Putting Your Team on the Map

Is your team not getting the recognition and place within the business it deserves? Then you could benefit from team branding.

When we think about successful branding, we often focus on how it inspires loyalty from an external customer base.

What we often forget though, is the power of branding to raise the profile of an internal team and to cement its position within a business. The fact is: branding is an essential part of raising a profile and defining an internal team or department.

Do you really know what everyone else in the business thinks about your team? How do they think you’re adding value? Discovery and team branding can help you with this. Here are some pointers:

Give them something to talk about: design a great team

Whatever you do, remember that your team brand campaign can only be as great as your team itself. So start by having a workshop and brainstorming about your team’s vision and its long term plan. This includes thinking about what employees require from you: What methodology, framework and tools will give weight to the team?

Once your core business objectives are aligned to your brand as team, you can use your communications to drive your profile forwards.[1]

What’s your story?

Once you know your vision and plan, work on how this will transform itself into the story behind your team brand and identity. Designing a communication plan with channels tailored to the needs of your stakeholders will build knowledge and awareness. Consistency is also key, and will ensure your target stakeholders stay engaged and interested in your team.

Creating valuable content

There are plenty of ways to create these valuable conversations and let people know what your team is all about. Branding and templates can create a professionalised feel and stir that recognition. Inviting people to interactive hubs or other face to face events can build understanding of what your team is all about.

It pays to be social

Connected networks and social media are necessary in branding. Today, employees go beyond traditional means to connect across the business and provide information more freely, across many social media.

Communicating about your business through connected networks has become the norm, rather than the exception. In fact, the “rising influence of social media has altered the way we seek, evaluate and engage in work and the employers that offer it.” [2] And as the way employer brands promote themselves changes, so should your communications strategies and plans.

Having an authentic voice

Consider creating real content, by using team members as brand ambassadors, and by letting them talk freely across specific media. In turn, this creates the opportunity for employees to create their own, much more realistic, picture.[3]

I hope this is food for thought. What are your ideas on internal branding?

Find out more about how we helped to put a competency development team on the map.

[1] http://www.slideshare.net/TBWA_Corporate/tbwa-7-trends-to-disrupt-employer-branding

[2] http://www.slideshare.net/thetalentproject/bpx-round-table-employer-branding

[3] http://www.slideshare.net/thetalentproject/bpx-round-table-employer-branding