10 Ways To Build A Brand You Can Be Proud Of

This is Day 2 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here. You may be wondering why I'm writing a whole section on branding when this is a guide to mastering your Facebook Page. The primary reason that I'm bringing up branding at the beginning of this program is that a powerful brand is much more effective at attracting new fans. Every organization is at a different phase in their branding process. Oprah Winfrey for example, doesn't need to do much promotion of her Facebook profile to end up with a few hundred thousand fans. While Oprah may be a distant target, investing time into building your brand will help you build an avid fan base on Facebook as well as elsewhere on the web. Tip 1: Use A Consistent Design A large portion of branding is about image and that image is portrayed through your design. It can be the logo, a set of colors, or simply a consistent look and feel. As Jared Spool states in his article, "Determining How Design Affects Branding", "Brand elements, such as names, logos, tag lines, trademarks, and packaging are shortcuts to" the perceptions of the consumer. If you tightly integrate your design into your product or service, the design can begin to evoke the emotions and perceptions that the consumers experience when interacting with your product or service. Tip 2: Determine Your Brand Personality While brands may not be people, the personification of brands helps consumers to connect with them. That's why it's important to determine what your brand's personality is. Much of that personality can come through your own voice since people like connecting with other individuals but you should be able to define the overall personality of your brand as well. Tip 3: Have A Consistent Dialogue Whether you are having a conversation on Facebook, Twitter, or during a presentation, it's important to have a consistent message. While you can engage in different conversations, it's important that your conversation is most frequently about similar ideas or concepts. For example Oprah would not have a conversation with her viewers about computer programming. Maybe that's an extreme example but the main point is that there is a consistent dialog that you should have with your consumers. Tip 4: Define Your Target Market Who are you selling to? That's a question that many brands fail to answer and in the end they become so broadly focused that they end up selling nothing. I've made this mistake before and the results can be extremely painful. You invest months building something only to find out that you didn't target a specific market and in the end nobody ends up making a purchase. As Wikipedia states, your target market "is mainly defined by age, gender, geography, socio-economic grouping, technographic, or any other combination of demographics." Figure out who you are targeting. This is also extremely important for when you begin running ad campaigns on Facebook (which we'll be explaining later). Figure out your target market and you are well on your way to 3,000 fans. Tip 5: Know What Your Brand Is Selling You've selected a target market but do you know what your customers want? While you can pick out a segment of the market to go after, providing them with something that they truly want is a whole other challenge. Often times companies will spend months preparing for a product launch only to find out that nobody ended up purchasing the product. Sometimes brands will launch a product or service only to find out that their consumer is using it for another reason than it was intended. If you don't understand how your customer is interacting with your brand then good luck developing a Facebook public profile that's going to rapidly attract thousands of users. Once you have determined your target market and you know what your brand is selling, you can proceed to build a large fan base. Tip 6: Figure Out The Terms That Drive Action From Your Market This is more about sales and marketing then it is about building your brand but at the end of the day, there's no point in building a brand if you don't plan on using it to sell something. While an attractive brand can build you a large fan base, selling is much more challenging. Each buyer has their own psychological triggers that will drive them to make a purchase and often times, there are words that will drive an entire market to make a purchase. That's why you need to invest the time to test out various forms of copy and see what works with your market. There are actually words that will make it more likely for your fans to take action. By discovering these words/terms you can associate them with your brand and increase the bond with your fans. Tip 7: Listen To Your Target Market Social media is much more about listening than talking at people. Honestly, the old direct methods of marketing are now dead and instead marketing has become a conversation that brands have with their customers. Thankfully, this new model presents many new opportunities and those brands that are quickest to adapt will reap the rewards. Some of your customers will want to engage in a dialogue with your brand and Facebook public profiles are a great place for that to take place. Did someone post something negative about your brand? Publicly acknowledge their criticism and then proceed to offer a solution. If your brand is willing to publicly acknowledge weaknesses and address them, it will build trust with your brand for existing and future customers. Many times your fans will actually tell you what they'd like your brand to provide. This is gold to any effective marketer. Spend the time to listen, don't just speak at your fans. Tip 8: Provide Relevant Content That Amplifies Your Brand It's difficult to consistently come up with original content. As someone who has written over 2,000 articles in the past two years, I can attest to the challenge of developing original content. Thankfully, in social media (and on Facebook public profiles), you don't always need to come up with original content. As you browse the web, share content that is relevant to your brand directly from within your Facebook page. This way you can keep your fans engaged with ongoing content and you don't need to always be the one producing that content. Tip 9: Create Great Content While sharing content from around the web is always an easy way to get your fans engaged, it's always better to create original content. It's possible to provide original content which rehashes existing content but the best content is truly original. One of the best forms of original content is educational guides. Educating your future consumer is always a great way to build trust and to build an ongoing relationship. That's not to say that the only content you should create is educational content. Content that entertains, engages, informs, or simply makes the reader smile is great for keeping their attention. If you want to learn more about creating great content I highly recommend reading Copyblogger on a regular basis. Tip 10: Leverage Multiple Branding Channels No, Facebook Pages are not the end all, be all of your branding strategy. People regularly ask what the best site is for building their brand and generating new business. The response is always the same no matter who you ask in the industry: go to where your customers are. If your existing or future customers are on Facebook (there's a good chance they are there with over 250 million users) or even MySpace (GASP!), your company should be there. Wherever your customer is, you should be there. Daily Task Spend some time listing out the personality traits of your brand. That's right ... if your brand was a person, what type of person would it be?

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10 Ways To Build A Brand You Can Be Proud Of

Nick O'Neill

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