In this week’s Wash Wisdom, we discover how to properly engage in online branding and three ways to make teams more productive.

How to properly engage in online branding

Featured on Entrepreneur’s website, the article “11 Common Mistakes You Must Avoid When Building Your Online Brand” by contributor Chirag Kulkarni notes that today, a business’ online branding may be even more important than its physical presence. In order not to compromise your business’ success, especially since digital data can never be completely erased, Kulkarni says that these 11 online branding mistakes are extremely detrimental to your image:

• You have no vision. You have to have the proper attitude of confidence and boldness before venturing into the market. Know where you want your company to go and plan to see it through the long run.
• Your domain name isn’t unique. Unique names get people interested. Research the market to make sure no one else has the brand name that you are planning to use or already have and that a .com domain is still available.
• You go it alone building your website. Unless you’ve designed websites for a living, chances are you don’t have time to learn how to build a website. Let a professional handle it and focus on managing your business.
• You haven’t backed up your data. Even the largest corporations are subject to hacks, viruses and Trojans. Make sure your data is backed up so that hope is not lost if you can’t access your original files in a crash.
• You don’t plan your social media interactions. Don’t haphazardly “like” comments or pages to generate visibility. Plan out your social media strategy so that you don’t send mixed messages about your business’ culture or affiliations. Kulkarni says that having a marketing manager is a great way to keep your online presence on the right path.
• You haven’t Googled yourself. Most people use Google as their main search engine, so by Googling yourself, you can keep track of what the top search hits are for your brand name and make sure that there is no content published that could be detrimental to your reputation.
• You didn’t proofread what you posted. Whatever you post, make sure to proofread it. Websites and posts with typos look sloppy and unprofessional and can worsen your brand image.
• You’re not using social media to network. It’s not enough to simply use social media as a promotion tool for yourself. Communicate with other businesses in your field to build a network of support and friendship.
• You assume everyone knows what you do. Make sure you communicate to your potential customers exactly what you do, especially if your company name doesn’t make it clear. Also highlight what makes you stand out from your competition.
• You didn’t take care of dead domains. While deciding between .com, .biz and .org and finalizing your domain name, chances are you set up a couple domains before you selected the primary address. This means you left the others as dead links, which can confuse customers if you don’t delete them or redirect them. Check into whether you can sell a domain back to your provider.
• You didn’t engage in online conversations. Customers like seeing the personality of the people behind a company come through, so feel free to show how you feel about certain subjects.

Read the article here.

3 tips to make a productive team

According to the article “3 Tips to Build Your Team’s Productivity” by contributor John Rampton on The Huffington Post, productivity in the workplace is declining. Since more worker efficiency and productivity means accomplishing more goals, it is directly tied to increasing your revenue and should therefore be a major concern. Rampton offers three tips for boosting your team’s productivity:

• Practice better time management. For perhaps 20 minutes each day, plan how much time to allocate to a team so that it can finish its objectives. Make sure to account for inevitable interruptions, and make some buffer space between tasks in case you run over your time allotment, but at the same time, try to prevent outside interruptions and distractions to maintain your schedule.
• Have clear paths of communication. Make sure that everyone on the team understands the objectives for both the long and short terms, as well as the importance of those objectives. In addition, you need to foster open and honest communication between employees so that everyone knows, for example, when resources are in short supply or someone has a new idea, according to Rampton.
• Make technology investments. Having the proper technology at hand to complete tasks in a timely manner is critical for productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, if your business has multiple locations, invest in video conferencing technology so that teams can meet and share ideas, but also ensure you have good mobile technology to keep employees productive no matter where they are. Of course, any technology you bring in must be accompanied by proper training and clear rules for usage.

You can find the full article here.