Big companies care about brands, small companies don’t, and that is a shame because any company that has aspirations of ever getting big, better figure out how to build and manage their brand. You can get sucked into all the hype about the latest social networking fad and waste all your time and money following this week’s Internet wunderkind or you can get your head out of your digital butt and build a business from the brand up. Branding is simply how your audience feels about your company and/or signature product or service. Your brand is your personality, your identity, and every company has one whether they know it or not. One of senior management’s major responsibilities is to manage the brand, the perception your audience has of who you are, what you do, and why they should care. Major corporations understand this and use it to their advantage, but companies that fall into the “I’m not General Motors” category often ignore brand building fundamentals and satisfice with a logo. A logo is not a brand; a logo is merely a visual representation of your brand, a visual mnemonic or reminder of what your company stands for in terms of … Continue reading Building An Online Brand