Stop Pretending You Don’t Have a Brand

This is a guest post by Caffeinated Elf.

Hey! Yeah, I’m talking to you, over there, reading blogs instead of working on your business.

I need to tell you something important, and I need you to pay attention.

Ready?

STOP PRETENDING YOU DON’T HAVE A BRAND.

And while you’re at it, stop pretending that your Thing isn’t a Business. Because it is.

Five ways that prove that you do, in fact, have a brand:

1) You have tried to sell something. Affiliate marketing counts. So does giving away free content.

2) You have a website, where you blog and/or have services or products for sale. This counts even if nobody has ever bought your stuff.

3) You have a social media presence of some kind. This includes the early days of your Twitter forays, during which you only tweeted about yourself. I’m sure you don’t do that any more.

4) You have called yourself an entrepreneur, even if it was only that one time, late at night, when you were pretty sure nobody else could hear you.

5) You have a name for your business. You might even have it on some business cards! You might even have a made-up job description to go along with it!

By now you’re either laughing or you think I’m a big jerk.

Either one is fine with me, really. The reason I wrote this post this way is to get you to realize that HEY, you do in fact run a Real Actual Business with a Real Actual Brand.

If you engage in any marketing whatsoever, you are participating in your brand in some way. You might be building it up. You might be tearing it down. And just because you don’t realize you’re doing it, doesn’t make it any less true.

So what next? How do you keep from having the crappiest brand ever?

Be intentional.

That’s a fancy word that means you should first realize what is going on around you – in other words, you have a brand – and then make choices that will purposefully move you in one direction or another.

If you realize that you have a brand, and you understand that it means that people associate you and your stuff with certain expectations and emotions, then you can behave and communicate in ways that strengthen your brand the way you want.

Otherwise, you know, you can just let shit happen and then complain later. (I don’t recommend that approach.)

Be clear.

People won’t buy your stuff if they don’t know what you’re offering. And they won’t feel attached to your brand if they don’t know what you stand for.

Now is a good time to take a look at your sales page, your About page, and your Twitter bio to see just how difficult it might be for a new-to-you person to figure out whether or not they like you well enough to hang around.

Yes, they’re going to judge you based on what they see. Instead of being offended by it, use that to your advantage.

Be authentic.

Before you get too paranoid about this, I’m not telling you to hang out all your dirty laundry for the internet to see and snicker at.

What I mean by authentic is that you need to be honest and real about your business and yourself (especially if you’re a personal brand, which many of us are). Don’t pretend you’re rich when you aren’t. Don’t force cheerfulness when you’re seriously having a bad day.

A few caveats:
- Don’t complain about your clients in public, not even in a roundabout way. (Your blog counts as public, and so does all social media.)

- Don’t complain about the work you do. (Usually when you’re to the complain-y stages, that means you need a break. And maybe to rethink why you’re doing that work to begin with.)

- Don’t air out your personal drama. We all love gossip, but unless that’s your business model, save it for offline friends and people who know how to respect your privacy.

Go forth and have an awesome brand.

Do you have tips to add? Throw them out in the comments!

Rachael Acklin is a coffee-drinking, MMO-playing, kickass business and branding coach. If you’re tired of going it alone and screwing up your brand, get a Brand Harmony Session and turn it around, baby.

Image by Joi