011: Branding as Storytelling
Topics Discussed and Key Points
•Branding is storytelling
•Great branding requires consistency in your messaging
•The difference between a “brand” and an “online personality”
•Building an audience versus building your audience
“Who am I and what is important to me?”
These are the two questions you need to reflect on in order to, over time, craft your very own personal brand. You don’t need a “business” to have a brand apart from the business that is “You Inc.” So really take your time to piece together your story, because it is through stories that people come to appreciate who you are and what you stand for.
Roben-Marie suggests considering what you want people to feel when you tell your story. Make sure everything you decide to include in your story is cohesive. Keep your message consistent. Don’t display unrelated aspects of your life with equal amounts of focus in one story, as that will only confuse your followers as to what really defines you as a brand.
If you’re a hobbyist, do you need a brand? Our hosts say “yes.” After all, are you crystal clear on what the future holds for you? What if you eventually want to monetize your art? Before even that, you need to help yourself stay consistent with what you want to display to the world.
In any case, you need to know your story so well that you remain confident with the content that you create and share. On the other hand, adds Sandi, if your art is just a personal outlet for your creative spark (i.e. you don’t ever plan to have an audience for your work), then perhaps defining your brand is unnecessary.
On whether there is a difference between a “brand” and an “online personality,” consider that large corporations such as Boeing don’t really carry much of a personality, whereas an individual person does. Of course, quite a few companies project humanity in various ingenious ways. Roben-Marie and Sandi point to Target and Anthropologie as great examples.
As for artists, start telling your brand story by asking yourself what your values are. From there, write out your vision-mission or purpose. Your language and medium of expression will vary dramatically depending on who you’re interacting with. Think about the audience you want to reach. Remember that you want to relate with people in order to positively impact them. Make sure that you’re telling a story worth sharing to people that need to hear it.
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