How To Transition or Expand Your Brand to Two Topics

  • 1 min read

I have a dilemma. I have a blog about Gen Y topics with nearly 1000 subscribers. I started a new blog about marketing and consumer insights this week, and I am worried about transitioning my personal brand. My second blog is far more important than my first one because it’s the platform for my company, but my first blog is how I made my name online.

Since we always learn the most from each other, here are my questions:

1. How can one person stand for two different brands?

Research shows that the best brands have a simple and clear message. Having two brands makes this nearly impossible, because if you can’t consolidate the two brands to begin with, they are likely two very different and separate messages. I worry that by trying to stand for two brands, I’m actually mixing two messages that don’t go together.

2. Is it better to shift my brand image or try to represent both brands?

Both are difficult. Many companies (if not most) who try to shift the brand image they’ve built end up shifting themselves into extinction. I would prefer to shift my brand image to become a marketing expert, but most of the community I’ve built on my previous blog is Gen Y bloggers and other human resources professionals.

Trying to represent both brands on various social media outlets (for example, Twitter) is difficult as well, for the reasons I outlined in #1.

3. How do I keep everyone happy?

It is clear to me that marketing is the direction I should be going with my career. But because so many people know me as a Gen Y leader, I have to maintain the personal brand image I have, at least for awhile. Some people will cross over and be interested in the topics on my new blog, but it’s likely that I’ll lose some of my current community.

Also, my current brand image as a twentysomething conflicts with the brand image I want to establish, as an expert. People discriminate against age when it comes to experience.

Picture of Monica O'Brien

Monica O'Brien

Monica O’Brien is an MBA candidate with years of experience in business, strategy, and technology. She currently consults start-ups in the Chicago area on establishing their social media strategies. Monica attends the Chicago Booth School of Business (at the University of Chicago), currently ranked the #1 MBA program in the country by BusinessWeek, and is one of the 2007 Chicago Business Fellows. She concentrates in Marketing, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship. Monica holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, with a minor in Physics, from Truman State University. Her blog, Twenty Set, gives career advice to young professionals. Monica writes candidly about her own experiences. She has also written for Mashable and ProBlogger, and has been featured in major publications like the Christian Science Monitor.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

The most lasting relationships are not always built on passion — many are built on two people choosing not to punish each other for being human

The most lasting relationships are not always built on passion — many are built on two people choosing not to punish each other for being human

The Vessel
People who married in the 1970s and 1980s often didn’t have the language for what they needed — and many of them made it work anyway, in ways their children are still trying to understand

People who married in the 1970s and 1980s often didn’t have the language for what they needed — and many of them made it work anyway, in ways their children are still trying to understand

The Blog Herald
People who text their partner about nothing — a parking spot, a strange cloud, a good sandwich — may not be saying very much, but they might be saying everything that matters

People who text their partner about nothing — a parking spot, a strange cloud, a good sandwich — may not be saying very much, but they might be saying everything that matters

The Vessel
People who stay in long marriages aren’t always in love the same way they started — and for many, what develops in the middle may be the version that holds

People who stay in long marriages aren’t always in love the same way they started — and for many, what develops in the middle may be the version that holds

The Blog Herald
People who married in their early 20s often became adults inside the marriage rather than before it, and that changes what they need, what they resent, and who they are by the time they finally know themselves

People who married in their early 20s often became adults inside the marriage rather than before it, and that changes what they need, what they resent, and who they are by the time they finally know themselves

The Vessel
The older some people get, the smaller their circle becomes — and sometimes that isn’t withdrawal, it’s finally knowing the difference between company and comfort

The older some people get, the smaller their circle becomes — and sometimes that isn’t withdrawal, it’s finally knowing the difference between company and comfort

The Blog Herald
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore