Last week Facebook changed their organisation’s name to Meta. While this may not seem like a big deal to most of us (their social platforms that include Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp will all keep their names), this is a big thing for an organisation to do. First of all, we can’t ignore the media attention this is particular name change caused – from various creative defacings of the logo by the online community, to the ridicule online that the word ‘meta’ means ‘dead’ in Hebrew. This leads to the question – why change an organisations name? There are of course many reasons why companies decide to do this including: - Expansion of range - Change of company direction - Mergers and acquisitions - Reputation As you can imagine, there will have been many focus groups, designers, marketing experts and senior leaders all having input into a new name and rebrand. But there is more behind the name that employees need to have. They need to be able to buy into their organisation’s new brand before customers and the wider external audiences do. Here are some tips for getting your employees on board with your re-brand 1. Consult your internal audiences I can’t stress how important it is to not keep this information confined to high level management. Your employees deserve to know what is going on with the organisation and reasons why the rebrand is happening. You need to take them on this journey with you to keep them engaged. This is important, so make sure your communications come from the top. Having a CEO that leads this re-brand with messaging tailored to employee groups will help to convey this importance. Remember, your employees can be your strongest ambassadors, or your biggest critics. Keep them in the former rather than the latter! Ask them what they think of the rebrand – does this reflect what they see as the purpose, vision and values of the organisation? 2. Give your internal audiences time to get used to the rebrand It can take a while to choose a rebrand name, design etc. so you need to make sure you give your employees time to get used to it. If this rebrand is part of a culture change, a fancy new name and logo will not achieve this. Behaviours and culture of an organisation needs building, and this should be started before you even consider the rebrand launch. Allow plenty of time to do this and call in the experts to help if this isn’t a skill set you have in-house. 3. Budget for your employees as you would your external audiences Your employees deserve the launch party too. An internal launch in plenty of time before your external launch needs to happen so they feel part of the excitement – this should be an exciting time! Think about what would be appropriate in your organisation – making sure that any logo decals inside the office space is changed over, the branding on the intranet it changed and you could even encourage a launch party. This doesn’t need to be anything huge, but can be combined as a thank you to your teams for their participation in the re-brand. You could include competitions relating to the re-brand. 4. Communicate the external switch-over date Make sure all your teams know when the external launch of the new name will be. Make sure all the little details are in place including: - Email footers - Document and slide deck templates - Lanyards, ID badges and branded workwear Let employees know what to look out for and what to expect. You can even create a frequently asked questions sheet so that employees know how to respond to customers and external audiences that ask about the re-brand. On launch day, use your external channels to your full advantage – social media is a great way to get that information out there to your engaged customers. The above tips are by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully will spark a few areas to look at. Every organisation is different, and every rebrand will therefore also be different. There are organisations out there that specialise in rebranding, the costs associated with this will be worth it – making sure you get this right first time. P.s.: If you want some other free tips for your personal life, check out the Self Series blog – out fortnightly on Tuesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Wellbeing Expert, Tamsin Cain. Browse the latest edition here: https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/fun-things-to-do-in-autumn-months/