On the radio, I caught a little portion of a discussion regarding the idea that having an email ending with @aol.com can “Hurt your personal Brand” by making you seem outdated. There were some facts that they were taking into consideration, such as the demographic of people currently using an @aol.com were over 40 years old, and using the email from home only. This radio discussion went hand in hand with a push that Google is currently using, the Gmail Intervention. See the Mashable article here.
Can your personal brand go out of date? Is there really such thing as a “Personal Brand”?
If you’re name is Oprah, Madonna, Gordon Ramsay, or Steve Jobs, then yes, there is certainly a personal brand. If you are a small business owner, whose personal reputation is tied completely to the business, then possibly your personal reputation is fused with your business branding. If you don’t fit into either of these two categories, you probably don’t have a “Personal Brand”.
You have a reputation. You may project a particular, possibly stereotypical view of yourself. Neither are a brand.
Sony, as a brand, is known for innovation in entertainment. The Walkman, the Diskman, the Playstation, were at one point cutting edge technological advances in how we experience audio and video. That’s a serious brand, with a concrete brand message.
Gordon Ramsay is known the world over for having impeccable taste in food with the highest standards of quality and service, along with a potty mouth. You know if you step foot in one of his restaurants, the quality of food is going to be bar none. If you buy his cookware, you know its going to last. That’s a personal brand.
If you meet a man named Joe, who says he is a plumber, does he have a brand? It’s possible, that in his community, the name Joe’s Plumbing is known for excellent service, and it may extend to Joe, but not necessarily.
Individuals don’t have to worry about branding. They need to focus on reputation, and having integrity. Some of the same concepts come into play, such as treating people well, being a hard worker, etc., but it isn’t the same thing as having “Brand awareness.”
So, keep your aol.com email addresses. Tell people, “I’m retro”. If you still have an old @CS.com, you’re vintage!
I had a discussion with a peer yesterday regarding the importance (or lack thereof) of Google Page Rank. I'm a firm believer that Page Rank us fairly useless. Here's a blog a wrote on the topic a few months ago regarding Google Page Rank.
Why? I’ll tell you why...
You can’t track Page Rank.
Typically, the most accurate Page Rank data is months old. Unless you can accurately and frequently get new data for a metric, it’s pretty much useless. Page Rank has nothing to do with SEO rankings.
A website can have a Page Rank of 0, and still garner organic rankings and search traffic.
Page Rank does not take social results into account.
So, what should you do? Don't worry about Page Rank. Instead, worry about creating engaging content, promoting it via social media, and converting those content readers into leads and customers.
Have you ever launched a new marketing campaign? Many times, a campaign is conceived based directly on the sales process, and then moved into the realm of advertising. That means starting with the sales process and expanding upon it. For those not in sales, and looking for a starting place, many times we begin with FAB, which stands for:
Feature - what your product does.
Advantage - what makes it better than the competition.
Benefit - why the customer’s life is better with this product.
What if you have a really strong product, that completely decimates the competition? What if your advantage is so great, that in your opinion, the choice of going with the competition is actually hurting the customer?
Rather than focusing on simple advantages that your product gives over the competition, you need to start a movement against your competition. An example of this idea is Smart (the car brand). Their cultural movement is that buying a large, gas-guzzling vehicle is wasteful, harmful, and irresponsible. Spend some time on their Facebook wall, and you’ll see that they have created an environment that is less about the car, and more about anti- big vehicles. They have effectively created a movement. Let’s face it, there are lots of small vehicles that get comparable gas mileage. Yet none make the statement of “I hate gas guzzlers” like a Smart does.
The Nissan Leaf does the same thing, with making it less about the car, and more about how you cause no harm to the environment. They are focusing on their advantage to the point that the marketing becomes less about the product’s merits, and more about how the competition hurts you. In their most recent commercial, a polar bear hugs the owner of a Leaf. This clearly states that the goal of saving the environment can come about from the Leaf’s movement of eliminating gas burning vehicles.
Others have tried this, and haven’t been able to take it out of the advantage stage. Watch an AT&T or Verizon commercial, and the two spend a lot of time putting down the other’s service. That’s because they couldn’t turn it into a movement, but kept it at the level of a perceived advantage. No one signs a contract with Verizon thinking, “AT&T is trying to destroy the planet with bad service.”
While we’re discussing cell phones, we have to touch base on Apple. That brand has so effectively become a movement that Apple Evangelist is in Wikipedia. There is even an Anti-Apple movement. We’re talking about computer devices, not political parties, although the discussion between an Apple Evangelist and a (Windows based) PC user can sound like a political debate.
So what’s the point you ask? How does this result in sales? Simple = people are always much more loyal to a cause than to a product. Can your product revolutionize how people think of your product versus your competition? Can you replace advertising for a product with informing the masses of your brand’s movement?
When a social platform starts growing exponentially, good marketers take notice and move in fast. However, social media marketers, not unlike myself, have hit a major roadblock with Google+ – there are no business tools. What’s a company to do?
According to Google+ Ads Lead Christian Oestlien – fittingly in a YouTube video posted on his Google+ profile page – here’s what you need to know:
1. Don’t create a business page yet: Oestlien asked brands and business to hold off using consumer profiles to create a business identity on Google+. Using a personal profile for a company or brand violates the Google+ terms of service (much like Facebook’s policy). In summary, create pages at your own risk until the proper tools become available.
2. Google+ business tools will be coming… sometime this year: Google engineers are currently working on separate business pages, which will include integration with other services like AdWords. According to Oestlien, the “business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses.” However, no time frame has been set for the deployment of these tools.
3. Apply to be part of the Google+ for business pilot: Google will be testing business features with a small number of users. You can apply here: http://goo.gl/zq95C
See Christian Oestlien's YouTube video here:
The fact that Google+ has an Ads Lead is a hint of things to come; clearly Google intends to put some form of AdWords on the site, like it has with every other major Google property.
In the meantime, the Google+ roll-out is having a massive effect on Google services across the web, and publishers, brands and businesses should take note. The Google +1 button has already been deployed on Google AdWords and search results. Publishers can (and should) add the +1 button to their content, similar to “Tweet This” or “Share on Facebook” buttons. It is likely that these “votes of confidence” from users will show up on their Google+ profile pages and be integrated into Google’s search rankings secret sauce. In addition, Mashable reported that Google will rebrand Blogger and Picasa to bring them into the Google+ fold. Maybe I’ll hold off on that blog migration I’ve been planning...
It took brands years to get on Facebook; a year or so to realize the value of Twitter. Clearly times have changed. What’s next for Google+? Stay tuned…
I’m going to tell you a marketing pitch, and see if you think it makes sense.
“Take your product and walk up to the nearest house. Bang on the door and hope someone answers. If they do, ask them an obvious question, one that everyone would answer either positively or negatively, it really doesn’t matter which. Then tell them why their answer is wrong, and ask if they have a short amount of time to learn the better answer. Bring your product into their home, give a demonstration on the spot that shows why your product is superior and sell the product. Write up an order and go to the next house on the street. Repeat the process.”
If your marketing team suggested this as a sales and marketing process, I’m willing to bet you would have some forms to fill out, like termination papers, help wanted ads, etc.
For decades, this door-to-door pedaling was the marketing strategy of several industries. This sales style went out of fashion because there was no reason for the customer to have any interest in the sales pitch, unless they happen to be bored enough to listen. As a business marketing strategy, it is not a strong approach and doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Oddly today we see companies using this same hapless “bored enough to listen” strategy, simply wrapped in a shiny package of new technology. We see companies form Facebook pages, with no strategy to engage the customer. We see YouTube channels that simply run the same boring TV commercials that people fast forward through with their DVR boxes when the ad ran originally.
Advertising has two separate goals: One is brand messaging, and the other is a call to action. Brand messaging is to get your company name recognized by everyone in your market area. A call to action asks that the customer make a purchase. Certain marketing tactics do better at one goal of advertising than others.
Take a look at your current advertising. What is its goal is it clear and is it being achieved? Is it a call to action that people will want to listen to? Is it brand messaging that will stick in the customer’s mind? Or, are you just hoping that the customer is bored enough to pay attention to you?
Typically, this blog focuses on solid marketing and advertising advice, as well as technology to do both better. However, this Post Fourth of July, if you need to ease your way back into work a little slower, we understand, and want to offer a suggestion as to how.
Everyone needs a break once in a while. Often times, when we are "on break", we are still at our desks, just doing non-work stuff. Let's face it, the computers on our desks provide us an opportunity for entertainment, as well as work. However, unless you have a neon sign that lights up "On Break" or "On Duty", if you are sitting at your desk, people assume you are busy working. Having your Facebook account loaded up gives the impression that you are goofing off when you are supposed to be working, when in fact you are simply taking a break.
The solution? The coolest little software program I've seen out in a while!
This site takes your Facebook stream, and turns it into an excel spreadsheet look-alike. The image in the bottom right changes, to be the profile pic of the name you hover over, of the image shared in the wall, etc. It shows the number of likes on each wall post, as well as the comments. Hovering over the comments count shows the comments, in a note-like fashion.
So, to the casual observer, you are still working, and you don't have to worry about looking like you are wasting company time when really, you are on your break.
For over 60 years Davis Advertising has been the stand-out ad agency in Central Massachusetts. In 2007, riding the wave of great success we opened a second office in Greenville, South Carolina. Davis Advertising brings the talents of over 50 marketing professionals together to create the kind of strategic thinking that sells. You can’t move a product until you move a person and the advertising we generate has proven extremely effective in doing just that. Davis Advertising creates marketing that stands out from the crowd, conveys a message that hits home and sells your product or service. So contact us today and get the small town service you want with the big-city creative and capabilities you deserve.
