What’s one way you’re resolving to improve or shore up your company or personal brand in 2013?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
1. Focus on Customer Satisfaction
“We plan to keep reinforcing our brand and building our reputation through a continued focus on customer service and satisfaction. A company’s brand is essentially how it is perceived. A satisfied customer is more than an endorsement; it’s a strong branding statement.”
David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services
2. Improve Social Profiles
“I’ve noticed that I am spending a tremendous amount of time on social media sites for business related purposes. In fact, my company gets more leads through social media than through our website, which does very well in search engines. Therefore, I am spending a lot of time making sure that my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, AngelList, and Pinterest pages are the best they can be.”
Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers
3. Implement Video Tutorials
“Next year we are looking to step into the video tutorial realm in order to offer our customers a different medium by which to receive our information. It’s sure to be a challenge, but we feel that by doing so we can improve our brand and further set ourselves apart from the competition.”
Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
4. Write, Write, Write!
“We have built some killer technology with great results for clients, but we have practically kept it a secret all year by not investing in marketing. Over the next twelve months, we’ll be writing case studies, best practices, infographics, blog posts, and everything under the sun. We think the best way to market is through creating compelling, valuable content.”
Erik Severinghaus, SimpleRelevance
5. Giving Before Getting
“A great way to help your brand is to educate your customers. Share your knowledge and give free advice. When you educate and teach, people will appreciate you and look up to you as a leader and a mentor. Give before getting and your brand will build with raving fans on its own. Fans will help your brand, and word of mouth is by far the best referral your brand can get.”
Ak Kurji, Gennex Group
6. Delegate
“There are things that only I can do, among them manage my personal communications and brand. But everything else should be on someone else’s desk if I really want to grow that brand. Otherwise, I’m limited by the hours that I’ve already carved out in my schedule for such things.”
Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting
7. Making Friends
“Our outreach strategy is “make friends” and we’re good at it! The rest takes care of itself. We’ve been more or less reactive in the past, though, and are starting to work on being more proactive in the future.”
8. Commit to Blogging
“If you’re a thought leader in your industry, spread your insights with those around you on your blog. You’ll be surprised at the types of opportunities that will come your way. It’s an amazing networking tool because it allows people to get to know you on a mass scale.”
Matt Wilson, Under30Media
