How Facebook Timeline Might Radically Change the Look of Brand Pages

Social Media Snakes & Ladders

Social Media Summer School Day 3 - Make a Plan //Phil Darby
Tweeting can seriously damage your brand

No matter whether you are networking for business or pleasure there are a few basic rules that you can’t afford to ignore if you want to stay in control of your business or personal reputation.

This isn’t rocket science.  The same rules apply as to every other aspect of life, so it’s surprising that so many people appear to leave their brains in neutral when they enter the world of social networking and its even more surprising when you consider that the Internet is the most potent medium yet invented.  It’s one thing to make a fool of yourself in front of a few friends at dinner, but commit a social gaff on the internet and the entire world could know faster than you could say “viral marketing”.

So, avoid big time embarrassment, being ridiculed or ostracised, make a plan.

There are a few people out there who seem to think that the carefully set out rules of business networking are different to those that a purely social networker should adhere to.  Forget it.  Its no different, the rules are the same for everyone. 

For instance, if you genuinely want to make friends and influence people (and surely that’s the point of all of this) you have to represent yourself consistently – that’s consistency between communications as well as between what you communicate and your values and beliefs.  Because, have no doubt, that’s what we are talking about here.  Relationships, business or personal, can only be built on trust and inconsistency diminishes trust.  I tell it like this: 

You know a guy from work.  You like him because you feel he’s like you (Fact: We are always attracted by people with whom we share characteristics).  He’s smartly dressed, bright and in-control.  One day you are cruising the supermarket and there’s an unholy din in the next aisle.  Then a couple of totally out-of-control kinds come screaming around the corner, followed by a scruffy woman and a guy dressed in sweats who is shouting to the kids to cool it.  Your immediate (and therefore honest) reaction is to try to see them as ASBO candidates (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders for those of you unfamiliar with UK law and order), but the guy look familiar and then he uses your name and says “hello”.  You take a second glance and realise it’s the fellow from work.  Take two!  Did you read this guy right after all?  You take a backward step, hesitate and finally say “Hi” back, but you’re already questioning your own judgement and his honesty.  This is what inconsistency does for you and in the context of a product brand, that moment of hesitation is when your competition steps into the frame.  Best case – if you are inconsistent people will be confused and reluctant to trust you.  Worst-case – they’ll think you are trying to con them.

I address business audiences all over the world on the topic of brand development and I always emphasise the importance of creating a brand model before you embark on any kind of marketing communication.  Setting out the parameters of your brand up front will give you a kind of check-list of dos and don’ts that you can apply to any action or communication you may have in mind.

I’m not saying lie about yourself, or even embellish the truth, the key to success is to be honest, but as with any other form of communication, you can give too much information.  Flood people with a load of disjointed facts and they’ll never grasp what you are trying to say.  My advice is, choose three or four key character traits (that’s brand or personal character) that you feel combine to create a general picture of you.  These are your brand pillars.  Now, whenever you are inspired to Tweet or blog, pause and ask yourself a) Is what I feel like saying consistent with one or more of these brand pillars?  b) Does it strengthen the pillar in some way?  If the answer to either of these questions is “no” your best bet is to keep schtum!

The newspapers are full of stories about people who came to grief by not heeding this advice so you don’t need me to point them out, but take the advice of John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Food Markets and Kip Tindell, CEO and co-founder of Container Store in the US, who in a joint interview with Time magazine 2008 left readers in no doubt that they both felt their successes were the result of deciding what their brand was all about before they even opened shop.  Doing so helped them build strong relationships with all their stakeholders, starting with employees, then and as a consequence investors, suppliers and customers.  After all, be it personal or business brands are all about relationships.  Or as I call them “Brandships”.

Phil Darby runs The Full Effect Company, keeps his own Full Blog and can be found on The Full Tweet. He aims to introduce organisations worldwide to a new approach to integration and a brand development programme that does what it says on the box.