Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Yes that’s an Air Jordan shoe in the picture below, but it’s not just any shoe, it’s the Air Jordan XX. The reason this one is special is because it’s the 20th anniversary shoe and on the strap-on (covering the laces) are Michael Jordan’s most important memories embedded in the form of a mosaic of some 200 lasered graphics depicting important pieces of Jordan’s life story as told by Jordan himself.

The picture below is from a series of wallpapers released that have the same graphics that are on the shoe so you can better see what I mean, if you’re a Jordan fan (like me!) you’ll understand this immediately and can’t help but talk about it!

Like I wrote yesterday stories are powerful and baking them into your product just like the designer’s of the Air Jordan XX did it is a good to way to get your idea to spread. You can’t help talking about it, I know I did because I use to own a pair of these babies!

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Stories are powerful! When they’re embedded into your product or service even more so and it’s hard not to pay attention. I’m sure you read the NY Times story that featured out of work architect John Morefield a few days ago and I’m sure you remember it perfectly. Why do I know that? Because it has a very powerful story behind it and a concrete brand name: Architecture 5 cents.

Check out the video below and tell me it doesn’t make for a great topic of conversation right now.

Architecture 5¢ from John Morefield on Vimeo.

See what I mean? A great story makes for a great topic of conversation, think about your own story and how you came about doing whatever it is you’re doing and communicate it in a creative way. Find ways to integrate it into your product so that it’s symbolic (and no I don’t mean putting a ‘our story’ text on it) and makes people talk about it.

Everyone has a story, what’s yours?

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What’s happening this year in Marketing? According ClickDocuments it’s the rise of content marketing. Sure this is obvious, more people are connected and with tools such as Posterous that let’s you publish through your email more people will be ‘adding’ to the stream of thoughts that is becoming the internet. It’s never been easier to be a content creator!

Last week we wrote about how there’s a perceived race to see who publishes the most, out-publish yourself before others do. This notion of constant publishing is driven by the a few things:

a. Search engine optimization. The more content you produce = better search results.

b. The internet is a social space without borders. Make your content spread through social channels.

Yet publishing content just because everyone else is doing it is a sad excuse for reaching more people and not to make their world a lot more interesting.

Our argument is that instead of creating content just as part of your ‘strategy’, your goal should be to publish ideas for people to use. Measure how people use your idea and if they shared it, not just if they click on them!

Last week I came across this quote on Twitter and it’s at the heart of our argument: Influence is when everybody is stealing your ideas

Some call this ‘marketing with meaning’ others call it ‘influential marketing’, whatever you want to call it just help people do something.

>>> Here’s a BIG idea again: It’s not what and how much you publish, it’s what people do with it that counts.

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Publish, publish, publish.

Nowadays everyone and anyone can create content and it seems to me like we’re in a race to see who publishes the most stuff without much thought into what happens with it afterwards. The name of the game is to out-publish yourself before your competitors do so, phew! Good luck with that!

Sure most people are trigger happy and look forward to clicking that big bold ‘publish’ button everyday with just about anything to create that habit and keep going, yes their ideas do get refined overtime because of all the practice but sooner than later what they publish has the same sound and voice as their competitors because they’re playing to the same audience and are looking at the same things.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a BIG idea:

It’s not what and how much you publish, it’s what people do with it that counts.

Be strategic and focus on what can distinguish you from others. Be like Picasso and publish things that have your signature all over it!
I’m not saying create art, I’m saying publish ideas that people can use, that can help them do something better than before.

Action not consumption

People have short attention spans, they get hit by thousands as messages that want their attention everyday (and so do you!) and anything that does get their attention better be ‘memorable and useful’ because this is your only chance to get them to share it with someone else and better yet to come back for more.

Seth Godin does this very well, all of his posts have some idea that is entirely obvious. Andy Sernovitz also does this, his posts are short and sweet and most of them have some action you can take immediately. Sean D’Souza from Psychotactics probably does this better than anyone I know, everything he writes has his signature all over it!

If you’ve done your homework and spent time with your customers you’ll have more than enough ideas to publish for them that will make their world a lot more interesting.

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Sharing, sharing, sharing. You’re going to be hearing this a lot from here on out so get used to it, better yet get used to doing it!

Popular online retailer Zappos is officially ‘sharing’ with the world it’s most important brand asset, the secrets to it’s culture. They’re not creating ebooks and podcasts about it, they’re moving into management consulting in the form of seminars and a website with employee videos where they’ll share their unconventional practices with conventional souls.

This is groundbreaking stuff. Can you imagine Apple sharing/selling the secrets to it’s culture? Probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Zappos knows their culture is unique and they’re going to use it to extend the reach of their influence because their goal is to offer not just shoes but everything else you can imagine armed with the powerful culture behind it as it’s competitive advantage.

What’s unique to you?

When you look at Zappos on the surface they’re not that different from other online retailers, they sell the same shoes and accessories and at pretty much the same prices. What’s different is much deeper, it’s distinct personality that emanates from the actions all employees make on a daily basis that makes them unique.

This is very powerful and you should take not: A companies best form of advertising is it’s personality.

What actions do you take to express your distinct personality?

We are moving into a very transparent world where what you say and do is dissected to it’s smallest detail to look for inconsistencies, every action you take forms the basis of your brands personality. Actions speak louder than words. You already know this but do you really take it to heart?

How and what are you sharing? What would you like others to share from you?

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