Building your brand is one of the most important things you can do with social media. This is probably not news to you.
But how do you go about building your brand? Where do you look for inspiration and how do you know that you’re headed in the right direction?
Last week, a few members of Scott Fox’s ClickMillionaires community asked me about the origin of the BizSugar name and logo.
I decided to do a bit of research and contacted BizSugar’s founder John Holsen. Holsen had founded the site back in 2007, and I was eager to hear the origins of the community’s name and memorable logo.
Hi Shawn,
I wish I could give you some interesting story on this. When I owned the site, people asked me the same question and I would often joke, “It was the last domain name still available.”
WHAT??!! I could hardly believe the e-mail I was reading. Could this awesome brand name and memorable logo simply have been the result of an after thought? John continues:
Seriously, I think I looked up well over 50 different domain names and all my ideas were taken. However, whatever site I was looking at would give me name suggestions and BizSugar was one of them. I passed around about five different name ideas and everyone seemed to like BizSugar, so I went with it.
So here’s an important take away. Don’t try too hard, and crowdsource your ideas when you’re ready. Get input into your brand from your potential audience where possible. Of course, your brand is more than just a cool name. Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
We liked the idea that only the “sweetest” business ideas made it to the front page. Not sure if you remember when the site first started, but when you voted for an article, it would say “Sweet!” I was also considering BizCream with the idea that the best articles rise to the top, but we just didn’t like that name.
OK, so your brand isn’t just a name but should encompass what your product or service is. What do you do? How does your product or service work? What can it do for your customers or clients? These are some of the questions you can ask to discover whether you’re on the right track. John concludes:
You also asked about the logo. To me, the logo seemed pretty obvious – a sugar cube and the name.
Not sure if that’s exciting enough to post, but that’s the answer.
John
At first, you might be thinking, well, what can we learn from this? But let’s look a bit deeper, if we can. John’s story shows the importance of not trying too hard when it comes to developing a brand. Pick something that works. Create a brand that is more than simply a name with a logo. One that exemplifies who you are and what you do for your clients. Then get some feedback … and tell the world.
Thanks again to John Holsen for helping us out. You can check out John’s LinkedIn profile here or John’s current Website Business Intelligence Report.
Hi Shawn, it’s interesting how you broke up my response into different sections. Each section is sort of an evolution of thought about creating the name. I’m glad you recognized that.
You might think from the first section that I don’t like the name. That’s not the case at all. People would often ask me the origin of the name and I could tell they thought it was a little weird. When I’m selling an idea and I expect some resistance, I’ll often break down that resistance by jokingly agree on something they wouldn’t expect me to agree on. From there, I start adding information that hopefully let’s them see things from a different point of view. That’s what I would do with that little joke.
That said, I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when my first 50+ name ideas didn’t pan out. However, I’m actually glad they didn’t because they were too conservative and didn’t stand out. I’m the first to admit I would have come up with the Microsoft name, but not Apple. Not getting my “Microsoft” name forced me to look outside of the business box.
And ultimately that’s why we picked BizSugar. It was unexpected, seemed friendly, stood out and yet fit with what we were trying to accomplish.
Hi John,
Thanks! When Shawn originally asked me the question, I sat and looked at his email with a “deer in the headlights” look and mouth half open. For all the talking you and I did when I bought the site and all the discoveries I have made since, I suddenly realized there was one important thing I didn’t know. I didn’t know the story of how the BizSugar brand name came about. We appreciate your willingness to share this ….
Anita
Hi Shawn!
Thanks for sharing it. I recently got to know of bizsugar.com.
It sounded weird and the logo gives it a very technical sort of look. The homepage outlook of bizsugar somehow gives me not-so-user-friendly vibes. And given the fact that I am a technophobe, somehow, the logo of bizsugar kept me away from it ;p
But now once I have explored it a little, it doesn’t seem what I thought if it to be 🙂
Thanks for sharing the information.
Anam
Hi Shawn,
Building Your Brand With Social Media
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I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!