Lifetime value of “your” brand

You are “your” brand and everything you do matters! For startups especially, it’s “your” brand that penetrates your startup not just the startups brand. A startup can tell a lot about the founder – for example attention to tiny details, an clean design to a guy with clear priorities and eventually it transcends to the culture of your organization.

The truth is we are always being judged on everything we do. The science behind it is that we always try to find things that are similar to what we know. The only way to do that is to judge. That’s why tools like blog, twitter, pinterest and other social media are important. (Read the bookPredictably Irrational for many insights on why we do what we do)

I recently read a post by a Rodinhooder on blogging and that got me thinking. It’s not just about blog – its about everything from your pinterest to twitter to linkedin to slideshare. When it comes to online lifetime value of your content is forever. When you are commenting, writing a post – they are not just individual elements but part of a whole – that’s “your” brand. Your online brand never expires.
Word of mouth is still the best marketing anyone can get. My probability of picking up a t-shirt because my friend recommended is more than seeing the facebook ad/update on the same. So, why do we bother about online presence?

Answer is simple – look at the lifetime of the content and general attitude of internet boomers.

Lifetime of the content is forever. That is, if you create valuable content on the internet now, it will be available for ever and its value will increase exponentially with respect to time (hopefully in a good way). Your comments/posts are going to be there on the internet even after you die! Have you thought about that?You can indeed leave your legacy after you die :). Amazing isnt it?

Attitude of the internet boomers is connecting a brand (includes you as well) to the google page rank. Sadly, not many are aware of the way google lists a search results (including me) to judge otherwise.

So, next time you think about commenting, posting or just liking a post – think if it works for you as your brand or against it. Also, you can think of it in ways to express yourself – like for example like writing a blog post on the best cafes in city will tell people that this is not just a startup guy but a guy who has a fine taste for coffee – which otherwise they wouldn’t know. This leaves a broader area to connect with people, which will in turn is invaluable in the long run.

This applies to your startup as well. The moment it is born think of it as a brand. Many of us do the mistake of not thinking about it as brand till it reaches a point say 1000 likes or breaks even. But, the way to do it is to think about its brand (in other words The bigger picture) and then proceed to doing those minute things that impact the brand.

There are a lot of lessons I need to learn on branding, this is my first since I started up and thinking it in this way has helped to look beyond the shortcomings and focus on the brand (the big picture). For example, I started because I wanted a sticker for my laptop but when I saw the big picture, I was able to find a lot of ways in which stickers can be used. Once such product is stickers for business.

Another great example Rodinhood as a brand – I guess it can be taken as a case study for content marketing and brand management ;). Still, it’s just amazing the way a brand works – it takes time but 1+1 > 2 :).

Any branding lessons your startup/life has taught you?

Regards,
Aparna
www.stkrz.in
Twitter: @justaparna

p.s: this post was inspired by Shikhar Dhawan (who has created a brand – Shikhar Dhawan not only for his cricketing skills but with his mustache as well) ICC trophy hangover.

p.s.s: I hope added value today :).