Your Brand and Your Company
Most companies work hard to get their “Brand” noticed and recognized, but what is a company brand anyway? Your brand is more than just a logo and a couple of well-chosen colors. Branding is about the whole identity of your company or product, etc. Your brand is about the identity you project about yourself to the rest of the world. It is the way people “feel” when they think of your company or product. In essence, it is your story of who you are.
Many years ago, when I was in photography school in Atlanta, GA, Coca-Cola was everywhere. Since they were based in Atlanta and one of the largest brands out there, this made sense. As a photography student, and later professional photographer, I learned about the Coca-Cola “look”. If you wanted to make a decent living as a model in Atlanta, you needed to have the clean-cut, all-American, “Coca-Cola, look”. That was the look that was synonymous with their brand.
Their marketing was targeted around that look and that was a big part their “brand”. This was a time in my life before I knew what a brand was and how it worked, but in my simple understanding at the time, that is what I saw. This is an overly simplistic tale of what a brand is, but hopefully you get the point.
This brings us to the point of this article.
What Are Your Goals for Your Brand?
Do you have a defined brand? Do you have a goal for that brand? If so, do you have a plan to reach that goal?
One of our clients headed a successful marketing firm for many years, and once he retired, he decided to write a book. We worked with him to build a website that offered an inside look into the book and promoted the book to the public.
While in the planning stage for creating the website, I asked him who his target audience was for the book/website. He looked at me and just laughed. He told me that he had not really thought about that, but he knew, of all people, that was something he should know.
This is true with many of our clients. They get caught up in the excitement, stress, and busyness of promoting their company and often do not stop to think about who, exactly, they are trying to reach. The same thing holds true to your social media efforts. For many companies, the goal of their social media marketing is to drive traffic to their website. This is not always true, but it is true for many.
Each company has a different audience and therefore will utilize different social platforms to reach their target audience. So, let me ask again, what are the goals for your brand?
Just an Observation
We have spent many years providing social media support for our clients. This may have been by consultation (offering ideas and advice) or even creating and adding social media content to their social channels. These days, we have dedicated our efforts toward focusing more on the website design/development and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services; however, these services are both directly affected by our clients’ brands and how their companies choose to use social media to support those brands. This is also where things get tricky.
I see many people, companies, organizations, etc. who promote themselves through social media. Most feel like they need to have a social “presence”, which is most often true. However, I do not feel like they are using their social media channels to their full potential.
Lately, all I see are what I will call “ads” posted to their accounts. By ads, I mean posts that are geared toward showing/promoting/selling a particular product or service. These are great and are an easy, affordable way to get your product in front of the people you choose.
Their posts, however, stop at that. There is no story. There is nothing personable. There is no “life” in these posts. These posts are good at creating Brand Recognition, but not much else. Getting people to recognize a brand is extremely important and frequently difficult to do. The current thinking is that a potential customer must see your message seven times or more for it to start to “stick” in their minds. My gut feeling is that the true number might even be higher than seven.
This type of posting will assign your product or service to your business or organization in the minds of your viewers, but it does little to promote your brand.
What Should We Do Next?
The ads mentioned above are an integral part of a branded marketing strategy, but they are not enough by themselves.
If you really want people to remember your brand, you need to develop a relationship with them. No, I don’t mean you have to reach out to each potential customer or viewer individually. You just need to make them feel like they know you and want to know more about you.
You need to let your potential customers get to know you!
Think about something you needed or needed to have done recently. What made you decide on what you bought or who you hired? I dare say that cost was only a part of the reason you chose who or what you did. It was probably more about who you felt was trustworthy, capable, and even likeable.
We are human, and these factors go a long way towards how we make decisions.
So maybe you should consider showing your company’s human side to the world. You don’t have to share everything but share enough to help your potential clients choose to work with you. While it does take a little time and effort, these efforts can greatly impact the public’s opinion of your brand.
