Jan 11
7
Hype Yourself Up
Take the time to market yourself and your career, because no one else will do it for you … unless you have a really cool brand expert husband. I just completed an intro video for my wife’s portfolio website. Promoting yourself can be both fun and beneficial to moving forward in your career. I still need to tweak the rest her site before it goes live, but enjoy this quick intro video in the mean time. It will be in the background of the homepage.
Jan 11
1
Take Time To Market Yourself
Welcome to 2011, the year of doing. Many like to make lists of resolutions, but I prefer to make lists of realistic lifestyle changes. Many “resolutions” are often hard to do and especially hard to keep in the long run. But lifestyle changes have long lasting impact on your life.
One easy lifestyle change that we can all make in 2011 is to take the time to promote yourself. Competition is everywhere as we climb out of a deep recession. Take the time to market your most important brand—yourself and your career.
Try any of these easy things to start your New Year.
Update your resume, even if you aren’t looking to make a career move at the moment.
Update your linkedIn page.
Create a blog or website where you talk about your industry.
Create a blog or website where you talk about something you are passionate about that doesn’t have anything to do with your current job.
Try out video blogging and see if it is something you like.
Try out podcasting if you can stand the sound of your own voice.
Most importantly, do not view self promotion as work, view it as an investment in your future.
Get Over It and Start Creating Anything But Excuses
I have a deep dark secret for you. Are you ready?
My company will never pay me what I am worth … and even worse (for you) neither will your company. A Ment-ero of mine (Seth Godin) says this best in his book “Linchpin”. Do yourself a favor and purchase it today because it will change your world and your career. Note: Ment-ero is a word that I just created and it is a cross bread between a mentor and a hero.
My company can not afford to pay me what I am worth because my self value and drive doesn’t come from my salary, it comes from my dreams and goals. My desire to be extraordinary and to constantly create something is what drives me.
My salary—no matter how much it may inflate or decrease over the years—will never be my core driving force. It is a hard fact of life that is often extremely difficult for most to learn and accept.
-A company will never be able to pay you the value of your life for 8 hours a day for 5 to 6 days a week for 30-40 years, it is quite simply impossible. And if you say that it is not (no matter what your salary is) you are putting an extremely small price on your life.
-A company will never be able to pay you for the two hours or more you commute to and from the office each day.
-A company will never be able to pay you the value of how much time it takes you outside of the office to learn about your market, your brands, and what technologies will be crucial for the future.
So you have a choice between three options:
a) You can slack off and stab yourself in the feet by refusing to be extraordinary.
b) You can quit and find an alternative way to make a living than a 9-5.
c) You can stop punishing your company for not being able to pay you what you are worth. You can embrace the struggle. By choosing this option you never again will say these words:
“I don’t get paid to do that so …”
“That isn’t my job”
“I am only doing what I am paid for”
“If they paid me more I would do that”
“I am never going to learn or help myself and my career by doing work outside of the office”
“I am not paid enough so I am going to go on Facebook instead”
“I am not paid enough so I am going to waste my life playing Angry Birds instead”
This is why a great number of Americans are starting to wake up and reconsider their career paths, choosing to follow occupations that they love over chasing a large greedy over inflated salary.
As I move forward in my career I am realizing that less information can actually be more useful than too much information.
Bosses, coworkers, and customers often feel burned out on too much information.
They don’t have time to read every article or blog and really don’t want you flooding their inbox with “Hey this was a good article” or “Thought you might want to read this”.
What I try to do before sharing something these days is to take a few seconds and really think about what I am sharing and with whom.
You should ask yourself, does this person need this information or am I just sending it to share something. If you are just sending it to look busy or just for the sake of sending something, then chances are the recipient already can see through you and you run the risk of devaluing anything that you send that person in the future.
Don’t send something without reading it completely first. And reading the first 2—3 sentences doesn’t count!
A solid technique is to read the article or blog and summarize it for the person you are sending it to. For example if I was sending this blog, I might say “This blog entry is about the over sharing of information online. If you want to learn more here is the link. Perhaps when you have a moment we could discuss how this theory could be used to encourage increased office productivity.” … or “Perhaps we can chat about how this could negatively affect your brand.”
Remember, not all information is meant to be shared. You can start with this blog if you must. Don’t share it. That’s right I said it. … But please do if you must.
Dec 10
20
Seeking Your Attention
For those outside of the city of Philadelphia, PA, you may not realize how many beautiful murals decorate this city. I live in Philadelphia and actually don’t know enough about the program myself. Early one Saturday morning I was dropping my wife off to teach at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Heading down Spring Garden Street I noticed a mural that I pass daily. However, there was a banner over the mural, which was asking for much needed donations to perform upkeep.
Wow, I never thought of the upkeep that will be needed for all of the beautiful murals across this city, said the little voice in my head.
The banner was actually kind of small. I remember thinking, If I was in charge of marketing for this non-profit I would have completely covered this mural with a white banner, except for the eyes/head at the top.
The copy on the banner would have been a strong urge to action like “You May Never See This Beautiful Mural Again, and There is Nothing That We Can Do About It … BUT YOU CAN.”
While the small banner did catch my attention, I think more people would act in donating money to the upkeep of this mural and others with the use of shocking imagery.
Upon vising their website muralarts.org, I discovered that the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is the largest public art program in the United States. The program unites artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooted in the traditions of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives. For more information on this great program visit www.muralarts.org
Dec 10
16
Sirius Ideas
I was recently hanging out with my brother-in-law and he mentioned how sometimes while riding in traffic and switching the radio stations, you can pick up the Howard Stern Show on regular terrestrial radio. It is picked up from cars that have Sirius radio and I have experienced this myself.
I remember when Howard Stern first went to Satellite Radio. I was a big fan on regular radio and my wife got me Sirius for Christmas that year. I eventually got a job in the city and was taking the train to work and canceled my subscription. Now that I am commuting again in the car I often miss the Howard Stern crew on Sirius.
In advertising you want to hit your audience with a moment when they want your brand the most. A great commercial for Sirius radio would be a guy stuck in traffic flicking the radio stations as he can suddenly hear the Howard Stern show.
He starts to laugh and looks around him he notices that all the cars around him have Sirius antennas and people who are also laughing hard. Traffic starts to move and we hear static as he loses the reception on satellite radio.
And then … Sirius Radio with and urge to order would flash across the screen.
What images can you paint for your brand? When do your customers need/want your product/services the most? Figure this out and build a campaign around it.
Many seem confused between the terms “Social Networking” and Social Media”. It is very similar to the way that some think that their “IT” and “Web” departments at work are lumped into the same group—when in fact they are very different.
So here is a quick explanation of what each section is and how they work.
Social Networking
Social Networking is just that, sites that allow you to network and interact with others online. Think of it as a two-way conversation where people are interacting in one space.
Facebook currently leads the pack as the most popular social networking site. Other sites include Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace.
Social Networking is not limited to these big websites. There are many smaller social networking sites for niche groups. Another form of social networking that many often overlook is leaving comments online. People often interact with others in comments and this means that it is social networking.
According to Wikipedia Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the US. That stat is amazing and powerful.
Social Media
Social Media is a one way conversation or a broadcast of information online. Your brand should be integrating social media into your marketing plan. Popular forms of social media include and are not limited to blogs, micro sites, videos, podcasts, digital editions, and online magazines or websites.
So … for example, this blog post is a form of social media. I am publishing this information out to anyone who may be interested in reading it. However, if people started leaving comments on this blog post and talking to others who left comments then that would be social networking.
Posted in Social Media Social Networking by .
Dec 10
11
Open Access
There is much debate within companies about giving things/content away vs. charging your customers for these items/services. This is because many are desperately clinging onto the days of the past.
The world has changed. Fighting it will only hold you back.
Open access means a chance to show your customers how valuable you really are to them.
The one record company that is still fighting digital downloads clearly has not received this message yet and will be out of business by next year.It is crucial to make sure that your company is not the last in your industry clinging to yesterday’s rules.
Because the game has changed and people expect things for free, the greatest way to become of value is to give away some or all of your content for free. Find other creative ways to make money after your audience is there and wanting more.
Become and expert in your field by becoming the quick and easy way for your customers to get the information they are seeking.
Don’t clog them up with log ins and passwords, give the audience what they want.
If you don’t they will Google another site just like yours that has the information that they are looking for, and it will be free and they will forget your brand quickly.
Dec 10
10
Facebook Profile Pics
The latest rage on Facebook seems to be changing your profile picture to something similar as others to raise awareness for a cause or event. Recently many people changed their profile photos to their favorite cartoon characters to raise awareness for violence against children.
So, here is how you can capitalize on this new practice.
I recommend taking the time and planning this out ahead of time.
Step 1: Create your concept. Make sure it is relevant to your industry. If your brand is in healthcare try planning a day out to raise awareness for Diabetes. Maybe ask your facebook followers to change their profile picture to a letter D on one day to raise awareness for this disease.
Step 2: Next create a page on your website with meta tags about the promotion so that you turn up first in search engine results about it. This page should explain what you are doing, a little bit about your brand, why you are asking people to raise awareness, what they have to do, and on what time or date.
Step 3: Make sure that you answer the questions that people will be googling exactly in your meta data.
For example: “Why are facebook profiles the letter d” and “D on facebook profile”.
This will insure that outsiders of your brands direct facebook friends will learn about the event after googling for it.
Try this promotion idea out and let me know if it worked for your brand.
Dec 10
8
YOUR SOUL IS SATAN’S TARGET
I was driving to a friends party with my wife the other day and we spotted an SUV in the lane next to us that was riddled with 8.5 by 11 white paper taped along the outside of vehicle. There was writing on each piece of paper, and it was taped on in some sort of ghetto laminated waterproofing system, I could only assume. As, I sped up I instructed my wife to start reading off some of what she could read. Since we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic anyway, it seemed like a great way to pass the time.
“This Car Was Paid Of Because Of Jesus,” she would read quickly.
The car then got too far ahead.
The lanes would even up again and we would get in reading distance.
“Your Soul Is Satan’s Target,” she yelled.
Then unfortunately her lane kept going and ours was slower and we parted ways.
My wife and I discussed
A) how ghetto this was, and
B) How many accidents it probably caused.
Then it dawned on me. Like it or Not “Your Soul Is Satan’s Target” is a moving marketing campaign. How many marketing touches has our Jesus Loving Friend made through this guerrilla marketing campaign? It is hard to say.
How many people told their friends the story about her messages?
How many people walk past her parked car each day?
Marketing experts would note that there is a negative to promoting your brand this way. They would argue that this type of behavior would turn many off to God, Jesus, and to religion. However, I don’t think this is the audience that she is after.
One final note. If you didn’t think her marketing effort for her brand (Jesus Christ) worked, take note that you are reading about it on a blog on the information superhighway.
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