategies from the SEO Show"

Welcome to Follow Through Fridays!

[00:00:00] hey guys, welcome back to follow through Fridays. 

[00:00:03] I am super excited to be actually recording this on a Friday. So I am Crystal. 

[00:00:08] This is the simple and smart SEO show podcast and follow through Fridays is the day where we actually put into practice some of this amazing expert advice that we get on Wednesday. So if you haven't listened to this week's episode, we had public relations expert Jane Hunt. 

[00:00:25] The founder of the award winning JBH agency over in the UK, on the show to talk about digital PR. And how we can make that work for our businesses.

[00:00:36] As an entrepreneur, I'm always listening for the pieces that I can pull out and immediately use as an entrepreneur, right? 

Creating a Media Page: A Step-by-Step Guide

[00:00:44] I wanted to share with you today what I did as my follow through Friday activity, and I have been wanting to do this for a while. 

[00:00:51] So, okay. Let me just tell you what it is.

[00:00:54] A media page. So what is a media page? A media page is something you can direct people to. 

[00:00:59] Say you're on their podcast and they need a headshot. You can say, here's my media page. And then they can just get what they need.

[00:01:05] So I was really excited to create my media page for my website, collageandwood.com. 

[00:01:09] So the first thing I did is I went to the search bar in my Shopify store to make sure that I hadn't created one of these before. 

[00:01:18] Because sometimes I'll do things and forget that I've done them. So I search media in my Shopify store. I didn't find anything. 

[00:01:24] So I created a new page and this was my mission. I needed to create a company overview and according to Jasper. ai, that is like my chat GPT writing tool of choice. 

[00:01:37] A really fast, easy way to do this would be to make a list of recent or significant press releases or announcements, my contact information, a brief bio and picture of myself.

[00:01:48] What does that mean? 

[00:01:49] What I did was I created this page in my Shopify store. 

[00:01:52] And then I linked it on my homepage. I linked it in the footer, and then I also linked it in the, just the text of the homepage down at the bottom. 

[00:02:02] So that if a media person was searching for that, they would have access to it almost immediately.

[00:02:07] And then I created a downloadable PDF From the information that was on my Shopify store. 

[00:02:13] I really just, I wrote it. 

[00:02:15] And then I copied and pasted it with my images and pasted it into a Google doc and then downloaded the Google doc as a PDF and uploaded it again to Google drive. 

[00:02:26] I don't know if there's a faster way to do that, but that's how I did it.

[00:02:29] If you want to see an example, you can go to collageandwood.Com and go down to the footer, click media, and you can see what I created.

[00:02:38] And that way, if somebody just wants to go to a Google drive, they can just do that. 

[00:02:43] Okay. 

Managing Overwhelm as an Entrepreneur

[00:02:43] So that's what I created, but there was also a lot of things that I didn't have time to do. 

[00:02:49] And overwhelmed entrepreneurs feel like this: if I can't do all of it, I don't want to do any of it. 

[00:02:55] And my proposal to you is that you write down the ideas that you like and put it on the to do list that never ends.

[00:03:03] And then that way, when you're not doing a thousand things. 

[00:03:06] And you want to work on something for your website, you can go to that list. And say, okay, now I'll create this media page and there you go. And you cross it off, but you don't get mad at yourself for not completing everything on that list.

[00:03:19] That's not a to do list. It's a nice to have when I have time list. Okay. So that's what I do. That way, I don't lose the good ideas and I can still implement them later. 

Building Public Relations and Brand Positioning

[00:03:28] One of the things that I'm adding to my never ending to do list is to find some journalists who write about topics that either I write about. Or that are slightly adjacent.

[00:03:38] So this is like sports reporters, youth sports media, that type of thing. And or even like high school and college athletics. So even though those are becoming 

[00:03:48] more professional by the day... so that's one area that I can really improve and I really need to get on. 

[00:03:54] Because then I can follow them on social media.

[00:03:57] I can connect with them, maybe on LinkedIn. I can start conversations. I can comment on their posts. 

[00:04:03] They can start to recognize my name. And then hopefully one day we could collaborate. 

[00:04:07] So that's one thing that even though it's on my never ending to do list, I want to push it up as soon as possible, because I know that's important for public relations and positioning our brands online, right?

[00:04:19] We've got to connect with the people who can get us the best position online. 

Finding Unique Angles for Your Business

[00:04:24] So then I was thinking about brainstorming unique angles of my business. And I was, I'm like, what do I have to offer? I don't know about you, but I'm like is there anything unique about me that, anybody really cares about?

[00:04:38] So I can think of like the one main thing that many people know. And that is that I had a heart attack live on zoom. So that's fairly interesting, especially because I'm still here. 

[00:04:49] Yay. But that's like the most recent. Interesting thing. I think this happened to me. 

[00:04:54] I've learned a lot on Etsy. I'm building this podcast to build my personal brand.

[00:05:00] And I'm telling you, it has been the best thing to level up my network. 

[00:05:04] Because now I am learning from really amazing people. 

[00:05:08] And without this podcast, I don't think that would be happening. 

[00:05:12] Oh, okay. Now here's something cool. 

[00:05:15] I did engineer marquee letters that do not require electricity. So if you know anything about marquee numbers and letters, they typically are with light bulbs that have to be plugged in.

[00:05:28] I have created my version over at collageandwood.com that do not have to be plugged in, are battery powered. 

[00:05:35] And so those are pretty cool. So I am thinking about maybe like writing a press release of some kind to our local paper. 

[00:05:42] Because I have an event coming up where they will be on display.

[00:05:46] So I've started a rental business based on my SEO research. And yeah, that one's kind of cool.

Introducing the SEO Squad: A Supportive Community

[00:05:52] And then, if you are having difficulty committing to doing one thing a week to upgrade your website. 

[00:05:59] I want to invite you to join the SEO squad. We meet every Wednesday from 10 to 11.

[00:06:04] I'm still in the founders members launch because I'm still learning. I'm still learning what is the best way to present information and so my extended time to learn is actually your gain. 

[00:06:16] If you need help troubleshooting your website or help just setting up your Google search console or Google analytics. 

[00:06:23] I think this would be a great place for you. 

[00:06:26] So that's the SEO squad. You can go to. My website, CrystalWaddell.Com, search SEO squad. And you'll find the link to sign up.

[00:06:35] $29 a month, once a week, every Wednesday at 10 a. m. Eastern. And yes, we are face to face online. 

Encouragement to Implement and Move Forward

[00:06:42] And then last thing, I just want to give you some gentle encouragement to put into practice some of the things that you're learning about hearing about on this podcast, other podcasts. 

[00:06:53] Just one thing can make such a difference for your business. You never know which one it is that's going to move the needle the most. But if you don't do anything, The needle won't move at all.

[00:07:05] So just some gentle encouragement to implement your own kind of follow through Friday, whether it's, a different day of the week, but no matter what, keep moving forward. See you next time. 

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