6 Ways to Create A Positive Brand Perception


how to create a positive brand perception

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~ George Bernhard Shaw

We hear this all the time – perception is reality. Do you agree with this and believe in it?

I do.

Our personality and professional image sets the tone and stage for how we are all perceived. With the reality of a 24/7 online media world that can change things in a real-time split second,  one small wrong move or right move can go viral and change everything.

What does your social brand say about you online? This is your calling card and visual home that people will use to determine why connecting with you is viable and has value.

Creating a positive brand image today is a combination of many factors including your visual presence, relevance, value, character and ability to serve, engage and move people.

Ultimately, it’s a blend of our IQ – Intellectual Intelligence, EQ – Emotional Intelligence and I what I like to call, your SQ – Spiritual Intelligence.  We control our perception destiny far more than we realize.

Below are 6 ways to create a positive brand perception, which we shape by how we look, what we say and what we do.

How to Create Your Positive Brand Perception

Update Your Technology and Your Website

We are getting  very “smart” from phone, TV, 3D, and online and web learning. So keeping up with the latest technologies reflects  the value you can deliver to your customers and community. There is a current look to Web technology with widgets, slide shows, social integration, linking that we all use, expect and want.

Make sure yours reflects this.

Invest In Your Professional Branding

Having your own look, logo and image across all your marketing and social platforms helps you stand out, be more unique and says “I’m serious.”

Invest in yourself and your branding.  Get a referral for a graphic designer from your network whose work you like.

Qualify Your Relationships and Connections

I wish everyone well, but qualifying the best people, communities and activities to invest my business time on is crucial.

Build relationships and connections with those who can help you grow toward your goals the most.

Increase Your Dedicated Meetings and Conversations

Dedicated in person meetings or phone calls does more to move a relationship forward than just about anything.

Making the time to get more personal and get to know people shows your interest in them and creates the opportunity for them to get to know you better, too.

Commit More Time to Purposeful Social Media Marketing

Eighty six percent of marketers say social media is important for their business. One of the biggest benefits of social media is its ability to connect and engage with people on a regular basis. Facebook is the top social media followed by YouTube, Twitter,  Google+ and LinkedIn.

Smart, strategic activity that keeps you in front of key people will grow your business relationships.

Get Out, Join and Volunteer

Attraction marketing is everything you do both in person and online that puts you out there to meet people and share your expertise and personality.

Be involved in your industry, community and niche daily. Suit up and show up and be an active participant, not a quiet bystander.

Our personality and professional image sets the tone for how we are all perceived. How we look, what we say and what we do can leave a positive, lasting first impression or ending impression. It’s up to us to be consistent, authentic and fresh  in all of our self marketing activities. Learn from these top 10 brands on social media.

Relationships are gold but they take time. Invest the time in the right people and it will boomerang back to you.

Perception is reality – and we can create them both in positive and memorable ways.

Half Empty or Half Full Photo via Shutterstock


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Deborah Shane Deborah Shane has been recognized as a Top 100 Small Business Champion and Top 50 SMB Influencer (Dunn and Bradstreet 2015). She is a career transition author, personal branding and social media specialist. Deborah's book "Career Transition: Make the Shift" is available through all major book sellers.

20 Reactions
  1. Really interested in how you have worked your brand perception both good and not so good. What has been your most successful approach to building positive feedback and dealing with negative if you have had to?

  2. Love the comment about face to face meetings. I’ve used Twitter to meet a lot of people in my industry, but I’ve become friends with those I’ve been able to meet in person. Can’t say enough how important this is.

    • Robert, there’s something magical that goes down F2F, that just can’t happen online. It’s still about meeting people in person or having quality phone conversations. I try to meet with people in person weekly, but set my time management. 30 minutes with a plan and focus can be so fruitful. Thanks for chiming in here!

  3. It is also very important to always engage offline. It is not enough that you have a well designed website with a well planned communication system. You should be able to bring your brand to real life and retain what it stands for.

    • Blending the in person and online activities Gives people the best ability to really get to know you. Nothing like face-to-face activity to grow perception into reality! Thanks Aira.

  4. Offline engagement is very important as it can build customer trust and the actual F2F speaks volumes about a company and can take them to a level past their competition.

    • Ed, so true. Companies that give their customers more access to them are only helping their cause. In-store, in office, on-site access is more expected from the public now. We want to know who’s behind the companies that we support.

      • Do you think that sometimes we might look beyond who’s behind our favorite businesses just because of the excellent service or products they provide?

  5. Thanks for the nice post, Deborah. I liked to read it. I think that branding is not too easy as it sounds, but yes social media can make it easy if used properly. I liked the point ‘Update Your Technology and Your Website’. We recently made our website mobile friendly, so mobile/tablet users can easily access it on their gadgets. Today, users access the internet more on mobile than desktops or laptops.

    • Thanks Michelle. Technology relevance for websites is a requirement today and mobile accress through phones and tablets will continuen to grow dramatically. Which also means finding IT people that know what their doing is important too.