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TheOnlineExperience
- 1. The Online Experience: living your brand in the online environment
- 7. How are you going to live your brand in the online environment?
- 10. How are you going to live your brand in the online environment? 1. Define your brand’s persona
- 11. How are you going to live your brand in the online environment? 1. Define your brand’s persona 2. Determine what platforms you will use to engage with your community
- 12. How are you going to live your brand in the online environment? 1. Define your brand’s persona 2. Determine what platforms you will use to engage with your community 3. Be social!
- 13. How are you going to live your brand in the online environment? 1. Define your brand’s persona 2. Determine what platforms you will use to engage with your community 3. Be social! 4. Be consistent
Editor's Notes
- Into me and what I do.
- To start, I wanted to begin with a quick exercise. See these two images and I want you to consider:Which one of these men drives a Lexus?Which would buy Ray Bans?Who drives the Mini?Which one wears Industrie? And which wear Van Heusten?Who would use the IBM Computer and who would use the mac?The reason this is a reasonable simple (well at least I hope you found it simple) is because all of the brands I have mentioned have a specific Persona – and this is reflected in all their marketing and branding.
- A very simple example of this is this ad? Who remembers this?It was an ad by Apple where they have personified their brand, and set this against their competition – so here we have Mr Mac and Mr PCThis is a great example of how when we think of brands, we get a mental image of the type of person the brand is representing and targeting. Apple have pictured themselves here as a young man, in casual but trendy dress. He has an appealing and warm demeanour when you watch the ad. Big brands like Apple can afford to spend time and money discovering and personifying who they want to buy their product. This ad is more than just a good marketing idea – this is tapping into the very heart and soul of who Apple is as a brand and who they want to be buying their product. You see this person represented and personified in their branding, in their products, in their ads and also, their social media!!
- However, this is not just something for big business. You don’t need a multi-million dollar marketing budget to create a persona for your brand. It comes back to the identity of you as a company, or organisation.It comes back to who you service, what your philosophy is, what your values are, how you work with people, how you want to be perceived. Just spend a minute thinking about this – maybe you can write it down too. Think of three words that sum up who you are, who you service and what you value?
- At Digerati, we have worked on this over the years and view all that we do through the lens of the ‘Digerati Guy’.So who is this person for us?Well, the Digerati Guy is young, vibrant and relaxed. He is fun loving and casual, the life of the party. He values making things as simple and clear as possible, not taking himself too seriously.
- Therefore, this persona ends up being represented in all that we do… Any promotion, any advertising, any flyer – all are designed to represent all the values and the persona of our brand. Here are just some examples of what we have done and produced with this person in mind. They are supposed to be casual, a little funny, enjoyable and simple. However, this becomes more important and more significant when we consider the realm of social media. It is somewhat easy when producing a flyer or marketing material to think through your brand’s persona, but what about when you are posting on Facebook. Or sending a tweet. Or updating your website’s newsfeed. Or developing a video for YouTube.
- So the question at this point is - How are you going to live your brand in the online environment? How are you going to allow the persona of your brand to speak out using social media. Why is this an important question?
- Social Media breathes life into your brand. It takes your business from being bricks and morter, or an image on a page to a living, breathing and most importantly, talking organism. This is where the fun starts – social media has allowed our brands, businesses and organisations to have a voice and to engage with our communities. Brands can now enter and talk in the space where potential customers, potential students, potential donors, and potential employees are living, existing, and engaging in their day to day lives. Businesses, and organisations have a unique opportunity to enter this space, and engage with these people.
- Here are some stats to show you some of how brands are entering this space more and more. The significant ones:39% have tweeted about a brand 42% have mentioned a brand on Facebook29% have retweeted about a brand and 41% have shared something from a brandThese are significant because it is the active engagement of people with brands – positively and negatively. But it shows how important it is to be in these spaces and to find the best way to exist.A lot of people I work with know of social media, know it’s important for some reason BUT don’t know how to approach it. Hands up how many of you have a personal Facebook? Twitter account? Linked in Profile? Instagram? Blog? This is a good starting point – when I speak to people when they are setting up their website, and they want to be on Facebook and twitter, my main question is whether they use it themselves. This is where you learn what works, what you like, what’s annoying, what brands you follow and why!But next we need to consider, how our businesses or organisations can exist in this online world… So here are a few key tips to start.
- Consider who your brand is? This is about personality, values, philosophy, environment and it is also about WHO you are servicing or selling to. That can be an easy way to start – define the types of people you do business with and then define the type of person that your brand represents
- This is about working out where your people already are, and ensuring your brand is there also. We know that there are HUGE numbers of people using Facebook and of all ages. But some other key options of places where you can generate engagement are Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, myspace (yes, it’s back!), Blogging, and don’t forget, your website.
- Be social! This is important – social media is a space designed for and aimed at people – to add to their social life and provide a space where they can connect with people that they choose!Brands are really lucky that they actually get to exist in these environments at all, and so in my opinion, it should be seen as a privilege to be adding to people’s social space.Therefore, add to their experience positively. This will look different depending on what type of person you are engaging with but you might provide humour, resources, tips, quotes, inspiration, stimulating questions, giveaways, specials and discounts. You want to engage with people – asking questions, answering questions, responding to feedback, responding to current affairs. Social media is a two way conversation and it is a chance to promote your brand in a way that doesn’t involve selling to people or direct advertising!
- Be consistent with both your brand’s persona and also with the frequency of your posts.Don’t commit to signing up to all the different platforms unless you are going to be able to add something on a semi-regular basis.And be consistent by integrating your platforms. For example, if you are sending an eNewsletter, use this as an opportunity to post or link to this content on your social platforms. Have your social media linked to and showing on your website homepage – because people might connect with your brand there, and it adds to your website activity. Post images and articles to Facebook and Twitter when you do.Link to your blog article from your other platforms to draw people into your blog environment. All this means that your brand is active and connecting with your community more frequently – which so long as it’s considered valuable to your community, can only be positive! As I said earlier, social media is an exciting space for brands to exist and it’s