6 Ways to Be Consistent With Your Brand

Branding isn’t a dirty word, and it doesn’t have to mean any of the negative things you might believe of it. We’ve discussed this before, and your brand is simply how you represent yourself and/or your business to the world. While we don’t have total control over what people think of us or how they see us, we can and should still do our best to help shape that perception.

Here are a few ways I’m “on brand” as much as possible.

Use the Same Image

On every social media platform, blog, and anything that let’s you use an image for yourself, use the same one. (Make sure you own the copyright to it!) You want people to associate your brand with a look and a feel. The easiest way is to make sure they know you at first glance.

Your header images on social media should also be the same image, just resized so it looks good. Canva (affiliate link) has a “magic resize” button that makes this easy. (You have to pay for access to get it, but if you create a lot of graphics, it may be worth the expense.) While header images don’t get a lot of attention, it’s another subtle way to be instantly recognizable.

Be Consistent in Look and Feel

From your website to your social media platforms, try to be consistent with fonts, colors, and graphics. Why? Because you want to be recognized at a quick glance.

• Pick a color palette and stick with it. Even Twitter lets you use custom colors for your profile.
• Choose a font or two for your website and use that in any graphics you create for social media. Something else Canva can help you do!
• Create a watermark or logo that you can add to images you post.

Your brand won’t be recognized by the masses, but you want your audience to know you when they see you. It takes time for these details to stick in people’s minds, so you’re playing a long game here. But, to me, it’s worth the effort.

Use the Same Bio

While you might not be able to use an identical bio for every platform you’re on or every site you write for, it needs to be fairly similar. Once you write your bio once (which is hard enough), you can tweak it to fit specific requirements. Some sites only allow a couple of sentences or a certain number of characters. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time, just edit what you’ve got. It might be slightly different from others, but it’ll still be consistent across all platforms.

Use Your Authentic Voice

We often worry that we can’t talk about certain topics because we’ll be “off-brand” when we do. I guess that’s true to some extent. If you’re known for teaching people how to have orgasms and you start talking about how to be a long-haul truck driver, that won’t make much sense to your audience. But that’s not what most of us do.

What I mean is to use your “real” voice in all that you do. Me? I’m equal parts goofy, sincere, zero fucks given, and all about the kinky fuckery. I also try to be a decent human being and professional. So even if I’m talking about a topic that has nothing to do with sex blogging or BDSM, you recognize “me” in whatever I’m doing.

Focus on the Thing that Matters to You

So I just said you don’t have to stick to a single topic to be on brand, and now I’m telling you to focus. They really are two different things. In order for me to do it and not confuse myself, I had to create multiple websites with their own separate branding. I don’t necessarily recommend that for everyone.

• KaylaLords.com is where I go to think, to explore my sexuality, to overshare my personal kinky fuckery, and to play with words. But I do it all with an eye on “kinky fuckery.”
• At Loving BDSM, John Brownstone and I focus on helping people have healthy D/s and BDSM relationships. That’s a wide topic which different subtopics which gives us plenty of variety, but the goal is always the same.
• On Masturbation Monday, it’s all about the smut. I want to help readers discover more of it and help writers spread their smut.
• And here, at The Smutlancer, the focus is on helping you achieve your business goals. While I could write about making money as a vanilla freelancer, the focus is on sex and smut business goals.

Each site has its own focus, but if you notice, they’re all kind of broad. That leaves plenty of room to do all kinds of things. What you focus on doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) too narrow, but you do need to focus on something.

Live Your Values

This sounds like trite advice, but it definitely helps build your brand. For me, it means sharing way too many details about my life, being generous with my knowledge, and maintaining a (mostly) professional attitude in all online interactions.

• Sharing my own experiences means other people realize they’re not alone. I used to think I was “the only one,” and I hate that anyone else feels that way.
• Being generous with what I’ve learned allows me to connect with an audience, professional peers, and potential business clients. I’ve never been hurt by being generous with my time or knowledge.
• A professional attitude means that businesses aren’t afraid to work with me or reach out. Being professional doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions but it does impact how I share them, where, and with who — because you never know who’s paying attention.

Does this mean I can’t be my goofball self or admit to mistakes? Of course not! Being ridiculously open is also part of my brand. If there’s a group for Oversharer’s on the Internet Anonymous, I could probably be the leader.

Whatever your brand is — and only you can decide that for sure — the key is to be consistent about it. You won’t get it right at the very beginning or even know what you want your brand to be. Don’t worry about being perfect, just be consistent.