A Great Personality

How might you describe your handbag if it were a person?  Creative?  Vivacious?  Down-to-Earth?  And how about your toothbrush?  Would you call it friendly?  Or intelligent?

And why is that?  A lot of how we see the products we buy stems from their marketing and branding campaigns.  I know this isn’t news, but it’s also not something we tend to think about.  And here’s something else we haven’t been thinking about:  for decades, larger companies have been establishing brand attributes through magazines, TV, billboards and radio.  But now that social media is thriving and available to all, many smaller companies without this advertising experience are diving in without considering their unique brand personality.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, there’s no better way to express who you are as a company than through social media, and it’s not too late.

I’m here at the Digital Matters conferences in Singapore, and it’s offered a lot of insight for just about anyone navigating the digital media landscape in any way.  One of the more valuable sessions was called, “Moving Forward with Social Media”.  It was made up of an impressive panel, including Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific Director – 360 Degree Digital Influence, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific; James Miner, SVP, Digital, ESPN; and Doug Fraser, Operations Associate from Facebook.

The biggest take-way for me was that before starting any social media campaign companies need to sit down with their stakeholders and determine what they are all about.  Do they want their business and products to be seen as hip and flirtatious?  Reliable and conservative?   Brazen and tough?   Think about traits you would use to describe a person, not necessarily descriptors you would use for the merchandise or service.

Then, once you know the brand personality, keep that in mind with every social media engagement.  When it comes to establishing a brand, there’s nothing worse than inconsistency.   Then, in the words of one of the panel members, “build on the campaign, and see where it takes you.”  As long as you are saying true to the brand you have a guide, and this can make engaging in social media more fun, too.