Hi Friends!
I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes about brand and then dive into how we can apply some of these principles here on Steemit. Every once in a while I talk about my day job – which happens to be for a company that spends a lot of time focusing on good branding. We actually has over 80% market share and great brand awareness within our top channels.
The difference between good brands and great brands… is consistency.
Even though I work in sales, I was asked to join a Brand Taskforce to audit our companies branding to find opportunities to improve. This has been a fun group to collaborate with because it is very cross-functional. We have people from IT, accounting, HR, operations, shipping, sales(me!), and of course marketing.
Even though I am not a marketing professional or brand expert, I have had the opportunity to work with some brand geniuses over the last few years and pick up some of their knowledge. I may share more on this subject in the future – but for today I wanted to focus on a few key elements that I think we can use as a filter to evaluate our own Steemit blogs/vlogs and help improve our content.
What Does Brand Even Mean?
This is not what I’m talking about today – but wanted to quickly give a working definition that you can use throughout the rest of the video/post. Brand is NOT your logo or what font you use (although this can contribute). Brand is a little less tangible than that… it is about the feeling people get when they interact with your brand. If REI changed their logo, I wouldn’t feel lost and confused, it wouldn’t matter to me. Their branding has been built on their reputation of quality and service.
Evaluate All of Your Touch Points
One of the things we uncovered in our Brand Taskforce, is that even though our social media channels and website had top notch branding – our auto-generated order confirmations, invoices, packing slips etc looked like they were straight out of the 80’s. They were hard to decipher and had ZERO personality to them.
It has been a lot of fun to work with our design team to start updating some of these materials so that every time someone touches our brand… they are getting a consistent experience. My pitch to the team was that we should make “Working with us feel like a party!”.
How does this apply to Steemit?
I would encourage people to spend a little time evaluating their various touchpoints here on the platform. Obviously your posts is one of the biggest ways that you interact with the platform – but comments is another huge component as well.
This is an area where I often see Steemians have a disconnect in their “branding”. Their posts are full of so much life and energy – and then their reply to the comments on that post are really buttoned up and professional. I actually spoke about this in my Presentation at the Steem Creators Conference.
What do I mean by buttoned up and professional? I’m talking about generic “Thank you for watching” or “Glad you enjoyed it” kind of replies. Now I do these sometimes too if the person’s original comment was really simple and I don’t have much to work with. If someone takes the time to leave a really exuberant comment on your post though – let them know how MUCH you appreciate it! Make people stop and say, “Wow, [insert yourself] was so excited that I left a comment!”. Bring as much energy, vulnerability and personality into your comments as you do into your posts.
Even One Break in the Chain Can Have a Negative Impact
To illustrate this point, I am going to use two of the top brands in the world as an example – Amazon and Starbucks. One of the reasons that people have such strong brand loyalty with these companies, is because they are consistent. People know they can place an order on Amazon Prime and have it show up at their door in a few days. Just like people know they can go into a Starbucks anywhere in the world and have their drink taste exactly the same.
What happens if once your Amazon order gets delayed, or your drink turns out all wrong at a Starbucks? You likely won’t be ready to give up on that brand yet – but it might make you question your decision to shop with them in the future. If these “misses” on service happen a FEW times – then there is a really good chance that you’ll take your business elsewhere. If Amazon fails to deliver your package on time, three times in a row, they have just taken a huge hit in your loyalty to their brand.
How does this apply to Steemit?
Try to be as consistent as you can with the feeling you create in your posts and comments. You are the best one to decipher what you want that feeling to be – but I guarantee if you keep that in mind when creating content or comments – it will help you to stay more grounded to your mission.
Do You Think of Yourself as a Brand?
I hope you guys found some of the information in this vlog helpful. Even if you just keep some of these ideas in mind when creating content – I think it could help. I’d love to hear your thoughts though… Do you think of yourself as a “brand” here on Steemit? It can be kind of funny to think about because we often think of brands as just companies. I’d love to hear if you guys have any thoughts or ideas for how to increase the consistency of your “branding” here on the platform.
I like sharing the knowledge I have – but I always seem to learn a few things from others in the comments. This is part of what makes this place so great. So please, share away!<3
Just to re-iterate, I am not a brand or marketing expert. I have just had the opportunity to work side by side with some incredible world class brands and learn from some top marketers. If you have any questions on anything I covered in this video – don’t hesitate to ask and I’ll do my best to help!
Xo, Lea
Equipment Used in this Vlog
In order to add an extra layer of transparancy and value to my vlog's, I will be adding a list of equipment used at the bottom of each one! If you ever have questions about the gear I use, or how I use it - please don't hesitate to ask.
- Microphone – Apogee Professional Microphone for Iphone/Ipad/Mac
- Pop Filter - Earamble Studio Microphone Pop Filter
- Foam Sound Shield - Neewer Professional Isolation Shield
- Mic Stand Adapter - Apogee Adaptor
- Camera – IPhone X
- Camera Tripod – Amazon Basics Tripod
- Smartphone Tripod Adaptor - KobraTech Tripod Adaptor
- Lighting – LimoStudio 700W Softbox Lights
- Video Editor – IMovie
- Thumbnail Photo Editor – Snapseed
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Just Grrrrrrrrr8 lol
Really great 👍🏼^^
Shall give this a good try !
I think myself as a brand indeed.
And it's all me.
Meaning I do and write about what I want only.
It must supersede whatever people out there teach.
It's a paradox, but yeah. It's all about my feelings.
You are just so freaking cute and bubbly but also extremely intelligent, how could anyone not want to watch your videos <3
Branding is SO important, not just for companies but for individuals as well. How you interact with others and present yourself is YOUR brand which is vital in the blogging/vlogging world but also in your personal life outside of social media. Have you ever met someone that you knew from online to seem so awesome but then in person they're completely dismissive and bland? It completely ruins any rapport that person had with you.
I was so happy that you were as awesome in person as you are in your videos!
What this girl said ^^^
Hahaha Yassss!
you look so happy :)
have a nice day @corustate
Let's hope you get some exuberant comments to work with after this one!
Consistency , especially for the Vloggers I think, is pretty important here for sure. Only then will you start to gain the auto-votes (booo I hear some people say), that are to me, the early encouragement to stick around.
It's a bit different these days with dtube/dlive/utopian etc, but they still wish to see consistency and then come to expect it from 'you'. Your brand is becomes part of their brand I guess, hence the little logo on the top right of the thumbnail.
Ideally, they want that on the best and most consistent material, to keep their brand looking tip top.
I was smiling at the comments regarding good posts, and a shocking comments section. It's been one of my pet hates for a long time, seeing 30 replies and a shitty, short reply to the comment from the post creator.
That's not where the money is ya see, booo.
Anyway, good branding skills @coruscate, you've got yours pretty set and it's working for you :)
I totally agree with you. Branding is soooo important. I don't know where you are from but the employees at in and out are a big part of the brand. It's like they operate with the same mind.
I thought it's quality but yeah consistency is of course important too.
Yes, branding is very important — especially when you are trying to build something for the long term.
I think that's one of the mistakes a lot of people here make; they don't see their content as contributing to any more than "their next payout." Which would be very wrong.
EVERY post we make is a "calling card" of sorts for our content that either makes someone inclined to come back in the future, and makes them inclined to ignore your future post.
The other thing we must pursue is differentiation. What unique little "something" does every one of our posts bring to people... even if someone doesn't know you by name, maybe they'll remember you by (for example) "Oh yeah, it's that cat that always leaves a little set of whiskers at the bottom of every comment!"
=^..^=
Thanks for the head points.... They're quite useful
This might be hard for me since I'm not that good at feeling so I don't know what "feeling" people get from my posts.
Yea, consistency is the key. Consistency as you said differentiate the "Good" from the "Best" and this applies in every aspect of life.
Although i'll be going out of context to say this but i'll still love to share.
I'm a lover of football and I've been watching football for over a decade now. I've observed that for almost a decade now, only two players (Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo) have been dominating the entire football hierarchy in terms of Laurels, any lover of footbal could attest to this fact. The reason for this is because of "Consistency", other great players have emerged but they've not been as consistent as those two football veterans.
I've really gained alot from your post and I really want to commend you for your great effort to always publicise your views to us all.
Thank You @coruscate
Your article is brilliant ! I had an "a-ha" moment reading your definition of what brand is.
I thank you so much to make it so clear and precise.
Hey i like your page, try my channel.
100% true points, YOU are your biggest brand and everything we do in our lives is in 1 way or another aimed at selling ourselves. From picking up the hot blonde in the club, to selling that bit of equipment. The consumer is buying YOU.
Interesante contenido de tu publicación.
Thank you so much for sharing this, I learned a lot from this. Before I used to think branding was about logo and other stuffs but I have been cleared now
Thanks @coruscate
A good branding is like a good reputation rating in steemit. It is true to make good comments rather than those comment bots. If I do make a comment, I tried to be genuine and useful. No point saying good job, well-written etc if the commenter does not point out which part is a good job. All newbies should take note of your practical suggestions for good branding!