Compiled by: Dayo Oluyide
This is the last of the three day tribe feature! We had really wonderful classes on Proper Communication in Poetry taught by the wonderful Wale Bailey (IG : @florist. walebailey) , and Proper Communication in Prose, taught by the magnanimous Victoria Olajide (IG : @thevictoria_o). To conclude this tribe feature, we bring you Branding and Poetry. Enjoy!
Damilola Salahudeen Damilola, with the pen name Derhmee, is a writer rich in words that are full of humor. From his stable, you’ll find poetry, prose, prose fiction and more.
Branding
Branding basically is the uniqueness you give to your products in order to make it easier for your target consumers to recognize your product without having to look twice.
An example is MTN, whenever you see an advert on the TV or you listen over radio, you don’t need to be told that it is an MTN advertisement; this is so because MTN as a brand uses “Yellow” as their products color and also they have a little jingle that when played you know it is MTN.
Now, bringing branding into poetry, what does a poet stand to gain from branding?
Uniqueness
Recognition
Engagements
And many more.
As a poet, your product is your poem and your audience is your consumer. Your audience should be able to recognize your work by the type of background you use, your style of writing, your font style and every little detail of your poems.
Most of us make use of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to showcase our poems and we start to wonder why we have not been getting much engagement on our posts, this is probably because you have not been contacting the right audience or possibly your branding is not attracting your audience.
First you need to build your profile as a brand; this tells people that you’re a poet or a writer easily.
Let me show you what I mean by building a profile which speaks for you and your brand.
Look at the pictures above and tell me what the similarity in them is?
One does not need to do more research to know that they are writers. This is what your profile should look like –straightforward and simple.
Now that you have a brand profile, what comes next?
How does your content look? Here, people pay attention to every detail of your work. From the background, down to the font style and even the alignment of your words.
NB: I will be using Instagram mostly as it is the easiest place to find most poets if not all.
All these brands use similar techniques for putting out their works. This makes their profiles fun looking and makes one want to engage their posts.
Your next move is being consistent and making sure you engage your audience, by replying to their comments and also engaging other poets and writers too. When engaging your audience, part of which will include critiques, you need to be as polite and professional as possible.
Branding your work will surely bring you;
Popularity
Growth
Engagements
Thank you!