How to Create Personal Brand

My Guest My today's guest is Mark Schaefer. Mark is a college educator, marketing consultant, and author of four social media marketing books including Social Media Explained. In this interview we talk about personal brand. We discuss why is it so important and Mark provides valuable advice on how to create a personal brand as an author. I encourage you to listen to the interview, because I think it was really a good one. Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing 3 big advantage of the traditional publishing distribution advance boosts your ego BUT... People are mostly buying online anyway, so the distribution does not impact so much. One can get corporate sponsors for his/her book. That is even better than the advance, because you don't have to pay them back. You get total control when you self-publish (what to write, how to write, how to market, etc.) Food for Thought Taylor Swift recently said that in the past you would get a record contract to grow your audience and in the future you have to grow your audience in order to get a contract. The same goes for all artists and writers. With tools like social media we have the opportunity to make connections and build relationships with anyone in the world. Successful are the people who have the courage to show themselves, to bring their personal stories and who are human. Everything we say and everything we don't say on social media accumulates and becomes part of our brand. Relax, have fun and be yourself. It's the only choice you have to stand out. You have to be original. You have to have the courage to show yourself and be yourself, because there is only 1 you. YOU have no competition. If you share your personality (even a little bit) it i usually rewarded. Establish connection through social media. Establish presence and find the people who will be interested in you. Connect with those people, create value, give away your books for free. Take the time, do the work, build the audience, build your trust and be patient on building your brand!  Tweetables Blog + social media is the best way to build a brand for an author today. Brand = the image people have about you in their brain. You can't sell books without an audience. You can't wait for the people to come to you. Write 2B Read Closed Facebook Group Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.