No mat­ter how well your brand fared in 2010, it can do even bet­ter in 2011. For your con­sid­er­a­tion, here are 11 ways to move your brand up in 2011:

1. Pol­ish your brand.

Take a crit­i­cal, objec­tive look at your brand: how do peo­ple per­ceive you (your com­pany, orga­ni­za­tion or what­ever entity you rep­re­sent)? Are all the man­i­fes­ta­tions of your brand con­sis­tent, uni­fied and attrac­tive. (Maybe that beat-up old sign with your old logo on it could be replaced this year.) You don’t have to be a big inter­na­tional com­pany to have a clean, pro­fes­sional brand image. All it takes is the will to improve it—and a lit­tle brand polish.

2. Get press.

In big ways or small ways, your brand will be news­wor­thy in 2011. But that doesn’t count for any­thing if you don’t get press cov­er­age. Be alert for news oppor­tu­ni­ties, then make sure that news gets to the media via news releases, phone calls—or what­ever it takes.

3. Find a new way to talk to your customers.

If you’re like most busi­ness peo­ple, you use the same com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels to talk to your cus­tomers year after year. You prob­a­bly use the same adver­tis­ing media, the same point-of-purchase mate­ri­als, the same sell­ing tech­niques that you’ve used forever—because, well, they worked. That’s fine, but you could be miss­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that lie within reach. Don’t aban­don your tried-and-true meth­ods, but resolve to test at least one new way of com­mu­ni­cat­ing with your cus­tomers this year.

4. Go social.

There’s hardly a brand that wouldn’t ben­e­fit from a smart social media strat­egy. If you don’t have one, now’s a good time to start. Face­book, Twit­ter, LinkedIn and other social media pro­vide you with a direct con­nec­tion to cus­tomers and prospec­tive cus­tomers. Use these chan­nels to engage in con­ver­sa­tion with the peo­ple you want to reach.

5. Catch some cus­tomers in your web (site).

It looks like this Inter­net thing might—just might—be here to stay. Maybe you should par­tic­i­pate and take advan­tage of it. Do you have a great web­site? An old or neglected web­site? Or no web­site at all? One wag said that if you don’t have a Web pres­ence these days, you don’t exist. Resolve now to exist in 2011. Tend to your website—and growww!

6. Take a chance.

In mar­ket­ing, as in life, vic­tory often fol­lows bold action. If you pur­posely go out­side your mar­ket­ing com­fort zone, it could result in con­sumers “see­ing” your brand for the first time. George Lois said adver­tis­ing should be like poi­son gas: it should bring tears to your eyes, unhinge your ner­vous sys­tem and knock you out. George was exag­ger­at­ing, of course, but his point was this: don’t be timid and play it safe all the time; take a chance on some­thing that’s seem­ingly outrageous—and watch the results!

7. Research your category.

You’re prob­a­bly not the only smart per­son in your busi­ness cat­e­gory. There may be col­leagues or com­peti­tors out there—in your field—who are **gasp** doing some­thing right. They might even have  some good ideas that you haven’t thought of. What are you wait­ing for? Do your home­work. Study your busi­ness cat­e­gory. Jump on the Inter­net and check out com­pa­nies in your field. Shop other busi­nesses that do what you do. Then appropriate/borrow/adopt the good ideas you find (but don’t steal copy­righted mate­r­ial). You don’t always have to re-invent the wheel; some­times good ideas are there for the taking.

8. Become your customer.

How can you win a cus­tomer if you don’t know who he or she is? One way to find out is by walk­ing in that customer’s shoes for a cou­ple of miles. Have an frank, open dis­cus­sion with some cus­tomers or customer-prospects. Find out their moti­va­tion for select­ing and buy­ing. Probe their likes and dis­likes, as it applies to your busi­ness cat­e­gory. Call your own busi­ness phone and play cus­tomer. Walk in your front door as a cus­tomer would. Immerse your­self in your customer’s world, and you’ll learn a world of ways to improve your business.

9. Become a celebrity.

In adver­tis­ing, we talk about cre­at­ing “top-of-mind awareness.”

• Name the first soft drink that comes to mind.
• What’s the first wire­less phone com­pany you think of?
• Can you name a top brand of auto insurance?

Com­pa­nies work hard to be first in the minds of con­sumers; when peo­ple reach a high level of aware­ness, they’re called celebri­ties. What could you do this year to make your­self a celebrity—in your city, in your indus­try, in your field? Net­work actively? Assume lead­er­ship posi­tions? Accept public-speaking oppor­tu­ni­ties? Get media cov­er­age of your accom­plish­ments or expert knowl­edge of a sub­ject? Being a celebrity—even a minor celebrity in a small pond—can bring you busi­ness ben­e­fits that you wouldn’t have if you’re just part of the crowd.

10. Help a good cause.

There are some good, impor­tant causes out there that really need your help. Giv­ing your time, your exper­tise, your money or other gifts to such a cause can make the world a lit­tle bet­ter. And there are some rip­ple effects from your (or your company’s) gen­eros­ity. Your good exam­ple can inspire oth­ers to be gen­er­ous. It can assure oth­ers that you are a person/company with a heart, that you care about oth­ers, and that you put your money where your heart is. A busi­ness can’t help but ben­e­fit from being a car­ing, gen­er­ous mem­ber of the com­mu­nity. Do some good this year!

11. Smile.

No, seri­ously.  : )    If you adopt a smile as the default expres­sion on your face, pretty soon you’ll have plenty of rea­sons for that smile. Peo­ple react dif­fer­ently to a per­son bear­ing a smile, and it’s fun to watch the pos­i­tive reac­tions. Psy­chol­o­gists would prob­a­bly tell you that your facial expres­sion can actu­ally influ­ence your state of mind: be smi­ley = be happy. Now stick with me as I segue into a busi­ness appli­ca­tion for all this. Can you make your brand (your busi­ness, your com­pany) a smil­ing brand? One that’s warm and friendly on the outside—and on the inside? Think how cus­tomers and clients would react if they felt a warm smile in all their deal­ings with your brand? Smiling—both lit­er­ally (do your peo­ple greet cus­tomers with a smile?) and fig­u­ra­tively (does every­thing about your com­pany exude people-friendliness?)—can be the best thing your brand can do in 2011.