When you hear the term, “Personal Branding” an initial thought may be that it’s all about how you look and come across to people but I was very happy to see a very refreshing post at the Personal Brand Blog on the myth that personal branding is about you. Dan, who write and runs the Personal Branding Blog interviewed Daniel Pink about his new book, “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.” and one of his favorite quotes from the book is, “You’re here to serve, not to self-actualize.” I love that. What are your thoughts?

What makes groups of people rally behind a brand? Imagine having a product so distinctive and liked that people will form communities around it in order to spread the word, enjoy the company of others and support the continued existence of such a brand. who enjoy the same brand.

A brand community usually develops around a niche product or service. I’m not saying a commodity product or one that has a huge market share can’t foster or have a group or loyal followers but because a product may be a combination of a niche and high quality people will tend to protect it and keep it going.

Perhaps the most well known brand community revolves around the products of Apple, Inc. You still see very active Mac User Groups after a lot of PC User Groups have stopped meeting. I’m currently a member of the Greenville Mac User’s Group as well as maintaining their web site and serving on the leadership board. Some people are such fans of Apple and their products that they are called the “Cult of Mac.”

In recent years to open source operating system, Linux has also given rise to fans and in fact the community aspect is what makes it work as a platform from support to collaborative development, etc.

Outside the world of electronic or computer technology you will find automobile enthusiasts loyal to a particular brand or model. The Corvette has a such a following. A friend of mine has help develop a podcast devoted to the auto. and a few years ago I applied to work for the BMW Car Club of America. Impressive to see such strong support for their brand community.
Another experience I had in recent years involved the fan community of the computer game Myst and other games produced by Cyan Worlds. I even had the priviledge to be a very early tester of one of their more recent games and was listed in the credits as an “Authorized Explorer.” A while you may not hear much about it the fan base for Myst, Riven, Exile, Revelation and Uru has many web forums, an annual gathering of fans called, Mysterium.

In some ways you could say one of the greatest and most successful brand communities that inspired others to develop other brand communities was the fans of the original TV show, Star Trek. It’s a long story but a very active fan base help bring back a TV that only lasted for three seasons in the 1960’s helped bring about many movies and 4 new spin off TV shows that took place in the “same universe.”

How can you go about creating “brand community?” To be pefectly honest it’s very hard to do artificially apart for making your brand distinctive and of great value to the consumer first. Star Trek has a unique message apart from other Science Fiction show, Apple creates products that are easy to use and people are proud to share that they own. The same holds true for special and well-crafted automobiles. When Myst first came out it was unique in terms of the lack of visible violence, great story telling, engaging puzzles and compelling graphics and music. How can you make your product or service so special that people will voluntarily rally behind it?

That being said you can make it easier for your brand community (your super customers if you will) to give feedback, market to other customers voluntarily (viral marketing) and contribute to the future of your brand by giving them communications tools. Do you have a web site designed with interactive features such as a blog, forum and compelling multimedia content? What are some local small business brands do you know of that have community/loyal customer base? I’d especially love to hear of ones in the upstate or even specifically Greenville,SC. as that is where we are based but share regardless.

I really enjoyed the last series I brought you on design. Another aspect of what SpinningSilk Multimedia does is helping small businesses and organizations with their branding efforts. What we do specifically will be covered in part 10 of this upcoming series. The term branding can sound very intimidating but in reality it can boil down to some very simple principles that a business of any size or individual of any size can follow. I plan on sharing my thoughts on the following topics over the next several days;

1. The Aspects of Branding - Part 1: It begins with the product or service
2. The Aspects of Branding - Part 2: Brand Management
3. The Aspects of Branding - Part 3: Naming, logos and slogans
4. The Aspects of Branding - Part 4: The Myths of Brand Engagement
5. The Aspects of Branding - Part 5: Brand Community
6. The Aspects of Branding - Part 6: Brand Loyalty
7. The Aspects of Branding - Part 7: Small Business Branding
8. The Aspects of Branding - Part 8: Religious and Non-Profit Branding
9. The Aspects of Branding - Part 9: Are you branding yourself?
10. The Aspects of Branding - Part 10: Integrated Marketing Communications
11. The Aspects of Branding - Part 11: Recommended books, blogs and podcasts

I enjoy following other blogs that focus on this topic and look forward to contributing and extending the conversation to you. I look forward to your participation, questions and contributions in this next series.