Tweet

Personal Branding: Make Sure Your Staff is on Board

Guest post by: JW Dicks

Article Overview: Critical ways in which your employees can help you build your brand.

Personal Branding: Make Sure Your Staff is on Board

If you own a business and employ others, it’s important that your staff buy in to your personal branding efforts. If not, you run the risk that your team will undercut your branding efforts. On the other hand, once you explain your brand and your strategy for building it, your staff will play an active role in strengthening your brand. Today we’re going to cover critical ways in which your employees can help you build your brand.

1) By believing.First and foremost, effective branding is about conveying a certain “feeling” to customers and others that interact with your business. This feeling is intangible—there is no way for your team to express it unless they understand and buy in to your concept. Two great examples of this belief in action are the employees at Walt Disney World and at the Apple store. At Disney, nearly every employee you encounter will be smiling, energetic, positive—and willing to do whatever he or she can to make your visit more magical. Meanwhile, the staff at an Apple store is virtually guaranteed to be passionate believers in their products. Apple customer associates are genuinely excited about what they are selling, because they’ve bought into the premise that Apple is truly making lives better one customer at a time.

2) By working your logo and branding identity into everything.Your accountant is sending an invoice to a client? It better be branded! Shipping a package to a customer? Same thing—there had better be a logo on the package. Why? Because branding is all about repetition. Every chance you have to get your logo in front of a customer or a prospect is a chance you need to take. If you run a large organization, it’s impossible for you to personally inspect every correspondence that goes out—so make sure your team knows the drill.

3) By answering the phone properly.This may seem trivial, but in many cases the first contact someone has with your business will be over the phone. That means whoever answers the phone is creating the first impression for your business—which will go a long way in conveying your brand effectively or not. Your name (or your company’s name) should always be in the greeting, and whoever answers should speak clearly and cheerfully. Even details like the type of music playing while a caller is placed on hold must be considered—and remember, the goal is to convey your brand at every opportunity.

If you hope to build a strong personal brand, it’s important that every member of your team understands what that brand is and how they are to contribute. Branding be done intellectually—you can’t simply tell a customer what your brand stands for. Your brand is essentially a reflection of how your customers see your company—and in many cases, your staff will do more to shape their perception than you do. So make sure you have the whole team on board!

Related Articles
  A Good Governance Story
  How to Use Personal Branding for a Competitive Edge
  What Is Personal Branding And How Do you Do It?
  Assessing Board Practices
  What is Personal Branding?
  Is Personal Branding Really Effective?
  Personal Branding to Help You Standout From The Crowd and Boom Your Business
  Brand Enhancer, Detractor or Adolescent: Which One Are You?
  Personal Branding Tips for Beginners
  Top Five Responsibilities of Nonprofit Board Members
  Personal Branding Tip
  What Is Personal Branding?
  Nonprofit Board Member Manuals - What Should You Include?
  Professional Presence
  Personal Branding for Better Visibility
  The Importance of Internal Branding to Support Exceptional Customer Service
  Build a Better Career With a Strong Personal Brand
  Why Personal Branding Is Essential Online
  6 Ideas For Viral Marketing
  Board Member Job Descriptions - Which Roles and Responsibilities Should You Include?

Article Tags: branding agency, branding and marketing, branding companies, branding consultants, branding strategies, business development, business growth, business marketing, celebrity agent, client development, expert agent, JW dicks, Personal branding, personal branding expert



Related Forum Posts
Just A Hello From newbie - Hello All its Adalia From Yucca Valley , California . i just want to say that i'm glad i join this Board , Such a nice Board with lots of info, can spend hours here reading all the great post. Thanks
Social media - which is more effective social media networking; Facebook or twitter? follow me at My Secret Staff cathy secretstaff05
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.
Advisory Board - Steps 9 & 10 - Hey Everyone - Sorry for the delay. I have been battling the flu the last few days which has been brutal. But I guess I cant complain, my jeans are loose and I'm down 6 pounds in 72 hours. ;0) Pretty soon I will be back at my high school weight of 117 only 5 more to go! ;0) Anyway, onto the last two steps for setting up your Advisory Board. The caveat with each of these steps is that it is YOUR board. You decide what you want and need and then work it out so it delivers. Step 9) Keep your Board Members Informed There's nothing worse than having a great team of advisors - who dont know what's going on. Once you have your board in place, its important to keep them motivated and excited about your business by giving them updates at times when you arent soliciting their advice. The fact that they have agreed to be on your board means they care about your company - so keeping them up to date will help them be of greater value to you. They are champions and evangelists for your business - commit to giving them constant communications so they can share the message. 10) Fire Bad Board Members. if you realize you have made a bad choice, get rid of him or her as fast as you can. Because your advisor board is not a formal board of advisors you wont have the typical legal issues - but you will have a good management/leadership task on your plate. Tread carefully and lightly but remember that the longer a 'bad seed' sticks around, the longer it takes to remove the 'stench' after they are gone. Just think Omarosa - and cut em loose! This can be very uncomfortable but if you act with integrity and are really upfront about what you need, you should be able to bypass having to let anyone go. Go slow in bringing your board together - perhaps have existing advisors talk with / interview potential new advisors in order to confirm your decision of fit. Good luck! I'm here to help! Jude
Re: I am a newbie to this forum - Yes, on the Board Index page there is a search where you can see what we already have going. If you are looking for a particular subject, that's a great place to start and it keeps us from having multiple threads on the same subject.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why SEO is important for your online success

Are You An Accidental Consultant?

Let's Skip the Offshore Horror Stories

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.