by Madi Secareanu | Jun 13, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
How much of your brand identity do you own? If you really want to find out, run an online search of your brand and see what comes up. Do all pages that represent your brand belong to your brand? When you run a social media search, what comes up? Do all pages, accounts, profiles that represent your brand belong to you?
With the advent of social media, its become increasingly easy for “brand impostors” to steal the spotlight, especially on Facebook and Twitter – and it doesn’t stop at simple tweets and status updates. Some brand impostors go as far as creating campaigns and strategies, robbing your brand of its authenticity and control. Be aware that there is a big difference between accounts and pages that pay homage to your brand and impostors who act and speak on behalf of your brand. It boils down to owning your name, your voice and your customers and avoiding confusion and even legal issues.
A few examples of brand identity theft have been made quite public. For example, during the 2010 BP oil spill, fake Twitter accounts pretending to be BP PR appeared. Yahoo, Facebook, Aston Martin and AT&T have all been targets as well. Brand mascots haven’t been spared either, Mr.Clean, Chef Boyardee and the Pillsbury Doughboy have all been subjects of fake Twitter accounts.
Facebook is notorious for brand identity theft. Just recently I ran a search for 7-Eleven on Facebook and I found two brand pages: one for 7-Eleven, an official page, with 2.2 million likes and one for 711 with 21,000+ likes. It seems only natural in today’s short cut text messaging vocabulary that some 7-Eleven fans would and could search 7-Eleven by typing in 711 on Facebook. Since the Facebook page also looked like an official page, it has garnered significant likes. So will the real 7-Eleven stand up? Is it fair to assume that this page is an impostor… or was it started by an official brand ambassador and abandoned? Regardless of the story behind the two 7-Eleven Pages, or how and why they both exist, a brand needs to take action and ownership to help avoid confusion and reach their consumers and fans in an official way.
So how does a brand protect itself? Here are a few tips:
- Think ahead: Brands must have a strategy and a plan in place to prevent and quickly respond to a brand impostor. Will you make an official announcement about it? Will you go into attack mode? Will you do nothing? Making a strategic action plan to deal with impostors is imperative. Don’t be blindsided.
- Secure your name: A good rule of thumb is to secure all URLs, Twitter handles, Facebook pages and Facebook URLs that are associated with your brand. Even if you’re not using a specific page or account, it’s good to claim it to help protect your brand. Also, make sure it’s clear that you’re pages are official and verify your account on Twitter, if you can.
- Know what’s out there: As I mentioned earlier, keep searching for your brand online on a regular basis. Look for keywords related to your brand or brand name misspellings. If an impostor account exists on a social media site, make sure you report it.
- Take control: Some social media sites allow you to take over impostor brand accounts or pages, merging them and their “Likes” with your official page if you consider it important. Maybe fans or followers were not aware they were following an impostor.
Do you take a proactive role in protecting your brand online and on social media from identity theft? Also, go and Google your brand right now. What did you find?
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by Christine Marr | Jun 6, 2012 | Branding, Social Media
It used to be that the purpose of a blog was to state your opinion or viewpoint to those people who connected and linked with you…. so that like-minded people could join in a conversation and contribute to the dynamics of the discussion. This is still true and very relevant today, however as a brand enabler I believe that blogging has taken its rightful place as a viable channel for brand voice. The emergence of the brand blog is very real. In today’s world, brand is no longer only a product… it can be, well, you! We are in the age of personal brand and, like everything else in Marketing, your “brand blog” needs to have very precise and articulated goals for you, the brand, to prosper! The objectives you set should be around increasing your SEO rank so more people can find you. In order to do this, make your objective to increase your page views as this will help you in achieving a stronger position in the internet world of ranking. Once you see your ranking go up, this will motivate you to continue pushing out great content. Be patient while you build momentum. Try to get over 100 daily views and continue to set goals from there.
Boost the power of your brand blog: 12 hours/week to build your brand online presence:
1) 5 hours/week: Your goal is to release one relevant and topical article every week that will generate conversation. Be selective in what you write about, don’t just write about just anything.The subject is important. Follow trends, provide how to techniques on a subject matter, or check a common pain everyone has and offer a solution. Provide resources and offer up list of those for others that have been valuable to you.
2) 2.5 hours/week: It’s not all about you (no!). Network and build relationships, share with like-minded people, comment on other posts and sites and chime in other blogger’s discussion. Social media is about community and blogs are the cornerstone of that community. Keep in mind that this social communities exists because we all help each other. By doing so, you get the added benefit of building your online brand presence.
3) 2 hours/week: Blogging is definitely about speaking up… but you also need to speak out! Spread the word, or rather post! Promote your blog posts to your network, tweet about it and don’t forget to post to social bookmarking sites. Post your article where it is appropriate: Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google Bookmarks, Reddit. Before you publish make sure that your post is keyword-enriched ,that the headline in Google friendly and that you’ve added tags and appropriate descriptions in the back-end of your blog to optimize your views. Once you set up your brand persona and a reputation, you can guest blog on like-minded sites, and return the favour by having them write on yours.
4) 2.5 hours/week: One article a week does not build momentum. To increase the odds of traction, posting 3x a week is ideal. If you feel that this is too big of a hurdle, you could post a link to another blog that you comment on with an intro discussion to the post. You’ll find once you get started and realize the benefits of blogging you will quickly pick up the momentum and writing many posts won’t be an issue. The strategy here is to keep your readers engaged and show them that you are a subject matter expert by researching your content and providing helpful information.
Building a relevant and results-achieving blog isn’t something that can be fit in or done on the side, especially when creating a brand voice (product, service or person!). This is a viable marketing channel that when strategized and measured can reap monumental results. If you can’t achieve this on your own (or if you don’t know where to find those precious 12 hours a week!) there’s no harm in asking for help and outsourcing. Outsourcing doesn’t mean loss of control, just greater sustainability and more precise actions. After all , it’s the least that your brand deserves.
by Madi Secareanu | May 8, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Interactive
It’s happened to all of us. We’ve been on Facebook posting something on a friend’s wall about a specific interest, like tennis, and the next thing you know Facebook is showing you an ad about tennis rackets. That’s the power of Facebook ads – it lets brands engage and target people based on interests – what they’re talking about and what they like.
Facebook ads can be a very powerful tool to help to generate interest, brand recognition and brand loyalty. It can be an advertiser’s dream – targeting using the information people willingly share with others or enter in their profiles. But it’s important to know the ins and outs of advertising on Facebook before you get started.If you’re planning on launching a Facebook advertising campaign, here are some things to keep in mind before you get going.
- Identify your goals
What do you want to achieve? Is a Fecbook advertising campaign the right strategy? Do you want more likes on your brand page? Do you want to get people to enter a contest? Do you want to drive brand awareness? Do you want to acquire new sales leads? Your objective defines your strategy, so make sure you know what your goals are before launching your campaign. Make sure to establish your objectives prior to launch but be prepared – with Facebook the strategy may vary throughout the duration of the campaign.
- Know your audience
Who do you want to reach – who is your audience? Think about what categories your customers fall into. Not only define them by demographics… dig deeper than that. Knowing your audience well lets’ you target your ads more effectively by tailoring your imagery and your copy to get your target audience’s attention.
- Set your budget
Set a clear budget as you would for all advertising efforts. Identify how much you want to spend daily or during the ad’s entire lifespan and identify your cost per click or cost per thousand impressions bid. How much are you willing to spend? What’s your strategy? Should you initiate a cost per thousand (CPM)or a click through(CTR) campaign.
- Know the rules
Get to know Facebook’s advertising policies and approval process. You’ll find useful information on what you can and cannot advertise, say or show. Knowing the guidelines before hand will lower your ad’s chance of getting disapproved or shut down.
Now, you might be ready to launch your Facebook advertising campaign, but don’t know if it’s going to be a success. It’s always hard to forecast if an ad is going to be successful or not, but if you know your audience well enough and you have a clear objective and a well-defined strategy, you can help improve your ad’s success rate. Here are a few useful tips on creating more effective Facebook ads:
- Copy is key
Develop to-the-point copy that grabs your viewers’ attention. Use a call to action like “Click here!” to help incite your audience to act. Also, use any keywords that you may have if you’ve done your psychographic targeting.
- Draw the eye
Facebook ads that have simple images generally perform better. Use people’s faces where possible as it can help create a more personal connection – but keep it relevant. Avoid using images with hard to read text. Again, try to keep it simple.
- Prepare for landing
Keep your landing page in mind. Where are you sending your audience? Your landing page should reflect what’s being advertised. It may seem a bit obvious but if you’re asking your audience to enter a contest, the landing page should allow them to enter a contest…and so on. Keep it consistent.
- Analyze the performance
The real beauty of Facebook advertising is that you can stop ads and launch new ones…in a blink of an eye! In order to do that though, you need to create many alternative ads in order to test them and analyze which ones work, which don’t and why.
As marketers, we already know the power of Facebook and what it can do for customer engagement and brand loyalty. We know how we can better integrate our brands into our customers’ daily life through Facebook – keep them talking about a brand by asking questions and through constant engagement, stay in front of their eyes and at the top of their mind. Recently, Facebook announced that it would include ads in the news feed – making ads even more integrated in customers’ every day Facebook activities.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Facebook ads are effective– any success stories that you’d like to share?
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by Miriam Hara | Apr 26, 2012 | Branding, Business Success
It use to be that Brand referred to product, but in today’s world, the use of brand has taken on new applications. I see a lot of reference to Personal branding and Inward branding. In fact I just recently read an interesting article on Forbes.com about Donald Trump, and the concept of the human brand. Have these terms been renamed to speak to the times and establish a sexier term for initiatives that were always around but never deemed as important as Product branding?
This post concentrates on Personal Brand. I will expand on Inward Branding in a separate post.
Whatever industry you play in… or work in, Personal Brand and Branding are increasingly important for you to achieve business success…but what does Personal Brand really mean anyway?
Personal: it’s you. It’s your personality. To bring up The Donald again, he IS his brand. In the world of social media and constant communication, it is increasingly important to brand yourself. You don’t have to be a public speaker, or a blogger, looking for a job or a celebrity, and still you need to brand yourself. Branding yourself personally provides you with a point of differentiation from others in the business arena.. so when you will need it, you can draw upon it. You need to build awareness of you. In short, you are the product. It’s your game face!
I believe marketers not only always knew this but they knew how to work their own style to create a personal brand. However business and sales managers and executive, although very business focused may not have been so personal brand savvy.
In today’s communication era the need to have a defined personal brand is no longer a nice to have… but a need to have. In order to stand apart, to get ahead, it is no longer okay to just have a name with a good solid handshake! Just like a product Brand….you have to have a persona, a way to make sure that you do not blend into the background.
Are you among those that are mystified by this new brand adjective? As I browse the my LinkedIn network, I find a lot of discussions about “personal brand”… What is it? How to own it? How to achieve it? It’s really not that hard, (says the marketer!). Think of yourself as a brand… Lululemon, Nike, Channel or whatever Brand gets you excited. Now take that excitement and turn it onto yourself. Ask these following questions: What makes me different (what talents do I have?) What do I want others to remember about me? How do I make myself stand apart?
Here’s a 3-step approach to creating your, yes, very own, personal brand:
1. It’s all about the first impression…. at first.
The informality of business has allowed for a multitude of possibilities to set you apart. Maybe it’s a certain style of clothing, or like me, wearing a distinct colour. Yes, I wear purple every time I see a client. Initially I started doing that to assist in branding my firm. I accomplished that but it has also become synonymous with me! Be careful not to go too overboard. Always be cognizant of whom you are meeting, what their style is like and what the “acceptable tone” of the company is. Standing apart doesn’t mean making a spectacle of yourself, it means you have to be assertive in your statement, without overpowering your statement with props and fanfare.
2. Leave something behind…with that first impression…
Top the incredible first impression with a business card to leave behind. This business card has your coordinates and a positioning statement that succinctly states what you can deliver on… on what sets you apart in the business arena. This is probably going to be a lot harder than deciding what clothes you have to wear! It’s difficult to describe yourself, your abilities and what you do in one sentence. Start by asking what makes you different from others? What experience can you state (professional and personal) that provides you with an edge? Reach out to your colleagues and business associates and ask what they see as your biggest strength.
3. As with product brands… you have to deliver the goods….
Each one of us has bought into a brand promise, whether it’s a service or a product, and have been disappointed. You know what I mean? The brand just didn’t live up to to its sizzle (brand promise). So be sure that doesn’t happen to you. In other words, you could look great, exude all the energy that sets you apart from others and make that first impression count. Top that fabulous first impression with an equally fabulous designed business card with that concise positioning statement and you have it made…. Or almost. You have to live up to your promise and to your uniqueness. You have to deliver on the sizzle and maintain the reputation that your Personal Brand is based on. And that’s the most important step in developing and establishing a Personal Brand and ensuring your business success.
Keep posted on the second part of this series about Inward Branding. I invite you to join in the conversation! If you got here via a link from a friend, or LinkedIn, I invite you to join the conversation on marketing, branding and design… sign up on 3H hoopla! here.
by Miriam Hara | May 19, 2010 | Branding, Business Success
Hold it. Maintain it. Sustain it.
When an athlete is weary, run down or even a little discouraged… is it realistic for him or her to go and run a race, without much training in hopes of coming in first? No.
Original photo by d_vdm available under a creative commons license
Likewise, it’s not very realistic to aim to come out of a recession thinking you’re going to be in first place without having put the time into training your consumers. Branding is critical to create an educated consumer, a consumer who knows your product is front-of-the line. There’s no need to push the envelope of your marketing budget and to go for glory in these tough times, but keeping the momentum is key. Maintain the brand energy, and nurture your brand investment. You’ll make sure the long-term brand fitness by keeping it fit on a daily basis!
What is brand fitness?
A fit brand is a brand that lives a long healthy life, one of profitable longevity.Hold it. Maintain your existing budget to sustain your market share.
