Reputation and brand are interchangeable—and more important than ever.
Just spend a few hours on social media studying the images people project of their lives. Perfect kids, perfect vacations and never a hair out of place—we are all completely conscious of managing our own image.
But what about our companies’ reputations? Warren Buffett put it simply: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
You don’t need to walk on eggshells. With the right communications ingredients, and a bit of foresight, you can keep your company’s brand polished and progressive. But you will need a few specialists: marketers, publicists, writers, social media experts.
If you don’t have this team on speed dial, we’ve prepared the following tips to ensure your brand—and business—stay relevant and untarnished.
1. Know Who You’re Talking To
Whether you call them your target audience, key stakeholders, clients or investors—you have to know what they care about and will respond to:
- Who do they look to for advice?
- How do they make purchasing decisions?
- Where do they “hang out” personally and professionally, both online and off?
- What are their pain points?
- What are the trends, opportunities and threat that are on their radar?
No matter how targeted you are, your audience is likely to be diverse, which means you’ll engage with them in many different places. Keep the experience consistent to avoid confusing or muddled messages.
2. Define Your Brand Message
Creating and adhering to a strategic message allows you to position your business in both day-to-day communications and in times of crisis.
- Make your message easy to understand, memorable and differentiated. No matter how routine it may seem to you, there is always a thread that connects your capabilities in a logical and compelling way.
- Use this message everywhere, including online, print, events, client service, etc.
- Create a visual identity that compliments your overall positioning, to drive home your values and differentiators to all your stakeholders.
3. Stories Trump Expertise
Research is great, but it’s not the whole package. Tell stories that are modern, consistent and compelling. Don’t get lost in the facts and figures—let people connect with the emotional undercurrents of your brand.
- How was your business founded? What’s changed in the years between then and now?
- What’s your expertise? What do you do differently from every other company in your space?
- Where are you going? What gets you out of bed and to the office every day?
4. Be Transparent
If something happened in your past that impacted your reputation, address it. Now. Turn that negative into a positive by describing what you learned and how it ultimately shaped your future decisions.
- What mistakes did you make? How did you learn from it?
- What steps did you take to ensure future success?
- What changes did you make in how you do business to better align your day-to-day with your brand values?
5. Keep a Watchful Eye
Know the warning signs of crisis to help assess and measure risks and rewards.
- Keep track of your online presence.
- Regularly search your company’s name or set up an email alert for new mentions.
- Run site-specific and individual searches for your business and executives to stop problems before they become full-blown issues.
Whether the scandal is on the scale of global business or a personal matter, based on truth or rumor, it hardly matters. To survive, you need a command of risk and reputation management—or the right team to watch your back.
The Right Team to Protect Your Brand
The Image Makers
Who does what to build and protect your reputation? Here are a few of the actors, and the roles they play:
Marketers
Marketers wear many different hats, and can act as both generalists and specialists. At the top of the funnel, marketers help clarify what makes you different among your competitors, and then set the strategy to promote it.
PR Pros
PR professionals are also strategists, but they additionally focus on how to tactically tout your brand’s strengths in public forums. Today, that means more than securing traditional media. They also pitch in on “owned” media—like blogs and corporate videos—and extend their reach to the social sphere.
Content Marketers
They create the materials companies need to make would-be clients into hot prospects. They can be writers, videographers, graphic designers, photographers or any other specialist that creates the stuff that gets you noticed.
Social Media Experts
connect all your marketing and communications efforts on social channels. Yes, that means posting to Twitter. But it also means ensuring your blogs and press wins are easily shareable throughout the “social-verse.”
Let’s Connect
Ready to build, grow, manage and protect your brand? Complete the form below to discuss how we can help.