Nullam dictum laoreet urna a vulputate. Aliquam placerat, lacus laoreet aliquam facilisis, elit nisi posuere velit, et aliquet metus dolor at turpis. Sed eu lectus nulla, vitae blandit turpis. Duis risus nisi, mollis eget pharetra id, blandit nec lorem. Aliquam congue facilisis viverra. Fusce risus nisl, mattis nec varius vitae, lacinia vel lectus. Donec in tellus at est congue vehicula. Vestibulum eget dui mi, in congue lorem. Pellentesque adipiscing neque vel nunc consectetur vulputate. Integer id eleifend mauris. Sed condimentum rutrum odio, ac blandit quam interdum eu. Nullam elementum massa eu libero blandit a tempor nulla venenatis. Nunc placerat aliquet nisl sit amet aliquet. Donec velit arcu, vestibulum at interdum ut, consequat eu arcu.

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I’m sure this is a similar question that crosses business owner’s minds a lot, what is the value of my company being social? Well, here’s is what I think the use is from a consumer’s perspective:

1. The “warm & fuzzies” factor: hospitality has and will always go a long way to making people feel comfortable. I instantly felt like I could let my guard down and ask a question that I probably would have left for a guide book to tell me.
2. Information from the expert: I was greeted by an expert, and I found myself instantly at a font of knowledge, all I had to do was ask. It was one of the most useful and powerful things to a traveler to a new city.
3. Instant perspective change: when I visit a new place, I always have a sense of curiousity, but also caution. When I received the tweet personally welcoming me, I instantly felt like I was in a city that “Got it.” a city that was a bit further ahead or with the times than others, and that was so nice to see. Even if my experience in Portland had been less than stellar, I would still think that it was better than a city that provided a bad experience AND didn’t welcome me electronically.

from a business perspective, here’s the use:

1. Increase your brand image: social media allows companies a natural way to personalize “who” the company is, and be in conversations as an individual, not a corporation. This is imperative for a brand today, to connect with people on an individual level.
2. Achieve your mission: the flexibility of social media allows your company to talk to specific people about specific things. this is POWERFUL!
3. Increase the possibility of revenue and word of mouth: all of this talking increases the chance that people will talk about you, too. And eventually, after multiple impressions, that will translate into transactions!

Social Media is very adaptable to any business mission; but it’s still misused or not used at all in businesses, so it is always exciting to see it being used correctly in a new setting. Do you have any questions or comments? I would love to hear from you!

Then the website came, and the new marketing standards were set: now you had to make sure you were able to be found in common searches, and when people wanted to find out more information about your company specifically, you were able to capture those visitors somehow, in order to follow up with them and eventually grab their business. These activities are now also becoming pretty traditional, and very similar to physical branding, in that online collateral and advertising is a large part of what companies view as valuable activities for their brand and marketing.

Now, well past web 2.0, possibly closer to web 3.0, we have introduced social media AND device proliferation. This has not just changed the marketing landscape for branding but completely transformed it. I like to think of this as a re-evolution of the human interaction. We are not becoming less social, but even more social than before, constantly connected to the people and the topics we like and are interested in. Branding today includes all of the traditional activities, web presence activities, and layers on top of it a new type of interaction that up until now companies never got a chance to be included in: people-to-people word of mouth. Most companies are beginning to embrace it, while others still seemed to be paralyzed by hope.

Therefore, today a holistic brand strategy must include all three presences: physical, online, and social. Each has it’s own activities, campaigns, and best practices; and with the increasingly savvy consumer market, it is critical to make sure all are being managed correctly, effectively, and as one voice.

So what can you do to make sure that your company or organization’s brand is ever-present? Here are 3 tips:

1. Grab Attention Quickly and Often: Attention spans are dwindling, grab and hold their attention. Did you know you have to make at least 6 impressions on a viewer before they will be compelled to take action!
2. Open up your company. Allow your brand’s promise to the consumer drive expectations and conversations. Holding your company close to you like a hand of cards in poker is no longer the way to market a business. People are being empowered to provide reviews, suggestions, and opinions on everything. Make sure that every aspect of your brand is ready to yield to these opinions, reflect on them, and if necessary make changes to what the company can be.
3. Identify audience members with Influence, Trust, & Authority. Bring them into conversations across all presences. Industry key influencers can catapult your brand from obscurity to mainstream with the flick of a wrist. If you get in touch with them through social media, make sure to direct them to your online presence, or provide them with a couple magazines containing an important write-up about your business. These gestures of deference and goodwill always come back in this new reciprocally-driven world.

Have questions or comments about branding in this brave new world? We are all ears!

For the past month I have been receiving piles of paper at my doorstep, that I then bring in and try to harken back to those Norman Rockwell days of yore, making my coffee, sitting down at my counter and getting in an origami battle with the Style section of the Washington Post. Obviously, this is not what they planned. Why can’t I just swipe left and right to go back and forth between articles? Why is it that when I am finally entrenched in a relevant article, I have to all the sudden jump four pages forward – is this a choose your own adventure newspaper?

All of this leads to one inevitable conclusion: Print is Dead! For the following generations, it is something that is better left to the incinerator. But I want to look at this issue from the eyes of a marketer. Sure, print is dead, but that is because we have evolved to better forms of reaching individuals with the content they want. So without further ado, here is a list of the 4 main reasons “why Print is dead and the opportunity it leaves for newspaper companies and marketers”:

1. Print casts too wide a net in what it covers, in the hopes that everyone will find something interesting. Nowadays, we can easily be surrounded by only the news and content that we find interesting: zite, huffington post, Flipboard, cool hunting, to name a few. This allows marketer to know how to target the people that will be interested in what they are selling, and it allows print companies to begin curating their news for specific audiences, and making business decisions on “interest” subscriptions (the more interest in a section the more subscriptions that section receives, the less interest in a section means it’s easier for the newspaper to divest in it without hurting the rest of the publication!). Not to mention, effectiveness in ad space will skyrocket, and thus a newspaper can cover more of it’s overhead by just allowing the public to choose what it is most interested in reading.
2. As much as I like the idea of a Norman Rockwell calm, serene, contemplative scene; that’s just not the world we live in anymore. We move from thing to thing, hell a poptart now has instructions for a 5 second microwave zapping. Bulky, large format prints cannot be travelled with as easily as a tablet or a smartphone. Here again though, both newspaper companies and marketers can be rewarded for social, local, and mobile advertising. Marketers have the ability now to advertise to people as they walk into or near an establishment. News companies can take advantage of this by bringing news to people from 1-10 miles around where they live or are at that moment! This creates a much more intimate and inviting user experience, and therefore more revenue.
3. The greenie eco-conscious person inside me cringes every time I have to throw away a stack of a daily newspaper. Can we just say that the waste and energy it takes to even make, let alone recycle newspapers, could easily be cut out of our cycle. Marketers and newspaper companies could tout themselves from this angle and say how much carbon they have taken out of the air!
4. Where’s my like button in this paper? Honestly, what good is reading up on the world events if I have to keep that nugget in my back pocket for a day or two before I can even use it to look knowledgeable at the next Thirsty Thursday? When I read something in a newspaper, after looking for what seems like hours for an article that catches my interest, I want to shout to the world, “HEY! This is interesting, I think you might also like it: world of friends of similar interests.” I can’t think of a better caption for what a marketers dream would be!

MARKETER: you mean to tell me that I can get free advertising, just from a like or share button in my newspaper?

ME: uh. sha.

MARKETER: and… That means other people may subscribe that wouldn’t otherwise been reached… Holy F.

Bottom line: Print should be dead, and newspaper companies should be rejoicing, because now they can finally be a NEWS Company, not just a newspaper company.