Five Personal Branding Lessons from Santa

Santa Claus is, without a doubt, the most well-known personal brand when it comes to holidays. He is the embodiment of the Christmas holiday with his merry demeanor and important task of delivering gifts while flying through the sky with his reindeer and climbing down chimneys.

To quote LoveToKnow: “When you hear a ho, ho, ho, it takes you back to the enchanting memories of Santa Claus during your childhood. Santa is more than magic, he's a tradition.”

Here are five personal branding lessons Santa teaches us:

MESSAGE CLARITY
For generations, the message of Santa Claus has been love, family, and goodness. How about you? What is your personal brand’s message? Is it easy to explain? Is it easy to understand?

MESSAGE CONSISTENCY
For generations, Santa has embodied the same message. How about you? Has your personal brand been consistent over time? Has it been shared in the same way with the same word choice in the current social media age? Do employers and colleagues know at a quick glance what your personal brand story is?

COLOR CHOICE
Santa is immediately recognizable by his red suit. His color choice embodies love, life, strength, power, and attention. What about you? Do you have a color that you wear often? Is there a color that best represents you or your accomplishments?

REPRESENT A CAUSE
Santa’s tradition is that he delivers gifts to good little children during his Christmas eve travels around the world. This encourages children to behave during the year, or at the very least, during the days leading up to the December holiday. However, Santa is also the embodiment of good, which can be seen by this inspiring story from 2013.

“With a touch of Christmas magic, Mr. Claus and his gang of Santa’s saw their red suits drained to a brilliant white after they rolled up their sleeves to give blood at a central London clinic. December is a bad time for blood stocks with potential donors being too busy partying and Christmas shopping…Some young patients need Santa to bring them something far more important than the latest gadget or toy for Christmas, they need the gift of blood to stay alive,” explained Jon Latham of NHS Blood and Transport.

What about you? Are you involved in philanthropy? Do you volunteer for a nonprofit? Do you serve on a nonprofit board or committee? Does your personal brand show your community service?

PARTNERSHIP ALIGNMENT
Over the years, Santa has appeared in ads for a variety of products including Coca-Cola, Mercedes, Kodak pocket camera, Quaker sugar cookies, and M&M’s. These products and countless more have capitalized on the positive attributes of Santa’s personal brand. What about you? Have you partnered with product or service brands to enhance your personal brand storytelling? If yes, how has the combined story impacted your personal brand?

Perhaps, Santa’s most well-known technology partnership is with NORAD. According to Wikipedia, “NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas-themed program in which North American Aerospace Defense Command simulates the tracking of Santa Claus, who is said to leave the North Pole to travel around the world on his mission to deliver presents to children every year on Christmas Eve. The program starts on December 1, but the actual Santa-tracking simulation starts at midnight annually on December 23. It is a community outreach function and has been held annually since 1955. Here’s the link: www.noradsanta.org.”

Happy personal branding – and Merry Christmas!


Image Credit: NHS Blood and Transport (@GiveBloodNHS on Twitter with hashtags #GiveBlood and #KeepDonating)

Five Personal Branding Tips from Queen Elizabeth II

As the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, and the entire world celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee from June 2 to June 5, there are five personal branding tips we can all learn from Her Majesty.

First, a little context and history. According to JM Bullion, “Queen Elizabeth II was born April 21, 1926, in England. Her parents were Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. When her uncle Edward abdicated the throne, her father became King George, and Elizabeth, who had no plans of ascension, was heir to the throne. By 1951, her father’s health began a sharp decline, and in 1952, he died. On February 6, 1952, the 25-year-old Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor acceded to the throne. Her reign has become the longest reign in history, spanning two centuries, ensuring a link between generations that see her as an enduring symbol of stability and tradition.”

According to Forbes, “Under the gold and the pomp, behind the palaces, the brooches, tiaras and the hats, everyone feels that Elizabeth is a woman almost like the others, loving country life more than anything, with her old scarves, her dogs, and her family, even if a little dysfunctional. Like everyone else, she has faced ups and downs, joys, and dramas, approaching the vicissitudes with exemplary self-control. Her Platinum Jubilee celebrations will be, given her frailty, her last big show of pomp, pageantry, lavishness and ceremony.”

So, what can we learn about personal branding from, perhaps, the most famous woman on the planet? Check out these five tips.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
The meaning behind the slogan is why it is loved. “Keep Calm” means to remain level-headed in times of crisis. “Carry On” means to act normal and rise above the bad times. Originally featured in posters created by the British government during World War II, the phrase has been embraced since it was rediscovered in the early 2000’s.

Queen Elizabeth maintains a confident exterior. She does not show fear or uncertainty. Wherever she goes, whether to a charity function in London or on an international journey, she presents an appearance of professionalism and dedication to her role.

WORK WITH OTHERS
The Queen leads a Commonwealth of 54 nations. She has a ceremonial seat in Parliament. She meets with the British Prime Minister on a regular basis. And she has met with countless international leaders including 12 American Presidents. She has set an exemplary example of teamwork and collaboration.

DRESS THE PART
The Queen always wears bright colors and memorable hats. In this way, she stands out in a crowd. While this is done for security purposes, it also allows fans and constituents to easily see her to wave and show their support.

BE CONSISTENT
The Queen champions the same causes and patronages and attends the same events every year. People know that they can count on her support, her kind words, her appearances, and her in-person smiles.

DETERMINE HOW YOU WANT TO TELL YOUR STORY
The Queen knows how she wants to tell her story. Over the last 70 years, she has controlled her narrative. There have been black marks on the Royal Family including the breakup of Prince Charles’ and Prince Andrew’s marriages, but there have also been highlights, such as, four generations alive at one time representing the line of succession (Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince George). While she has a “Royal Palace” that provides statements to the press/media (and many of us do not have this public relations luxury), we can still control our own narrative.

What other personal branding tips can we learn from this inspiring leader?

Image Credit: Debbie Laskey via Keep Calm app.

It’s the Little Things that Create Memorable #BrandExperiences – A Conversation with Jake Poore

Twitter serves as an amazing water cooler in today’s social media era, and thanks to Twitter, I met Jake Poore due to two things we share in common: work experience with Disney and a passion for excellent customer service. We recently discussed why the brands that provide positive customer experiences will surpass their competition, and highlights follow below Jake’s brief bio.

Meet Jake Poore. As President and Chief Experience Officer of Integrated Loyalty Systems in Orlando, Florida, Jake’s on a mission to elevate the human side of healthcare. For more than two decades, he has worked with healthcare leaders sharing the blueprints needed to create a culture that delivers exceptional patient and customer experiences. For 18 years, Jake worked for the Walt Disney World Company, where he helped launch the Disney Institute. Nearly 80 percent of the people who attended the Institute were from healthcare, and that’s where his passion for improving healthcare began. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “99 Lessons Learned from Disney to Improve the Patient Experience.” You can follow Jake on Twitter @JakePoore and read more about him on his website at www.wecreateloyalty.com.

QUESTION: As a big fan of the Disney Institute (and I’d definitely attend all of its training seminars if I lived in Florida!), and as an alum of the Walt Disney Company (I worked in the Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France for my summer internship during graduate school in 1995), I wonder if most companies would benefit from having something similar to Disney University to train all employees about a brand's core beliefs or something similar to Disney Institute to help train a brand’s leaders. What are your thoughts?

JAKE POORE: There are two types of employees in every organization: those who are making brand promises and those who are delivering on the promise of the brand. Both groups would benefit from understanding the brand’s core purpose and strategy. So, the answer, of course, is yes. Who we are, why we do what we do, our story, how we got here...all of those things are foundational. Everyone has to know these things.

It’s also important for every employee to know and fully understand what we stand for and what we won’t stand for as an organization. And, to know what adds value to the brand and what unintentionally distracts or detracts from the brand.

In the end, you either have brand owners, protectors, or proponents. Or, you have brand poachers. People in the organization who are tarnishing the branding (intentionally or unintentionally) by doing their own thing in silos focused solely on their job tasks. These are the folks who are not delivering on the promise of the brand.

Organizations like Southwest Airlines, Zappos, Ritz Carlton, and Disney know that the Net Promoter Score of their brand is determined by how well every one of their employees knows, understands, and can behavioralize the brand in actions and words. (The Net Promoter Score, NPS, is a marketing measurement used to determine the percentage of customers who would recommend your brand to family and friends, based on a series of questions including, “On a scale of one to ten, how likely are you to recommend us?”)

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” This is true for healthcare and every business or organization. There must be a consistency, a continuity, — where every employee is working under the same set of operational priorities and toward the same end in mind: delivering a world-class experience.

QUESTION: In my blog post entitled, “Want Your Brand to Soar Above the Competition?,” I shared six amazing #BrandExperiences (link follows below). Could you share some of YOUR favorite brand experiences and your reasons why?

Blog post link: http://debbielaskey.blogspot.com/2018/04/want-your-brand-to-soar-above.html

JAKE POORE: One of my absolute favorite brands is Apple. The online Apple helpline is fantastic, but the service at their brick and mortar Apple stores is second-to-none. If I need a repair or service on my laptop or iPhone, I try to get to the store just prior to opening. Of course, the whole store is glass, so I get to watch them have their team meeting about 15 minutes before the store opens. The employees end the meeting with applause as they walk toward the front door (nonverbal communication) to open up for the day. This builds excitement and makes the customers feel welcomed. Once the doors open, you meet a greeter who “triages” you, plugs your information into their iPad, and makes note of the clothing you’re wearing or some other identifiable feature (glasses, business suit, etc.) so that an Apple associate can find you with ease. I’m familiar with Apple products and have used them for many years, but I still appreciate that they talk to me in a language I understand. I travel frequently for work and if I walk in to the Apple store and tell them I’ve got a problem, but I have to get on a plane in an hour, they jump all over it. A great brand experience is when your organizational culture meets your customer where THEY ARE – not the other way around. Apple does this exceptionally well.

Southwest Airlines is another brand experience done well. Their waiting area is exceptionally well done. Their check-in processes are always friendly, always relaxed. And their terminals are always decorated or themed for holidays or sporting events. And notably, their employees seem to be having fun. And while in flight, it’s the only airline where I take off my headset because I can’t wait to hear what they’re going to say or do next. It’s an organization that is continuously improving and elevating the experience by using the people closest to the experience.

TWEET THIS: Every employee needs to know and fully understand what adds value to the brand and what unintentionally distracts or detracts from the brand. -@JakePoore

QUESTION: You’ve written on your blog that, "Creating great experiences doesn’t require lots of money or huge effort. Instead, focus on the little things, the little wows, the little ways you can exceed your customers’ or patients’ expectations. When you add them all up, these little moments that delight your customers and patients are what define a world-class experience.” Can you provide some examples?

JAKE POORE: I think that before we can delight, we must first remove the emotional hot spots in healthcare. Hospitals are notorious for creating lots of self-inflicted wounds in the patient experience, daily! Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern-day nursing said it best, “Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.” In every patient or customer interaction, we are either elevating their fear and anxiety or unintentionally adding to it.

So, a good place to start is to list the anxiety hot spots that put anxiety chips on patient’s shoulders before they ever get to see a provider and seek simple, low, or no cost ideas to solve them. For instance, can we answer these questions: Where do I park? Which of the four entrances is the right one? Is there a wheelchair there for me? Where do I check-in? How long will I have to wait? How much will this cost? Will they speak my language, or will I need a need a healthcare jargon translator? Will they call me by my preferred name or am I just a clinic ID number, procedure or “the hip” in room 103? What is that smell? Will there be something to do if I have to wait a long time? Is there any art or music to enjoy? Who is who on the care team? Who is who in the operating room behind those surgical masks? Will they respect me and treat with dignity (even down to the patient belongings bags)? Will I remember where I parked in three days when I leave? Most of the answers to these questions can be answered creatively and with a keen eye toward stewardship, but they must be answered through the patient’s eyes.

Customers tell us that world-class experiences don’t happen because of one big thing; they happen because of lots of attention to the small things, the little wows. One way to create these little wows is to identify and proactively anticipate a patient or customer’s “pain points” or “friction points.” What things do people see or encounter that might leave a bad impression? Once you identify these things, you can take steps to proactively address them by removing the pain and friction and adding more little wows.

A good starting point is perhaps someplace you might not even think about: the hospital parking garage or parking lot. Consider the perspective of an elderly patient arriving at the hospital for scheduled knee surgery. We know she is coming, she is scheduled after all. But does she feel like we’re expecting her? Her first point of anxiety shouldn’t be entering the hospital from the parking lot or parking garage, but too often, it is. Where should she park? How does she feel when she has to drive past 35 parking spots reserved “ONLY for medical personnel” and then she has to compete with other hospital employees arriving in their scrubs for the remaining spots? She’ll need a wheelchair. Is there one close by? Will someone push her? All of this causes her blood pressure to rise.

But, lucky for her, we have anticipated this and have volunteers in golf carts to pick her up and take her to her appointment. Along the way, they chat, and the volunteer hands the patient, “Margo”, a slip of paper with her parking spot number and floor and his phone number to call for a ride back to her car. He then texts the surgical front desk with a heads up: “Margaret ‘Margo’ Jones on her way. From volunteer Bill.”

When she arrives to the pre-surgery check in, she is immediately greeted by her preferred name and a hand shake from the front desk personnel, “Hello Margo, welcome, my name is Joanne, we’ve been expecting you! Heard you got a limo ride from our Bill, isn’t he GREAT! Now, let’s get you checked-in.” Margo is very impressed. After checking in, she sits in a crowded waiting area. Minutes later, a medical assistant walks right up to her and quietly says to her, “You must be Margo. Hi, my name is John, I work with Dr. Williams. I can take you back now and get prepped for your knee surgery.” Margo suddenly remembers her doctor’s office experience and how they just shout out people’s names to the whole waiting area. She liked it here at the hospital much better!

During surgery, every one of the surgical team members have their names printed on the skull caps and their role (Dr. Williams/Surgeon, Dr. Smith/Anesthesiology, Jennifer/Nurse), and they all introduced themselves before she went to sleep. She liked that!

And after surgery, on the way out, she noticed that her patient belongings bag was opaque white with a nice message of thank you from the hospital – not the clear plastic bag used last time (revealing all of her undergarments to the world)! She called the number on the piece of paper, and then a volunteer named Betty arrived, picked her up, and dropped her at her parked car. How much money did that all that cost? And what impact did that make on Margo? How did it make her feel? Priceless, right?

QUESTION: You’ve stated on Twitter that you believe “how employees treat each other should MIRROR how everyone treats patients, customers, fans, etc.” While that is a noble goal, how can leaders create a culture where everyone practices kindness, fairness, inclusiveness, etc.?

JAKE POORE: Like the old adage says, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Leaders must lead by example. In our patient example earlier, Margo did not know how technically or clinically competent her caregivers were, but she will surely tell you how caring they were, right? The question is, how can we expect our employees to continue to do that with patients if we (leaders) don’t do that with them as well?

One simple technique we teach our clients is a powerful, yet simple tool called Human-Business-Human, or HBH. The premise is simple: Human first, Business second, Human third. Start every interaction or meeting on the human side, conduct your business, and then end every interaction on the human side, seeking to make some kind of human connection in the process.

When we scheduled Mrs. Margaret Jones for her surgery, we simply asked her (on the human side) what name she would prefer to be called by the care team members, and she said, “Please call me Margo.” That answer went into HER (electronic health record), on the medical chart, and the many patient dry erase boards, and the happy result was that everyone called her, “Margo.”

If this one simple thing made her feel special and engendered her trust, why don’t we do the same simple thing for every new employee when they are hired as well? When new employees or doctors arrive to their work location, there should be a “welcome to the team” card (signed by all the team members) with their preferred name that they want to be called featured on it. Their name and business cards should all follow suit and include the preferred name. (How often has this NOT been the case at your new job?)

Leaders can also practice HBH in the way they answer the phone, respond to text messages, or conduct team meetings. For example, you can start team meetings “on the human” by sharing an inspirational quote or by asking, “Who has a celebration (work related or personal)?” Celebrations include work recertifications, birthdays, graduations, vacation plans, new baby announcements, etc. Then, we conduct our team meeting and get down to business. Finally, we end the meeting “on the human” by sharing appreciation for employees’ time, input, and each another.

TWEET THIS: Look for the things the organization is doing well so they become business as usual and not random acts of kindness. -@JakePoore

QUESTION: Do you think every business should have a Chief Customer Officer? What should the person’s role be? And is this a necessary C-level position?

JAKE POORE: The short answer is absolutely yes! It doesn’t have to be a C-Suite level position, but I absolutely believe that this person must report directly to the CEO. Why? Because it’s THAT important. While customer service is everybody’s job, someone has to be working on it 100% of the time. That person cannot and, quite frankly, should not have skin in anything else (COO, CNO, CMO, etc.). If they do have other responsibilities, and anything happens in their department, they’re more likely to protect their own specialty area than find out what really happened. That hurts the whole process and does nothing to advance the patient or customer experience.

Someone needs to collect the research by interviewing patients, walking the entire guest experience every day and looking for the things the organization is doing well so they can share and hardwire them – so they become business as usual and not random acts of kindness. Someone needs to help build the processes, not remain stuck in the trenches battling the day-to-day complaints.

And when things go wrong, and their team is handling customer service concerns or complaints, this officer can gather stories of what is happening and find the solutions that were offered and then build what I call a “Play” for the “Always Playbook”— just like in sports — to prevent the problem or issue from happening again. This Always Playbook is shared with every team member so that everyone knows what to do, should a similar situation arise again.

The key question here is: Who is advocating for the customer every day? A Chief Customer Officer should also be doing the research and following up. Because if you spend some time walking the customer experience, you can spot the things that need to be fixed or changed. A dedicated Chief Customer Experience officer needs to be looking through the lens of the customer — not SOME of the time, but ALL of the time. Always. Because if they’re not focused on it 100 percent of the time, then they’re not advocating for the customer. All they’re doing is dancing between random acts of kindness and complaints.

TWEET THIS: Walt Disney said, “Sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen to stimulate everybody.” This is a great way to describe the role of a #ChiefCustomerOfficer. -@JakePoore

My gratitude and appreciation to Jake for appearing on my Blog and sharing his amazing and inspiring business insights.

Image Credit: Jake Poore via Kim Court.

Ten Useful Brand Marketing Hashtags

Thanks to social media, hashtags have become an excellent marketing tool when reaching out to customers and potential customers. Whenever a hashtag or number sign (#) is inserted in front of a word or phrase, it brings attention to the word or phrase and facilitates online searches. Hashtags have become useful throughout social media but are most widely used on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google Plus.

According to Wikipedia, a hashtag "makes it possible for (people) to easily find a specific theme or content...If promoted by enough individuals, a hashtag can 'trend' and attract more individual users...Because of its widespread use, ‘hashtag’ was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June 2014."

While there are countless marketing hashtags, here are ten focused on branding and brand-building:

[1] #BrandExperience
When talking about the impact a brand makes on its customers, fans, or stakeholders, the term is brand experience. A positive brand experience can create a customer for life, and by contrast, a negative brand experience can be a brand’s worst nightmare due to the power of word-of-mouth marketing. All brands should focus on their brand experience, and always walk a mile in their customers’ shoes. Use this hashtag to showcase your overall brand experience and to attract more fans, followers, and customers.

[2] #BrandStorytelling
What story does your brand tell? Consider Apple, Tiffany & Co., and Amazon. What are their stories? Their mission statements easily tell their stories. Use this hashtag to tell stories that will engage your followers and fans.

[3] #BrandPositioning
Is your brand an industry leader or a follower? How do you position your brand in the marketplace? Consider Avis and its tagline: “We're #2 – We Try Harder.” Avis may not be the biggest car rental agency, but its tagline sticks out. Consider the Energizer Bunny – who doesn’t think of the pink bunny when a wireless mouse or keyboard needs new batteries? And while the golden arches of McDonald’s appear on almost every corner around the world, Burger King’s emphasis on bigger and cheaper hamburgers have developed a large following. There are advantages to being #2. One advantage to being #2 is the ability to create unique product specifications and/or packaging since no one expects you to be different. Other advantages include the ability to tweak pricing, the ability to align or partner with totally unconventional companies or brands, and the ability to change packaging or advertising just to see how consumers react. Use this hashtag to explain your brand positioning and how you excel – wherever you fit into your industry.

[4] #BrandStrategy
According to Bernadette Jiwa (@bernadettejiwa), “We think our job is to change how people feel about our product or service. But, in fact, our job is to change how people feel about themselves when they use that product or service.” Use this hashtag to highlight some aspect of your brand marketing strategy.

[5] #BrandPromise
What is your brand’s competitive advantage? Do your employees know, and can all of them clearly articulate your brand promise? From the CEO on down, commit to delivering your brand promise to customers. Use this hashtag to highlight your brand promise and show how you deliver.

[6] #BrandConsistency
How do you present your brand to your target audiences? If you have a tagline, specific colors in your logo, or words that represent your brand, all must be included on a consistent basis whenever talking about your brand. If you’re inconsistent, not only will you confuse your audiences, but you may lose customers. Use this hashtag to demonstrate ways that your brand is consistent.

[7] #BrandVoice
How does your brand speak to all of your audiences? Do you use industry-specific jargon? Are you formal or informal? Are you consistent with your brand voice throughout all social platforms? Consider these questions as you build and maintain your digital brand. Use this hashtag when something you post/say is in line with all your other brand assets.

[8] #BrandRelevance
How relevant is your brand? While it may be top of mindshare to your employees and key stakeholders, it may not be well-known outside of your circle of influencers.  Use this hashtag to demonstrate the strengths and unique attributes you contribute to your industry and the community-at-large. You may be surprised by how your brand recognition grows.

[9] #BrandIdentity
According to David Aaker (@DavidAaker), “An extended identity can help a brand break out of the box…consider the strategic role of the Wells Fargo stagecoach in the brand’s awareness level.” Use this hashtag to explain elements in your brand story, as well as your values and culture.

[10] #BrandAmbassador
Today, every employee has the potential to represent your brand. Therefore, leaders must ask, “Do employees have enough information to explain our competitive advantage? Can they articulate the brand promise in one or two sentences? Do they know who handles customer service complaints or press inquiries?” If the answers to these questions are no, then ask yourself this important question: How can my employees be enthusiastic brand ambassadors? The answer may force leaders to create a culture where innovation is promoted and recognized, where questions are answered, where good work is rewarded, and where leadership is transparent. Engaged employees will emerge – people who will live and breathe your brand on a daily basis. Use this hashtag to provide assistance to create brand ambassadors – and to highlight and thank your existing ambassadors.

On a related note, there are two other hashtags that you should also keep in mind. #EmployerBranding is useful when looking for top quality candidates. Show job applicants that your company, business, or nonprofit cares about employees by being conscious of your employer brand. And #PersonalBranding is an important hashtag because every individual is a brand and has something unique to offer.

I’d like to end with my favorite quote about branding. Ken Peters (@brand_BIG) said it best, “Advertising shouts at you. Marketing talks to you. Branding connects with you.”

What do you think? Chime in with your fave brand marketing hashtag.

Five Tips to Create Your Brand Style Guide

What’s one of the most important documents that your company has? While you might think it’s the list of passwords to gain access to your customer database, and that’s certainly important, a brand style guide is critical. In today’s competitive and social economy, a consistent and positive brand experience leads to future business and new customers. Therefore, a brand style guide is essential for the future success of your business.

This post provides five tips to create a brand style guide. A note, this document is a living, breathing document, so it will evolve over time – just as your business evolves. But if you don’t have one, don’t delay, create a brand style guide immediately.

[1] Showcase Your Brand Voice

Is your brand playful or serious? Do you have industry-specific jargon that’s easy to understand, or do you need to provide definitions? It may be easier to explain your brand’s voice by sharing examples with sample sentences. Another way to explain your brand’s voice may be by way of comparisons. Here’s an example from MailChimp: “We’re fun but not silly, expert but not bossy, confident but not cocky.”

[2] Showcase Your Brand Visuals

Is your brand associated with a specific color or colors? Think UPS and brown. Is your brand associated with a specific font? Think Coca-Cola’s swirl. If yes, know the Pantone or PMS colors as well as the CMYK and RGB versions. Also include “Don’t Use” examples with your logo and tagline.

[3] Showcase Consistency

Your brand is not just one logo, one tagline, and one or more colors. Think of how the Apple brand has evolved from the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad. When your main brand evolves and co-brands are created, consistency with the main brand provides credibility. Consumers, users, and stakeholders have developed a bond with your brand, and as a result, you want them to also develop a bond with your other brands. The best way to make this happen is to provide brand consistency. Apple did this by including the “i” in its brand naming structure.

[4] Include Your Legal Team

Ask your legal team to review the style guide. This will accomplish two important goals. First, the legal team will be involved in the process so that if any brand or trademark infringements happen, the legal team will be aware of the document you’ve created. And second, the legal team can share its trademark law expertise and possibly add something to the style guide that was missed by the marketing, design, PR, and/or personnel teams.

[5] Share Your Guide Company-Wide

Once the brand style guide has been completed, don’t toss it into a drawer in the personnel department leader’s office and forget about it. Include it as part of your onboarding process and hold quarterly brand training sessions. Feature it as a PDF on your website in the online press room and feature highlights in a blog post or blog posts on your company’s blog. Apply the guidelines to all other company marketing applications including letterhead and envelopes, business cards, email signatures, PowerPoint presentation templates, meeting agendas, flyers, and more. Use the logo or an approved tweaked version on all social platforms. Make sure that your employees know that they are encouraged to associate themselves with your company/brand when they post in social media but that they must clearly note their online posts as their own (for example, in their Twitter profiles).
 
And lastly, it is a good idea to provide an introduction to your brand style guide. Here is a sample introduction:

"These guidelines are provided to help carry our brand message to the community. Along with the brandmark, typography, color palette and other visual elements, directions are included to help manage the visual communication materials. This guide should be used as a reference when working with outside vendors and also with internal departments to ensure that everyone is using the (include your company name here) logo and other brand tools in a consistent manner."

What else have you included in your brand style guide? Please chime in and share.

Five Ways the New Year Can Jump-Start Your Personal Brand

Image Credit: Nubie.com

With the arrival of the New Year, it's time for clean slates in the marketing arena. Many marketing budgets have been refreshed and are set back to zero. Marketing campaigns have new objectives, and metrics have yet to be met. With all the possibilities in front of your brand, it's a great time to spend time thinking about your PERSONAL brand. In fact, here are five ways that the New Year can jump-start your personal brand.

[1] How does your personal brand look?
Do you need a new head shot for all your social media platforms? While it may be interesting to see someone standing in front of the Taj Mahal, that is not an appropriate photo except maybe for a travel agent – and maybe not even then. Interview photographers, look at their portfolios, and review LinkedIn profiles – and then arrange a photo shoot so you'll have lots of new photos in your personal branding tool chest. If you have a variety of social platforms and are active in social media, you'll want high-quality head shots. If you're a professional speaker, writer, etc., you may want pics taken with different backgrounds. Whatever your needs are, smile for the camera!

[2] What colors reflect your personal brand?
When you think about your strengths, do you think blue, yellow, or orange? What does your Twitter or Facebook profile image say about you? Your color palette should reflect your competitive strengths and positioning exactly how you want to present yourself. If you need a refresher in color associations, see below.

Image Credit: Buffer

And let's not forget the color of the year. Pantone, known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer, has named Greenery as the color of 2017. "Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us with the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate and revitalize, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose," explained Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute.

[3] What does your personal website say about you and your talents?
This question assumes that that you do, in fact, have an online portfolio or website. If not, do not pass go, don't collect $200 – create a website and reserve a URL with your name immediately. In this era when people buy URL's to hedge their bets that someone may want to purchase them or act with nefarious intent, reserve your name followed by .com. Then create a website with the basics including some of your work, links to your social sites, and your contact info. If you don't want to include your email address, phone number, or snail mail address for security reasons, create a form for a visitor to complete to connect with you – because you never know when Bill Gates may want to connect with you! In the alternative, create an email address specifically for your website. But no matter what you decide, in this social era, you definitely need a website.

[4] What does your personal blog say about you and your talents?
Everyone has an opinion. I've even seen realtors and doctors with blogs. Now I'm not recommending that you write posts about real estate or medical procedures (unless those are your specialties), but there is an abundance of mainstream news for you to read that will inspire you to generate content. Since I started my personal marketing/leadership blog in 2009, and with over 200 posts on my site and more than 200 on other sites around the Internet, my most popular posts have included these topics:

•    Annual Marketing Highlights
•    Annual Brand Tips
•    Annual Marketing Terms
•    Social Media Secrets
•    Q&A with visiting thought leaders (an interview series)

[5] What new social platforms have you tried?
When was the last time you used Snapchat? What about the stories feature on Instagram? While you may not discover the next Facebook before tech journalists at TechRepublic, the Verge, SilconAngle, or BuzzFeed, you CAN try new apps in beta form or test their new capabilities as soon as you hear about them. This is a way to become an early adopter. And if you become an expert while using an app's new capabilities for your personal brand, you can extend the expertise to your 9-5 brand. Imagine your boss' smiling face!

What other ways will you jump-start your personal brand in early 2017?

Five Social Media Secrets That Never Go Out of Style

Anyone who spends time in social media has one or two favorite platforms. Some may prefer using Twitter, some may prefer using Facebook, and some may prefer an obscure site or one that fits a specific industry. Many of us who use social media as a marketing tool to build our employer's brand or our personal brand have also developed a secret or two along the way. Here are my five social media secrets that never go out of style.

TIP 1: BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR PROFILE NAME
Maintain a consistent name for all social media platforms. If a brand name is not available, use a familiar tagline. If "Nike" had been unavailable, the company could have used "JustDoIt," and everyone would immediately have recognized that any account with that name belonged to Nike. With all the social sites available to your brand, take some time to conduct a social media audit and re-evaluate the names of all your accounts. 

TIP 2: MAKE YOUR CONTENT EASY TO SHARE
When blogging, feature pull quotes in large bold font. This will allow your readers to quickly and easily share your content on Twitter with your name and Twitter handle. 

TIP 3: FOCUS ON PLATFORMS
Despite Visa's tagline of being "everywhere you want to be," acknowledge that your brand can't be everywhere. Do your research and see which social platform your key stakeholders and/or customers use and develop a strategy or strategies to make the biggest bang. Don't waste time building a presence on every new platform just because your son or daughter thinks the platform is a fun alternative to homework. (Think back a few years...everyone went Ga-Ga over Quora, and you don't hear anything about it today.) 

SHARE ON TWITTER: DESPITE VISA'S TAGLINE OF BEING "EVERYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE," YOUR BRAND CANNOT BE EVERYWHERE. ~@DebbieLaskeyMBA

TIP 4: USE HASHTAGS
Capitalize on hashtags. Create and use hashtags with your brand name, your company name, key employees if they are industry influencers, and more. And use these hashtags on all your social platforms. You may even use them on traditional marketing collateral, such as, business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.

TIP 5: PRACTICE REGULAR SOCIAL LISTENING
Set up alerts for your brand, company name, industry, and more. This will let you know when others are talking about your brand or brands and allow you to chime in when appropriate. You will also be quickly informed if someone says something negative or untrue about your brand so you can comment or chose to remain silent. You may also wish to set up alerts about your competition and key influencers in your industry. The sites to use are Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) and Talkwalker (https://www.talkwalker.com/alerts).

On a final note and to celebrate the spirit of social media, here's my fave Tweet of all time from Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar), “Don't do social, be SOCIAL: sincere, open, collaborative, interested, authentic, and likeable.”