Brand chatter

It used to be much easier to get the word out about your brand and connect with your customers. You just ran an ad, or put out a press release. Tick. Next.

Not today. All the usual brand markers have become next to useless, and the new markers just don’t work the same way. You can’t control social media the way you controlled an ad campaign, and the results when you try just aren’t pretty!

Add to that the sheer volume of what’s out there. Everyone has something to say these days.  Twitter is littered with the bones of so much re-posting that it is almost impossible to find a unique thought from anyone.

LinkedIn has become a psuedo Facebook and MySpace, with an unhealthy focus on the number of contacts you have rather than how well you know them (the original idea). Facebook groups have taken healthy intracompany communications and are steadily turning them into a giant dysfunctional social club.

So what is a brand to do? Where to go, what markers should you use, abuse or ignore? It’s a minefield at best, and worse still no one seems to have an answer to the “should I” question.

Of course the social media people think you should use that. Of course the traditional advertising people (are there any of them left? I guess so) will say that is still the way to go. Of course the internet marketing types will want you to scoop up Google AdWords a plenty. It’s in their interests for you to do just what they say.

So here is where it gets interesting and important that you know WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU STAND FOR. It’s really the only way to navigate the mire.

There has never been a more important time to be authentic. Not only because the chances of being found out if you aren’t are so much higher. But because it’s the only way you will be able to decide what brand markers are really for you and which ones you should approach with a whip and chair.

Figure out the “who” and “what” questions and the rest becomes much easier.

See you next week.

Alignment is Michel’s passion. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia, and Brand Alignment Group in the United States, she helps organisations align who they are, with what they do and say to build more authentic and sustainable brands.

To see more Michel Hogan blogs, click here.