Startup & Small Business - Page 20

Check out our latest entrepreneurial-driven content geared toward helping startups and small businesses grow their brands.

Interesting Read: Who Moved My Cheese?


Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D. has been around a while but I just got ahold of it over the weekend. One of my aunts suggested that I read it. A little reluctant at first because its so short, I didn’t believe it to have any substance. I started reading it and finished fairly quick – it takes about an hour to read. It offers a test of faith approach on succeeding at just about anything. It highlights the importance of embracing change, and making the best of it. I enjoyed reading it!

Making The Most of Social Media

Branding yourself or your company through social media is not difficult to accomplish when the right strategies are employed. Below are a few tidbits of info that are easy to do yourself. If successful, over time you should notice a gradual increase in your audience and voluntary interaction. Once you decide on what content you’ll present through your social media networks and what you hope to achieve you can then start mapping out a strategy. These social media strategies however should be well-thought out and serve a sole purpose of peeking the interest of your audience.

Here’s a few strategies to help you get started on the frontiers of social media.

Let’s say you plan on launching a series of new products and want to start promoting the product release dates along with information about the product and where it is to be sold, etc. A great approach would be to leverage the pre buzz through social media. You could start by setting up scheduled tweets and Facebook posts that gradually unfold bits and pieces of information. These tweets and FB posts should be direct, concise and visually attractive. A big mistake would be posting the same information over and over and over again. If you’ve failed to get the wanted reaction the first time, dont just repost the same post. Think about rearranging the content of that post, figure out what didn’t work and step it up with more flattering, appealing info but still get to the point, and quickly.

Nothing more desperate than asking your audience to “please re-post” or “please like” my whatever. Not only does this reveal desperation, but it also reveals that you haven’t taken any time to consider the audience’s interest. Don’t get in the habit of fishing where there are no fish. Instead consider the people in your audience. Are they truly consumer targets or just a scattered demographic of people who have come to jump aboard your band wagon just because. If the latter, you’ll need to start from square one and find out why they ended up in your social media network to begin with. The bottom line is to take time to get to know what moves your audience or at least figure out how to get them to move.

Take advantage of your social networks by interlinking them when possible. Sync them across multiple online platforms. This encourages viral interaction and the chances of your audience sharing your post increases.  If your twitter account links to an rss feed or automatically updates on your other accounts great. This in a sense kills two birds with one stone and your audience can easily keep up with your company.

5 Memorable Ad Campaigns You Won’t Soon Forget

Check out this handful of memorable ad campaigns. All have their own strengths: repetitive, comical, compassion, eye catching and controversial.

Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino certainly ranks among the most raciest of ads when it comes to boldness and originality. Definitely an eye catcher. Not only are the two frolicking happily in all their nakedness but their carefree spirits carry over to the product as well, which is Neroli Portofino. Somehow you get the notion that if it works for them (to be happy and care-free), it’ll work for me.

State Farm’s Mayhem ad campaigns are absolutely comical. There are a number of these ads highlighting realistic situations through comedy in which we may indeed any number of insurance plans, preferably with State Farm.

You’ve seen this one and I’m sure you’re sick of it too. Jennifer Hudson’s Weight Watcher’s campaign. Even if you don’t have a television or Internet to watch it on, it somehow works its way into your life by way of someone telling you about it or humming that “If you want it you got it..” number Hudson does in the commercial. This point is clear to see, the more you keep throwing it in their faces, the harder it is for them to forget. A mild overkill of repetitiveness is why this one works.

This Liberal Medicare Ad in which Paul Ryan tosses grandma off a cliff is certainly a favorite of mine. Initially I’d bet she thinks he’s there to take her on a nice stroll along the nursing home’s nature trail and envitably ends up trying to use her pink slippers as brakes when she realizes she’s done. But the important aspect of this ad is not that fact that granny is no longer with us but its controversial approach to getting the attention of its viewers in an effort to raise awareness.

Compassion. This word alone is enough to define the purpose of Peta’s ad campaigns geared to the abuse of animals. It plays on our sympathetic nature as human beings, or attempts to anyway. For the most part I believe people take to these ads because it highlights the direct relationship between humans and animals, livelihood.

Interesting Read: Strengths Based Selling

I just experienced the joy of reading Strengths Based Selling written by Tony Rutigliano & Brian Brim which offers a valid approach on unveiling your ‘best’ inner salesman/woman – assessing strengths and weakness. An informative read, Strengths Based Selling highlights key points on building advocacy, engagement your customers, assessing opportunities and everything else you can image to trigger your sales super hero or heroine!

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