One website on the Internet that has one of the most unique stand out personalities is The Art of Manliness, and they recently put exclusivity and participation to work. The brainchild of Brett & Kate McKay, The Art of Manliness is a blog dedicated to uncovering the lost art of being a man with the goal of helping men be better husbands, better fathers, and better men.

Participation stimulates engagement

The Art of Manliness has a tight, large community of fans who helped them create a Lessons in Manliness ebook. The community submitted essays on the lessons they’ve learned from a man in their life and to encourage people to submit something to the project, they offered a Box of Manliness as a prize.

We received 46 submissions from men who shared stories about the grandfathers, friends, and mentors who have lived lives that showcase the very best in being an honorable man. I’ve finally put all the submissions into a nicely formatted eBook so that everyone can enjoy and hopefully learn from the lives of ordinary men who have helped pass the art of manliness on to others. At over 100 pages long, it’s pretty substantial for an eBook. And it’s completely free.

Exclusivity creates uniqueness

You see Hollywood do it with the Special Edition Movie Box sets where you get some insider information in a fancy looking package, The Box of Manliness works the same way. First of all it’s a very cool looking box indeed and it comes with some branded manliness arsenal that will make people go ‘what’s that?’:

• Merkur Safety Razor
• Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream
• Badger Hair Shaving Brush
• Mustache Handkerchief
• Case Pocket Knife
• An Art of Manliness t-shirt of your choosing
• A signed copy of the Art of Manliness book

Key takeaway:

As you can see exclusivity and participation are powerful word of mouth tools, they can turn your community into rabid fans. When you engage people in a product and make them feel as though it is their product, it translates directly into a desire to talk about it.

Engage your community and empower them to talk about you.

Two ways to get your community to talk about you is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Talk about awesome marketing. Zappos prides itself of being a happy place to work at, now you can include a ‘place where people come to get happily married!’.

Even Elvis was there!

Elvis gets couple hitched at Zappos is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Google pulled out all the stops with this video to promote the speed of it Chrome browser. Google tested the speed of its Chrome browser against lightning, sound and a potato cannon all in slow motion. Just watch this!

As they say, actions speak louder than words!

Want to see great marketing in action? is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Remember, ideas not content? If you don’t, click the link and then come back over here.

Great to have you back! I spotted a couple of tweets from Jane McGonigal (@AvantGame) that reflect this simple principle:

Applied towards your online brand experience the point is: Your content marketing strategy should be focused on ideas with a purpose for action not for consumption.

So if you’re planning on starting a blog about cooking, think about ‘why?’ you’re doing it (purpose of your blog) before you decide ‘what?’ content you’re going to publish on it. You stand a better chance of your content being shared and therefore being talked about if you create content for action not consumption. This simply means that, as Jane so clearly puts it, your content should help people achieve some goal that makes their life a lot more interesting.

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

P.S. If you don’t know who Jane McGonigal is I recommend you watch her TED video below, I guarantee it’s well worth your time!

Does this resonate with you? What’s the BIG IDEA behind your content?

Content with a purpose is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Attention spans are taking a dive and the economics of how business is done are changing but the act of giving (helping) is universal and will never lose it’s value as it’s what connects us as humans. So instead of asking how can I get more attention for myself, ask: How can I give more?

P.S. This post was inspired by my trip to Ninjutsu camp this past weekend where we trained for survival situations as a team. It’s not all about you, it’s about everyone else.

The single best thing you can do to have people talk about you is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

And that feature for him and for most successful bloggers is their posts have some simple and actionable lesson. This ability comes from experience but also from curiosity and looking beyond the obvious…the little details that make the difference.

Why am I writing this? Because we get a lot of questions on simple ways to be able to stand out.

Check this out:

Our brains can’t handle a hundred facts. We need one big reason why something is good.

Answer: just keep it simple by giving people one great message to repeat.

The power of this principle is further explained by another great blogger who practices what he preaches, he calls it: The importance of the ‘One thought’.

We hope this helps!

For #WOM give people one great message to repeat is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

More pictures found via Zee’s Posterous

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I’m happy because I wasn’t expecting any type of refund and boy did I get a BIG surprise with no questions asked.

Thank you GoDaddy!

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If you spend a good amount of time on the internet then I’m sure you’ve heard and watched OK Go’s latest video masterpiece. These guys have built a following by their sheer video producing talents. I didn’t know who OK Go was until a few days ago, when I watched the above video, it was enough for me to do some research and conclude that their music isn’t appealing to me but I have much to say about their dedication to producing pretty damn good videos.

Their videos alone are word of mouth worthy!

The band OK Go is probably more famous for their videos than their songs. That’s more a testament to the greatness of their videos than anything else. When these guys put out a video, you can be sure it’ll make your jaw drop at least once or twice. "How did they do that," is a typical reaction.

And that, is exactly what you want. To be known for something!

Just like Common Craft has built it’s reputation on creating ‘explanation video that anyone can understand’ and own that space in people’s minds, OK Go is doing the same with their music videos.

OK Go probably didn’t set out to differentiate themselves with videos and most likely didn’t have a ‘what do we want to be known for?’ brainstorming session. Most likely they started experimenting with ideas and kept going at it until something stuck and became so good at it that they can do these videos on a single take!

The takeaway here is you want to experiment with ideas with the goal of doing something distinctive that pushes boundaries. Do you think you could produce videos like OK Go? You probably can but have you ever tried?

Ask yourself: What do I want to be known for? And experiment with something that will push your boundaries.

What do you think? What are you experimenting with?

To be known for something push boundaries like OK Go is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Found via ReflectionOf.ME

How to get people talking Gap style is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency