Thinking About Branding
Tell me what you think of this idea: “branding is a behavioral expectation.”
I’m presenting with Jody Gnant today at the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference about “branding and social media.” Honestly, after reading Branding Only Works on Cattle, I’ve been struggling with the role of brand in marketing and communications, especially the latter.
But one thing that came to mind solidly was this:
I don’t want to fly McDonalds Airlines.
Why? Because I have expectations of “McDonalds” that don’t match with “want to land safely.”
I don’t want to rent a car from Snickers.
I don’t want to get book recommendations from Senator Ted Kennedy.
I don’t want to eat at Microsoft, the Restaurant.
I do want to consider Richard Branson’s next move.
I do want to know what Matt Mullenweg does next.
I do want USAToday to evolve into a business traveler’s services organization.
I do want GM to get into the transportation business, not the car business.
I do appreciate the new Adventures by Disney product, no matter what you say.
So are those expectations of behavior? Yes. Is that what we can sum up as the main purpose of branding? Managing people’s expectations of our brand’s behavior?
Help me think about this, would you?
Photo credit, iboy Daniel
How I Use Twitter at Volume
A recurring question I get from Twitter users shortly after I follow them back is, “How can you follow xx,000 people?” (the number on November 11th is 16,928, with 19528 following me.)
It’s not easy. Twitter, for most people, is the chance to engage with like-minded people, or geographically similar people, or otherwise to align your interests along certain lines. Most people have a hundred, or a few hundred. Some folks feel the crush of too many tweets at around 300-1000 followers. Still others don’t follow back that many people, but consent to having several people read their tweets.
Update: People often ask me how much time I spend on Twitter a day. That assumes I ever turn it off. It’s a flow. It’s like asking you how much time you spend on the phone or in your inbox. I process tweets and stay active with tweets throughout the day. I comment during meetings. I comment at red lights. I think about things late at night and when I wake up. Answer: all day.
At volume, it’s a bit different. It’s a lot like showing up to a very busy, very loud cocktail party, but also a business meeting, plus a focus group, plus several other social situations. Twitter, unfiltered, is like someone with mind reading powers walking down 38th Street in Manhattan. It’s not especially easy to manage, and it’s very different how things work at this pace. Looking at unfiltered Twitter at this volume just doesn’t cut it.
Further, goals at this volume are different. I can’t exactly answer every reply message. I can’t dig into every passing story or fun conversation. I can’t be part of all the action. It just doesn’t span. So, I have a few goals: be helpful, be informative, be human, and be as responsive as I can in the time allotted.
My Four Goals
Be Helpful - Being helpful is how I’ve built my reputation and personal brand. I am known for being a guy who shares as much as I can of myself, and I give as much as I have capacity to give. By the way, at almost 20,000 people, that means that if only 1% of folks ask me for something on any given day, that’s 200 people. So, I try to help as many folks as I can, but that also means disappointing people from time to time.
Be Informative - I love sharing links to things that are interesting. I’m frequently emailed and DMd links that people want me to share. I look at everything before I send it out. I’m not a posting service. I’m not a robot. I’m a human. If the information is interesting to me, then I share it. I share as many Amber Alerts as I can, because I want to spread that effect as much as I can. I also share lots of links to various social causes. But I also run into trouble doing that all day, because it could be a full time job on its own.
Be Human - When I say be human, I mean that I’m a person, not a company. I run a company, but I’m a person. Thus, I get cranky, or I tell jokes, or I run at the mouth sometimes. Whatever. It’s part of the tapestry, not a flaw. If you’re not treating Twitter like a personal communications device that also happens to be a business tool (or some mix of the two), you’re missing what makes this fun and vital.
Be Responsive - When I say be responsive, I try to answer as many people as I can in a given day. I get about four angry unfollows a week from people who were mad that I didn’t respond back to their tweet, or their request. Most DM me an angry last message and unfollow. Others spew it out into the main channel. Either way, I can’t do much to help. I answer as many people as I can. If you leave, sorry.
Here’s how I handle most of this, technically:
Primary Application: TweetDeck
I use TweetDeck when on my laptop. It gives me windows for search, to see Direct Messages, plus a general flow along the left hand side. It seems to be the app I see at most of the conferences. Other folks use Twhirl and like it. Note: both of these applications require Adobe Air.
Mobile Device: Twittelator Pro
I just switched to Twittelator Pro for the iPhone, after a suggestion by Justin Rasmussen. Before that, I was using Twitterific Pro, as recommended by Nick Saber, and it worked mostly okay. What Twittelator pro does better is that it handles direct messages, has some location-based information in it, and does a few other things like report trending topics natively. It has four different color schemes, if that kind of thing matters. (I set mine to dark).
What I think will appeal to me (haven’t tested it fully) is the “nearby” feature. Another Twitter app or two have similar features, but I agree with Justin that it’s pretty useful.
I do a great deal of twittering while in meetings, while between jobs, while out and about. I tweet at events. Having a mobile app helps with that a great deal. Being tethered to the desk takes 2/3 of the fun out of Twitter.
Search: The Most Important Element
I use search all the time. I’ve got searches and searches and searches. Sometimes, there are as many as four tabs open. And the more I learn how to use Twitter Search, the more I learn that search is how it will endear itself to the general public.
If you leave this blog post with nothing else, learn that search is what matters. Search by location. Search by topic. Search by filtering out links. Search and learn how to interact with people in that way.
Am I Using It Right?
Twitter’s the new phone. It’s not meant to be a broadcasting tool, as such. It’s supposed to be a one-to-many, but at a slightly more conversational level.
I don’t recommend twitter at volume for most folks. I understand that there are some benefits. I realize that it’s different when I ask a question versus when other people ask a question, or when I direct people to check out a certain link versus the average user.
But that just happened that way. I’ve done nothing to actively grow my following. I’m just me. I just follow those four rules above.
You’re probably using it right.
So, that answers a question I’m asked a lot. The other question I get asked often is, “do you ever sleep?” Want the answer?.
Photo credit, Striatic
Communications in a Post Media World
When Google is the front door, the side door, the hidden key under the mat, the cash register, the finder of everything we ever lost, and everything we wished we’d lost, what comes next? When everyone is a newspaper, a magazine, a TV station, a radio station, a conference, a curator, an educator, a business owner, a shopkeeper, what do we have? When you and I are the creators, the consumers, and the collaborators of this media, what does this mean to us?
The gatekeepers are still out there. Neither you nor I can write for the New York Times or put a film up on the BBC. We can’t just bind up our book and stick it on the shelf at Waterstones or Chapters. We can’t waltz into any giant corporation and offer up our products.
Maybe we’re just preachers and nonprofit types. Maybe we just want to reach people like us in all this noise. How do we connect? This might just be the wilderness of a million signals, the atomization of the world’s voices, the fall of the tower of Babel. Again.
Tune Your Signal. Gather.
We hold the tools. We have the goals. We have permission. It’s us.
What comes next in a post media world, where everything is atomized, is that we work on building molecules. We cast off the old models, and we assemble new forms.
Put up your first signal. Get your voice out there. What happens next? Do people respond?
Because what comes next, I believe, is that you gather together the people who share your views. You reach out and connect with those who understand your goals, who share them, who breathe them in the same pulse.
And as you learn how to reach out to people? As you tune your signal, you’ll find that you can accomplish more with more people in collaboration.
The Next Action
This might read as just a thought piece to you, but it isn’t. It’s the mindset before the action. It’s the larger vision before the tiny, granular moves.
If everything is modular, make each piece have a means to connect. If everything is its own gatejumper, make each piece such that it can align with others. If everything is a solo voice, make it harmonize with a choir.
If you are selling, make everything a la carte, and everything a bundle. If you are curating, find the frame, collect, and make it easy to build the large work. If you are servicing, be the very best at building the crowd into a voice, and listen long and hard to that voice.
Oh, and community is not an option.
And if this makes no sense whatsoever, go back to reading about blogging and the ROI of Facebook and Twitter and stock prices.
Inspired by my friend, Ed, who pointed out this brief post by Fred Wilson, who used the term “post media company” to refer to Google. I found an older reference here pointing to this snip.
Photo credit, collage of imags from this set
Target Marketing
Here are some things that are true: people don’t read. And when they pretend to read, they skim. Comprehension and context are at an all time low. We’re snackers, and it’s adding up. Where this hits us the worst is when communications professionals attempt to match their idea of me (and by me, I mean you) with their “target.”
It’s deeper than not reading. Part of it is not caring, because we can’t care. In sales, if you’re trying for a number, you have to scrap and scratch and push hard and do all those volume-based things that will drive a number or you’re on the street.
It’s deeper than not caring, because we don’t have enough hours in the day, so we can’t even find the TIME to care. How can we read and care and do all this other stuff when we’ve got products to sell and deadlines and goals?
It gets worse. Kind of.
Guess what? 2009 is just about here. Economically, the US is in for quite a shake, and all my friends from all over the world (because I do appreciate you being part of this conversation) are also in for a crapload of un-fun. Your customers are cutting back. They aren’t paying. They can’t meet their commitments.
You are in retention mode. Now, if you’ve treated me like a target all this time, do you think I have loyalty or any kind of need to keep on as your customer? If you don’t know anything about me, do you have the handles you’ll need to preserve your relationship with me as a customer?
Build. Relationships. Now.
Learn the tools. Understand how to re-humanize communications. Learn how to scale differently. And put your efforts into relationship mode.
The cost: a cutback on the mass approach.
The reward: deepening of relationships (and potential sustained or augmented sales) with your client base.
Math wise, if the dial is already going down related to things you can’t much control, you’ve just earned a little time to convert to a relationship-based mode.
Or don’t, because I’ll love me a good fire sale on your database.
What do you think?
Photo credit, NickyFern
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10 Communications Objectives of Social Media
Douglas Walker has an interesting post where he wants to talk about metrics for social media. That’s great, and I encourage you to go over there and dig in and discuss that, but I have a question for you, for my own understanding. (Remember that I’m a technologist and not a marketer, so I sometimes come at this from a different direction.)
Walker says these are the 10 communications objectives for using social media (in a marketing sense):
- Generate awareness.
- Drive Trial.
- Product Launch.
- Establish Need/Want
- Product/Service Comparison.
- Positive Association.
- Form/Change Opinion.
- Influence the Influencers.
- Drive Action/Traffic.
- Establish/Regain Trust.
Now, maybe this language mirrors Marketing/Communications 101, and because I’m a technologist by trade, I just haven’t heard this. But if not, I found the list an interesting model/framework around which to contemplate the execution of social media marketing. I’m thinking there’s one missing to the tune of something like “community good will” or the like, or whatever one might call it when you’re not trying to sell, but instead are just proving that you’re a contributing human.
And that’s my question to you: do those 10 goals/objectives make sense for how you’re using social media?
I think it’s an interesting and worthwhile list. And like I said, go to Douglas’s site and comment on the measurement aspects, for those of you who are into measuring.
What’s your thoughts on those goals, though?
Photo credit, Foundphotoslj
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Is Everything a Nail
It’s important that those of us who are passionate about social media tools understand that not everything requires their use. Further, we must learn to move from expressing things in our terms when explaining these tools and their use to others. Otherwise, we end up seeming like someone with a hammer seeing everything as a nail. I find that terms cause problems when people within certain companies haven’t yet made the jump from one perspective to another. If you’re used to banner ads and hit counting, how will you understand the value of a Twitter discussion?
How are you describing what you’re learning about to others? What are some of the ways you’ve talked about social media that worked for people? Care to talk about times when you’ve talked your way into a corner? Let’s talk about HOW we bring these tools together with the people who most need them within an organization. How are you helping with that?
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Photo credit, Kyle May
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