There is always more than one dimension to what a customer experiences. Take for example a website you visit — first there are the words and images that you see — and then there is what you perceive beyond this. in effective websites, that motivate you to take action, return for more and give you a sense of belonging, these multi-dimensions are congruent. The essence of the brand and the knowledge that is presented are aligned with the values, the personality and the ‘inner’ profile of the brand.
An excellent reference work to support you to get clear about the ‘brand within’ is The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This inspiring book gives a very powerful roadmap to building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes - the mythical and cultural symbols and images that drive ongoing meaning and actions in our lives. Some well known brands ‘get it’ more than others… for example Apple’s logo - the apple with a bite out of it harks all the way back to the Garden of Eden - the archetype that Apple continues to express - the Rebel. Nike = the Hero, Victoria’s Secret = the Lover, Amex = the Ruler.
What stories define your business? What archetype are you living out? How could you be more congruent with this?
Hi to the BlogWorld Expo team. I’d love to go to SXSW Interactive conference. Here is my entry video. It would be a great opportunity to launch our Brain Resonance Technology and make a difference to many people.
A fascinating talk that is part of the remarkable TED series. Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of best selling book Eat, Pray, Love. She talks about the elusive ‘genius’ that is within us all and how we can embrace the creative process – to converse and partner with our own source of inspiration.
It is a refreshing reminder to be in the creative flow.
All too often there is too much navel gazing for entrepreneurs about ‘what is my message?’ - especially when it comes to your brand focus.
in the busy world of online marketing extreme focus is always required. How do you know if you are on track? I found this great tool today - Wordle.net which will take the words from any RSS feed you give it and create an amazing graphic representation of them - arranged how you like (hours of fun/distraction if you like) with unlimited colors and arrangements.
importantly, the hierarchy and consistency of your message becomes clear - in a flash. Here’s an example of a client we are working with - Christine Mullins of Children’s Miracle Music. Christine has a great message and solution for home organization and getting kids chores done - automatically! All the chores get done, morning and evening without nagging or any requests… really. Here is Christine’s blog where she tells the in and out of it all: kidshousekeeping.com
Now for the fun part from Wordle. It creates a ‘word cloud’. Words with greater frequency on the blog show up in larger size. You can get a potent and instant feeling for the message — and the brand.
So how can you use this tool to sharpen your branding and marketing?
Answer these questions when you look at your word cloud…
What does your word cloud say about your message? You can check it in a single glance.
Is the hierarchy of words right - or do you need to sharpen your focus and frequency of core messages?
Is your knowledge marketing on track to educate your audience - your ‘tribe’?
Does your brand story come through? There should at least be strong hints based on the words you use.
Do a word cloud for a competitor (is there really such a thing?) and see what they are saying.
Is your keyword focus on track for the SEO results you want?
Here is the word cloud for this Brandwithin blog. Hopefully the story comes through - and I see that Twitter is now a rising star in the ongoing knowledge marketing story. Wordle is a breakthrough for fun - allowing your right brain inform your left brain so you can strategize the next evolution of your brand.
You can publish your Wordle word clouds on the amazing Wordle Gallery - and share your links.
Do share your comments and word cloud links in the comments here too.
Update: Seems Jayne Johnson got inspired by word play too. Check out her take on the Zen of Wordle at her Clearing Sight Blog. An inspiring new direction and useful instructions. And now I know who the real Anonymous is at Ode To Baseball!
I’ve had my toes in the water of Twitter for a while now and I have found a bunch of good things about it. in just 140 characters it’s amazing how much knowledge can go around.
It is worth following smart people. Whilst you can follow more and more people, most of the cross talk is idle chatter. I’m way too busy pursuing the 4 Hour Work Week (I know- there’s something wrong with that!) for idle chit chat. But smart people share some really good stuff - usually a brief comment and a link to something pithy. This is where I have found magic.
Twitter is about serendipity - being in the right place at the right time. Getting the insight from someone else - just in the nick of time!
There is a spontaneity about sharing micro windows into your world. it takes some self reflection and a willingness to share yourself.
Then comes Precession. An idea that Buckminster Fuller first shared -
…what humanity rated as side effects are nature’s main effects. I adopted the precessional side effects as my prime objective.“
—R. Buckminster Fuller
In nature, honeybees inadvertently cross-pollinate flowers while they are going about the business of gathering honey. For us, pollination is their true purpose; for them it’s a byproduct. This gives a clue to Precession - and perhaps to Twitter too.
Here’s Lee Lefever’s intro to Twitter:
Where will Twitter lead us? Just where you are open to going! Twittervision gives more clues to a new world view. Fascinating!
Social media now accounts for 75% of the traffic on the top 20 Web sites on the ‘New Internet’. New rules have been firmly established.
Knowledge marketing is now the work horse of this new scene. The most fundamental principle that you now must embrace is “Teach - Don’t Sell”. The World Wide Conversation is hungry to find and share knowledge - but not to be sold. Your audience has a finely tuned antenna that won’t tolerate covert sales agendas.
Sharing knowledge has never been easier - with blogs, social networks, Wikis, instant Web sites, video and more.
So how come the ‘picture tells a thousand words’ principle is abused with PowerPoint presentations so habitually?
Death by PowerPoint is all too frequent - as master Presentation guru Garr Reynolds points out in this insightful set of sample slides (using SlideShare). With his distillations to communicate the essence of an idea he shines a light for knowledge marketers to learn from.
It’s sometimes a challenge to imagine what the future will look like. But some people are already inventing the way we view it, play with it and share it.
We’ll all become knowledge marketers in one way or another. Sharing, collaborating, conversing, teaching and engaging in creative pursuits.
This video gives a taste of the future for our connected communications and knowledge sharing:
I’ve always been interested in what makes life easier.
Personal and career pursuits have had this life narrative evolve over the years. My first career move was industrial design, then taking up naturopathy, yoga, natural health and new age retailing. Branding and marketing connected all of these and became a new business Brandwithin. A more recent evolution of my story brings education, knowledge marketing and the puzzle of the Internet as a turbo-charged medium for connection and transformation. It’s a fun ride!
Lee Lefever has created another excellent piece on getting the basic idea of social media.
For all the fancy widgets and techniques for blogging, podcasting, linking, bookmarking and more – it comes back to basic principles to get your ideas out to others. The New Internet is about people connecting, sharing their experiences and tapping into the many ‘water cooler’ conversations around us.
This is one of a series from The Common Craft Show that is also featured on The Society For Word of Mouth. (Yes, you can join!) A previous feature of Lee Lefever’s work on this blog is here. You can learn about news blog readers and RSS.
Information overload is not getting any easier. The New York Times reported this week of the tech industry’s self made monster — that delivers us a never ending deluge of emails, cellphone calls and instant messages. These incessant distractions cost America over 650 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.
Is there a solution in sight?
Brandwithin has been working on the Focus and Follow Through project — an online productivity coaching system designed to support you to keep your focus on your highest priorities. This intro coaching video here is a simple knowledge product made using Keynote (the Mac version of PowerPoint) with voice over. And the easy part is the one-click command: send to YouTube…
Stay tuned for future updates and the release of the product. Sanity may yet be a partner to productivity.
An excellent reference work to support you to get clear about the ‘brand within’ is The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This inspiring book gives a very powerful roadmap to building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes - the mythical and cultural symbols and images that drive ongoing meaning and actions in our lives. Some well known brands ‘get it’ more than others… for example Apple’s logo - the apple with a bite out of it harks all the way back to the Garden of Eden - the archetype that Apple continues to express - the Rebel. Nike = the Hero, Victoria’s Secret = the Lover, Amex = the Ruler.
for a while now and I have found a bunch of good things about it. in just 140 characters it’s amazing how much knowledge can go around.
