From the monthly archives:

June 2009

Your Brand needs a Face

by Tinu
The heart of branding is often visual.
When I first started out online, the one thing I was irrationally terrified of was having any part of my physicality associated with my business. I’m quite shy in real life, so I wanted to be a post office box with a pen name. 

But one day I realized that every person I bought from on a regular basis… was a person to me, not a company.

I don’t shop at Walmart – in my mind that’s where the funny lady with the pigtails works. I don’t buy music, I get the latest Beyonce CD. Even with brands like Amazon, I’m going there in search of something within the collection of brands they resell. I want the next Toni Morrisson novel, not just some book by anyone.

I started becoming really successful online when I tossed away the shield of anonymity, and displayed my personage, flaws and all. If I can publish a picture with my articles, I’ll do it. When I can share my voice on audio, even better. Haven’t worked my way up to video, but I’m getting there.

And watch out when I do…

Sometimes, with larger, corporate brands, the “face” on the company isn’t a person’s. It’s a logo that invokes a personality trait. IBM has a certain personality. So does Dell, Gateway or HP.

If you’re running a smaller business, you’re not exempt from the need for a brand. At some point you must create an association between yourself and the person you want to influence, the results they want to have.

Smaller businesses especially need not just a face, but a voice. It’s part of why blogging is so successful. People buy from people, not from vague entities.

Your brand needs a face, a representative, a personality. Develop a brand and get closer to your clients.

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Is Your Blog Consistent with Your Brand?

by Tinu
Seven questions to ask before your choose your blog platform.
In this age where the bype of business blogging is plateauing, and people are starting to realize that blogging has real, permanent benefits, it’s time to ask yourself one of two questions. 

  • Does my planned blogging vision suit my company?, or,
  • Is my current blog strategy both cost-effective and brand-effective?

So here are seven quesitons to ask yourself.

  1. Does my blog have a style consistent with the rest of my site?If most of your site is professional and your blog looks like a third-grader put it up, it won’t be taken seriously.
  2. Can my blog get wide exposure?One blog with one feed won’t do it unless you were already at the top of your industry when you started.
  3. If my blog gets popular, will I be affected by outages as my traffic increases?On some systems, it won’t even take a traffic increase for your blog to be offline for half a day. Not. Professional.
  4. Will my blog give me a break?If you wanted to go on a six week vacation could you go without leaving someone to mind your blog? Would your audience be there when you got back?
  5. Is your blog search-friendly?Some blogs can help solve your SEO problem. Some won’t help you no mater what you do to them. One can keep you consistently ranked if you know how to configure it, as long as you keep content in it. (Call us and we’ll tell you which one. No charge, honest).
  6. Your blog message and your site message – are they congruent?As important as your logo is what your site “says” at a glance. This means just as much when it comes to your blog.
  7. Who is going to buy this cow?You don’t want to give the milk away by the gallon. You just want to give free taste samples. So it’s not just about what you’re blogging with, the blog topic, or your blog template. It’s about learning the finer points of blogging, in a way that is specific to your company and brand as possible.

Your blog has got to match or enhance your brand, in appearance, message, utility and reach. A blog that brings your brand down is worse than no blog at all.

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