Social Media contains a sea of businesses, organizations, and influencers all competing for the attention of the same consumers and/or client base. The billion dollar question is, how can you stand out from the crowd and get noticed?
The answer, of course, is to build your own particular brand. While this might sound like a daunting experience, it’s really not. When you take into account that we are all individuals, as separate and unique as a snowflake, you realize the possibilities that can exist for creating your own unique brand experience.
You have a choice here. You can hire a brand experience agency which will seek to create “transformational moments” utilizing both digital and physically intimate experiences where new creative paths are forged, consumer loyalties are enhanced, and the lives of your followers are enriched. Or you can attempt to build your own personal brand experience with both online and even offline branding efforts.
Every aspect of your brand matters, and you’ll work with several partners to perfect different elements. For example, a domain brokerage can help you score the perfect domain at a good price, while an SEO agency can help your site reach your target market quicker.
According to a recent article, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic “safe strategies” for building personal and business brands were utilized like never before, such as Zoom meetings, Instagram TV videos (now Instagram Reels), and even coffee meetings where you practiced social distancing. But now that the pandemic seems to be waning, there are other ways you can build your brand in these somewhat safer, but still uncertain times.
That said, here are a few brand building experience strategies that are said to be practical, personal, and effective.
Hosting Small Lunches and/or Gatherings
Say the experts, brand building means putting your own unique personal brand “out there.” One effective way to accomplish this without leaning too much on social media, is to host an event, or meeting, or even a “themed luncheon.”
Gatherings can be centered around networking, learning something new, or showing off a product like your new line of artwork or your new novel (book clubs are the perfect venue for the latter). What’s more, you can host these meetings or gatherings in person while offering food and drink to guests/customers, or virtually via Zoom.
Lunches in particular are said to be a nice casual option since you can gather potential loyal tribe members in one place. On the other hand, virtual lunch meetings, while still casual, can involve people who are spread out over a wide geographical area. This is also an easy, first step into the world of “hosting” which is something that never gets old with loyal and potentially new customers.
Host a Dinner Party
Along the same lines as hosting a lunch, either virtually or in person, a dinner party is said to feel even more intimate and even special. This is even more true when the attendees are making an investment in one another’s work and attached brands.
That said, you might consider asking a co-host to assist with the preparation of a formal dinner party, especially if you feel like the task is a bit overwhelming. Maybe one person can take on the task of seeking out a safe venue, while the other concentrates on what foods and drinks to serve. You might even want to give the dinner party a theme such as “Cigar Night.”
The point of formal, invitation-only dinner parties is to offer potential customers and/or business peers a chance to unwind but also connect. You can share business experiences and speak about different ideas and resources that can prove mutually beneficial.
Since the pandemic is not quite yet finished and new variants can spring up at any time, the host or hosts must make certain attendees not only be safe but feel safe. That means taking the right precautions necessary for an in-person event in 2021 and 2022 while everyone enjoys themselves and potentially make plans for growing and working together.
Host a Large Virtual Happy Hour
While hosting lunch and dinner parties are a more intimate means of brand building, don’t ignore the big networking opportunities that can be taken advantage of online via social media. Brand building studies show that big online networking events remain a very effective tool for getting your unique message out there. That said, these happy hour events must “evolve to suit the times.”
Video will provide the chance for attendees to speak with a big group in a relatively short time period while maintaining maximum safety. You might want to consider using an educational theme to make the event feel more focused and/or cohesive.
You can advertise the happy hour wherever you feel the more interested parties might reside such as Zoom, Facebook Live, or YouTube Streaming. Maybe you can use a combination of all three.
What’s important is that no matter the theme, you must tie in your unique expertise in order to take your brand building opportunity to the maximum level while supporting others and their brands too.
Construct a Social Media Grouping
In the same vein as a virtual happy hour, you can reach a potentially massive audience by hosting a social media event. You can utilize an Instagram live or a Twitter chat session in which big numbers of potential attendees interested in your brand can “pop in and out” at their leisure. They can also chime in by utilizing a hashtag.
Social media groupings and gatherings using online streaming services are a great way to construct a large network of followers and potential customers. But be warned, this is not an overnight success process. It can take literally years of streaming and hosting social media gatherings before you realize serious success. It’s best to create a long-term plan and not concern yourself so much about the short-term.
