If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, a moving picture is worth 10,000. Many organizations are embracing social media and video in their marketing efforts. Youtube, Video, Metacafe, and hundreds of other video sharing websites provide businesses with a large variety of ways to get their video content on the web and within the line of sight of millions of people. Not all content survives and thrives though- it has to be compelling.
Permalink to Communicating Brand Promise
Communicating Brand Promise
One of the things we hear a lot from prospective clients is that they know they need to be using social media and blogging but they just aren’t good writers and/or don’t have anything to say. This is a fairly common concern amongst busy business owners who have very little time to focus on communication strategies. Yet the truth is that if you can speak it, you can write it. Usually the crux of the problem lies in your inability to articulate your work because you haven’t experienced your brand “promise” yet. What I mean by experience is that you have yet to go through painful and altering creative processes that birth your brand.
In Michael Polanyi’s book, “Personal Knowledge”, he explains the concept of tacit knowledge. ‘We know more than we can tell’ was Polanyi’s dictum. We know how to ride a bicycle, but we can’t write down how to do it, at least not in a way that allows non-cyclists to read our instructions, get on their bikes and ride off. We can reliably pick out a familiar face in a crowd, but we can’t say just what it is about the face that we recognize. The tacit aspects of knowledge are those that cannot be codified, but can only be transmitted via training or gained through personal experience. This discovery process is what leads to a personal and deep understanding of your brand which you can then begin to communicate.
This week the Smartsite Team took some great strides in determining our own brand “promise”, and as a result we found ourselves articulating and communicating our brand in a much more fluid and uniform manner. Through these creative processes we have come to truly understand our brand, and therefore can begin to effectively communicate it.
Seth Godin’s article below gives some insight into communication and why meaning what you’re saying actually matters.
Permalink to Social Media Use in the 2012 Elections
Social Media Use in the 2012 Elections
There is no question about it. Social media is making a significant impact not only on the web world, but on real people, places and events.
While Chinese dissident and hero, Lui Xiabo sat in jail when the Nobel committee named him the 2011 Peace Prize Winner, thousands of Chinese citizens used Twitter to spread the word and show their support. Many of them were arrested.
Permalink to How to Use Social Media For Better Customer Acquisition
How to Use Social Media For Better Customer Acquisition
The introduction of social media to traditional marketing strategies has left a lot of companies unsure of how to navigate the web 2.0 world.
As a result, many free and effective customer acquisition tools are left on the table. In a nutshell, social media employs the idea is that if you engage people who are very interested in what you’re selling (self-selected), they will tell others about it.
This article provides some tips for using social media to acquire customers.
