Welcome to our monthly feature The PR Desk! Written by PR professional Heather Travis, it guides bloggers on the ins and outs of navigating the world of PR agencies and brands. You may have thought a lot about your brand, but have you considered its boundaries? This month Heather looks at branding from this unique perspective.
When we talk about branding, we often talk about what a brand is … what the brand embodies, its spirit, and what it stands for. Where we often fall short in defining our brand, however, is in setting its boundaries.
As a blogger, when you contribute thoughts, ideas, and opinions into the digital space you're helping to define your brand for your audience. Your digital breadcrumbs are leaving the trail of your brand, for anyone and everyone to "creep" through at their leisure. Your well-curated Instagram feed with consistent filters, your never-ending pins for making the perfect meals, your Facebook updates detailing a fun anecdote from your daily life, all of these digital branding breadcrumbs are posted with care and go towards your brand’s business goals (increase views, work with more brands, or whatever they may be).
For the most part this is great. This is, in fact, what most of us want.
Find me now, or find me later, but gosh darnit, find me! Read me! Pin me!
Am I right?
Here’s the thing though: sometimes we stretch our boundaries. We post something a "tiny" bit too revealing about a family member. We share a bit too much about our vacation. We tweet after two glasses of wine.
Most of the time this stretching does no harm, but are you willing to risk it? I’m not talking stalkers or horrible worse case scenarios — you can scare yourself with those thoughts. What I’m talking about is devaluing your brand, or muddying the waters for your audience.
We’ve talked about this before, here. In an effort to BE your brand, you must clearly think through what your brand isn’t. I find setting rules for engagement also helps to define my brand and keep me within the boundaries I’ve set for myself.
Here are my top three rules:
- No posting to social media after more than one alcoholic beverage
- No sharing of links without first reading them/clicking on them yourself
- No brand bashing
What other simple rules do you feel could help set your brand’s boundaries?
More Reading
PR Desk: Working with Brands — Don't #PRFail, Educate!
PR Desk: Think Local, Blog Global
PR Desk: Five Things to Do Before You Pitch
PR Desk: Establishing a Relationship with PR Agencies
PR Desk: A Guide to the Essentials of A Good Pitch
Need Help With Your Branding?
Heather will be running a session at FBC2016 on Key Messaging For Bloggers – How To Get Your Message out to Readers, Brands and PR Agencies. Brittany Stager will be running a session on Visual Branding for You and Your Blog. You’ll learn everything you need to know about getting your personality and message out to the people you want to reach!
Heather Travis is a PR professional and lover of all things creative. She has extensive experience developing and implementing integrated public relations and marketing programs for agricultural brands, producers and processors, as well as high end sporting goods. She’s a DIY junkie with a mean power tool addiction, and can often be found painting, refinishing, and scouring both junk yards and antique markets for her next fix … err, piece of content for her blog heatherinheels.com. Find Heather on Twitter @heathertravis and Instagram @heathertravis.
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