The digital media transformation has changed everything for businesses. When anyone and everyone has access to media channels, a compelling online identity is essential to ensuring your company won’t disappear into the din of information overload.

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Whether it is a website, blog, or social media presence, digital media requires companies to have a clear position and an arresting message. To be attractive to an audience, people need to know what you are about, what you stand for, and whether they can relate to your identity.

Here are key steps to build a strong online identity.

Crystallize the Purpose

Identify the big vision. Beyond making money, why does your enterprise exist? Your ethos must excite customers and employees alike. Bill Gates was clear on Microsoft’s original purpose in 1977: “Put a computer on every desk and in every home.” Ken Blanchard, co-author of the mega-bestseller The One Minute Manager, had a dream with his wife Marjorie to “drive human worth and effectiveness in the work place.” That’s the kind of vision that attracts people to engage with a company’s media channels.

Clarify the Value Proposition

To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.” Can your company explain the value it provides in one sentence? That’s about how long companies have in this age of shrinking attention spans. One career-training firm I worked with had the motto, “We believe in delivering a Return on Education.” Its value proposition was, “We Build Careers.” The customer can understand the deliverable in three simple words. Both sentences work to form two sides of a strong identity that really stakes a claim in the marketplace.

Understand the Emotion

In his book Descartes’ Error, neuroscientist and professor Antonio Damasio wrote, “We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, feeling machines that think.” Emotions play a role in every decision we make. A company must understand the emotional deliverable to its customers. Is it selling candles, or invoking romance? Are you about coaching or empowerment? Are you selling financial services or a sense of security? Identifying the emotional proposition affects the language a business uses to describe its services, the colors it chooses to be associated with, and even what employees wear when they interact with customers.

A company’s strong online identity can’t be forged without knowing purpose, value proposition, and the emotion behind it. Until that clarity is achieved, the enterprise will struggle to make its media channels interesting and engaging. Take a position and stand for something and your voice will ring loud and true. That’s what it takes to be heard in this clamorous, crowded digital media marketplace.

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