White space is typically a term used in graphic design that means the space between elements in a composition. It’s often the mark of simple, clean, and clear design.
The past month we’ve looked at white space in new ways.
In “White Space (Part 1)” we note, as did Da Vinci, that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Often complex ideas can be best explained by using metaphors or examples. By utilizing these techniques, we can all bring a greater understanding to what we do.
“White Space (Part 2)” looks at how the internet is creating another sort of white space. By having multitudes of information always available when we search for it, we can relax, clear our brains, and be ok with decentralized knowledge.
All of these approaches to white space lead to a hopeful reality for our emerging world:
Great ideas will win.
This is largely due to the technological changes happening right now, in real time. The internet is redefining “authority”.
Culturally, the playing field is leveling. It’s less about how much influence you can buy and more about how much influence you can earn. It’s about how good your ideas are and, of course, how well you communicate them.
Here’s why:
We’re in an opt-in world. Increasingly, we only consume the information and media that we want to. We self-select the influences we want to have and so we care more about what those people and brands say. Time-shifiting products like TiVo, DVRs, podcasts, other on-demand services, and even Google itself, mean that we get what we want when we want it. The role of interruption-based messages (like traditional advertising) is changing drastically.
Communities are evolving, and they’re going online. Instead of turning to big media outlets to tell us what’s happening and what’s cool, we are looking more and more to our hand-picked communities (or, as Seth Godin calls them, “tribes”). These tribes are developing online where we can create and digest tons of content, stay in touch with more people than ever, and essentially leverage our time, our expertise, and the value bring to the table.
All media is becoming “social media”. This means that we can engage with and/or contribute to the messages we consume like never before. Walls are down. Gatekeepers are dead. Ideas can spread with the click of a mouse or cell phone button. For example, if one of your Twitter messages is “retweeted” by a few folks and again retweeted by some of their friends, you’ve reached an audience of thousands within seconds. We have more potential for influence and power than ever before.
The real question is, what are we going to do with it?
Brody
P.S. A great example of this whole concept is that in a matter of days, over 1,000 people signed to participate 40 Days of Water, a Blood:Water Mission campaign to bring clean water to our neighbors in Africa. In the 2 days after launch, about 10,000 people had visited the special website dedicated to the campaign. All of this happened almost exclusively through social media and word of mouth. It’s incredible.
Wordswell had the privilege of building the website and software application that is supporting this campaign. You can sign up to participate by making water your only beverage for 40 days. Otherwise, if you’d like to donate to the cause, visit my profile page at http://40Days.bloodwatermission.com/brodybond.
It’s why we should all be excited about emerging web technologies. Here’s why:
We will no longer have to wade through the mire of content packed into tight, unsearchable places.
The old way
Jam lots of content into a printed newsletter. Force people to have to read though everything to find the pieces of content they actually want. Make sure none of this content is ever accessible again. Do not leverage this content outside the scope of your current audience. Oh, and spend lots of money to print and mail it.
The newer way
Put all of your content online – text, pictures, audio, and video. Allow users to see titles, summaries, categories, and tags to find what is useful to them. Make all this content searchable, both so that it can be found in the future and so outsiders might find something valuable to read. Store all this content for free (regardless of how many people see it). Allow folks to comment, share, link to, and otherwise engage your content.
The web lets us spread out information. It allows us to find information on demand. It’s like a proxemic white space.
It allows us to find those needles in the haystacks.
It allows us to breath.
It also levels the playing field of influence… but more on that in Part 3 next week.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” according to Leonardo da Vinci.
He’s right.
The best teachers, consultants, pastors, artists, and leaders all do the same thing: they make the complex simple. Does what you do fall into any of those categories?
What should you do when you have to explain something complex? How do you make it simple? Find a metaphor.
If someone doesn’t understand something, figure out a way to say, “Well, it’s just like…”.
Is he still not getting it? Use careful examples. Starting a phrase with “For example…” is one of the most powerful ways to bring meaning to what you are saying.
In graphic design and web design, simplicity is achieved through the use of white space.
What’s white space? Well, it’s just like what you would have when you clear away all the hay to find the needle.
For example, look at how simple it was to donate to Haiti relief efforts through the way this iTunes store page was designed and written:
When you look at something while listening to music, the thing you’re looking at takes on stunning new meaning. Music creates mood. That’s why great music is key in film and key in the communication of a message.
Music also implies story. Both music and story require the passing of time for them to even exist. Music is completely incoherent if all of the notes of a piece are played at once. Music only has meaning when notes are spread out over time and played in rhythm.
May I make an odd suggestion? Make sure that you have a strategic adviser that’s either a musician or someone who “gets” music deeply. Here’s why:
Music is art that is directly tied to time and process. What’s happening at any given moment only makes sense in the context of what has already happened and what will happen.
There’s movement. There’s change. There’s direction. There’s preparation. There’s fluidity. There’s purposeful tension and dissonance… that resolves. There’s story. And there’s meaning in it all.
Sound like something your organization needs? Music people get it. Have them write your song.
Mike will often talk about the concept of “ordering your loves.” Let me explain how I understand the idea:
Imagine you have these 3 ideas, goals, or let’s call them “loves”: vacation, money, and time at home. Let’s first note that none of those things are intrinsically bad (or good).
If you love vacation more than than you love time at home, that will directly affect how you plan your year. Just because you love vacation more than time at home doesn’t mean you’ll never be home. Rather, one priority informs the other, and in this case, you’ll be heading to the beach!
Now, let’s say you love money more than vacation. All of a sudden, there is a different and higher priority that informs your decision making. Now, though you love vacation more than time at home, you may actually be more inclined to stay at home so that you can save money. It’s a worthy sacrifice because you’re responding to a greater love.
Here’s the twist: let’s say you love your family more than you love money. Now what do you do? Which is more critical to the success of that even-greater love: vacation or staying at home (or saving money)? Moreover, what is a greater love than even your family? Your career? God? The environment?
There isn’t an answer. But there is a guiding principle: How you order your loves will directly affect the decisions you make.
What does your organization love? What are the order of those loves? What hills do you die on – and in what order?
Do your customers care about knowing those things? Absolutely.
Do you ever feel like a victim to your own stereotypes about what you do? Smash them.
This year at the TEDx Mid-Atlantic conference, Joel Salatin said, “If we devote ourselves to sacredness in our vocations, the world will rise to meet us.” Do you see the sacredness and the dignity in what you do? What about in other people?
The humility that lets you see the value in everyone around you is the humility that will let you see the value in yourself.
Take the phrase “I’m just a…” out of your vocabulary,
Brody
P.S. If you watch the “Wordswell < :90 Update” video today, you’ll see we’re asking you “Why are most car dealership ads so bad?” and “What would it take for you to care about where you bought a car?” To access that survey, click on wordswell.com/cars.
You know how to get snow to stick to the ground really well?
Make it really, really cold. And keep it really cold for a long time.
Your sales and marketing tactics are like a snowstorm. No matter how ferocious your blizzard is, your strategy will not stick unless you’ve prepared the ground. You gotta keep it cold enough long enough so that your customer is willing enough to let your storm turn to beauty.
If you don’t prepare the ground, you’re wasting money with every flake that melts.
Here’s how to make it cold: Say the right things in the right ways. The “right things” are the things your customers care about. The “right ways” are ways that are a) surprising enough to get attention, and b) beautiful enough to earn credibility.
(Can you feel the B.S. meter going up these days?… it’s not just how you say it, it’s what you say.)
Here’s how to keep it cold: Say the right things in the right ways over and over and over again.
How do you know the right things to say? Ask. Ask your customers. Ask your sales people. Ask Wordswell to help you.
How do you know the right ways to say them? Ask. Ask your customers. Ask your sales people. Ask Wordswell to help you.
How do you say them over and over and over again? Strategize. Ask Wordswell to help you.
We define brand development as “telling the truth about who you are, faster.” But we should also add “…for the long haul.”
As soon as you change your set of promises, you start the freezing process over again. It’s ok to do that. Just be patient, like the last time.
brrrrrr.
brody
P.S. Wordswell loves to do brand assessments where we research your “stuff”. How good is your message and your media tools? What are your competitors doing? But really, all that only helps to assess the main questions:
Do your customers know the promises your making?
Do those promises matter to your customer?
Do your customers believe that you can deliver on those promises?
Ultimately, do your customers/members/donors/stakeholders know you? Trust you? Advocate for you?
If so, great! Let’s run with that. If not, great! Let’s fix that.
Prices start at various four-figure amounts. Start 2010 with a Wordswell Brand Assessment.
So, we’re in the season of stale platitudes, cliché religious advice, crassly commercialized quips, and bad photography. How are your holiday cards and public service announcements looking?
There’s an oft-quoted piece of advice that sometimes rubs me the wrong way: “Live everyday as though it were your last.”
To me, that can be short-sighted, selfish, hedonistic, uncharitable, rude, or opportunistic. There are certainly times when we shouldn’t throw it to the wind. We should often take care to live today like there is a tomorrow – so that tomorrow is all it can be.
The implications for your organization and it’s brand development are strong. Simply, a business cannot think only of the present if they are interested in building a brand. A brand says, “we’re here, today, tomorrow, or whenever you need us, ready to serve you and meet your needs.” A brand’s marketing and advertising needs to communicate that.
The opposite of a brand is a commodity that screams, “Sale! Today only! Call us now! We are awesome! Your opportunity (and our success) lives or dies right now!” Those businesses take advantage of their customers.
And they don’t build trust. Hurried messages can’t make the type of promises that you can deliver on over and over again. A brand is a promise. And, without a concerted effort to build a brand, it becomes difficult for people to become advocates and fans of who you are.
All of this is directly tied to the religious significance of this season:
Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates longevity. Consecrated oil that was thought to only be able to burn for one day miraculously burned for eight days.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, whose very coming was predicated on God’s desire to redeem the world so that people could live forever with Him.
Right on the cusp of every new year we are reminded of what endures. Does your organization – does your brand – follow the theme of that song?
“All you and Lisa ever do is come home, turn on the tv, and then do your own thing on your computers as you sit on the sofa all night long.”
So says my wife’s brother who lives with us.
Certainly, my wife and I are not going to have deep conversation nor get cuddly while he’s around, right? He has a limited perspective of how we spend our time.
The problem is that his limited perspective creates his entire framework for how he sees our marriage. It’s arrogant.
And we all do it.
We so often use our limited perspective to give us our entire framework of looking at something. Like my brother-in-law, we let our perceptions of something project realities that aren’t always true. We are all arrogant.
This happens in business all the time. The limited (and jargon-laden) perspective of a business owner will often provide the entire framework for how that organization communicates with their prospects and customers. The message will be about the company, in the language of the company, and about things that the company cares about.
But remember: marketing and advertising are not about you. Each ought to be used to serve your audience. Messages should be about your customer, in the language of your customer, and about the things your customer cares about.
At Wordswell, we define brand development as “telling the truth about who you are – quicker.” It’s a process that requires humility. Only when we are humble can we speak someone else’s language. Any only then can we convey real meaning.
How do we meaningfully communicate the truth about something (e.g. our organizations)? 1) Realize our perspectives are limited. 2) Listen.
Ya hear?
brody
P.S. The best advertising merely echoes that which people are already saying about you. Research is a key element of brand development. That’s why Wordswell helps our clients research what they should say before they say it. When we interview your clients to see why they love you, you get invaluable information about your brand. (And, along the way, you get some huge customer service points with your audience.)
They are exactly the reason this experiment was a success.
And they are exactly how to get people to walk up your staircase.
Because if people are hitting bad notes it means that they are allowed to hit bad notes. And if they’re allowed to hit bad notes, then they have freedom. And if they have freedom, then they can choose to contribute. And once they contribute to something, then they are vested in it.
And if someone is vested in you, your history is changed.
None of this happens if you stay in control. How do you give up control? Enable your customers to be creators, sharers, collaborators, lovers, fools, fans, advocates. To put it another way, let them be themselves. Just make sure you’re a valuable part of the conversation along the way.
Practically speaking, what can you do? Make your content accessible. Allow comments on your blog. Respond. Give away secrets. Tweet. Ask for advice from your clients. Post that ridiculous photo. Put down your defenses. Talk about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Don’t just give the polished impression of yourself. Give the transparent one.
And follow it up with engagement. Prove you’re listening. This is a fundamental shift in the way most “marketing” has happened in the past.
The days of control are over.
The days of inspiration are here. Better start getting more creative… and more humble. Why? Because people have more options than ever. We are all more likely to be commodities. Most of us are staircases. Some of us are cool, flashy escalators. Few of us have the courage to let people walk all over us by turning ourselves into instruments.
But if you believe in what you’re doing in the world, if you believe your product or service makes a difference, isn’t that exactly what you want people to be doing? It’s the only way you can earn the right to be heard and gain influence. Why? So you can be the staircase that guides your clients to the light of day.
Inspire,
brody
P.S. If people are going to use your staircase for all its worth (and give you their time or their money along the way), they must be delighted to do so. There is no delight without surprise. It is incumbent upon us, not the pedestrians, to make our staircases surprising. That’s why Wordswell asks our clients to take risks. We help you create surprise. Wanna start 2010 well? Jump. We can push you if you need it.
