Rebranding for Startups

You might have read about some of the issues that can affect startups. As a social media manager, rebranding will probably affect you more than any other issue. Suddenly, your team has decided to rebrand. Where does that leave you?

Different Messaging

If you think of your brand as a cake, then your social media platforms are your ingredients. Every image on Pinterest, every tweet on Twitter, and every Facebook post are affected by your branding. As the social media manager, you are the baker who now has to create a new recipe. So where do you start? What questions should your team be asking?

Meet with the Branding People

Ask those responsible for the rebranding to give you a few words that will represent the new brand. To continue with the cake analogy, what was once chocolate may now be lemon chiffon. Your old words were “thick,” “fudgy,” and “goodness.” Your new words are “light,” “fluffy,” and “luxurious.” Each new ingredient in your cake will have to match those words.

Work Closely with the Branding Team

Rebranding Changes Can Be Far-Reaching

As the baker of this new creation of lemony goodness, your job is to work closely with the branding team. If you don’t, your consumers will go elsewhere for their baked edibles. Your kitchen will get a bad rep.

When your brand was Cutesy Wootsy’s Handcrafted Cakey Beauties you’d say things like “Hewwo! A widdle birdie sat on my shoulder and sang me a widdle dittie, which inspired this cutesy-wootsy wecipe for a magical gumdrop babycakes.” After the rebranding to Duchess Throckmorton von Chandelier’s Exquisite Pastries for the Discerning Palate, that sentence might read, “Good Evening mesdames et messieurs, your humble servant requests the pleasure of your company at the unveiling of a sugar-infused feast for the senses. Kindly collect in the anteroom anon, for a tasting.” Hopefully, these examples were not too subtle.

Changes Can Be Far-Reaching

Now that you know how much work you have ahead of you, you’re going to need some of Duchess von Chandelier’s lemony chiffon cake, for real. You might be surprised at the sheer complexity and number of elements involved in all your social media platforms. For instance, does the Facebook page banner match the new brand? What about the background on your Twitter page? What happens to all your followers when there’s a sudden change? How or when will you announce the change? How will you migrate? How will you know if your rebranding has been successful?

What Rebranding Have You Had to Do?

Have you been on a startup team that had to rebrand? What advice would you have for others?