BRANDING
There’s never been a better time to tell your story.
Prepare Your Brand For Lift Off
Managing business and personal reputations has always been important, but ever since the internet began blurring the traditional lines between recreational and professional spaces, the number and variety of opportunities to do so has increased exponentially. In 2020, branding forums are so ubiquitous that people no longer have the option to opt out. Your story is going to be told whether you like it or not, so you might as well seize control and tell it in a way that’s straightforward, engaging, and authentic.
A guide to sharing your
Your story is the differentiating factor.
Managing Your Own Orbit
The way we consume information is changing. In this age of algorithmically generated content, 96% of consumers receive advertisements and promotions that are irrelevant to their interests, and people are craving the personal insights of curators, tastemakers, and experts more than ever. A whopping 82% of consumers trust their peers’ recommendations more than the content served to them by brands.
But personal insights don’t always scale well. It’s why less than 50% of brands use real-time interaction and contextual data to tailor their strategies, despite overwhelming evidence that it works.
This changing landscape has coincided with the rise of microinfluencers. Consumers want to trust the people they engage with — and who do they trust more than the people in their own networks? Microinfluencers help the people in their circle by sharing the insights they’ve gleaned from their unique journeys, and in return they get the chance to grow their network, manage their reputation, and generate business.
No one else has the same collection of life experiences as you, and no one has the same wisdom to offer. Don’t let that go untapped. Efficiently create a web of influence.
A Premium on Authenticity
We’ve all seen it: The gigantic corporation on Twitter using the slang of a highschooler; the overly eager lifestyle gurus dancing on TikTok to songs they’ve never heard. Inorganic branding of this nature is the reason people are less inclined to trust brands than they are people. Research shows brand messages are shared 24 times more frequently when they’re delivered by a company’s employees as opposed to when they’re delivered by the company itself.
The most successful brands are the ones that are able to emulate this personal touch. They drill down on what their truth is and they highlight why their audiences should care about it. They know how to distill the essence of who they are into a digestible package, but they also know how to expand their core messaging by layering creative elements on top of it. As a professional who bridges the gap between brand stakeholders and the creative teams that bring them to life, I’ve been advising people on how to authentically shape their narratives my entire career. I’d love to share this experience.
“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is-it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook