Mosaic Pillar #1
Often the greatest impact of your brand experience lies within your employees’ control. Crafting your internal brand strategy is as critical as your external brand.
When I think about the impact of a brand experience, I immediately think of the source. Who is your audience connecting with? What’s it like?
Practically-speaking, a customer experience rep on chat with a customer has way more power in that moment than a CMO. Your social media specialist and/or content manager owns the brand voice more than a founder can.
That’s not to say your brand effect is out of your control. It’s very much within your power. And you curate, establish and maintain that impact via two key ways:
#1 Internal Brand Experience
Think of your team as your first audience. From onboarding to brand immersion to internal communications, every interaction reinforces their understanding and later translation of your company.
When I’ve helped clients roll out community initiatives or strategic programs, one of the first elements to that roll-out plan is how they inform and equip their team to tell the story. I often use the phrase Preview Syndrome in coaching teams and clients to be mindful of your first audience.
An exclusive preview: the first step to true ownership.
Nothing gets a group of people on board more than feeling included, like they are in on the exclusive news and that they can see themselves within the story. The first step to true ownership. Counter to that, nothing gets a group of people to disregard a rollout faster than feeling like it’s happening to them and coming down from on high.
#2 Company Culture
While your culture and your internal brand are not synonymous, the quality of one greatly affects the quality of the other. Simon Sinek shared the following:
And it’s so true! People just naturally socially share things that make them feel good (well, bad too, but we’ll focus on what we want).
So ultimately, whether it’s voice, strategy, program or plan, design from the inside out.
If you’d like to chat more about what focusing on your internal brand could mean for your company,