SmallBusinessNewz

What do people think about your brand? It's a simple question, with perhaps not as simple an answer, but nevertheless it's an important question to ask yourself as a business owner or marketer.

Whether it be good, bad, or indifferent, everybody that has encountered your business in one way or another has some kind of perception about your brand. This is something that Sally Falkow of Expansion Plus talked about in a recent interview with our own Abby Johnson.

"Every business has a story," she says, and she is absolutely right. How your brand is perceived by the public can be both a reflection of that story, as well as a contributing factor to the story. It is up to you to find the story, and to "amplify it" as Falkow puts it.

People respond to stories because it "breaks it down to their level," Abby notes.

Obviously brand perception is an important part of your business' success, but we don't always know what that perception is. Well, it's out there, at least to some extent. Good reputation management practices will keep you abreast of how those who have mentioned you on the Internet view your brand. Search the web, social networks (WhosTalkin is pretty good tool for this), blogs, etc. for your brand name. Find out what people are saying and respond accordingly.

There are other ways to get a sense of your brand perception. Poll visitors to you site. Always have a clearly visible way for people to leave feedback. Simply ask people what they think. You can do this via forums, Twitter, a post on your own blog (company or personal), simply asking people in person, etc. Google has a really good tool called Google Moderator where people can make suggestions, then vote the suggestions of others up or down, helping you prioritize demand.

The point is, you can acquire as many thoughts about your company from as many people as possible, and from there figure out an angle to play up, whether that be simply in your marketing or your business practices in general.

Look at how President Obama's administration is running Whitehouse.gov for instance. They are actively looking for feedback from citizens. Now certainly, the President isn't going to act on every suggestion that people make, but by allowing a clear path of two-way information, the administration can at least get a sense of what people are looking for, and from there, they can act in the manner they see fit.

It can take knowing how people perceive your brand or practices to get you to take the initiative to make changes and improvements. So you might as well get these perceptions from as many places as possible.