You probably have people on your team as staff or consultants who help you with PR and marketing. It does help to have other people’s perspective on your brand and how you should project yourself “out there,” no matter how small or large your business or organization is. It shouldn’t all come from you.
Now, what about adding a historian to your team? How would it help you?
• A historian’s perspective is different from a marketer’s perspective. It just is. A historian will look at your business within the context of your community’s history, your industry’s history, social history, perhaps women’s history, and so on.
• A historian will look at what you do and how you do it. Then, he/she will think about what you mean to the communities you serve historically and in terms of today.
• A historian’s work will inform and add richness to your brand and the PR and marketing you are doing.
Examples could include connecting your business to historical holidays, getting involved publicly with a historical project or your historical society, co-sponsoring a talk about your business and industry in your community, or looking for links to current events If you are a woman-owned business, think about National Women’s History Month, Mother’s Day, the birthday of a leading woman in your community, or the celebrated accomplishment of another woman in your community.
• A historian will help you set up systems for documenting your business activities for future use. (For example, do you put dates on important documents? Have you created an archive? Every time I do a business history for a client this is where I run into “challenges,” because too often we have to piece things together and it’s not always possible.)
• A historian’s work will set the stage for your next business anniversary, and wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the information in hand rather than wait until the last minute?
Examples could include connecting your business to historical holidays, getting involved publicly with a historical project or your historical society, co-sponsoring a talk about your business and industry in your community, or looking for links to current events If you are a woman-owned business, think about National Women’s History Month, Mother’s Day, the birthday of a leading woman in your community, or the celebrated accomplishment of another woman in your community.
So, think about adding a historian to your list of consultants today. Bring someone in now to get to know you and your business. Introduce her/him to your PR and marketing people because this all needs to work together.
You will find that this added dimension of knowing who you are as a business will set you apart from others – something we all want, yes?
