alaahassan

What Does Personal Branding Mean to Me

November 30, 2015 by alaahassan

After a tribe member commented in our Facebook group wondering what is the importance of having and maintaining a personal brand, I decided to create this short video.

It’s very important to first understand the true meaning of personal branding.

It’s not about how many likes your Facebook page has, how many followers you have on Twitter or Instagram, the number of connections on Linkedin or the number of visitors you get on your blog.

Personal branding is 1. the first thing that comes to mind about who you are when your name is mentioned and 2. what impact you have on those who know about you.

My Favorite Email Marketing Tool for My Personal Brand

November 9, 2015 by alaahassan

If I was to give one major piece of advice when it comes to building your personal brand is:

Build your email list from day 1

Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to build a list of email subscribers. There’s little investment needed from your part other than your time in setting up the list and the email template (message).

My favorite tool is Mailchimp.com

Free for lists under 2000 subscribers
Easy to use and setup
Mobile app is amazing
You can create automated messages
It connects to many other software tools out there

I currently use it for passionTribe.com, AlaaHassan.com and eCommerceTrainingAcademy.com

For each website, I have setup 3 main lists:

A list for people who want to subscribe to my newsletter so they can get updates (general leads)
A list for people who downloaded an eGuide (pdf) (good prospects)
A list of customers & current students (clients)

I’ve setup some automation as well when people download my guides. It’s a great way of keeping the conversation going without having to email them one by one. I get to learn more about my subscribers such as who they are, where they’re from and what are their current struggles.

Try out Mailchimp.com and see how it can help you grow your email marketing campaigns.

4 Must Have Pages on Your Personal Website

November 6, 2015 by alaahassan

As you know, having a personal website is crucial if you want to build your personal brand online.

Last week, I decided to update my own – AlaaHassan.com. Why? Well, not only did I just feel like it but I noticed that my traffic was increasing especially from mobile devices. I honestly felt the website wasn’t too mobile friendly (layout, navigation and content).

I will write a detailed post about the whole makeover but for now, someone asked me this question via Facebook:

Which pages should I include in my website?

While you can add as many pages as you want, I always recommend you have at least the following 4:

1. The “Welcome” page (homepage)

It’s the first page that any visitor will see and it has 2 main purposes:

state your value proposition (who you are, what you do, what’s so special about you)
move people to other pages on your site using navigation or banners/links.

You gotta make sure you don’t overwhelm users with too much content but you need to make sure your message is clear within seconds of landing on the page.

Here’s an example of my new welcome page.

2. The “About Me” page

Now that you state who you are, I want to learn more about you. That’s where the About Me page comes in handy. On this page, I would simply focus on your skills, expertise and overall experience. Here’s an example of my new about me page

3. The “What I do” page

Now that I know a little more about you and your expertise, tell me what you currently do. This is where show what you do for living.

For example, you can mention which company you work and what position you have. You can mention your company name if you work for yourself. You can also mention projects you’re working on.

Whatever you state on this page, it must support who you are. It’s somewhat a proof of what you really do and what you’re known for.

Here’s an example of my new What I Do Page

4. The “How to Contact Me” page

Finally, now that I know who you are and what you do, how can I get in touch with you if I’m interested in getting know you more or possible work together.

You can add a contact phone number, email, a contact form or social media links.

Here’s an example of my contact page which I named Pick My Brain

How I Turned Snapchat Into My New Personal Branding Channel

October 31, 2015 by alaahassan

Let’s face it. We all believe Snapchat is a waste of time and it’s only used by young teenagers. That’s exactly what I thought but I was wrong.

It’s funny how you perceive things differently after you learn more about them…right?

Snapchat is growing. It’s has more than 100 million daily active users & over 4 billion daily video views. That’s impressive!

I noticed some of the experts I follow becoming active on it. People like Gary Vaynerchuk or Lewis Howes. I did the same over the past week.

It took me a couple of minutes to learn how it works but now, I just love every feature it has especially Snapchat Stories. This stuff is powerful.

I’m using Snapchat to:

Showcase my daily activities (work, family, fun)
Showcase what I’m learning (ex: online course I’m taking)
Showcase what I’m currently working on (ex: my personal website)
Showcase interesting things I discover during the day

It’s not just about your personal brand, it’s about what makes you unique, what your personal life is all about. It’s about building a deeper connection with your followers without having to worry about the number of likes, comments or shares your post is going to get.

Want to learn more about Snapchat? Watch these quick videos that explain the main features

Snapchat Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4237MZIb8g

Snapchat Chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvhiRIT5DvU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9h30NcVy4E

Snapchat Stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPzZevSbgGk

You Too Can Create a Free Offer in Less Than 2 Hours to Capture Email Subscribers

October 23, 2015 by alaahassan

Last week, I decided to execute on things. I’m so tired of simply learning what needs to be done and actually do it.

I constantly remind myself of what Michael Hyatt & Amy Porterfield have said: Build your email list. That’s exactly what I want to do.

First, I need to create some sort of a free download offer that my audience would find valuable. Remember it’s not about just capturing emails but providing useful content that will help my target readers find solutions to their problems or challenges.

Questions I asked myself:

What are my skills?
What have I accomplished recently that was successful?
What have I failed at recently?

About 2 months ago, I helped my wife launch her handmade jewelry store. Next thing I noticed, friends started asking me about tools she used for her website. Here’s a great opportunity for me to share the exact same tools she used with my audience.

That’s when I decided to create my first PDF guide called “The eCommerce Toolkit”

It literally took me less than 2 hours to have it all prepared (while watching TV). I used Pages on my Mac (similar to Microsoft Word – you can also use Google Docs). I wrote exactly 4 pages including the cover and converted it to PDF.

Then I created a landing page for desktop and mobile users using my Unbounce.com account (you can use Google Forms for free)

That’s it!

In my next post, I will share with you how I promoted this free offer to my audience on Social media as well as what email software I used.

Advertising my Personal Brand with Twitter Ads

October 16, 2015 by alaahassan

Now that I have launched a Facebook campaign for my personal brand AlaaHassan.com, I decided to test out Twitter Ads.

I’m using the same ad concept and landing page as my Facebook campaign but fine tuning the message to fit Twitter’s newsfeed.

I’m setting the budget for $10 and a max bid of $1.68. Let’s see how it does!

1. The “Welcome” page (homepage)

2. The “About Me” page

3. The “What I do” page

4. The “How to Contact Me” page

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