5 ways for Educators to Go Public with their Brand

I smile when I check into Linkedin and see the power educations with whom I’ve worked for years profiled online. It’s pitiful, really. Many of the best educators I know have half–baked profiles and 3 connections. Better not go on linkedin,com at all if that’s all you are willing to invest in putting your brand out to the world of work. Linkin.com is a basic place to develop your authentic professional brand, and a great web 2.0 introduction to connecting to other’s brands, the people who are like you. Twitter and Facebook, the other preferred giants of social media may eventually figure into your branding plan. But as I said, small sure steps!



• Once you’ve done the simple personal audit, confirm that advancing what you stand for, your brand, is a comfortable process for you, and something you can talk about to the public. Begin testing the waters with a little discipline. Becoming an early adopter of a social media site. Linkedin.com is a good start. You are not simply dismissing social media anymore once you engage. Set up your profile, create a CV, absolutely post a professional photo. Start looking around to see who you know onsite and ask them to link their profile with yours. Visit Linked.in every day. Join a few groups that align with your professional interest. Answer questions when your groups put out some interesting content. Grow your brand as a connected social networker as you introduce people to each other and to content and good ideas online.


• Read a bit about branding on a personal level, then ask yourself if this is a fit. Am I capable of this thinking? Can I live it, and comfortably talk the talk about myself so that I can teach this process to others? If you can, in a real time, public way. You might use your brand statement to refine what matters to you about branding and use the thinking as you start conversation in meetings about school policy, culture, and achievement.

• It is absolutely necessary for your brand to be part of developing the school’s brand promise, so think of ways to visibly show you recognize and live your brand.. Authenticity of brand and you effort to promote yours, helps you influence others about a Brand-ed view. Ask others what they think about branding, about how people view personal brands, children, teens young adults are all branding themselves personally. This innovative type of thinking as an exciting change for leaders as they think of bringing the brands of students and the community together in a school-wide brand.

• Attend organizations and meetings and bring up the branding conversation. You will be surprised at the positive and interested response you receive, especially from younger educators who have this branded and social sense already developed in their communication life. You will look very current and even hip. Not bad as part of an educational leaders’ brand!

• Work in your brand journal at the initial level of story. If your brand is one of resilience, for instance, tell the stories in your life that have shaped that view. The STORY of your personal brand journey is of importance to creating a Brand Ed community. This attention to story may form the beginning of a newsletter or personal blog that is part of building your brand.



Thinking about personal branding may feel a bit uncomfortable, but if approached as a communication vehicle, and as a way for the brand personality to lead to a better perception of yourself as a thought leader, it can only enhance the entire school’s perception. Using the social media to share this persona is an absolute first step for leaders. Get beyond the fact that someone may take issue with your brand. Believe me, there are ways to approach any difficult or negative issue about online branding, and that’s usually done through face to face contact which most leaders are very sure of handling. Discover, shape and share your brand with pride!

IS it Branding? Marketing? PR?

Schools across the country live with images related to their culture. How about yours...Are you a Saint? Are you a Tiger? Are you an Eagle?

I remember landing one of the best jobs I’ve ever held, midway through my education career.

I was hired as a reading coordinator in Gloucester Township NJ, and on the day I accepted the position, the principal, Joe Sweeney, a prince of a man, walked me into a huge empty gym. It was a hot July day, and he walked me to the center of the imposing space , pointed to an expansive red and white banner with an image of a proud looking Indian displayed. Sunlight streamed onto the cloth. Under the figure were the words, ”Once a Lewis Indian, always a Lewis Indian." He pumped my hand and welcomed me to the family, explaining that I was now and forever a Lewis Indian…I had tears in my eyes. Still I regard the experience at Lewis as one of the most rewarding time for myself professionally and personally.


The success I had at Lewis went to the community that grew out of the connected belief that we, teachers, administrators, kids, parents were together as Lewis Indians. Maybe not so PC in today’s climate, but even today 17 years past, I get a chill telling this story and when I see people who were part of that culture we still do feel connected. And it wasn’t the image as much as the underlying energy of purpose. It was clear to me that I was in a school that believed in fidelity to one another, and in my thinking that’s the brand.

My moment in the gym goes to thoughts of branding, marketing and PR. There was a relationship, a culture, that grew from the red and white colors, the image, the school song that touches visual elements of brand. Joe Sweeney’s dramatic touch went to marketing that to me in all my interviews. I wanted that job! I wanted to be in the tribe. Finally when I became a member, I proudly told the world that I worked in one of the finest middle schools around, a PR megaphone!

I believe all of these elements combine to bring the Brand Personality of a school into focus. Seeing how these elements successfully weave a texture of trust and fidelity is part of the job of everyone associated with growing and sustaining an authentic school brand.

Brand Ed: Brand Platforms for Educators

A Brand Platform focuses the organization on building value-added customer relationships.

Thinking about a platform for your school branding efforts will take you in several directions as you align management on key strategies to deliver value to customers, create a clear, compelling marketing message that results in more efficient brand communications,and provide a focus on connecting every employee's behaviors to consistently deliver differentiated value.

Creating an educational brand platform that has strategic value to an organization requires a process that is inclusive, that results in genuine outcomes that are inspiring throughout the community. Website polishing or tagline or re-positioning statement is not going to make it.

A school's brand platform must be embraced throughout an organization.It will define important brand behaviors and support clear, targeted communication about the brand's promise. A brand platform is designed to provide uniformity in the way the organization interfaces, in every way,and also is a practical, usable tool to guide all members of the organization on how to support the brand through words and actions.

Credibility is the most important criteria of the brand platform, period. it a brand platform is reduced to another empty slogan that will eventually, sooner, rather than later, become irrelevant.

According to business experts, these are the 6 elements of a platform:

Brand Vision – A forward-looking statement that describes the brand in terms of its relationship with its targeted customers.
Core Values – Core values are an expression of an organization’s principles and culture and provide the foundation for living the brand.
Brand Position – The brand position pragmatically defines the brand’s desired position among competitors in the category.
Brand Dimensions – The impressions of what the organization does, the distinctive qualities it delivers in every relationship, and the consistent qualities that every client can expect in every interaction.
Brand Promise – The crucial link to the day-to-day brand impressions that are delivered by an organization’s employees.
Brand Character – A personification of the brand that creates the imagery forming the bases of consistent external marketing communication.

Build a strong brand on the inside using these elements as a guide!

Branding Lessons: MADmen Strategy for Developing a School Brand

A few posts back, I spoke of the TIME factor to develop a brand. Two to Three months seems to be the window in business and for schools

After that, live with the brand. Try it out internally before you even think about moving to Marketing the brand to the community.


As I write my book, "MADmen Principles to Inform School Principals", I'm using some respected frameworks from the PR/Marketing MADmen industry to help shape your powerful message: the value of bringing branding to your school. The book will be a quick read and user friendly. It's a desktop book guide for planning meetings and discussions around the topic of branding a public school. It can serve as a roadmap for introducing a branding concept to build identity for achievement in a school. Remember, if you go this route, you will be leading a new effort , linked to "New Thought" about connecting to "clients". It's a movement that can streamline language, attitude, and action related to genuinely LIVING a school identity/brand for student achievement'

School Branding is informed by the MADmen framework, but even in its definition, School Branding is different from Iconic Branding of COKE and COACH.

"School branding is the collective impressions that a community/clients holds about the school organization's service and product built through ongoing relationships."

Questions for MADmen Principals to explore and act upon are familiar on Madison Avenue, but not as recognized on Main Street...


What is Branding?
What is School Branding?
How to Define the School Brand?
How to Determine the Objectives of Use?
How to Define the Target Audience?
What are Barriers to School Branding?
How to Create a School Brand Packaging?

With these topics in hand, be ready to be A MADman, Mr./Ms Principal

Branding Lessons: Build School Culture and Identity with Branding

You're an educator and you are starting to think about branding. Of course, you can't help but do this. When I am asked in business settings about my ability to work within the business community, since my perspective is informed by education, I simply smile and say..."I've been in the business sales all my life. I've sold "education" to a diverse marketplace: students, teachers, parents, administrators, school board members and the community."
So today, with my sales perspective, I'm traveling the country speaking to educators about the common ground of educators and business people. The ground of selling and living a BRAND for ROI in education.
Let's capture one Branding definition to work with. Branding is a total experience for the user that is based on relationship. It's more than a logo or a tagline.
If we lead with that principle, then as educators, we should feel a good fit. Education is about building relationships. Educators work hard to do honor that, and have their own tools that make this harmony of relationship building happen everyday in schools. SO with that in mind, can a school culture be created through strategic understanding and a champaign to advance a brand? Can this result in brand loyalty among students, teachers, parents, administrators, board members and the community?
To define what education is today is as challenging as defining what a brand is. There are many ways people try to define both, and branding is in essence solid and changing at the same time. That is true for education as well.
The way to make connections right off the bat is through CULTURE. Branding tenets that are from Madison Avenue's hallowed halls are perfect tools to develop language and attitude for building CULTURE across the diverse market for education. The beginning of the work lies in the understanding that branding is based in an implied promise. In schools, the promise is achievement. Savvy principals today can be Madmen...or women leaders by applying Madison Avenue tools to include branding, some marketing and a dash of social media to create culture that feeds a loyalty to the organization. Madman Principles? They work. And you'd be crazy not to try.

About the Author
Ms. Rubin is the president of the Edventures group, a NYC based consultancy that helps individuals and organizations grow though marketing, branding and networking services.

Branding Lessons: Brand Language for Districtwide Achievement

o if you are reading this, you are thinking of repositioning your personal brand before you take the lead on re-branding your school. Step One, and that's a good direction. Get comfortable with the idea that you are gong to live the Madman brand as you lead the push toward a community-wide living of achievement that your district stands for every single schoolday, not just on the budget voting day. Your personal brand overhaul will include your image and actions related to being a brand manager, and a Madman principal.
My hope for you is that you will spend time researching business topics that are devoted to brand understanding. That's your focus as you start. For you to learn your branding lessons, and for you to teach them to others, you'll need to do the work of mining what's out there in the world of Branding. Find what you can hook onto, what resonates, and like coming to a foreign country, learn the language and understand the attitudes that are present in this new world.
There is truly a language of" BRANDSPEAK", and as I develop my branding lessons, I will define the best use terms and coach you into making connections from business applications to school use. It'll be easy, believe me.
If you've read my previous articles, you know that Branding as a term is open to discussion, and that Madmen admen still quibble over the meaning. Fo my purposes, I want my readers to think RELATIONSHIP BUILDING as paramount to understanding Branding. Yes, it is a total of positive experience that people have with a service or product. Any yes, it is built on reputation and positive delivery of the service or product. Above all for me it is about relationship building. That's why branding is not a solo push, but an effort tied to marketing and networking as you go forward.
Here's some of the BRANDSPEAK terms that I promise to define for you in future pieces. Brand Promise, Brand Platform, Brand Loyalty, Brand Messaging, and Brand Engagement to name a few. All of these frameworks gather around a tenet related to communicating with your diverse niche market that exists in your school district. And here's the tenet...To be a Madman Principal ...Think NICHE MARKET.
Think customers and begin your branding lesson by finding out how your school/district is perceived by parents, school board, teachers, students, businesses and community at large. Think about the LANGUAGE, the BRANDSPEAK that you must know, and genuinely embrace so that you can talk the talk of Branding. Knowing these elements will bring an attitude to your work that helps you walk the walk as a brand manager, a Madman school principal. Now, think about how you going to launch a branding campaign that will make relationships with each of these niche markets, and remember that each market is different, yet they must exist under the same brand . It's your job to build relationships with all your customers powerfully enough to advance your school brand for positive return on your investment...ROI!

About the Author
Ms Rubin's is a NYC based consultant who helps individuals and organizations grow through branding, marketing and networking services. She is a speaker and author of Trish Rubin's New York MINUTE NETWORKING