Brandwithin | The Knowledge Marketing Center

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?

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.

There is a wonderful Lavazza coffee lounge in Chicago - and their story is refreshingly different to Starbucks.

Full of life – and the art of coffee – in larger than life pictures, as well as an engaging slide show to inform you of their back story on the ‘real’ coffee… (espresso is never translated, how crema makes the difference to taste…)

How simple it is to tell your story with a few pictures and the story that you know so well.

The Lavazza ‘theme park’ was doing a brisk trade in coffee and related breakfast fare, at the same time as entertaining and informing customers. A great way to build customer loyalty.

There is a usually a captive moment in any business transaction - always a good time to inform, entertain, engage and build the relationship with customers. Lavazza is doing a great job here.

Knowledge marketing with fun and sex appeal!

At the launch of Trump University in 2005, Brandwithin had the opportunity to work first hand with Donald Trump for Trump U’s first product - The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint. Filming for the video in Trump Tower revealed the power and presence of Trump himself. My colleague Jon Ward was the interviewer.

Now we see the timeless nature of well presented knowledge - with this video clip from The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint, Trump U’s VP of Marketing, Josef Katz has launched a new angle on their knowledge marketing - through YouTube. I doubt that video marketing will get fired any time soon!

When Trump University was launched, the challenge was to give reality to a learning environment that was primarily designed to be online. Enter The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint, the first flagship product for Trump U – to share the stage with Donald Trump.

This home study program has substantial ‘thud’ factor, plus the substance of a complete wealth building system to follow in Trump’s footsteps. But how could it stand out in the media frenzy of lights, cameras and journalists wanting a story straight from the Donald?

The ‘theme park’ was essential to convert the lobby into an environment that could capture the imagination and create a brand experience that left a lasting impression - not to mention the opportunity to profile the product around the world riding on the media’s coverage.

Essential ingredients for a knowledge theme park:

• Create a color palette to set the stage for the brand (colored table cloths can work well)
• Merchandise with multiple product samples (an old department store trick: stack them high – watch them fly!)
• Display messages that inspire and evoke curiosity - an open mind is essential to get someone to take action
• Build the browsing experience - create a mini fantasy adventure with lots to explore
• Engage your audience with multiple senses

And now with the ever-increasing expectations for a complete online experience, these same principles can be applied in a website to create a virtual knowledge marketing theme park.

When you bring knowledge to market in any form the function of design plays a critical role.

The role of design is important at all stages - here’s just a few design functions: information design (how can people embrace new ideas?), education design (how can people learn and act on new ideas?), graphic design (the visual interface that creates appeal and effective communication).

Good design is one of the fastest ways to get your point across in this information overload, A.D.D, world.

First seen at Logic + Emotion, here’s Stanford Grad student, David Ngo going beyond the designer’s dilemma with Design 101:

This remarkably simple presentation shows just how connections on the web are developing. Even though we are a few years down the RSS track – we’re still probably in the ‘early adopter’ phase.

It’s good to be on the other side of a workshop experience, and two recent events I attended missed out on theming and opportunities to take participants into ‘another world’. Not the world of high-pressure sales, but one that builds on their heightened sense of what’s possible for themselves and their business.

The above picture is one example of how to change the dynamics of the participant buying experience. For Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad Seminars we created a branded ‘theme park’, with most of the accessories being standard hotel supplies (it is always worthwhile getting a tour of the back store room!). It can be as simple as bringing your own colored table cloths – we used a purple theme for Rich Dad events – and creating some smart tiered displays plus display cards with interesting quotes from the speaker, presented on banner stands or easel-backed signs.

I find that ‘miracles of improvisation‘ are usually far better than excessive spending on all sorts of fancy display accessories. (Stay tuned for how to transform a generic pipe and drape trade show booth into a compelling and profitable destination!)
Knowledge marketing has many faces .

Robert Cialdini’s classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is widely admired for the simple way it illuminates human behaviour. It’s interesting to see how his 6 principles are used in the growth of networking service LinkedIn.