Not Just Another Brick Wall

We’ve all been there, putting up walls is easy, but tearing them down is not. Instead of scrapping to bring down a standing wall or wasting time installing bricks, why not build something everyone can stand on – a sharing platform to use and enjoy. This is especially vital when working with a support team.

When you are building your sharing platform, create products and brands that are consistently used throughout your knowledgeable support team. For example, every time you see the ShareThis widget, it has the same logo and you know what to expect before you even lay eyes on it. It has the same shape, the same style and the same colors in the same places. Whether it is on your blog, our website, a banner ad or a billboard, the ShareThis logo has the same look and feel. It is something with which you are comfortable.

ShareThis has taken the same approach of reliability with its Internet Explorer and Firefox browser plug-ins, bookmarks and blog add-ons. The customer – in this case bloggers or publishers – feels at ease with our product. Our brand is easy to recognize and identify with our company.

A uniform sharing platform within a company or support team helps your employees as well. When everyone is able to identify the logo, company colors and other important parts of the brand, they do not need to guess what to put on their presentation. When letterhead is uniform, there is no chance someone will send out a letter with graphics that do not represent your company properly.

Selling a product is impossible without a uniform product or brand. Constant change confuses customers and can make them uncomfortable about spending their money with you. Think about your favorite candy bar or cup of specialty coffee. Would it still be your favorite if it tasted different each time you purchased one? Probably not.

Branded product experiences have a number of benefits for your company as well. Your team will be able to troubleshoot much easier. If all the products are the same and work the same way every time, it is easy to figure out what is going wrong and how to fix it. Your team will easily be able to provide support through forums and email contact with customers to answer their questions and send any feedback to the correct end source.

An important concept to remember when building your brand is to provide sharing services with a universally recognized icon along with constant attention to quality reporting and customer feedback. This will benefit both you and the customer. Remember, without a reliable product, people won’t share it and you won’t be heard!

While you can strike a careful balance between knowledge of what your logo and company are, do not get caught up and forget this is a sharing platform. That means you need to listen to your employee’s ideas to make the company better. Perhaps a full logo make-over is not possible, but consider their ideas – you never know how they may improve upon your current design and internal platform.

About the Author:
Tim Schigel runs ShareThis, the world’s largest sharing network. ShareThis makes it easy to share ideas and get to the good stuff online. You can find Tim on Twitter at www.twitter.com/schigel or www.twitter.com/sharethis.