Have you hit the panic button?

I know it’s a scary financial world out there right now, and lots of businesses are battening down the hatches in preparation for the storm of the century. I’m a realist and I do understand that the economy is causing hardship for many businesses, but I believe in something profoundly. Now is the time to invest in your business, and your brand.

Building your brand has both short and long term effects. In the short term, you’ll forge stronger relationships with the people that know you and love you. In the long term, you’ll have a healthier, more focused brand and be better equipped to take advantage when the economy turns upward again (and yes, it will). Here are a few thoughts to get you started:

Do your research. Now is your chance to know and understand your industry better than anyone. Make like a bear hibernating in the winter, and hunker down and learn something while the learning’s good. You may learn about an unmet need that your business can fill, or uncover a new and different way to communicate what makes you unique.

Listen to what’s being said about you online, and figure out if it’s as loud or as accurate as you’d like it to be. Set up Google Alerts, check out Technorati, analyze your web traffic with Google Analytics. Figure out who is talking about you and where they are. Not as much out there about you as you’d like? Put together a plan to change that.

Refocus your goals. Who are you as a business? Does your brand represent the same thing today as it did 6 months ago? A year ago? This is a great time to take stock and make some careful, strategic shifts in your positioning.

Sit down and list five concise bullet points (no buzzwords, please) that describe why you do what you do. What need do you serve? How do you help the community or your clients and customers? Put together that marketing plan you’ve been putting off that describes who you’re trying to communicate with, what you hope they understand about you, and the ways you’ll get that message out there. Give yourself deadlines, and hold yourself to them. Enlist help from your community too – they may see you in a different, unique light.

Take the social media plunge. If you haven’t done so before, now can be the time to put your feet in the water. Social media isn’t “free” – it takes time and energy. But luckily, most of the costs are in terms of your time and effort, and the rewards can be great. You’ll meet new people, learn a bit about what makes the web tick, and uncover new opportunities for your business to tap into the vast online community. Trust me, there’s room for you, even when the market sucks.

A few good places to start: LinkedIn, Twitter, a new blog. Think in terms of building relationships with new people, not just disseminating a message (which can really smack of desperation in tough times). Focus on how social media opens up new dialouges between you and your customers.

Cultivate your relationships. You will stand out in a down market by being a source of positive energy to those around you. Yes, this sounds like something that deserves incense burning next to it, but I’m serious. People are the heart of any business, whether or not you’re involved in social media.

The relationships you have in your business – with your clients, vendors, colleagues – are golden, and you ought to always be cultivating them for the long term. But especially when times are tight, invest in the people that have invested in you. Share your knowledge and your network. Spend time getting to know the people that make your business work, and learn how you can keep making them happy. Remember: you don’t own your brand, they do. And they are a rich, amazing, and inspiring resource that can remind you why you’re doing all of this in the first place. THAT is brand equity.

Your brand is a living, breathing thing that evolves with you. What are you doing to nurture it right now? Please share your perspective in the comments.

Want more thoughts on the subject? Check out a few other takes on how the economy is affecting the business world:

Valeria Maltoni talks about being honest with your customers and employees.

Chris Brogan has one of his famous lists about social media during the downturn.

Beth Kanter talks about how non-profits are weathering the storm.

Todd Defren articulates why ditching your PR firm might be the wrong thing to do.

Kami Huyse discusses why the old metrics just don’t cut it anymore.

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