NB: This is the 5th installment in The Inspired Solo’s Build a Better Business Blog in One Month series. Designed to help solo lawyers and other professionals boost their blog’s performance, the series consists of a daily lecture and task (or tasks) that focus on one “blog improvement project” at a time. Each post in the series is tagged with “[BBBB1]“. You can start the program at any time. Catch up with other BBBB1 posts here.

In today’s lecture and tasks, we’re going to examine the concept of identity as it applies to business bloggers and more generally to a business’s presence on the web.

Day 5: Lecture – “Work On Your Blog Identity”

What Is Branding For a Solo Business Blogger?

We hear a lot about branding these days — it’s quite a hot topic.

It may seem strange if you think about branding as something only big corporations do, but branding is in fact one of the key components to any successful marketing plan for a solo lawyer or any other solo services professional.

But solos have a distinct advantage over large corporations — when you’re a solo, you are your own brand.

Think Globally, Act Locally, and Control Your Brand

This is why it’s crucial that you think “globally” about your online identity.

What’s the first thing a potential client will do before handing you lots of money to perform some crucial service for her? She’s going to look you up on Google, of course.

And if what she gets back is confusing, weird, or negative, then that can damage your opportunity to convert her to a paying client. Repeat that scenario dozens of times each month, and you can see how even the smallest and most local of businesses needs to be concerned about its identity and its brand.

Even if there is negative information about you out there on the big, bad internet, you’ve got a major weapon in your arsenal to combat any potentially negative perceptions: that’s your blog. Your blog is your platform to show (not just tell) the world at large but more specifically your potential clients who you really are.

So let’s start our examination of identity right at home, with your blog.

Task One: Examining Your Brand Expression in Your Blog

Try to look at your blog with fresh eyes, as a total stranger to your site would view it for the very first time. (If you have a website in addition to your blog, expand this work to include that site as well.)

What does the site itself tell you about the person behind it? What conclusions would you draw about that blogger from the blog’s layout, its color scheme, any images, the header and logo, the blog’s posts and other content, the categories that organize the posts, outgoing links, any comments the author leaves in conversation with other users, the blogroll if there is one?

Jot down some key phrases to describe those conclusions.

Task Two: Who Are You, Really?

Now, putting the present aside for a moment, spend a few moments thinking about how you want to be perceived by a new blog reader.

Try to dig deeper than the old cliches such as “trustworthy” and “good at what I do.” Of course you’re good at what you do. You wouldn’t be in business for yourself very long if you weren’t.

Go deeper — what is it about you that makes you different from all the other financial consultants in your area, or all the other divorce lawyers in your town? What makes your services special? What distinguishes the client experience in your firm from all the others?

In short: why should a client pick YOU, instead of the other guy down the street?

Task Three: Compare Where You Are With Where You Want to Be

How far short did your blog or website fall from the ideal self-expression you created in task #2? Are there inconsistencies? Do you want to be seen as a time management whiz, yet half your posts complain about a lack of time to post? Do you consider your strengths to be your personability and warmth, yet your posts seem cold and detached?

What about little things — such as how you sign your posts? Does it say “The Smith Law Firm” (or worse, “Admin”) or does it say “Josie Smith”?

Make a list of things you could change to make your blog’s expression of your brand more consistent with your goals. These could include items such as:

• A reworked logo
• Changed color scheme
• More interaction with readers (or less)
• Fewer posts of a particular kind, or more of another kind/topic
• A more regular posting schedule
• Better care taken with posts (such as improved grammar and spelling or elimination of typos)

Task Four: Get Busy and Brand That Blog

Using the list you created in task three, begin to make the necessary changes to your blog and website to more fully express your own individual brand.

Extra Credit:

Extend your work to other online expressions of your identity. Don’t think you have any? What about your Facebook account? Or your MySpace page? Your Twitter account?

One easy and not-too-time-consuming thing that EVERY attorney and other solo should do right now: reserve name accounts in the most popular social media sites consistent with your branding.

How do you express yourself, or identify yourself as a professional? Is it “Josie Smith” or “Josie Smith, Attorney at Law” or “J. Smith” or …. ? Whatever it is, sign up for accounts in all major social media sites in that name. Even if you don’t use them (and you should, but we’ll leave that be for now), at least no one else will be diluting your internet branding “juice” by claiming the name for their own use.

More Extra Credit:

Did you know there are tons of free sites that the clever solo can use to up her brand potential on the web? Check out sites like Tumblr, HubPages, Squidoo, and even EzineArticles. How could an inspired solo use these sites not only to further her branding reach on the web, but to drive traffic to her own blog and website? The answer will be in tomorrow’s lecture!

A Final Task:

Do you have ads on your professional services blog or website? This could be anything from Google Ads to large image-based affiliate links.

If so, take them down.

Others may disagree with me, but to me, there’s nothing less professional than a lawyer or financial services consultant with a blog that’s littered with Google ads.

Your site’s expression should be about YOUR business — no one else’s, unless you are making a serious referral to a joint venture partner or a referral source of your own.

Besides, I’ve yet to meet any professional services provider (with the exception noted below) who made any significant coin on ads placed on their business sites.

It’s very little payoff for a huge tradeoff in perceived stature and reputation. Just not worth it in my book (and yes, I speak from experience, having toyed with several different programs on this blog in the past — I do have affiliate ads and links on other blogs I run, but those blogs are not purposed around marketing a professional services business.)

Two exceptions to this general rule: I’ve seen many web designer sites with ads for tech-based affiliate programs, such as hosting companies and specific applications in particular. This is OK — it’s consistent with what the designer does, and design-based occupations tend to enjoy slightly more freedom in their marketing tactics, I’ve found, without risking the good will of their targeted readers.

Another exception: text-based affiliate links, especially when it’s limited to programs such as Amazon Associates for book and DVD reviews and recommendations. However, ALWAYS disclose that you use affiliate links and explain what that means somewhere on your blog. This is a crucial part of transparency and building trustworthiness.