What’s Your Manifesto?

At the low point of the recession, three guys decided to create their dream job and their dream lifestyle. In the process, they developed the most iconic manifesto of the century–so far.

Brand is an amorphous concept because it’s a feeling. Whether or not we identify with a brand is a function of the mid-brain. The mid-brain is pre-verbal and helps us relate to the world by way of emotion and pictures rather than words and reasoning.  It’s like chemistry, that thing that the French refer to as “I don’t know what.” In Spanish, it’s called “duende” and infers a certain magic and creative spark. As a brand, Coke has duende.  Apple’s “Think Different” campaign evoked a deep sense of duende. Same with Nike’s – Just Do It. These iconic brands encompass a world of meaning and associations because they speak to us on an emotional level.

The Power Behind the Brand

It’s this emotional quality of brand that makes it so powerful. The brain is a three-tiered hierarchy: survival, emotional and rational. The survival and emotional tiers have been around the longest. That means they have seniority.  All things being equal, emotion trumps reason every time. Coke or Pepsi? That’s why differentiation is so important.  If you can’t be different, at least BE different.

Emotion drives motivation and passion. It kicks us into high gear. For an organization, brand clarity and a united vision is the galvanizing force. For your customers, it’s the decider.

 

Trust

Appealing to our passions and highest vision is a positive form of brand building, but first a brand message must get beyond the primal gatekeeper. The survival brain is all about the fundamentals: seeking pleasure and even more basic than that–avoiding pain. If you’re around to read this, chances are you’re pretty good at this because you and your ancestors developed a healthy sense of trust versus mistrust. The word” familiarity” is derived from the Latin word familiaris meaning, friendly or intimate. We’re hard-wired to trust the familiar over the unfamiliar. 

World Internet Typology: ATT Labs

Panda was designed to let the crème rise to the top. Sites with high bounce rates indicated irrelevant content or a poor user experience and were downgraded accordingly. Penguin is aimed at the over optimizers. Keyword stuffing, duplicate content and fake links are now big no-nos.  The moral of this story is that post Panda and Penguin, there are no silver bullets.

Question Assumptions

Despite the staggering information deluge, the marketing mantra of the day is – content is king. It’s not a bad practice to question the wisdom du jour. Remember Eric Schmidt’s quote…we create as much information now in two days as we did from the dawn of humanity through 2003.  And that was pre-Panda, before SEO was bumped from the marketing throne. Collectively, we publish more than 1,500 blog posts every 60 seconds.

Viewed in context, content that receives a lot of social shares from highly trafficked sites rises to the top, and so the feedback loop continues.

Marketing to People and Algorithms

A website’s incoming links are still relevant, but of course not all links are created equal.  This makes public relations a highly relevant topic. Every domain is ranked by authority from 1 through 100. For instance, Fast Company has a domain authority of 93. Forbes is 97. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal weigh in at 99 and 98 respectively.  Just one link from a high-authority site can have a seismic impact on a website’s search engine rank.

Bottom line: When you’re allocating resources for SEO, inbound marketing programs, and pithy content writers, be aware in Google’s Wild Kingdom, if content is king, PR is queen.

Download the PDF:Innovation Practices for Start-ups

Serve from your core strengths.

Don’t chase the single sale. You can’t go right and left at once. Decide.

To decide at its root is a kind of death. Hard.

Listen to the fire in your belly.

You’ll know your decisions are sound when you use them to crystalize your direction.

Decisions ignite action. They sharpen vision.

Stay true to your real customers.

Stay true to yourself.

In this way you’ll give the world the best you have to give.

According to a recent report issued by Hubspot (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012), inbound marketers save 61% over outbound marketers. Inbound practices included blogging, SEO and social media. Outbound methods included direct mail, telemarketing and tradeshows. No surprise there. (Public relations efforts were not included in the report.)

According to survey respondents, the average outbound lead cost businesses $346.00. The average lead costs for businesses using primarily inbound practices came in at around $135.00.

Blogs were cited as yielding the lowest cost leads by the majority of the marketers surveyed.

Blogs are also one of the most effective SEO practices.

Bottom line: If you want to be found on the web, give some thought to your content strategy.

Lead Costs

The Metrics Behind Successful Press Releases:

First, know your objective. Is your press release part of your search engine marketing (SEM) strategy or do you want live views and social shares? The timing tactics are very different for syndication versus live views. The tactics of a public global company will also be different than a private company based on financial market hours. Here are a few quick takeaways:

Timing a Press Release

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the busiest days for press releases so if you want live views you’re better off avoiding the deluge. Wednesday is the worst day for live views. Saturday and Sunday are the best.  Views from registered media were highest Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Distributing a press release at 12:00 or 1:00 AM yielded up to triple the views of any other time.  That timing applies to blog posts as well.

The best days for Facebook shares are Friday and Saturday late in the day. Saturday and Sunday were also the most spider-friendly days.

Press Release Headlines

In addition to crafting a double-take headline, keep the length around 120 to 130 characters – tweet length plus room for the @RT and a word or two. Place your key words at the beginning of your title for SEO purposes.

Press Releases and Photos/Video

Whether you’re after syndication or live views, including a photo has a major effect on the success of a release with up to two-thirds more views.

Video was a mixed bag. For live views, video was about half as effective as photos and according to the Hubspot analysis it ranked low on the “Engagement Index” (EI)  Though not practical for office hours, video can lead to a stickier message and it was shown to yield good open rates among registered media. Video may be most effective in weekend releases after midnight when the registered media appear to be headline surfing, hopefully with a nice glass of Malbec.

Timing Your Press Release for Syndication

The best days for syndication are Monday, Thursday and Friday. Press releases with photos are picked up most often.

So when is the best time to distribute a press release? It depends, but be sure to include a photo even if it’s just a logo.

The bottom line? What worked before doesn’t necessarily work now and what works now won’t necessarily work in the future so shake it up and check the metrics.

Photo credit:  George Boyce

To illustrate the power of word of mouth, Gladwell contrasts the midnight ride of Paul Revere against the midnight ride of William Dawes. Both men set off with the same message and the same mission in different directions. Of course, Paul Revere went on to become a legend, but how many of us have heard of William Dawes?

According to Gladwell, strategy requires getting the word out to two groups of people. The Connectors: those people who are relationship hubs and The Influencers: the people whose leadership sets the pace for the pack.

Evangelism and the Hundredth Monkey

In B2B tech marketing, the customer is often a member of a select group that represents highly connected neighborhoods of people. Word travels fast in any group and logically it travels ultra-fast in technology circles. This makes quality assurance and proactive customer service just as vital as clear communication of the product vision and benefits.

Sell the message to the “influencers” or industry pacesetters and the majority will follow. It’s what Robert Cialdini, author of the book Influence calls a “click whir” response – semi-automatic.

View every interaction with a vendor and every unsolicited conversation with a salesperson as an opportunity to pollinate your message and build a positive reputation via connectors. In other words, be cool. Word travels fast.

When director, Errol Morris asked McNamara about his Vietnam press strategy, he responded with a note of triumph. “I only answered the questions I wanted the reporters to ask.”

In a recent interview, a popular legal commentator and recovering PR hound recounted the time she shuffled her client schedule, negotiated an afternoon of LA traffic, sat through an hour of hair and makeup for a few minutes of network airtime. The subject? Tiger Woods and his Olympian feats of infidelity. During the interview, the realization hit her. She’d forfeited a half-day of her life to contribute to a negative conversation, a story that served only the ad industry.

For corporate spokespeople, authors and experts, when dealing with the press it’s important to know what questions you want to be asked. While it’s nice to be nice and help a reporter out, if the interview doesn’t serve your objective, your primary audience, or the community at large, it’s a net drain instead of a gain.

That said, nothing can fast track your message and establish social proof like positive press exposure. When leveraged correctly, relevant media coverage can rocket your overall marketing communications strategy.

Here are some suggestions for guiding media interviews to serve your audience, the reporter and you!

Five Tips to Make the Press Work for You

1.     Answer the questions you want to be asked.

What if a reporter asks you a question and you’re unsure of the answer or your gut tells you not to go there? Instead of saying, “I don’t know,” or “I’d rather not answer that,” tell the interviewer what you do know. “What I can tell you is this….” Instead of being evasive, keep your focus on empowering the audience with useful information. In a print interview, if you’re unsure of an answer you can offer to follow up with the reporter after you verify the facts.

2.     Don’t swear with the business press

This sounds obvious. Not so. During a book launch, I heard a business author use the word “crap” a dozen times in a half-hour. I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how he felt about his book. The same goes for product launches. Use words that create positive imagery instead of words that make your PR person cringe.

3.     Don’t answer questions with, “You’ll have to read my book to find out.”

That’s another cringe-worthy response. Most reporters (read: people) understand the law of reciprocity and they will want to help you sell your book. For those that don’t, let it go.

Robert Cialdini on the Law of Reciprocity

4.     Don’t bad mouth competing products.

Instead of winning you points, you’ll come off as petty. This is less of an issue in the book world where other writers are your best customers. In the product world, focus on your company’s stronghold differentiators in industry terms rather than singling out the weaknesses of any one competitor. Be factual.

5.    Know your ultimate objectives

Enter the interview with a clear objective or call to action in mind without being obvious. Guide the audience to your web site without alienating the reporter by providing a newsworthy incentive – like a special report or a survey. Keep it in the spirit of real news and service and everyone wins.

Why do some speakers have the power to spark us to action? What is that elusive quality that the French call, I don’t know what? One of the most profound questions we can ask is – what is the difference that makes the difference? “Success leaves clues.” Those are the words of Jim Rohn, one of the most successful communicators of our time. Whether you’re called to give the speech of your life, present your book, or stage a simple webinar, we can all benefit from examining the clues given to us by the greats.

The Art & Science of Extraordinary Speaking

I love to ask people their definition of leadership. One of my favorite answers came from a partner of a venture firm. Without pausing to blink he said, great leaders show us how to thrive. Great speakers are in essence great leaders. We follow them because they unite us and show us the way to a better life. Extraordinary speakers not only have the rare quality of vision, they harness our imagination and get the rest of us to see it too.

Defining the – I Don’t Know What – Factor

Passion

Another word for passion is conviction. Study the humble eloquence of Jim Rohn, or the showmanship of Zig Ziegler. Beyond style, it is obvious great speakers believe their message in their bones and they’re passionate about spreading the word. Their message is as core to who they are, just as surely as their DNA.

Inspiration

The root meaning of inspiration is literally to breath. Inspiration is a very real kinesthetic reaction that animates the lungs and heart. Extraordinary speakers touch us where we live and breathe. Tony Robbins, a masterful speaker by any definition, says that decision is always accompanied by action. To decide at its root means a kind of death, like homicide or suicide. There is finality to decision. Great speakers are transformative. They motivate us to leave the old ways behind.

The Science of Great Speaking

Carmine Gallo is a former broadcast journalist turned professional media trainer and now the author of several bestselling books including, 10 Simple Secrets of the World’s Greatest Communicators and The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Gallo distills some of the qualities shared by extraordinary speakers, traits that anyone can emulate. Some of Gallo’s observations:

Extraordinary Speakers are Story Masters

Great speakers use stories and personal narratives to evoke emotion. Emotion and memory are inextricably linked. Think back to your earliest memories of childhood. Chances are, they are made indelible by emotion. That is certainly the case with me. When I was a toddler, I got lost in the woods. I was so young the only word I knew to call out was Mama. My mother found me just before sunset. She carried me home and served me Kool-Aid out of a smiley pitcher. Grape Kool-Aid.  The memory is as permanent as fossilized rock.

Constantly Re-invent

Great speakers are great learners with curious minds. As a result, they are constantly reinventing their material and introducing new ideas and discoveries.

Set the Stage

Brilliant speakers understand stagecraft. Gallo points out that Steve Jobs always opens his keynotes with a strong theme and carries it throughout his presentations. Gallo suggests speakers create an outline in the minds of the audience. Summarize your point before transitioning to your next point. Extraordinary speakers are foremost great teachers.

Avoid GroupSpeak

Eliminate jargon at all costs. Keep your language clear and concise. If you can say it in three words instead of four, use three. If you can say it in two sentences instead of three, use two.

Know the Power of Body Language

Use dynamic gestures to make a point. Keep your body language open. No steeple-ing, no hands-in-pockets, no podiums. Don’t put a barrier between you and your listeners. Maintain eye contact. Speak to your audience, not your PowerPoint slides. Dress your best in a way that’s appropriate for your audience. Stand up straight…Relax and have fun.

Pacing and Rhythm

Extraordinary speakers have a strong sense of rhythm and timing. Vary the inflection and pace of your delivery. Pause for dramatic suspense. Break up dense presentations with visuals, music, or activities. Most TED Talks are no longer than 18 minutes. The same is true for the CBS program, 60 minutes. Studies show we reach a saturation point after 18 minutes. If you stage a long workshop, chunk your presentation into segments.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

Use video to critique your presentation. When you talk on the phone, record your side of the conversation to cure yourself from using fillers. Know when to use silence. Sometimes the most powerful words are the ones not spoken.