Branding and Blogging: Getting to Know you but Not ALL About You
May 28, 2008
Branding is all about the way your business is perceived by others while blogging is all about communication. Effectively communicating what you and your business can do for your potential customers is one way a blog can act as a powerful branding vehicle.
According to Rosemary Davies-Janes, a branding consultant with Miboso writes in the post The Branding Point on the Authentic Personal Branding blog:
Effective brands have three key components.
The first is a clear-eyed, precise understanding of your personal genius. Your genius is a composite of your natural strengths, learned skills, values and preferences.
Secondly, you’ll need an equally clear understanding of your target audience; where they hang out, what they do, what they think about, what they long to achieve.
Finally, you’ll need to build benefit statements that connect your genius with what your target audience ‘thinks they want’ — as opposed to “what they really need.”
So, share what your audience needs to know via your blog and you’ll be good to go. However, many freelancers take it a step further. They share about their inner turmoil… their relationship troubles… their financial difficulties…. and suddenly it’s not a marketing vehicle but a group therapy session online.
It turns out that it’s possible to share TOO much information via your blog. Just because you can share spontaneous information doesn’t mean you should. While a certain level of familiarity will indeed build your business… take it too far and it’s possible that utter and complete transparency in your business can do more harm than good.
Over at the Psych blog, there’s a report on “Why Familiarity Really Does Breed Contempt”
“the more traits participants knew about another ‘person’, the more likely they were to find dissimilarities with themselves, and so the more likely they were to dislike them.
…once we perceive a dissimilarity, it’s all downhill from there. Even traits we might have liked, or been neutral about before, now get the thumbs down.“
What does this mean for you, your business blog and your branding?
It means sharing information on a need to know basis. Do potential marketing clients really need to know that you have a tendency to get involved in one bad relationship after another? Do your freelance writing clients need to know you’re catching flak over your anticipated move to Bimini?
Some blogs are built upon utter and complete transparency however, those blogs are not BUSINESS BLOGS!
When it comes to a business blog, keep the tone professional and the information on a need to know basis! Ask yourself before every post, “Does this enhance my professional image? Does this post inspire trust with my audience?”
There’s certainly a place in the blogosphere for discussions on politics, religion and sexuality… but if yours is a business blog… then I strongly suggest you launch a free Wordpress.com or Blogger.com blog for those discussions. Keep them FAR away from your business presence.
I once had a client who launched a side business in which she featured racy and provocative greeting cards. She WISELY kept the greeting card business’ existence very far removed from her “day job” as a corporate trainer.
Blogs make it SO easy to communicate that sometimes, you may be tempted to “cross” the line. Whether it’s posts or comments, remember… the internet never forgets!
Watch That Message You’re Sending…
May 9, 2008
I love blogs… blogs are great. They make delivering your message to a widespread audience SO easy. No FTP, no HTML… just type and publish.
When you’ve got a Wordpress blog with the proper plug ins, you get a super charged Search Engine Friendly way to deliver those messages effortlessly to hundreds of thousands of people who are interested in hiring you to provide products or services.
So what’s not to love?
Well, marketing message mis-steps are NOT to love.
My business is exploding and I’ve been subscribing to the RSS feeds of various blogs maintained by people who provide the services for which I’m in the market. By subscribing to those RSS feeds… I’m shopping. After all, hiring a service provider is a Major Sale … so I’m doing my research.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve read blog posts by SEVERAL service provider that have effectively removed themselves from the running in my decision of choosing a service provider.
One just ran a post so off topic that it was an obvious “I’ve just signed up as an affiliate, use my link and buy!” Um, you’re a business professional and you’re promoting a membership site on which focuses upon getting you to eat your vegetables?
Another web site was listing characteristics of the service provider’s “ideal client”. I laughed out loud when “physically attractive/ works out / Pilates” was listed as a characteristic she seeks in her clients.
EXCUSE ME? Is this your business or an Match.com profile? Are you looking for clients or dating partners?
Whether it’s the chiropractor who is blogging about having a “bad day” or the marketing maven who’s blogging about her latest visit to a local sex shop…. you’ve got to ask yourself, “Does this help build my potential client’s TRUST in my ability to provide goods and services?”
Just Because You CAN, Doesn’t Mean You SHOULD!
Last month, a lot of bloggers engaged in playing “April Fool’s Jokes” on their readers. Many discovered that their readers were there for a reason… and that reason was not to be played as a fool.
I once had a client who was fun and energetic. She had engaged a branding professional to create her marketing materials. The branding professional did a wonderful job of “capturing” this client’s persona. Unfortunately, that business professionals clients weren’t seeking that “style” of help. Of course they adored her infectious enthusiasm… but when she sent those potential clients to her web site, she found they wouldn’t return her phone calls.
She hired me and we “toned” her website “down”. We created a more “professional” approach (including switching the color scheme from orange/purple to blue/gray.) The result… her potential clients returned her phone calls AFTER they had visited her website.
She was still funky, fun and infectious… but her website said “This is a serious, cool, effective professional who gets results” through the images AND the copy. As a result, her business took off.
Blogging makes communicating EASY and even FUN! Just watch the message you’re sending…. people ARE watching!
Branding Myth: Branding is All about YOU!
April 29, 2008
My colleague Rosemary Davies-Janes of Miboso.com does a LOT of work in with clients on developing their authentic personal brand. Rosemary works with independent service professionals… sometimes referred to as “solo-preneurs” who need an “outside eye” to help them see what is unique about them and how that uniqueness translates into an authentic personal brand.
Dan Schawbel also works on personal branding, except he works with job seekers, because in today’s workforce, even wage slaves have to worry about developing a personal brand.
Both Rosemary and Dan agree… Personal branding is not all about you. Developing a personal brand is really an exercise in defining
- Your USP (unique selling proposition)
- How that USP translates into benefits for your customers or clients.
What gifts do you bring to the table? Once you’ve identified those, then the next step is to discover how to package those gifts into a product that other people, be they clients or employers, want to receive.
THAT is the basis of personal branding… packaging yourself to present to others.
Moveable Type’s Nasty Swipe at Wordpress
March 17, 2008
Message to Moveable Type regarding your recent swings at Wordpress: Tongue Must Be Firmly Inserted in Cheek Before Delivering Playful Marketing Blows to Your Competitor.
Here’s the deal… Daily Blog Tips is reporting on the “marketing” attempt by Moveable Type in which MT is trying to “poach” Wordpress users who are frustrated by yet another major upgrade to jump ship and join them at Moveable Type. Saying the exchange was ever “playful” is being very, very generous …it started out ugly and has gotten uglier since. (Wordpress users can follow along thanks to the dashboard feed.)
Frank Gilroy left a thought provoking comment at the Daily Blog Tips post.
I’m assuming the folks at Six Apart are big Apple fans. Don’t know about the folks at WP. I’m wondering if the whole set of Apple “Switch to Mac” adds coinciding with the launch of Vista was a motivation for this move? Interesting. Perhaps it would have worked better as a video rather than a blog post?
Perhaps indeed… print has always been very bad at conveying deeply emotional responses. It’s the reason you see the ads for the ASPCA delivered via television instead of via print. (Images of rescued and abused dogs + Sarah McLaughlin’s gut wrenching song = a television commercial that is difficult to ignore.)
If Moveable Type were to try to take their campaign to video, said videos would have to put a playful, subtle spin on the pros and cons of converting to Moveable Type from other platforms. This would be in SHARP contrast to the current blood thirsty jabs that MT Anil Dash is delivering on behalf of his company. In the Mac vs PC television ads, the subtle and playful “Mac Guy” is affably pointing out the obvious. Meanwhile, Anil takes to the blogosphere with comments and posts which basically say, “Show me where I’m wrong. What I stated was fact!”
Well.. yeah…. the Anil’s facts may be “right”… but as my sister’s therapist says…. “Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?”
Moveable may win the battle with Wordpress over who is “right…. but if they’re not careful, they could easily lose the PR war.
The Apple VS Microsoft ads could have played out in a similar manner. But they didn’t. Here’s’ why:
- The famous “Mac vs PC” ad series doesn’t single out a single PC maker. Heck, they didn’t even DIRECTLY name or target Microsoft in the beginning. We all KNEW that’s whose flaws the ads were highlighting… but notice the subtlety used by Apple’s ad team. It’s not Microsoft… it’s a PC. Dell makes PCs… Gateway makes PCs… HP makes PCs….. the fact that all those PCs are shipped with Windows installed is never mentioned.
- The famous “Mac vs PC” ad series doesn’t portray the PC man as an overbearing ogre or a drooling idiot. He’s older than the Mac Guy… less “hip”… but he’s not offensive in any way. He wasn’t created as a caricature with his hair slicked back and wearing a plaid leisure suit. He’s affable, he’s sincere… but he’s obviously trying to defend the indefensible in the ad series.
- The famous “Mac vs PC” ad series began by pointing out the obvious…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQb_Q8WRL_g[/youtube]
Notice… there’s no sense of “self righteousness” on the part of the “Mac guy”. He’s caring, he’s compassionate…heck, he even offers PC a tissue. He’s definitely not gloating or arrogant. He doesn’t dance over the crashed PC man doing a victory dance.
Throughout the series, you’ll notice how low key the Justin Long (Mac Guy) character remains. He’s never aggressive… never gloats…. never rejoices in PC’s misery… and he never once says, “Show me where I’m wrong!”
It’s that quiet confidence of the Mac Guy character that is the KEY to the success of the series… and it’s important to note that the quiet confidence quality can NOT be effectively delivered in print. TBWA Worldwide’s execution of the campaign is flawless. The visual undertones (young and hip vs old and up tight for example) are an essential element to the message and the only way to deliver all the essential elements is via video. The fact that the television ads have gone viral online is just a happy by product of the successful campaign. Notice though that while this campaign can take a “side trip” to print and radio, the foundation of the campaign is the ubiquitous television buy.
TBWA Worldwide successfully removed Stephen Job over inflated and enormous ego from consumer’s minds and help resuscitate the dying Mac brand. The folks at Six Apart would be well advised to put their egos away and try for the same…. and remember… this is not a war to be waged in print. Above all else, place your tongue firmly in cheek before you deliver those marketing blows.
Branding as advertising defined
February 18, 2008
First, the basics…. let’s play the "define branding" game. Let’s start with the source….the ones who successfully "captured" the domain name. according to Brand.com,
"Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product."
HUH? A bit esoteric for my tastes…. See, it wasn’t all that long ago that the term "branding" was used to describe scarring an animal to denote ownership. Oh how times have changed.
Branding is now the hot BUZZ word to describe, in essence, marketing or advertising messages that work at conveying what you do in your business to the casual observer. It’s the magic bullet, the mystical trick, THE WAY TO WIN at this whole marketing game.
The traditional thinking goes that if you effectively "brand" your messages, that consumers will be better able to recognize your ads as belonging to you and will then be more likely to do business with you.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there is value to creating easily recognizable cohesive advertising campaigns. However, creating cohesive advertising campaigns filled with creative and compelling content is only the TIP of the "branding" iceberg.
Allow me to reveal the other 98% of the branding iceberg to you…..
Branding is not something you choose to do to your business. It’s something that your CUSTOMERS do to you.
Just as the unsuspecting calf is branded by searing metal pressed into it’s flesh, so is your business branded by your customers.
That’s right. Branding is not an "inside out" process, though it is a process that begins deep within your company. Instead, branding is the process through which you imprint what it is your company is about upon the minds of your target audience.
Because branding is an ongoing activity, it occurs constantly. Every interaction between your business and your customer (or potential customer) is building your brand, whether you like it or not. With that perspective on branding, it’s easy to see that the task at hand is to control your customer’s perceptions of your company as much as is possible.
With this perspective, you may suddenly realize that the surely angst ridden teen who is running your cash register after school is helping to building your brand. Nancy, in accounts receivable is also building your brand as are your technicians who go out into the field.
Every time someone you employ has contact with other people, they are in fact helping to build your brand. If this doesn’t frighten you, nothing will.
The "experts" want you to believe that branding is something you can buy. Can you blame them? It’s much easier to say, "Run your ads here and be sure to use use the right colors and font faces in those ads," than to look beyond the ads at the business behind the ads.
Advertisements, even well branded ones, are simply invitations to your business. Invitations to strangers asking them to do business with you. Implementing a methodical identity program (a.k.a. branding program) will allow you to determine exactly how you want to portray your company or product to the outside world. However, what happens once those customers do business with you will, in the end, determine your company’s "brand."
In the end, your brand is merely the way you are perceived by your customers. Branding is merely identifying the image you want to portray to outsiders. Your goal should be to make certain that brand accurately reflects what your business does. Once you’ve done that, then you can determine what promises you should make for your business to deliver.
