I’ve spent a lot of time branding Real Estate In Stilettos so that it is a reflection of who I am and what I want my business to stand for. Over the past two years, I have received a generous amount of emails from women around the country and some even in different countries asking me for advice on how to brand their business. Some along the lines of: “Hi Nikki, I’ve been working so hard on building my brand and I am constantly hustling but I’m not seeing any growth. I don’t know what to do to grow my business any more than what am doing right now. Which means I’m not making the sales I need to in order to leave my day-job, etc.”
I understand because I’ve been there. We all have.
When I receive your emails, I do read them, and I do look at your social media and see what can be done. I respond to everyone because I want us all to be successful.
Here are my top main mistakes to avoid when branding your business:
Private Social Media Accounts
This one is HUGE. I’d say almost half of the emails I receive had private accounts. They’d been posting beautiful, helpful content regularly, but no one was able to see it or access it. I personally, have never followed a private account (unless it was someone I knew) on any platform. I like to know exactly what I’m going to get when I follow someone, and when you’re private, it feels like a weirdly huge risk.
Now, if you’re using your Instagram or your Twitter to connect with family only, and you’re not trying to build a brand, that’s totally fine. However, if you’re reading this post, I’m going to assume you’re interested in building a brand and my advice is to switch to public immediately.
“Switch to public? But what if I don’t want people to see my handsome hubby or see me in my bikini laying on a beach in Greece?”
Don’t post it. If you’re trying to build a brand, focus on that. Save those snaps of you looking absolutely gorgeous and create a separate private account for your family and friends. Unless of course that has something to do with your brand or product, which brings me to my next point.
Do Not Over Post Unrelated Content
Unless you in a hot pink bikini, sipping on a drink with an umbrella is actually relevant to your brand (which, it totally might be!) I would suggest you skip that post. I absolutely love my selfies and post them continuously, but use my caption to motivate my followers or to interact with them. For me, the brand I have built, even though it is related to real estate, it was also built n a strong women philosophy and mentality. I use my brand to reach out to women to build them up mentally and help them to envision themselves and their business as a success. You can post anything you like on your social media, as long as they are relevant and in sync you’re your brand.
Premade Logos
If you are starting a business, start it the right way and get a professional logo. No if, ands or buts. Make sure that you are absolutely in love with what you finalize your logo to be from the very start. The more you change your logo, the harder it will be for your clients (and potential clients) to have trust in you and your brand. Also, a changing brand portrays insecurity with a business.
Be so busy “Focusing on your own grass to notice if anyone else' grass is greener”.
With social media, everyone can see your progress and know what you’re up to. It’s easy to get lost or side-tracked on what your goal is. Someone else’s success is NOT your failure. Spend time on your own brand and never worry about what everyone else is doing – that to me, is wasted energy.
I know what you’re saying, this has nothing to do with building your brand, but I am so serious when I say that it has everything to do with your branding. In fields like ours, it’s really easy to feel envious or even bitter towards others. Especially when we see how successful they are becoming. This is normal to feel like this but don’t let it take over your thoughts and your own success.
But let’s pause for a moment. There are literally billions of people in the world. Which means there’s like zero chance that the “market” will completely dry up. Someone will always need a logo, or a photo, or a realtor, or a new fashion expert, etc. in their lives. There is more than enough for all of us and the best thing we can do is promote and lift each other up.
And here’s where I feel that this is such a HUGE part of branding mistakes to avoid: if you allow yourself to wallow in that envious-energy and become bitter, you’ll fail. It’s that simple.
If you are constantly focused on what everyone else is doing and how horrible it is that yet another person popped up in your market or niche, then you’re not focusing on that new reader, follower, client, customer that you could have.
So refocus that envious-energy into something far more productive like hustling smarter and working on building your own empire.
With Love | Nikki xo