Branding in the era of Social Business.
The main core philsophy behind this “EarnedWeb” project with Web denoting the connections is earning influence (personal and business) through honest connections. Here’s a repost of Seth Godin’s thoughts on Brand Exceptionalism which demonstrates this very well. FYI: I also post other content on the twitter hashtag #earnedweb for your viewing pleasure as well.
Brand exceptionalism
Your brand is your favorite. After all, it’s yours. You understand it, you helped build it, you’re obsessed with the nuance behind it. Your organization’s actions make sense to you, you sat in the room as they were being argued about… you might even have helped make some of the decisions.
So, your brand doesn’t do anything wrong. What it does is the best it could do under the circumstances. Someone who knew what you know would make the very same decision, because under the circumstances it was the only/best option.
Of course we should buy from you. You’re better!
When your brand starts falling behind a competitor (Dell vs. Apple, Microsoft vs. Google, Washington Mutual vs. Everyone and then Apple vs. Android, Google vs. Facebook)… you say it’s not fair, nor expected.
The problem with brand exceptionalism is that once you believe it, it’s almost impossible to innovate. Innovation involves failure, which an exceptional brand shouldn’t do, and the only reason to endure failure is to get ahead, which you don’t need to do. Because you’re exceptional.
In the battle for attention or market share, the market makes new decisions every day. And the market tends to be selfish. Often, it will pick the arrogant market leader (because the market also tends to be lazy), but upstarts and new competitors always have an incentive to change the game or the story.
Brand humility is the only response to a fast-changing and competitive marketplace. The humble brand understands that it needs to re-earn attention, re-earn loyalty and reconnect with its audience as if every day is the first day.
As participants in the Economy 2.0 or social economy, we need to bring back the core values that made us human. We have to earn our way and build value in each step for not only ourselves but for our ecosystem as well. I can attest that lots of firms are struggling with this rapid change. Let’s become humble organizations with emphasis on real social connections.
Is Social Media changing your organization?
It’s time to reflect upon the craze we call social media. Is the ‘social’ behavior changing your culture? Is it fostering something more than just self-promoting tweets (at borderline spam) for your organization. Are people involved in the ecosystem (internally and externally) paying attention? Or is it just you?
Rawn Shah (a good friend, a blogger, an author and an IBMer) has asked the question.
“Is Your Enterprise Socially-Networked Or Just Your Employees?”
For any new business tool or technology, gaining a core of early adopters is both exciting and dangerous–if it only stays within an echo-chamber of early adopters. To become a business priority, it needs to grow beyond this group, become commonplace and create value for the organization.
Check out the rest of the article on Rawn Shah’s FORBES.COM blog: http://blogs.forbes.com/rawnshah
Associate Director, Marketing - Digital Strategy @ Bell. Digital Strategist. Speaker. Marketing Leadership. Management. Bus Dev. Startups. Challenge. Innovate.Earned, not bought.
