Still think you don’t need to be using social media? There’s a new research study from Chadwick Martin Bailey that could change your mind.
“In a recent study of social media usage it is clear that consumers who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to not only recommend, but they are also more likely to buy from those brands than they were before becoming fans/followers. The study of over 1500 consumers by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. And an impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of. Considering Facebook’s over 400 million users, the opportunity is great for social media marketers.”
Possibly the most interesting part of the study was that it found a growing perception of brand being considered “out of touch” if they were not on social media platforms.
At the very least, your brand needs to have an engaging presence on different social media platforms. Even if you aren’t using it strategically, the fact that someone can identify themselves as a fan of yours helps them tell the world who they are. Reap the benefit of that.
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.
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?
Do you read The Art of Non-Conformity Blog by Chris Guillebeau? It’s great. More importantly, he’s great.
Chris wrote a post today called “What Makes a Community?” and it echoed thoughts of my own. Recommended reading.
One thing I took away from his article is that the necessary conditions for building community are also true for building brands. As you are building your brand, Chris’s ideas about community might serve as inspiration. They did for me. Here’s the summary recap of Chris’s thoughts (my comments in italics):
A community needs friends AND enemies.There is no inclusion without exclusion. You want fans (short for “fanatics”), not a lot of people who just think you’re ok. Do your ads annoy people? Good. They’re listening. If you are afraid of having enemies, you can’t have a brand. Do you think Starbucks is Starbucks because everyone likes them? No. Their brand has attracted friends of Starbucks – and enemies.
A strong community needs long-term commitment.That’s why you build a brand – to get commitment. It starts with your commitment to your audience and that commitment never stops. You must earn their commitment to you along the way. As you keep delivering on the promise that is your brand, as you keep adding value to the lives of your audience, you will have your own community – that you lead – that has long-term commitment.
A community needs its own language.YES YES YES! This point cannot be understated. My best friends and I communicate in a way that no one else understands. The world’s people-groups are organized by language. Certainly, you need to be clear about who you are and what you do in this world. BUT, if you develop a language that you use with your clients exclusively, and they use with you exclusively, you have built a community. The person that orders an iced-quad-venti-whole-milk-caramel-macchiato isn’t crazy. They’ve experienced love, commitment, and a language from a brand – and they are making that brand very rich in the meantime.
A community needs to actively (and carefully) solicit other members. Don’t grow too fast. Not everyone is a good client. Your brand’s integrity is worth more than your bottom line this year.
A community built on hope is stronger than one built on fear. Sales and discounts don’t build brands. Do you want people to BUY FROM YOU RIGHT NOW!!! or know that you’ll be there tomorrow and the day after that, ready to take care of them when they need what you have to offer? Your brand is strong when people think of you when they have a need that you fulfill.
Maybe it’s not that “the principles of building community are the same principles of building a brand.”
Maybe it is that brand-building and community-building are the same thing.
Message Creation isn’t just about getting you a website, logo, or brochure.
With Message Creation you bring into focus the value you offer your audience, establish your voice in a crowded world, earn the right to have influence, and deliver on the promise that is your brand.
Wordswell helps our clients do this. And we offer production leadership and creative consulting when it comes time to create your identity, website, email campaign, film, etc.
Style
In a recent issue of Psychology Today Magazine, Hara Estroff Marano writes:
As the speed of all our transactions increases, we need fast ways of transmitting information about ourselves without losing authenticity; we have less and less time to make our mark in other, more leisurely ways of knowing. Style, like a perfectly fitting book jacket, evokes the substance within by way of the surface. It makes an authentic visual impression, is a memorable mark of identity in a world that otherwise strips people of identity. There was a time when style was a luxury. Today it is a necessity. …
In the end, style is fundamentally democratic. It assumes every person has the potential to create a unique identity and express it through grooming and a few well-chosen clothes. Yet style is also aristocratic. It sets apart those who have it from those whose dress is merely utilitarian. …
Whatever else it is, style is optimism made visible. Style presumes that you are a person of interest, that the world is a place of interest, that life is worth making the effort for.
That’s brilliant, and it has everything to do with how you build your brand.
Converting Prospects to Buyers
Ultimately, when a person makes a particular decision it comes down to one moment in time. It’s a window of a few seconds. You gotta be in that window! Some ideas and suggestions will be in the next Communiqué. But you can always call us for specific advice.
The Nature of Light
Imagine two adjacent rooms sealed off from each other except for a perfectly tight door. One of those rooms is completely dark. The other room is completely light and bright, and it has no shadows.
You’re in the dark room. The door opens. What happens?
Immediately, light invades the darkness. Now, you can see! All that’s in the dark room is revealed. The darkness, completely unable to encroach on the light, is powerless.
Furthermore, the amount of light in the bright room has not been compromised. That room is still just as bright as before, yet it lends its brightness to the other room. What happened was not like pouring water from one glass to another; it was like sticking your glass under a fountain – of light.
Message Creation
At Wordswell, we’re always trying to find metaphors to explain things. It’s sursprisingly hard work, but it leads our clients and us to beautiful clarity.
Message Creation is standing in one of two adjacent dark rooms, figuring out how to turn on the lights, and then kicking open the door to share your light with the world.
Chances are you have some idea, message, business, or vision that needs to be heard.
But, chances are it’s not moving people. Sometimes it’s trapped because:
people haven’t heard you
they may have heard you, but your idea doesn’t mean anything to them
you know there’s technology out there, but you can’t get it to effectively tell your story
you don’t have the time, energy, or resources to get your message out there
Each of those is a closed door. Wordswell is here to help you kick them open.
The marriage of innovative strategy, clear writing, and potent ideas with polished design, sweet websites, and alluring media and technology (e.g. film, email newsletters, and social media) is how Wordswell makes your message grow legs and get running.
Top-to-bottom consistency makes Wordswell’s approach more effective than a “field of silos” marketing effort. A Wordswell project is infused with strategic, results-based, compelling, and practical solutions. We call it message creation.
Message creation when ideas matter. Here’s the fun part: it’s your ideas that matter. We’re here for you.
