Contrary to popular belief, a brand is not a logo, a name or something that your marketing department ‘thinks up’ in a boardroom. A brand is how people would describe your company or your product to another. It’s shaped by the sum of all of their experiences and interactions with you – at every level of your organization. Did they call your office and get a bubble gum-popping, nail filing receptionist who couldn’t wait to get them off the phone so they could continue talking about last night’s cliff-hanging episode of The Bachelor? Did they receive an invoice loaded with SURPRISE! charges? Did pink tulips show up on site instead of the Tahitian sunset-colored orange lilies that precisely matched their client’s logo? If so, they might be telling a different story about your company than you want them to. Just like ‘that’ girl in high school, it takes but one person or experience to change people’s perceptions of you.

Although we can’t control what people think about us, we have the power to influence it. The first step is to understand that your marketing department is but a tiny sliver of the perception pie…and that every person within your organization, every system you have in place and every communication that leaves your office either reinforces or changes what people think about you.

Here are 10 questions to get you on the right path to building a positive reputation:

On January 27, 2010, I’ll be delivering a full day seminar on Strategic Event Marketing Using Social Media for EMI Caribbean in beautiful Trinidad. Don’t miss this event – seats are selling fast!

Smart planners have recognized that the game has changed forever. Event guests are no longer simply attendees, they are active and engaged participants that can either make or break the future of your event. In seconds they can tweet out that the food is terrible or post how great a speaker is. Power is at their fingertips. They expect more now than they ever have. They want their voice to be heard and understood, they want to make connections with other delegates before, during and after the event, and they expect event organizers to be listening.

This intensive workshop will help event professionals understand how to use the tools to build thriving communities through strategic planning. Whether you plan the events, contribute to them or simply attend them, this seminar will give any business professional the power to be successful in social media.

Don’t delay. For details and to register, please see this flyer.

Writing your own bio can be gut wrenching. But with the rise of social media, having a compelling and informative bio is more important than ever. I’m going to share with you 7 Rules to create a great bio.

1. Know what you’re writing for

Writing a bio for a speaking event will require a different kind of bio that writing one for your website. It’s important to understand what you’re writing for as this will drive what you say (content), how you say it (tone) and how quickly you need to get to the point (word count).

The use can also help determine whether to write in the first or third person. First person bios tend to feel more personal and as a result can create more of a connection with the reader. A third person tense can feel more traditional and professional. You can also do a mix of first and third person – writing the majority of your bio in the third person and using first person for quotes.

Make sure you know exactly what you want readers to learn about you. This is your bio objective. If you stay focused, you can make sure everyone walks away knowing what you want them to know.

2. Know your audience

Regardless of what you’re writing for, you need to know who your target is and what they value. Are they seeking creativity? If so, paint a picture of imagination and originality. Find unique ways to talk about yourself. Some of my favorite creative bios can be found on Brains on Fire’s website. It’s important to understand what you need to convey (and how to convey it) to captivate your audience.

We often talk about what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished…which is very important. Equally important, especially when selling your services, is talking solutions to your customers. For example, I could have simply said that I am a branding, sales and social media consultant. However, if I convert these services into a solution for my customers, the solution is that I help them attract more customers.

Also consider alternatives to the written bio. Perhaps a video bio would be more effective and engaging.

3. Know your brand

Everything you say and do should reinforce who you are. Avoid off-the-shelf terms and go for the gusto with descriptors that really speak to what makes you uniquely you. This is where a lot of people get stuck. So, here are a few tools to help you get started:

• ask others how they’d describe you
• do a personality test – less for the results and more to stimulate your mind to find some great descriptors
• grab a thesaurus…I never go anywhere without thesaurus.com or visual thesaurus

4. Tell a story

One of the best things you can do when writing anything is imagining yourself at your favorite coffee shop, sitting across from a friend. How would you tell them the story of your life? You’d be conversational, you’d be open, energetic and maybe even share a funny story or two. Telling a story is a lot more engaging than rattling off a factual synopsis.

5. Think keywords

This is probably one of the most often overlooked rule. Bios are appearing more and more online, even if you don’t put them there yourself. Think about how you want people to find you. What common keywords would they google to find you? If you’re looking for keyword help. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to help you identify the most commonly used keywords in your category.

6. Be concise

Once you get your rhythm going, it can be very easy to be long winded. Stick to the point. Go through your copy and ask yourself, “does it matter?”, “will it help sell you?”, “does it show your skills and ability to solve problems?”.

I just finished reading a great article on How People Read The Web – and I would apply these learnings to non-web related applications. The key take away is that they don’t read…they scan. If you want people to walk away with the points you want them to remember, be concise and smart with your communications.

7. Proofread

There’s nothing worse than talking about your attention to detail and having a big typo in your bio. Even if you’re not the most organized person in the world, making sure you’ve dotted your Is and crossed your Ts is necessary. It might sound obvious, but unfortunately it’s often overlooked. If you don’t feel comfortable proofreading yourself, send it by a friend.

Homework

• Create a sentence that describes what you want someone to know when they read your bio.
• Write down a list of words that describe the tone of your brand – for example: quirky, polished, creative, funny.
• List out your key experience, skills and accomplishments in chronological order.
• Investigate the keywords people will use to search for your services.
• Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop across from a friend. Start to tell your story. Be as wordy as you like using the tone you identified in the first step.
• Edit. Remove superfluous words and ensure you’re only including details that either sell you or show a solution. Assess descriptive words and where possible, replace them with your keywords.
• Proofread. Check for spelling and grammatical errors.
• Run it by a friend or co-worker. Here’s the secret…instead of asking them how it looks, tell them to shoot it full of holes. This gives them permission to give you constructive feedback.
• Use the feedback to re-edit your bio.

You’re not keeping your pipeline full of new business

You’re solely focusing on new relationships and not nurturing your existing ones

You don’t know why you’re losing customers

You’re not building partnerships with other vendors

No one knows who you are

You’ve been pigeonholed as ‘that’ type of company

You’re don’t have a value proposition (pick a team: do you offer the lowest price or do you have a value differentiator?)

You’re too difficult to contact, find or make a transaction with

Your products or services are too difficult to use

You’re not measuring the success or failure of your activities

You’re not focusing on the future of your business

You’re business issues don’t keep you up at night

You don’t have key suppliers

You don’t know how to communicate what you do in a sentence or two

You’re not investing in the area of your business that makes you the most money

You’re not staying on top of industry news

You don’t recognize and reward your star employees

You can’t be found in the first couple of pages in a Google search

You’re not constantly reassessing your plan

You’re not holding post-mortems with your key clients

You’re too focused on what your competitors are doing

You’re immersed in status-quo and don’t ask yourself “what if…”

You’ve hired mini-mes instead of people who complement your deficiencies

You only focus on ‘big picture thinking’

You only focus on executing

You’re talking ‘at’ your customers instead of having a conversation with them

You’re not contributing to your industry

You’re not helping others

You don’t have an advisory board or a strategy business support resource

You don’t have a common language for all of your employees

You’re over-priced

You’re under-priced

You’re not using testimonials to sell your business

You’re not monitoring your reputation

You’re not focusing on the needs, wants, desires of your customers

You’re not innovative

You’re not quality-control focused

You’re not learning from your mistakes

You’re under-staffed

You’re giving away too much stuff for free

You have one client who represents the majority of your revenue

You don’t have the right channels of distribution

You’re not solving a problem for your customers

You’re not bundling the right products / services for the right customer segments

You don’t take risk

You’re not consistent

You’re inflexible

You’ve stopped having fun

You don’t know where you make your money

You’re not using social media

Tag, you’re it.

Add to the list and create a reason I haven’t listed here…

Yes, I’m Canadian. And, no, I don’t know Bob from Vancouver. In fact, I didn’t even know about Servus from Alberta until I read about it in Springwise today.

You see, Servus is a Credit Union and not a bank. And for years, Credit Unions have been telling us Canadians why they’re so much better than their big, bad banking counterparts. The issues with this strategy? #1 Who believes b2c marketing messages anymore…even if they are from a Credit Union and #2 Who wants to be talked at? But alas, it seems that Servus has caught on to modern marketing – er, or should I say being meaningful.

Servus is handing out $10 bills to 20,000 of its customers. Simply asking them to continue the goodwill by passing it on to someone else…coining this process the Feel Good Ripple. They ask their customers to write about their experience at feelgoodripple.ca for a chance to win a $500 donation to their charity of choice. Since launching on September 26th, they’ve facilitated 384 ripples and hundreds (if not, thousands) of happy people…and counting. The beauty is that it reinforces what makes a credit union so unique. It CARES out its members, it’s DIFFERENT, it’s a part of the COMMUNITY. Hmmm, how about that? Communicating a message through an experience as opposed to marketing-speak.

This is actually the 2nd of such meaningful campaigns that I’m aware have been powered by Servus. Last year, after doing some research for a social media presentation I was giving, I found out about Young and Free Alberta, a free chequing account targeted to young people under 25 in Northern Alberta, Canada. Now if you know anything about marketing to Generation Y, you know that they’ve grown up with a mouse in their hand, bombarded with marketing-centric noise in a world overflowing with brands. The result is that they’re indifferent to the same tactics that captivated the older generations. So, how did Young and Free Alberta get over 2MM impressions, almost 2,000 new accounts and more than $2.6MM in Y&F account funds in just 6 months? They got in the hearts and minds of their target and built a community.

What they did:
- They actively sought out a community leader (aka spokesperson) that their members could relate to. In fact, they created a contest around hiring the voice of Y&F. They promoted the contest by asking applicants to create a video via YouTube and getting their friends to vote for them on the Y&F website. Get it? Facilitate something that young people create themselves. Then, let them do the work to promote it to all of their friends (who are also the target). And, create a voice for the organization that prospective members can relate to.
- They actively used social media channels to extend the conversation. Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, FriendFeed, 12 Seconds and Blogs, oh my!
- They created a Y&F Show, providing the community with tips, tricks and hacks on how to get the most out of their money. In other words, they created content that that was helpful to their audience while reinforcing a message relevant to their offering (saving).
- They made it really easy to sign up for an account. Period.
- Aaaand, they kept track of results. Brilliant.

For more information:

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
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In my life as a brand consultant, I spent many an evening in the back room of a research firm listening to consumers debate which newly redesigned packaging concept stood out more on shelf. In the world of consumer packaged goods, shelf impact is king. Just think, shopping lists are a thing of the past. Instead, shoppers walk down the supermarket aisle making spur of the moment decisions on what products to buy. Standing out in a sea of products can make or break your brand.

In my opinion, Twitter isn’t much different. Think of your viewing platform (i.e. TweetDeck) like a supermarket aisle. Thousands of tweets from the hundreds of people you are following are calling out at you: “Read me!”. “Click on my link!”. “ReTweet me!”. It’s human nature to filter out the noise and try to find a way to identify what’s important. Virtually impossible to read each and every tweet, over time, we learn who pumps out the most value and recognize those people by their profile pictures.

Just like packaging, our profile pictures should have shelf impact. There’s a skill and a strategy to designing the optimal package. Good designers realize that humans are visual beings. Before we read the word Tide, we recognize the shape and colour of the red and yellow bullseye. The same should hold true for our Twitter profile pictures. This leads me to my latest development…

My Twitter profile is a visual link to my blog…which uses the same picture as my Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile, EventPeeps profile…well, you get the picture (ha, ha). The problem is that my black and white photo no longer has ‘shelf impact’. In fact, it gets lost in the crowd.

Under the Direct Messages column you’ll see 4 different profile options. The bottom picture was my original profile.

So my challenge was: How do I retain the picture that everyone uses to identify my brand while gaining more shelf impact. My answer was to develop 3 new options that focus on colors relevant to my ready2spark brand and shape.

So my question to you is: