subject: Professional Brand Visibility and Personal Branding - How to Optimize Your Message [print this page] Professional Brand Visibility and Personal Branding - How to Optimize Your Message
The days of simplified branding are long gone. What was once a simple approach to making a lasting impression has become a knock-down constant battle to maintain brand visibility in an ever-growing competitive market.
Company name, tagline, logo and some business cards - then you're almost done. Beyond that all you had to do was start dipping into common media (print, TV and radio) and you had officially launched. All you had to do was watch the ripple effect.
It's not quite the case anymore. Things have changed. People have changed, including how they find the information they want, how they interact with brands and what they expect in return.
It took radio 38 years and TV 13 years to reach 50 million viewers.
It took just under 4 years for the net to reach 50 million users.
It took Facebook less than 9 months to reach 100 million members
With the way consumers and other members of your target audience are changing their info search and purchase habits, there's a lot you need to do to maintain influence and marginal control over your brand in order to stay fresh. Start with these tips to move into the modern age of brand visibility.
Invest in Your Online Presence
Whether that's a central hub or profile, or an ecommerce website, you need to invest in your online presence as if you were investing in a brick and mortar storefront. Your web presence should match the persona, the look, the feel, the voice and overall image of your company - specifically when people interact with you in person.
Focus on Quality Content
Not only should the content within your website provide a lot of value to your target audience but everything you publish should as well. Your content, regardless of the medium (blogs, articles, podcasts, video, etc.) needs to match your brand message and speak directly to your target audience. Research into the market as well as the most relevant search terms they use to find you will help you develop a strong content strategy for better brand visibility.
Engage your Audience
By directly engaging your target audience you are building up your brand visibility. Logos and other marketing materials that leave an impression are beneficial, but it's the real face and personality of a brand that have the most impact. Your direct engagement can spur word of mouth, so make sure you're leveraging your target audience to improve brand visibility.
Keep Track of Results
When it comes to online engagement, there are a plethora of tools and analytics to help you track and identify what's working wonderfully and what's not pulling its weight in terms of improving brand visibility. Trending information is readily available for online engagement as opposed to traditional media which is difficult to track.
As more people continue to embrace social media, it's vital that you take your brand out of the office and out into the world. You need to go where your target audience is in order to join the conversation. Whether you're there or not, people will be discussing you, your products, your services and your brand. If you want to improve your brand visibility you need to join in and spread your message online.
