Strategy & Brand

“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”   Erik Qualman, The Social Media Revolution(1)

Unfortunately, most companies use their Facebook pages as little more than a new medium for their old school marketing tactics. Facebook isn’t a place for interruption marketing, engagement through bribery, or standard issue syndication and news aggregation. Social media revolves around community and conversations. It’s a place for art, expression, and contribution – not advertising.

In a sea of mediocre Facebook pages, here are a few pages that reign supreme, knock our socks off, and are clearly deserving of a little attention:

Outside Magazine Outside’s page vibrantly, creatively, and successfully connects a spirited tribe. Outside uses their Facebook to connect explorers, adventurers, and outdoor enthusiasts who have stories to tell and hard-earned pearls of wisdom to share.
Outside goes way above and beyond just using their Facebook as an aggregate news source for their online content (which is, unfortunately, a widely accepted Facebook strategy). Our favorite thing about Outside’s Facebook is their use of fan photos. This page’s fan photos are not only beautiful, they’re inspiring- they actually leave us craving adventure and a subscription to the magazine. Adding to Outside’s engagement is the fact that the best Facebook fan photo of the month is published in the prestigious glossy pages of Outdoor’s print magazine. We also love that Outside has kept its wall as its landing page!

Outside gets Facebook!

Skittles and Skittles UK
The infinitely wacky creators of “Tube Sock” and the Midas/Skittles Touch have successfully created two different Facebook pages with posts as consistently random and zany as their commercials. Thanks to the UK page’s “Super Mega Rainbow Updater Staff 2010” photo album and their Update Library tab, you can also meet the Skittles employees who wrote said posts. Skittles’ content rocks, but trippy posts about the antiques of the future aren’t really what make Skittles such a success. Skittles gets its audience, gets the brilliance of the random status update, and really gets Facebook.

Skittles gets a ten out of ten for using Facebook to authentically capture and convey their brand.

Warning: The New York Times tweeting rules applies here- your FB strategy needs to be tailored specifically for your brand. The tone that works for Skittles won’t necessarily work for you, so get your own.

Grammar Girl
Mignon Fogarty is a grammar geek turned super hero. Have an urgent question regarding spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or syntax? Under her super alias, Grammar Girl, Mignon uses Facebook to right the grammatical errors that universally confound us. She also lets us know when her new grammar podcasts and books come out or go on sale. She does an excellent job of starting conversations and has successfully created a go-to forum for those of us not yet worthy of the “grammarian” title. If you dig words, or get excited over Oxford commas, Mignon has a page that’ll fan your nerdy flames.

Grammar Girl gets her audience and uses Facebook to make a contribution!

Eye Magazine
Eye Magazine is a uniquely inspired international graphic design review for artists who contribute to visual culture. From coverage of American fashion trends to the deeply philosophical and socially conscious Buenos Aires Cardboard Book Project , Eye uses their Facebook to provoke thought, showcase remarkable design projects, engage the global artistic community in collective graphic initiatives, and inject inspired foreign perspectives into our news feeds. Eye’s posts are short, include outstanding images, and link us to fascinating content. Our favorite things about Eye’s Facebook are that it exposes us to emerging veins of graphic expression, and that it instantly connects such a diverse community of creators and helps facilitate the exchange of inspired creative thought.

Eye could do a better job of engaging conversation, but they do an excellent job of initiating visual impressions.

Additional helpful links –>>

To see which Tweeters are getting Twitter right, check out our blog Twitter: The Medium is the Message.

For a guide on using social media to make a contribution and shift the way you’re communicating, check out our blog Social Media: The Prize Inside.

_______

1 Qualman, Erik. The Social Media Revolution

Here’s one plan…innovate a dynamic, new product; one that can change staid perspectives and whole industries…and then place it in the hands of people who only know and understand how to do what has always been done…and you will get predictable results.

Here’s another…innovate a dynamic, new product; one that can change staid perspectives and whole industries…one that explores the limits, plays at the boundaries, and harnesses the unique competencies that will disrupt business as usual creating new possibilities and offering a completely new experience.

In other words…“Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses” (Robert Greene. The 48 Laws of Power) or blend into the blandness.

Inspired by functional design, engaged by practical innovation, and driven by a brand that sees the needs of people not a consumer market, truly innovative new products have the power to persuade and invigorate the tired, tried and true methodology with a bold approach that reinforces  uniqueness and sparks intrigue.

The humanizing nature of the offering itself, paired with a brand worth believing, and an introduction that dazzles should make room for whole markets and select buyers to find their own detailed story in the buying experience. Through and through the offering should stand apart and stick in the minds of ‘creatures of habit’ as an unapologetically,  vivid, healthy, sustainable, durable, and flexible departure from the mundane.

Ease the resistance, seduce, command attention, and never forget that everything is judged by appearance…so keep it real and dream big. When the stakes are high, timidity is risky business.  

So, are there examples of bold thinking… inspired moves… wildly successful crazy ideas?

• In 1950 Dunkin’ Donuts was born. Tim Hortons went live in 1964. One thing for sure… people loved their coffee, and paying a buck for a cup of joe was apparently right on the money. The market was happy… business was growing. So why would an entrepreneur in the early 80’s decide that a new category was possible, one that would change the coffee landscape forever? Because he was inspired by what he knew was possible. And out of that instinct to act, to be bold, came his mission statement: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks knew it was different, and they were told it was crazy… it would never work. The naysayers questioned who the heck would pay $4 for a cup of coffee? Starbucks separated themselves from the pack and you know the rest of the story. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• A bra is a bra is a bra… so why start a lingerie store when bras and panties were available everywhere in 1977? Victoria Secrets’ products were not uniquely different, but placed in a comfortable, male-friendly environment, an amazing phenomenon was born. Stand-alone stores and the Internet of its day- mail order catalogs created the foundation for this $5B giant today. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• Everybody buys a vacuum cleaner at one time or another. And then they buy bags and more bags… often. The bag industry is a $500M business… why would anyone interfere  with the magic of the razor/razor blade, keep’em coming back for more, classic approach? It’s no surprise that when James Dyson invented a bag-less vacuum cleaner in the late 70s big manufacturers didn’t get turned on, but rather turned him and his design away. Dyson and his crazy, inspired and bold innovation threatened to destroy  dependable revenue streams. Today Dyson is a $10B behemoth and much bigger than the bag industry it threatened. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.

Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.

First, they were crazy. Did anyone really believe that the human spirit was worth the cost of an expensive cup of coffee made from beans in distant and exotic lands? Did anyone really want to be seen buying the aura of sex in the form of underwear in a larger than life, too-hot-to-handle, glitzy lingerie showroom? And why do women pay twice as much for a “cyclone” vacuum cleaner in outrageous colors, designed around “ball technology” that redistributes the center of gravity for easier maneuverability that uses a filter rather than a bag? What is known is that these are great ideas turned break-a-way successes because the founders turned an audacious perspective into a larger than life reality that woos people to them.

Second, they were inspired. The inventors, the backers, the founders, the employees… and the market all wanted more than a dose of bitter reality on the way to work and under her suit. The Dyson vacuum worked for people that didn’t expect to suction bowling balls and did hope for a practical life in living color that rolled along smoothly. As it turns out wanting more and paying for it was exactly what a large market segment has hoping for all along in each category. People have been gravitating to products and brands that mine deep and go big in lieu of what has always been available and ordinary, time and time again.

Third, they were bold. They broke the rules, invented new ones and disrupted the market in grand style. They knew success meant sticking to their ideals. Undaunted by the popular world view; the successes that get talked about refuse to pay lip service to lofty missions or shallow pursuits. These are the visionaries that fearlessly parted from the herd and refused to be homogenized. They were different; they created value in a style that was all their own. They were the masters of their own experience and hence, the experience of others, driving  customer loyalty unlike any advertising scheme or shallow gimmick.

And then they became successful!  These geniuses created new categories because they were just crazy enough to do what they believed in despite the disbelievers, inspired enough by the possibilities and willing to act bold when the time was right. Success came because they did something different and weren’t  persuaded or engaged by those that see through the lens of what can’t be done.

We want to be a part of the crazy, inspired, bold, successful stories. All others need not apply.

A Bold Brand Is A Necessity

A Vague Brand Is A Liability

____________________________________________________

We came across a newsletter this week that actually said: “‘like’ our Facebook page and receive an exclusive offer.” We’re not sure what the offer was, because we’re not interested in being bribed, manhandled, or coerced into social media engagement (…but we’re guessing it’s free shipping or a discount promo code).

Social media revolves around community and conversations. It’s a place for art, expression, and contribution – not advertising. Facebook isn’t just another notch in your touch-point belt, so have some respect.

You don’t need the gimmicks if you’re doing something that’s actually worthy of people’s time, interest, and attention. Real groupies- genuinely impassioned and impressed followers- aren’t bought; they’re earned.

Before you go out and set up a fan page or start a promo campaign to non-organically grow your following, read our social media guide: Social Media- The Prize Inside

We were recently at a sponsored event that was hosted by a world renowned art museum and showcased the talents of several remarkably gifted musicians.

One sponsor, clearly still living in the land of magical thinking, elected to give away an ordinary solid-color t-shirt emblazoned with nothing but their logo and slogan. Instead of positioning the sponsor as an in-tune patron of the arts, the t-shirts commercialized and tarnished the event while awkwardly positioning the sponsor as ‘out of touch’ and ‘out of place.’

Abusing your logo and slinging together a trite tag line do not constitute a sponsorship strategy. It’s unlikely that your name alone inspires much impassioned support. Here’s a simple test… If you wouldn’t tattoo it on your own flesh, don’t waste the money emblazing it on a t-shirt.

Who you allow to sponsor your event and what you sponsor impacts your brand. Your brand’s story is reinforced or diluted by your real-life, day to day, actions, decisions, products, events, partnerships, sponsors…..

Allowing lackluster intrusions negatively impacts your event experience, cheapens your brand image, and devalues the return on investment for sponsors.  When it’s clear that a sponsor can’t wrap their head around the inherent meaning and value of a particular event or organization, they reduce sponsorship to obnoxious noise and unwanted advertising

Event sponsorship demands far more than just banners, logos, and neon lights.
If your sponsors don’t passionately share your philosophy, get your values, relate your purpose, or connect with your target audience, it’s time to re-evaluate your sponsorship criteria.

An exampleof an event with well-paired sponsors is Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. This year, Nathan’s was sponsored by Heinz and Pepto-Bismol.
Pepto-Bismol actually went on to host an official Major League Eating follow-up tour with the winner of the Nathan’s Famous contest, which they detailed via their facebook fan page.

Everything that you say says something about you.

Your brand narrative is how you tell your story. It runs deeper than a marketing rollout or an advertising campaign.  Your brand narrative is told in and through newsletters, press releases, promotions, CRM, sales, programming, products, annual reports, and internal communications- day in and day out. Your ongoing narrative should reflect your brand vision and purpose, your strategic direction, your operational tactics, your intent and partnerships. If crafting your brand narrative isn’t a constant, grueling, and tedious ongoing process, then it’s likely you’re producing ineffective noise.

Wrestling your brand narrative into focus requires skill and authenticity. Calling yourself cool doesn’t make you cool and calling your brand relevant doesn’t make it relevant. Drop the ego, the corporate-bologna, and the stuffy verbiage from your self-promotions and figure out how to reflect who you really are and what you really have to offer. Narrativity is not vague or generic.

Meticulously crafted brand narratives connect with people; they gracefully distinguish your unique interests, voice, differentiators, and the powerful benefits that genuinely matter to clients and customers. Brands that make a connection, reinforce their relevance, and speak to people are identified immediately as the must-have solution; the real deal, second to none. Your brand narrative should convey the personality, style, and strengths that enliven your collective organization.

Your communications are a reflection of your brand identity and directly contribute to your brand image, whether you intended them to be or not.

Here are a few questions to help you do a quick audit of your Brand Narrative:

• Do your messages accurately communicate your story?
• Are your messages genuine and authentic or just feel-good self-compliments and well-worded spin?
• Does your brand’s spunk, funk, credibility, attitude, personality, sensitivity, or vibe shine through your messages?
• How do your messages reflect your brand identity, values, and strategy?
• Are your messages clear and concise?
• Do your messages speak to the real issues that concern your audience?
• Do your messages reflect the values of your audience?
• Are you addressing the relevant issues on the minds and the immediate ‘To-Do’ lists of your customers?