Building your brand — and Making It Stick

Whether you see yourself as an entertainer, have a great idea for a service, or just want to get your name out there, branding is arguably the most important aspect to your business. How you build your brand can shape the way people see you and your business. We’ve compiled a list with some tips that can help you discover and build your brand — or even just update what you’ve already been doing.

Find Your Brand Persona

When creating your brand, finding your persona is one of the most important jumping off points. Here are some points to help you find your brand persona:

• Show people who you are and why doing what you do is your passion
• Be true to yourself and to your brand
• Make clear what it is that you want to accomplish with your brand
• Find your demographic. What kind of people would love your brand enough to follow and engage?
• Be clear on what you do. Whether you provide a service, or are an online personality with a great sense of humour, make sure there is no confusion as to what you do.

Establish Your Look

Another key aspect of your brand is establishing your look. Whether you are a travel guru with an amazing Instagram profile, or have this unique service and want to show it off on Facebook, how you express yourself visually is an important factor. Here are some tips on establishing your look:

• Find your style. Is it minimal, sophisticated, technology oriented, photo driven? Find a style that goes with your identity.
• Choose your colors wisely. Find colors that not only speak to you, but that can become synonymous with your brand. Study color theory and educate yourself on how colors work together.
• Create your logo. This probably the most important part of your look. Create a logo that works everywhere you put it. Create a logo that people will instantly recognize as your brand. Make sure it represents your identity.

Engagement

If you want your brand to be successful, you have to get your name out there. You need to engage with the public and social media has made it easier than ever to do so. Here are some engagement tips:

• Create regular Social Media posts on the platforms that’s make the most sense for your brand. If your brand is related to travel, Instagram is a great place to showcase those visual.
• Start a newsletter to remind people of your brand and encourage them to visit your website or social media accounts.
• Engage with your followers and others who comment. Monitor your posts and start a conversation.
• Monitor your brand’s reputation on the internet and respond to feedback whether it be negative or positive

Find the Best Time to Engage

Finding out when your audience is most like to see and engage with your content is incredibly important. Here are some tips:

• Find out when the best day of the week or time of day to post and engage is.
• For Facebook, view your followers activity from the most recent week. You can get some great info here by clicking on your insights page and look at posts.
• On Twitter, you can see how your engagement has been for the last 28 days or pick another time period. Click on the Tweets Tab to get this information

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list and there are a lot more things you can do to build your brand. These tips are a great jumping off point, but look out for future blog posts where we will provide even more tips on helping you build your brand — and making it stick. Check out Buoy Ventures and see how we can help you succeed.