Hey everyone, this is Roberto Blake of
robertoblake.com helping you create
something awesome today.
Today we're going to talk a little bit
more about personal branding.
Growing and developing your personal brand has never
been more important and today I want to
talk to you about why you still need a
website in 2017 instead of just using social media.
There are a lot of people in the online community around marketing
that will tell you that you probably
don't need a website today because you
can go directly to the platforms that
already have traffic and where there's
already a great user base for you and
there is some truth to that, but I would
still make the argument that there are
many reasons you still need a website in
2017 and today, that's what I'm going to talk to you about
Social media is amazing but the
reality is that you don't own and
control the platform. You don't get the
fully control how it looks,
how people interact with it and you
don't control the rules. We've seen
social media companies go away but we've
also seen social media companies change
the rules of how you're able to engage
with people you need your own platform
to be able to do that on your own terms.
A website lets you do that not only was
having a hub where you can control
content and you can set your own content
guidelines and rules but, where you also
have the ability to have a direct
relationship with your audience by
getting them onto your email list or newsletter.
What if your favorite or most popular
social media platform went away like
Vine did? what would you do to be able to
reach people and to connect with them directly?
How do you have ownership of the relationship?
That's why having your own website matters.
It's not just about having a .com
or a .net. It's about being able to have a
sense of security and certainty when it
comes to your brand and also knowing how people will find you.
Having your own website and the ability to put out
content in the form of a blog or
articles also means that you have the
opportunity to be found in search engines
the way that you want on your own terms
and that you have a more effective tool for
marketing yourself. A website can also
help you consolidate your brand. It means
that if you happen to have a podcast for
example, you can get people to that
through your website as well. If you're
like me and you're doing public speaking
you have a way to get them to
information about that they can download
in the form of speaker sheet. If you're a
digital artist of any, kind you
have a portfolio that people can
download and that they can print out and
take the decision maker, so they can vet you.
There are multiple things that you
can do with a website that you just
can't do with many of these social media
platforms. All social media pro.. platforms
are still very important for your brand
and that you should go directly to where
the audience is participating to where
the conversation is being had.
You also need a hub of your own where
you can set the rules and you can
dictate the narrative and we're not to
beholden to someone else. Our lab brought up
having an email list. Having an email list
still is very important for your
personal brand and for your business
today, even with all the things that you
get in social media. Having that direct
access to somebody's inbox really
matters. To be able to do that and you
have lead magnets and to be able to do
drip content in the form of auto
responders or give someone a free
10-step course, you need to be able to
have a website that you can tie to this
email marketing campaign and where you
can have Google Analytics and all these
other things that are going to be
important for you to make decisions
around your audience and around your brand and business.
I know setting up
these things can feel really
intimidating and overwhelming. It's just
easier to have a social media profile.
It's just easier to have a Facebook page than
to set up a website. I get that.
I actually am putting together some tutorials that can
help you guys I use about maybe I think
four or five different web hosting
companies for different online
properties and projects that I'm doing
right now. I've also used probably the
the top 10 or top 20 via clients that
happen to have websites there in the
past, so I actually can recommend some
good web hosting companies. I'll have
those linked up in the description below
and i think I have some of the info card
up here, but ultimately what you need to
do is you need to accept the fact that
at some point if you're going to take
your brand seriously, you're going to
need to have a website that people can
get the information you want put in
front of them in one place,
it also makes you look a lot more
prestigious and if you've got to work
with brands and do sponsorship you're gonna wanna
have this website as either another
property that you know, you can you throw ads
against a new sponsorship with, or as a
place where they can learn information
about your download your press kit, but
also because you want a professional
email address. Being able to have people
email me at robertoblake.com
is very important and makes me look a
lot more professional and also means
that I don't have to worry about an
email address that might be tied to some
of my other social media things so I have a
way to break this up in case those
accounts get compromised and that could
actually be really good from a security
standpoint. I'm gonna have some videos
that can walk you through the basic
setup for wordpress if you want put a
blog out because I think that's going to
be important for you.
That's probably gonna be with my account
over on Bluehost that there is a new
website that I'm actually setting up
over there, so maybe I'll just walk you
guys through how I set up a completely
brand-new website from scratch.
Maybe that's what helpful to you guys.
Let me know if you want to see that in
the comments section. Also in the
comments, let me know if you're still on
the fence about starting a new website.
What's holding you back? Why have you not
launched a new website yet? Is it just
that you find social media easier?
Do you think you don't need one? Do you
feel they might be too expensive because
you have to hire web designer? Let me
know that stuff in the comments, maybe I
can answer some of your questions.
I found this helpful. If you want more
information about personal branding I do
actually have an e-book called the seven
points of personal branding. Maybe
it'll help you in figuring out and
defining your personal brand along with
the other video content I have here on
the YouTube channel. If you want to check
that out, go to robertoblake.com/newsletter
I'll have that linked up in the
description as well. I give a lot of
really good resources and advice through
the newsletter every week, but also
motivational stories about what I'm
doing and how building my brand and
building my business, on my successes and
failures. So if you ever want a little
bit of a more personal look at how I
think about this stuff I kind of use the
newsletter as a dear journal entry with
regard to my brand in my business.
Anyway, I hope this helps you guys out like this
video if you liked it. Don't forget to
subscribe. Check out the are awesome
content on the channel. Remember I do have
a personal branding playlist here so you
can get all kinds of tips while you
develop your brand. As always you guys
thanks so very much for watching and
don't forget create something awesome today.
Take care.