Personal Brand Development

Professionally, the term “storytelling” is usually associated with fiction essay or book writing, and rightfully so. People, companies, nonprofits, and everything in between all have a personal narrative to share about how they got to be where they are and why. Stories help condense big concepts into easily digestible and memorable quips. Whether you are an individual, a small non-profit organization, or a large corporation, you have a brand. Whether you realized it at the time or not, even sharing your origin story at a cafe or happy hour is helping shape the listener’s understanding of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. The way you tell this story can shape your future, which is why storytelling is key in building your personal brand.

When building your brand, you need a website that works with what you offer. The site, especially nowadays, can get eyes on your product, or turn people away.The best way to achieve the former is to consider several aspects of crafting a phenomenal website. While every website has something different to offer, there are several main components that are tried and true. Let’s look at some of them and explain why they’re so effective.

LinkedIn is an excellent starting point for generating leads. The platform has an enormous user base, visible mutual connections, and a strong search capability. It can be easily said that a well-produced LinkedIn bio could help increase your sales for your business, but it isn’t always easily done. The pressure is real – your bio can be one of the most difficult segments of your sales profile to write. You can start by filling out the sections provided by LinkedIn, but then you’ll be stuck with a so-so, uninspired, templated bio for your brand. If you really want maximum exposure and appeal across the platform, you’ll need to take the time to build a well-constructed bio.

The internet is noisy. Everybody has new products to push, endorsements to plug, and affiliate links to share. The focus is push, push, push, and this constant barrage is so draining on the end-user!

There are countless marketing strategies available to promote your brand. Whether it’s building a social media presence, starting a podcast, uploading videos to YouTube, or sending out email blasts to your customers. But a broad visual presence across platforms and a “quantity over quality” strategy may not be the best approach. Consumers may see your brand across the platforms but won’t stick around and interact if the content is poor. Excellent content management is what will drive traffic to your site, keep your audience engaged, and secure a loyal audience. An important and sometimes overlooked content management tool and strategy is a persuasive and polished blog.

Fortune 500 companies, like Walmart or Nike, have in-depth marketing strategies, seemingly putting them everywhere around the globe. Where these behemoth organizations have the money and staffing to achieve such a large-scale public relations strategy, you may wonder, how do I market myself when I'm highly specialized within my industry?

Public relations professionals assume a sizeable amount of responsibility. Not only do we help our clients with strategy, event planning, social media representation, and content creation but also ensuring that the messaging and integrity of their brand is consistent and properly reflected to the public. We’re on the front lines of all media relations and communications, which can naturally get cloudy. In many cases, clients hire us to land coverage to promote brand awareness, build upon their social proof and share their stories with a specific audience.

I’ve always known that I was creative and artistic but it wasn’t until I took Photography in high school that I understood the real-world applications that were possible with this skill. I credit my photography teacher with expanding my mind to the range of possibilities that I could apply my creative skills to. He taught our class how to use Photoshop to edit images, Illustrator to create custom vectors, and InDesign to organize those elements into meaningful designs.

Branding is not for companies alone. You have a brand—a personal brand—yourself, whether you realize it or not. And, today, with social media and instant access to information, your brand is more important than ever.

Social media has been an essential form of marketing for quite a while now. People all over the world are using social media for their personal and professional use, and advertising on different platforms has proven to be an inexpensive way to get the word out about your business. Not to mention, it’s easier than ever to reach the people near you as well as people you can specifically target, who fit your company’s demographics.

One of the most important components of any successful visual identity is the use of color. Color represents a brand’s personality and can impact consumer buying habits. You can learn more about how color communicates through a branch of research known as color psychology. It examines how color influences our behavior, our emotions, our perceptions, and our decision-making.

Adobe Creative Cloud is an industry favorite for creatives when it comes to producing and rendering designs. The Adobe CC Suite features more than 20 apps and services for photography, graphic design, web, video, UX/UI, and more – and can be accessed via desktop, tablet, and mobile apps. You can access all applications with a monthly subscription and this all-access pass includes Adobe Fonts, libraries, additional storage, and even a portfolio hosting website. This package is great for individuals or teams that are working on a wide range of projects and need access to a variety of tools from photo editing to developing vector-based graphics or even interactive animations.

When you're trying to communicate information, not everyone wants to navigate through dense walls of text. No matter how concise and tightened up you’ve edited the content to be, some information is better digested visually.

A blog is a great way to expand your brand’s presence across the web. It helps to build your brand’s voice, establish expertise in your industry, draws in traffic, and ultimately boosts your conversion rates. How do you produce results-driven content that is organically ranked, easily searchable, and continues to drive traffic to your blog? Consistency, consistency, consistency.

It is common practice for people in the medical field to leverage social media when building a brand for themselves or for the professional medical setting in which they reside. As a healthcare professional, you must have tried all types of social media platforms and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tricks to build your online presence.

Here at Bell+Ivy, we work with a diverse group of clients, and each of them has a lot to offer the world. We’re honored to work with such passionate individuals and organizations who strive to make this world a better place. As you know, getting your message and your brand out there is a key aspect of sharing your ideas, but something many people struggle with is turning their ideas into content.

Graphic designers are in high demand today. They hold the unique skills that businesses need to create a brand identity and produce compelling imagery.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what type of products or services you’re selling, social media is the most valuable tool for brands in today’s world. Not only is social media important for establishing brand identity, but it’s a great way to connect with existing and potential customers.

Companies today need to produce content to get ahead. It’s how you’ll get new leads, grow your email list and educate your prospective customers. Publishing blog posts, posting on social media, and offering gated whitepapers is valuable, but to make your content really stand out, you need to double down on your linking strategy.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of our lives. As individuals, we’ve endured social distancing, working from home, and dealing with the uncertainty of the future. But as entrepreneurs, we’ve faced another unique challenge—operating a business when the economy has effectively shut down.

In the current business landscape, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, or what you’re selling, the competition is undoubtedly high. Markets are saturated with brands that are all asserting themselves to be the “first” or the “best”, and they “disrupting” their industries with their innovative ideas. Brands have even begun calling themselves “the Apple of [insert industry]” to reign on top of the competition. In industries such as, but not limited to, technology, food & beverage, and entertainment, the key to ensuring recognition and recollection - without having to lean on generalized statements - are by creating brand awareness. To achieve this, companies must start thinking like a media company.

If your business is on social media, then you’re most definitely aware of hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to promote your brand and help more people find your posts. You can pretty much tag your posts with any hashtag under the sun, and it will generally get more eyes on your content.

Content is an extremely valuable asset for all companies today. Both B2B and B2C companies can benefit from a robust content strategy that establishes brand awareness, engages their audience, helps them get more leads, and boosts revenue.

The entire world has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many people weren’t prepared. In Italy, thousands of people were pushed to self-quarantine weeks ago, but now this is happening across the United States and all around the world. During this time, it’s important to not lose hope and realize that it’s the perfect time to start sharpening your digital skills to promote your brand. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or trying to grow the brand of your company, there are many skills you should develop during this time of economic uncertainty.

When I first joined Bell +Ivy, I worked from home for about 9 months before opening the Las Vegas office and then heading out to work in the Santa Monica office with my amazing team. My work-from-home experience started off great. I like to cocoon and stay inside in general, so this was the perfect scenario for me! I didn’t make any changes to my schedule, my priorities, nor my self-care. I did not realize that what I was doing was slowly heading down an extremely unhealthy path, both mentally and physically. After a few weeks of working like this, I had a week-long anxiety attack. Here’s what I learned from that experience and some tips for making sure that during this Coronavirus quarantine period, we’re all working healthily, happily, and in a smart way to keep our sanity (and sanitation!)

Before becoming the content manager here at Bell+Ivy, I was a freelance writer for many years. I’ve worked with hundreds of different clients, and it’s been awesome because I love writing. Now, as the content manager, I’m not writing as much, but I manage a team of freelance writers.

In the age where social media is the primary tool we all use to promote our brands, we need to acknowledge that the most crucial aspect of using social media is establishing our brand identity. Whether you’re a social media manager who manages several brands or someone who is looking to hire a social media manager, you need to have a clear plan as to what your brand identity is going to be. This involves knowing your audience, establishing your brand’s personality and having consistency across all your social media platforms.

During the morning of Wednesday, December 11th, a video with millions of views was taken down by YouTube for breaking brand new rules the platform implemented for cyberbullying. It only took a matter of hours for the outrage to grow to the point where #YouTubeisOverParty is the top trending topic.

In most organizations, marketers are responsible for creating and maintaining corporate branding, voice, and reputation. They develop a persona that makes your company unique, so it stands out among competitors. Through various marketing campaigns, tactics, and public relations efforts, people spread the word about your company, and this gets prospects through the front door. From there, it’s up to salespeople to work those leads, close deals, and drive revenue for the company. Right?

2019 is a new time. A time where people are asking for what they want, and making sure they’re given what they need. No longer do we have a company filled with employees that think, “If I give them 20 years of my life, I’ll eventually be rewarded, and I’ll eventually be happy.” Whether this is a better world can be debated (hint on my mindset: IT IS!), but the reality is this: We live in a new world of workers where just because they are working doesn’t mean they are happy, and unhappy workers leave their jobs for something that makes them happy.

Whether you’re traveling for a conference or visiting a remote office, traveling for work can be a unique experience with promising benefits for both your career and social life. With remote work on the rise, professionals from every industry are realizing the perks of soaring to a different time zone while collaborating with teams small and large.

From cultural celebrations to customary cuisines, every country around the world has a unique set of traditions and values that are illustrated in their stock photos and advertisements. Gender roles, family life, and business practices are uniquely represented through images designed to be used in ads that reflect the respective country’s desired perception of life in their country.

Why do I need a blog? You may think that with all the different social accounts your company has, that blogging is superfluous at best and redundant at worst. In reality, blogging is neither of those things. Not only can it help you keep your social active and engaging, but blogging is also essential to staying relevant and top-of-mind with audiences.

The online world is a stage, and social media is its metaphorical spotlight. It directs followers where to look, how to view the proceedings, and when to applaud. As you devise your company’s optimal social media strategy, survey the layout carefully. You may have the perfect message for the masses, but if you choose the wrong medium, they may never hear it at all.

Asking questions cuts to the truth of a conversation. Though they can make us uncomfortable, they allow us to confront the possibilities of the unknown.Questions can serve as a guide to a new and endlessly fascinating tomorrow and empower us to access deeper meaning in both ourselves and the world around us. And as the Class of 2019 graduates and embarks on the journey of adulthood ahead, the power of questions can lead one to new heights in networking towards that next big step.

You’ve probably heard it said before: clear communication is the key to business success. And while that may seem like an easy tenet to follow, it’s a bit more complex than it sounds.

Social media has revolutionized the way we interact on cyberspace. We organize our calendars around Facebook invites, we often get our news alerts from what’s suddenly trending on Twitter, and we cultivate our style and aesthetic through our Instagram feed.

Tech startups have a way of revolutionizing the world—if they can get off the ground. Developing an amazing product or service is just the start of becoming the next multi-million-dollar tech company. Your startup can fizzle out before you even get a chance to change the world if you can’t connect with your audience.

Consistent branding is crucial to telling your brand’s story and your logo is the first impression that people are presented when being introduced to your company or project. A brand’s logo has incredible power to determine a potential consumer’s immediate opinion of your brand. In order to stand out in the sea of brands your future clients are faced with everyday, it is imperative to use your logo as an opportunity to influence the way people perceive you starting from that first impression.

South By Southwest 2019 reached new heights for the festival in attendance and prestige. Bell + Ivy had the privilege of being a part of the madness in their own unique way by hosting an event with fireside chats, panels, mixing and mingling and plenty to drink and eat.

Projects, whether large or small, take a certain amount of work—but wouldn’t it be better if there were tools designed specifically to make your projects easier? We have great news for you. These tools exist, and you shouldn’t plan another project without trying out these awesome programs.

We all have goals, regardless of what kind of business you’re in. Whether your goals include driving traffic to your site, generating more sales and leads, increasing brand awareness, or communicating with your customers, ensuring you enact these goals in a smart way is paramount.

Finding the right graphic design program when you’re just starting out can be a confusing task, but here is a quick run-down of some of the top tools out there today to help you get started on creating something fantastic.

You’ve trained hard, day in and day out, for years. You’ve always been the first on the field and the last one off it. Your life has revolved around perfecting your throw, your kick, your speed. Now it’s paid off, and there you are, listed among the best of the best. You’re a professional athlete, with a fan base clinging to your every word. Leveraging your superstar power may not have ever crossed your mind, but here’s why it should.

With 2019 upon us, tech and social media are bouncing to new highs, so what can we expect this year? The latest social media trends and predictions point to an even more exciting year; one that will help marketers and better connect brands with consumers.

Creating content to help sell your products has proved to be a money-making formula; it’s become one of the most effective, practical and useful strategy a company can undertake to both engage more leads and more customers.

When we pitch beauty clients to media outlets and press, we adhere to a strict policy of do’s and don’ts to ensure the thought-leaders and influencers we are reaching out to don’t just hit delete along with the hundreds of other pitches they receive every day. So what’s the secret to our success? It could be yours too because we’re about to spill some coveted secrets.

Whether you are putting on an art show, playing a rock show, or premiering a film, getting the masses together for an event is key to getting people talking about you and your art. But getting people to an event is difficult. I’m going to break down a few ways to garner a larger, more excitable audience.

Andrew Romans of Rubicon Venture Capital is coming to the Bell + Ivy headquarters town of Santa Monica this Tuesday, July 24th, 2018. We are happy to welcome our friend and colleague as he discusses the importance of blockchain in the future of tech, society, and investing.

An elevator pitch is generally defined as a sixty-second (more or less) speech where you give up the relevant details of your business, idea, or brand. So it has to be fast, cover all the salient points, and delivered with charm and style. But it can also be delivered as a pitch presentation or a one-page overview.

In 2018, everyone seems to have a Bitcoin story. Remember that guy you read about who became a millionaire overnight? But the Bitcoin story is much more significant than this. Blockchain, the technology underlying and enabling Bitcoin, has the unique ability to change the world. Blockchain is an open, distributed database of transactions -- think of it as an unhackable digital accounting book -- and it has endless possibilities for making everything we do more secure, efficient and quick.

Bell + Ivy has acquired PR PROS, a move that Bell + Ivy says will position them to become one of the strongest growth marketing agencies in Los Angeles and expand their global client base significantly.

AI has become a mainstay of enterprise growth discussions in the last year. From my own experiences with product development to user experience, the implication of artificial intelligence is becoming as expected as the term “mobile technology” was years ago.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, May 3, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bell + Ivy, a digital marketing and personal branding agency in Santa Monica, CA, welcomes their newest hire, Jessica Kantor. Kantor’s comprehensive knowledge in the marketing space will offer tremendous value to Bell + Ivy’s team as she takes on the role of Director of Marketing. Her high-level responsibilities include campaign strategy and development, production fulfillment, client services, and general oversight of marketing strategy - including campaigns, events, digital marketing, and PR.

HANGZHOU, CHINA, April 10, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Alibaba hosted the inaugural 2018 Global SME Business Summit on April 2, 2018, at Alibaba's Campus in Hangzhou, China. Cynthia Johnson, American business advisor, social media influencer and Co-Founder & CEO of Bell + Ivy, added to an impressive list of influential enterprise magnets and global pioneers who attended this one-day celebrating the beauty of small businesses impacting big change. This summit was part of the invite-only, 2018 Golden Bull Awards, which was to be followed by The 2018 Global SME Awards Ceremony, an evening gala for networking and celebration.

Our search for healthcare and medical services is a part of life, and easier than ever thanks to the Internet. But for the medicine industry, sites like ZocDoc, Yelp and Web MD have created new challenges for professionals to stand out in their field. Patients are consumers and decision makers in the business of medicine, and reports have shown that 53% of decision-makers have eliminated a vendor from consideration based on information they did or did not find about an employee online.

When you talk to the Internet, it talks back. Modern communication consists of two distinct halves: what we say and how it’s perceived/digested/interpreted. We can control the first part, but how much can we mitigate society’s ultimate reaction?

Ours is a culture of personality. The men and women who stand on stage, representing their companies – often built from the ground up – are both heroes and villains, living icons of what those brands represent.It’s not a new phenomenon. Newspaper barons, steel magnates, and railroad tycoons have been larger than life figures in society for the better part of two centuries, and often become synonymous with the brands they represent. So, it’s no surprise that the executive brands of people like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs can have a profound impact on the stock market and the overall performance of a brand in the long term.

Fortune 500 companies, like Walmart or Nike, have in-depth marketing strategies, seemingly putting them everywhere around the globe. Where these behemoth organizations have the money and staffing to achieve such a large-scale public relations strategy, you may wonder, how do I market myself when I'm highly specialized within my industry?

Most companies with experience in online marketing understand the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). What many online marketers don't realize, however, is that these same principles can also apply to social media profiles. Optimizing your social media platforms is becoming increasingly important to build client trust and boost its brand.

Though it feels like misinformation is a part of daily life, nobody likes to be misinformed. People are naturally drawn to others they feel they can trust. Whether you’re a person, a news agency, or a brand, this means sharing reliable information.

It's no surprise that brand messages are shared 24x more when shared by a company's employee rather than the brand itself. Today's company culture is highly defined by the employees behind it, and employees are less likely to clock in and clock out of a job they don't personally feel attached to.

Building a brand can be tedious, long-term work. The road to success is often difficult, time-consuming, and full of unforeseen roadblocks. Sometimes it might seem impossible to keep up with your never-ending to-do list – creating new content, interacting with your audience, maintaining a website and blog, staying current with your industry’s trends – phew!

As we near the end of 2021, many COVID-19 concerns are ebbing. Infection numbers are lower and businesses have re-opened. However, mental health issues have increased over the last several months, with many experts saying we’re now in the middle of a mental health crisis, with depression and anxiety symptoms increasing.