Why Being Different Matters: Harnessing Creativity for Brand Growth
It’s time to get creative. You’d think it would be common sense to want to stand out in the online world these days, but it seems like more and more people are following in each other’s footsteps.
There’s nothing wrong with liking what you see on someone else’s profile or taking ideas from another company. There is something wrong when you try to copy and paste their ideas as your own. We all learned in school that plagiarism is a major no-no, so why are people still trying it? Being creative and standing out is what will get you results. Whether you want more followers, more engagement, to sell something, anything – you need to show people why you’re different.
When you go in for a job interview, a lot of the times they’ll ask you, “What makes you different from the other applicants?” or something along those lines. What is your answer to that question? Nothing? You should know something about yourself, your company, your work ethic, etc. that stands out among the rest. You need to take your strengths and capitalize on them and tell your story the way it’s meant to be heard. Taking ideas from other people and not customizing them to fit you will hurt your brand in the long run.
Why will it hurt you? Not only do you give the impression that these ideas are your own, but you’re not letting your creativity be presented. This limits you later on when you continue “stealing” ideas as your own because you don’t sit down to brainstorm these on your own. You don’t have a thought process of your own in these situations, making it harder to start when you’ve already begun implementing certain aspects. This could be making videos for your social media, a marketing campaign, anything! If you’re constantly taking other ideas, that fails to show your story because it wasn’t you creating it. Not to mention the fact that it could get you in legal trouble as well.
So how can you let your creativity out? That depends! Do you need to do something to get the creative juices flowing? For me, I normally need something to make me angry/happy/worried – anything that sparks my interest and gets me thinking will come out some of the best pieces. Maybe looking through elements done by other people/companies can spark some ideas for you. Maybe exercise can help, or even napping! There are so many ways to get your imagination going and ideas to flow, you really just need to find what works for you, then turn it into your story. As I said, there’s nothing wrong with letting someone else inspire you to create something. It’s when you mirror others’ work is when it becomes a problem, in more ways than one.
Have you seen the recent video segments we created? Banton Media has rebranded social media entirely. Our team came together because we were ready to do something different, but we weren’t sure what that new idea could be. As a marketing agency, we had been preaching to our clients about the importance of video for a very long time, because we recognized trends and wanted to help our clients reach goals. It then sparked – why aren’t we taking our own advice? Coming up with video segments and content calendars to include our unique ideas with our branding to make sure we did it like no one else has made our brand more consistent. Following the pack and not being a leader will get you lost in the sea of your competition.