Naya’s Thoughts on Brand Strategy (via #SideHustleChat)

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I was invited by Chivon to guest tweet about brand strategy during #SideHustleChat a few months back (back when my name was still @yeez). I had such a great time (way better than that time I threw a 5-minute-Twitter party).

Years ago, when I first heard the phrase “brand strategy”, it sounded like a bunch of jargon to me. The word brand was being thrown around left and right and, as I saw it, it was starting to lose having a clear meaning. And strategy, well strategy was getting just as bad. Everyone was becoming some sort of “strategist”—as if strategy wasn’t a normal part of any creative or marketing-style job.

I was over brand strategy before I had even gotten into it. It just didn’t seem like it was worth talking about. Fast forward to today: it’s one of my favorite topics when inspiring people to create opportunities for themselves.

Yeah, I’m surprised I got to this point, too.

A brand strategy can get your ideas in front of people who have an opportunity for you. How? Knowing what you want your brand to achieve will keep you focused on delivering on the expectations that will get you where you want to go. It’s about more than a nice logo and a stunning website. It’s about letting people know what you’re capable of and excelling when given the chance to prove yourself.

But, before you can knock everyone’s socks off, you might want a brand strategy that can get you in the door.

So, I talked—I mean tweeted—to a bunch of fellow side hustlers about how to give their brands a chance to make an impact with their brands.

And it went a little something like…

Question 1

 

Answer 1 and the crowd goes wiiiiiiild! Kidding. But it kicked the talk off strong sparking some great conversation about where a reputation ends and where a brand begins.

Question 2

I wanted to point out how much value we all place on how something makes us feel. When we do things, particularly in the name of our businesses, we want to be mindful of how we make someone feel.

But, since we were all sharing the words that we wanted people to associate with ourselves…

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

And then this happened. 🙂

We really were having a great time. Moving along…

 Question 7

 

It was such a great time! Seriously.

Let me tell you something that I didn’t anticipate—I got nervous. Y’all, Twitter moves super fast, which I knew, but there were so many great comments and aha moments that it was damn near impossible to respond to everyone! I had TweetDeck open. I had browsers open. The screens were moving so fast!

And I would absolutely do it again!

Oh, and if you want to know about that elusive question 6, just ask for it on Twitter ;-).

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