Start With “Digital” Why
Maybe no one has so profoundly summed up the essence of building brand loyalty than Simon Sinek in his Ted Talk, “Start with Why.”
If you haven’t watched it before, I recommend it highly. There are many great Ted Talks, but this is one that has stuck with me ever since I listened to it.
But I digress…
Simon goes on to say people don’t buy what you do or how you do it, but they buy “Why you do it.” And ultimately what he said that was so profound was this…
“People want to buy from people who believe what they believe”
Yep, that was it, but those words mean so much. They capture the essence of a business relationship. They sum up the way people end up doing business with people they like even when it isn’t the right decision.
This isn’t something new. In fact this is how business has been done since humans stood upright.
What has changed is the way we do business, the way we connect and engage, the way we build relationships; meaning we have changed the way people discover what our brands stand for or as Simon would say…
“What they believe!”
People Used to Meet In Person, Now They Meet Online
So really there is one change, and that is the delivery model.
How do people get to know a brand? It used to be through in person meetings with sales pros, television commercials and potentially via publicity if an organization had a budget for that.
With this meant generally lesser reach, more one to one or one to few brand engagements and certainly much less awareness of all but the most dominant brands in any field.
Today is completely different. People connect with brands online, they do this through researching their needs and finding companies that are authorities on these topics online. The users seek to connect to a brand and find companies that share similar beliefs and offer relevant solutions.
It is then that they see a companies subject matter prowess that they begin to engage the brand to explore its inner workings. Reading content via the companies blogs, videos, webinars and live events. It is when the expertise and the personality of the organization mesh that finally does the buyer seek out that real life introduction.
What is a Digital Personality?
No more complicated than it sounds, a digital personality is how your brands online content shows the inner workings of an organization.
If you are like me, you believe that a brand is human and that is verified by the fact that the brand is carried out and executed by the people behind it. Take away the people, the brand goes with it.
So your online existence says a lot about your company. It invites your audience in. It educates, informs and shares. Perhaps it is funny, sarcastic or serious; but nevertheless it defines you.
An organizations digital personality says who we are, what we do and most importantly why we do it.
Considering the importance of first impressions and the fact that your online presence is usually your first impression with any prospect, it begs me to ask you the question…
When someone looks up you and your online business, what kind of digital personality will they find?
In a cluttered digital world, How do you distinguish your business from the rest online?
A version of this post originally was published on Millennial CEO and can be found here.
Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.