Put Your Story (And The Media) To Work In Building Your Brand

You may or may not consider yourself a great storyteller, but if you’re trying to promote a brand – whether it’s your personal brand or a company brand – let me assure you that you have a story to tell.

Maybe that story is how your product solves a cleaning problem in the kitchen. Maybe it’s how you overcame hardship in life to achieve great success. Maybe it’s how your education and years of experience can help others plan for retirement, save money on taxes or open a business.

It all comes down to the story being a part of your branding message and the foundation your company was built on.

If you can touch on just the right story elements – and do so in an engaging way – your brand can get the attention you’re seeking.

Of course, it does get a little more complicated than that because there are different ways to tell your story. Each medium available to you – TV, print, radio, social media – has its own strengths and represents a different opportunity.

• Television. TV is all about the visual, so if you land a TV interview you need to understand the role appearance plays in shaping your brand, from what you choose to wear to how you handle yourself in front of the camera. In fact, appearance comes into play in promoting your brand with or without TV! The look of your website or how your product is presented on store shelves gives hints to potential customers about your level of professionalism. Yes, rightly or wrongly, people do judge a book by its cover. Otherwise, publishers wouldn’t put so many graphic artists to work trying to create all those head-turning images!

• Radio. How you come across verbally also can have an impact. With radio, you make your brand’s case without the aid of any visual elements. You can’t refer radio listeners to a chart that expands on your message or let a PowerPoint presentation do your talking for you. It’s you and your voice, without any bells and whistles. This is about making the case for your brand in a back-and-forth conversation with a talk show host. You may need to be quick on your feet because a host’s questions and comments might veer off from your message. That’s your cue to – subtly – get things back on track.

• Print. With print – whether it’s traditional or online – you have the opportunity to share the expertise that your brand is built on. The print media is always looking for valuable information for their readers. If you can offer your expertise and give practical tips or advice that readers can make use of in their daily lives, you will at the same time be developing your brand’s image. This holds true whether you want to promote your personal brand or your business brand.

• Social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are all about interacting, which is wonderful because another element of promoting your personal brand is putting your people skills into action. Social media provides an excellent opportunity to communicate with customers or potential customers. They often use social media to express their opinions about businesses and products, perhaps yours included. You need to be involved in those conversations because social media users want you to respond to their concerns and answer their questions promptly. A bonus is that in the process you might learn something new about your customers’ wants and needs, which could help improve how you do business.

You can – and should – take advantage of any and all of these media to grow your business and promote your brand, making the best use of each to put the spotlight on your professionalism, your customer service and your expertise.

Whether you’re on camera, on the radio, in print or exchanging tweets on Twitter, it all comes down to developing brand image in the most powerful way.

So, what’s your story?

Marsha

P.S. If you want professional help promoting your brand through print, radio, TV or social media, give us a call at 727-443-7115 ext. 215 or click here to get your Free Media Analysis.