Author: Carole Mancuso

Carole is a lead content developer for Brand Building for Small Business, a new venture, though she has been performing the art of brand building in some form since 2001. She owns and runs Instant Invitation, which also operates as Inked Invitation through Zazzle. She designs graphics, develops personal and small business templates, and works to steadily build the company’s brand. Instant Invitation was established in 2014 and currently produces six-figure annual earnings with consistent year-over-year growth. Carole spent 15 years in the corporate sector in the Communications department of now Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies (a national billion-dollar company). As Communications Manager, she was responsible for the company’s web site, online advertising, social media, and promotional email. When the desire to be close to family and closer to the sun brought her to Arizona (across the country from the company’s corporate operations), she began pursuing her own business. She taught Public Relations and Organizational Communications courses at Wilkes University and Introductory Communications at Northampton Community College. She is happiest while spending time with her husband and two children as well as their extended family and close friends. She loves the beach and all things wine.

Punny Signs

In a recent post, Bob refers to a local church and a bar (two types of establishments in no short supply in our home town) that entertain the community with their signage, and he highlights how effective meaningful content can be in gaining visibility and recognition for your brand. (“Your Call Is Important To Us” (NOT!!))

I recently came across “Vince the Sign Guy” on facebook and felt compelled to share some of his signs as a very public and entertaining example for you.

Colorado native Vince Rozmiarek, a volunteer for the Indian Hills Community Center, did his first sign on April Fools in 2013, making a joke about the local police department. Him and his community were hooked, and he’s been at it ever since.

Ranked as a top ten Colorado destination, his signage has become famous far beyond the city limits of the small town of Indian Hills.

The Indian Hills Community Center facebook page has over 160k followers.

Hope you found a little inspiration in the humor!

Establish your objective, however ordinary, and challenge your thinking to be somewhat extraordinary in your path to achieve it.

Protect Your Brand: Stop Intellectual Property Thieves on Etsy

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

10-Minute Branding Refresher: How do you build your brand 10 minutes at a time? You start small, and you simply begin. An excellent way to convince yourself to get going is to plan your ending. You can even set a timer. Then, be sure to bask in the success of your huge accomplishment of actually beginning and also appreciate the amount of work that got done. Then, repeat the process tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. You will be amazed at your branding progress . . . 10 minutes at a time.

As I previously noted in my article, Check for Copyright Infringement, if you create something of value, someone, at some point, is going to try to steal it from you.

Image by Freepik

That article explained that you need to stay vigilant and detailed how to regularly and easily check for copyright infringement. This article is one part of ‘what’s next?’ when you find a copycat and don’t have a lawyer to deal with the situation on your behalf. Since Etsy hosts approximately 5.3 million small business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide (source), AND I just happen to be one of them, this venue seemed like a good place to start.

Often times, people think that if they haven’t registered their intellectual property that they can’t protect it. While it’s certainly easier to protect your work with a trademark or patent, it’s not absolutely necessary. According to the US Copyright Office, “copyright exists from the moment the work is created” (source). So . . . how do you protect your copyright on Etsy?

Etsy launched a new Intellectual Property Portal in April of 2022. However, the launch was a soft one, and Etsy’s YouTube announcement of the portal has only 4,800 views as of this writing. As a result, you may very well be one of the many, many people who haven’t heard about this portal yet. If that’s the case, read on, because the answer to ‘what’s next’ is literally a 10-minute process!

HOW TO USE ETSY’S IP PORTAL:

Go to the web site – https://www.etsy.com/ipreporting.
Log into your Etsy account.
Answer the basic questions about your brand/business.
Go to the Intellectual Properties tab and “add a property” for the intellectual property that has been copied. You’ll need to: specify the type (copyright, trademark, patent, or other) and the property owner (i.e., you); include a link to the property being used online, the name of the work (which you can name on the fly), a description of the work (an item or design; an image, audio, video, or other media; writing or other text; a name, title, slogan, or other short phrase), a link describing the work in detail (which can be the same link used earlier), and whether the copyright is registered.
Go to the Reports tab and “create a report.” You’ll need to name it, specify the property owner and the property type (copyright, trademark, patent, or other); select/check the intellectual property you just created; search for and select the listing(s) that infringes your work and then submit the report. That’s it!

You’ll then get an e-mail from Etsy within the next day or two with the results of the report. Each time I have found and submitted a report for a copyright thief, Etsy has removed the listing. I hope you find this tool as useful as I have. My ongoing quest for easy (10 minute) ways to accomplish challenging branding tasks was completely fulfilled with this tool.

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Today’s Tip: ABN?

Basic SEO: Link Building

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

BACKGROUND

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, in a nutshell, helps your web site be found online.

If you haven’t already made sure search engines know your web site exists, click on over to this article (Make Sure Your Web Site is Included in Search Engines’ Index). Then, review your web pages’ meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords.

Our current installment on 10 minute SEO is . . .

LINK BUILDING

Every now and again, Google gives us a look behind the curtain and tells us exactly what they want when scanning a web site. Now, they’ve given us that information on links in a recently released document on best practices.

The guide is chock-full of dos and don’ts and background explanatory information. It’s a must read. For tomorrow. And then spend some time reviewing your links, little by little, to see if any tweaks should be made.

QUESTIONS?

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A “Legal-Approved” Free Collection of Social Media Icons: TikTok Update

Recently, a customer of mine who had purchased a social media sign for her business asked if I could add an icon for TikTok. My immediate reaction was surprise. Yet upon further consideration, I was actually surprised I hadn’t gotten a request for an update sooner. TikTok, a social media platform that was once exclusively young people lip syncing, has seen a huge surge in businesses utilizing the platform (. . . despite consistently being on the verge of being banned in the United States for individual and national security concerns).

According to Hootsuite, “[Our] 2022 Social Trends Survey found that 24% of marketers considered TikTok effective for reaching their business goals, compared to just 3% in the previous year— a 700% increase.” Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram have been losing traction. “Both platforms saw a significant decrease in perceived effectiveness between 2020 and 2021: Facebook fell by 25%, and Instagram by a hefty 40%,” Hootsuite reported.

TikTok’s time has come (at least for now).

Unfortunately, my research found that TikTok is extremely strict in their brand guidelines.

Below are the rules for referencing TikTok, and our Collection of Social Media Icons now includes this information (though is a little light on an actual TikTok icon; more on that below).

Brand Guidelines – https://tiktokbrandbook.com/d/HhXfjVK1Poj9/legal

Use TikTok’s name in text ONLY to refer to their platform or services
TikTok’s logo can only be used with prior written permission.
You can say things like “uploaded on TikTok” or “follow us on TikTok”
Don’t include a space between “Tik” and “Tok”.
Both Ts in TikTok are upper case, and all other letters should be lower case.

While this wasn’t the information I was expecting, better to know than to misstep! Let us know of any questions or comments below.

Make Google Alerts Work for Your Business

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

While you need to know where your business stands in the world according to google, because that is how most prospective customers will try to get to know you, the process doesn’t need to be work intensive (even for 10-minute branding standards). With google alerts, you designate how often you would like google to send you an email with a summary of new search results for your selected keywords. That leaves you with the not-so-lofty challenge of quickly skimming the email upon receipt. However, you do have to go through the process of setting up the alerts. Since our philosophy is think small in order to achieve big, we would recommend breaking up the tasks into a couple of days since the process overall is probably more than 10 minutes. . . .

Day 1: Finish reading this post. 😉

Day 2: Decide on the keywords for your alerts. At a most basic level, you would want your name (because to some degree, you are your business); your business name; and possibly your business name followed by the word ‘review’. Beyond that, would some other topics be useful to track for the sake of your business? Maybe you want to keep an eye on the competition. Maybe a particular current event is relevant to your business. Make a list for yourself.

Day 3: Set up the alerts. (You’ll need to have a google account for the task, so if you don’t have one, know that you’ll be prompted to create one before your alerts go live.)

Go to google.com/alerts and enter your first set of keywords along with your email address. Consider entering quotes around your keywords to limit your results and click “show options” to set the parameters for your search (like frequency, language, etc.). Click “create alert” once done and repeat the process as many times as needed.

Easy Peasy!

Then, you’ll see what the world sees, and you can proactively address issues as they arise.

Note that google does not track social media references unfortunately. Those need to be addressed separately.

Let me know of any questions or comments below. Till next time!

When was the last time you googled yourself?

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

When was the last time you googled yourself (or rather, your business)?

(If the answer is today, that’s either an extraordinary coincidence, or you might actually do this exercise too often. This article isn’t for you.) More likely, you’re in the majority and don’t perform this quick task often enough.

You need to know where you stand in the world, according to google, because that is how your prospective customers will try to get to know you.

I recommend three regular searches: your name (because to some degree, you are your business); your business name, and your business name followed by the word ‘reviews’.

This way, you see what the world sees, and you can proactively address issues as they arise (keyword being when not if).

A more streamlined approach to this process involves setting up a few alerts. You will also want to register your business on a few review web sites if you’re not already on them. I’ll discuss these topics one by one in the near future. Till then!

Send Your Valued Customers a Happy New Year Message

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

Nothing beats a nice card sent through the mail with a short and personal hand-written note. If you have the time for that, wonderful. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re short on time, and the idea of getting important things accomplished in a 10-minute window is very appealing to you.

On the other hand, we are all inundated with companies sending us holiday greetings along with pleas for sales of some sort. I would tread carefully so as not to join this unwelcome category. However, a text or e-mail with a nice graphic and a short, personal message can go a long way. . . . For example:

Thank you for another year of reading our blog. We are grateful for you and wish you the happiest of new years. From Carole and Bob at Brand Building for Small Business

(Feel free to use our graphic if you would like!)

Favicons (and a Favicon Generator)

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

So what is a favicon, you may ask? A favicon is the small image (typically a simplified logo) that the web browser displays along with the name of your web page . . . IF you have one designated.

Beneficial not only for your branding efforts but also for search engine optimization, you want to be sure your web site has a favicon file if you haven’t already.

I came across a web site that creates the favicon for you free of charge in a very user-friendly interface. You just need a square image (PNG, JPG, or SVG at least 260×260 pixels in size), and they will also walk you through the process of incorporating the files on your web site. Whenever you’re ready, head over to realfavicongenerator.net.

(Reading this article and choosing/preparing your file can probably be done within ten minutes today and then you may be able to have the task completed in another ten-minute window tomorrow!)

Good luck! Let us know of any questions in the “Leave a Reply” section below.

Always Have a Back-up on Hand

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

Disclaimer: While we only recommend products we know and love, we want to note we use affiliate links and may earn a commission for purchases made through those links.

I recently wrote a piece about making your brand a consistent statement throughout your business by reviewing all the physical documents your customers see, your advertising, your web presence, and signage to make sure each piece fits your brand — logo, company colors, tag line, etc. Doing this audit from time to time and addressing issues by revising, reprinting, and/or repackaging is the ideal way to go. And yet, sometimes, a last-minute stamp right before a piece goes out the door is the best we can possibly do. In those instances, it’s good to be prepared.

This week’s 10-minute branding recommendation is to buy your business a logo stamp for those eventualities in which you have no other way to make your brand known. Maybe you run out of a certain size box and need a short-term fix until you get a new batch. Maybe you need to use an envelope size that you’ve never needed to use before and therefore don’t have anything pre-printed. Maybe you have a print job go wrong. Thankfully, a good stamp goes a long way and will still look professional in such instances.

If you don’t already have one, here are a couple options for you from Zazzle:

A round or square logo:
https://www.zazzle.com/
your_logo_rubber_stamp-256591105496181633?rf=238905376834006182

A wide or long logo:
https://www.zazzle.com/
your_logo_rubber_stamp-256983210512542367?rf=238905376834006182

HAVE A QUESTION OR COMMENT?

We’re always happy to hear from you. Scroll down to the “Leave a Reply” section below.