Creating an Online Media Empire 101 - Chapter 3 - Branding

Have you ever noticed that when you’re watching a Superhero movie there is usually an insignia on the superhero’s chest?

Batman has a bat symbol. Superman has a giant S. Spider-man has a spider. Heck, even the super villains are getting into the action. The Riddler has question marks all over his costume.

These are all examples of branding. Branding allows you to create a visual, aural, emotional, or intellectual connection with your audience.

Most streaming media hosts allow you to personalize your channel's name, logo, and often times create either a motion or static greeting. You should take advantage of this. Everything on your channel should shout who you are and what your product is.

It is much better you to create a catchy name and a product relatable logo then to leave everything bare or without personalization or character. Your channel name should be something memorable and as short as possible. If you have to choose between memorable or short, it is far better for you to go for memorable

Example: WickedLyndrickBots is more catchy than 192838484

Now, most people would have no idea what a wicked Lyndrick bot could be, but if I provided content that was related to the channel name it would allow me to create an image in the minds of my viewer, ensuring a connection to my brand.

Personalization is the best way to set your portal apart from channels with similar content. That said you have to be smart about the type of personalization you put onto your channel. The theme of your website and your content should be easily seen. A person should not have to do mental gymnastics to discover the connection between your team and your content.

Personalization with Flair and Intellect

When personalizing your channel you should be very aware of its overall theme and the direction you are planning to take your content.

Example: Let's suppose you are building a channel about baby alligators. You should be placing related images and descriptive words that allow the viewer of your content to know that this channel is about baby alligators.

It doesn’t have to be exclusively about baby alligators and you are free to put whatever you want on your channel, but it would make little sense to have giant robots fighting snapping turtles as your background and a famous superhero as your video icon.

Now, there is a chance you may be able to get away with it, but it is pretty random. It will diminish your channels ability to connect with your audience and cause brand confusion.

The same can be said for using your description space to discuss random events or anything not related to what people will be watching on your channel.

Instead, choose images and text that let people know exactly what they are going to get. There should be no secrets or trickery. You are trying to get people to view your content regularly. As such, they need to know what they are going to be getting before they watch one second of your content.

Continued Next time in:

Creating an Online Media Empire 101 - Chapter 4 - Creating Strong Content