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!
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.
Some principles are timeless - like the voice of authority, used increasingly well in so many niche businesses, blogs and Web sites - all made possible by the rise of the Internet and our always-on access to find anything we want.
Robert Cialdini in his excellent book Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion illuminates the principle of authority: People are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or expertise.
Funny thing is, as an Australian, my accent (I thought you were the one with an accent?) can do just that in the right context. And my British colleague Jon Ward draws on the ultimate heritage. He has a marvelous way of saying things that are irrefutable. And his interview with Donald Trump on Trump University’s Wealth Builder’s Blueprint is masterful. More than just his accent though, Jon is a master thinker and authority in his own right. See his Zoom Thinking seminar as a hint of what is behind the man.
More on using the authority of voice: the dulcet tones of the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby are very persuasive as he reports on the Swiss spaghetti harvest…
The blogging journey is an interesting one of discovery for me…
Overcoming self doubt - learning a new way of self expression
Allowing self confidence to reveal the inner writer (slowly at least!)
Learning how to craft a message to share with others (is anyone out there?)
Finding focus… what else can I say about knowledge marketing?
Discovering the world of social networking and how I can interact and share ideas
The joy of being a number one search result in a Google blog search - more motivation for the power of focus
And the list keeps growing…
There are a few blogging heroes that have inspired me on this journey.
Seth Godin my original blog hero who showed just what it is like to have a point of view and to live it out loud
Ken Burgin, my brother who leads the way with motivation and inspiration to play full out online with blogging, social networking and internet marketing
Tim Ferris. His book still taunts me on my desk as I still live with too many digits beyond 4 as the number of hours per week that I work. His Uncommon Timesavers for Bloggers inspired me to write this post (see point #5).
Jeremiah Owyang whose blog on Web Strategy and his research on social networking is leading edge, and very motivating to explore more
As Facebook embraces the white collar business world, the transition from the college-only network is dramatic. Social network researcher Jeremiah Owyang predicts in this Podtech video podcast that Facebook will overtake MySpace by 2009. Viral marketing in hyperdrive.
What’s in it for knowledge marketers?
For a start, a first hand experience of being part of an online community of the future. And many opportunities to position you and your brand within it. Lot’s of new widgets and bright shiny bells and whistles that can target your audience.
With focus and attention, some simple steps to explore the medium can reap rich rewards.
In the last few months on Facebook I have met old colleagues and new, joined interesting groups and discovered a huge new resource for the future of knowledge marketing. Just the beginning of a new learning curve — and a fun one too.
Add me as a friend and I will add you back.
Jeremiah Owyang has an extensive coverage of smart web strategies on his Blog. Well worth a read to see where social networking is going.
The fast lane - and living in it is now the norm – at least when it comes to the Internet.There are so many metaphors for the speed of life these days, it’s hard to deny that so much of life accelerates around us. Years ago on my first visit to New York, coming from Australia I met someone there who said “We don’t live in the fast lane here - we live in the laser lane!” And the pace of walking on Manhattan streets was so much faster – I liked it – mostly.Now my business is based on the marketing of knowledge, so much of which has an online component, and the same metaphors challenge us. Tom Biederbeck of STEP: Inside Design magazine says “Success on the web is determined by presence—presence that is immediate, immersive and seductive. The line between what works online and what doesn’t is measured in seconds.” More focus on speed.
The website visitor, blog reader, YouTube viewer, Google searcher, and everyone online make split second decisions whether to stay and explore - or move on (usually never to return). So the essence (think headline) of your knowledge piece must first be clear, simple, bold, and able to be perceived at first glance. Our brains have been trained to distill complex ideas to simple ones in this A.D.D. world of busy-ness and information overload.The challenge for knowledge marketers is to craft the simple distilled concept first – do the work for the customer or site visitor – so they don’t have to. Then you have the best chance of grabbing their attention and engaging them. Web 2.0 design trends exemplify this – larger, simpler graphics, icons, symbols and simple statements.
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom. Justice. Honor. Duty. Mercy. Hope.”Winston Churchill
in branding we call this the ‘Singular Idea‘. I learned this laser beam focus from my colleague Jon Ward — we explore it in Branding for Profit. A brand that is built on a Singular Idea has a faster and easier road to success. Effective knowledge marketing is built on the same focus.
It seems the term ‘Web 2.0‘ is either enthusiastically advocated by consultants and web geeks - or is misunderstood as a mystery to be ignored. There’s nothing like jumping in and learning-by-doing.
Here’s an action list – or, get a pat on the back for ‘Yes, I do that!’ Create a scoreboard to expand your Web 2.0 horizons.
Read blogs – find some favorite blogs to follow (use Technorati to search for blogs)
Set up a blog (feed) reader to consolidate the blogs you’re interested in all in one easy to access place (see this post)
Post comments on other’s blogs (easy baby steps before having your own blog)
Set up your own personal blog (very short posts are fine)
Learn to upload a picture (eg to Flickr) or a video online (YouTube)
Find out about more than a vanilla Google search eg Google Labs
Use an online classified service like Craig’s List - buy or sell or promote something
Build your collection of Domain names - one for each new idea. Easy to search on GoDaddy.
Stretch the use of your mobile phone - for more than making phone calls (eg SMS)
With the rise in popularity of video on the web, more and more people are consuming massive amounts of ‘content’.
CNN Money article Dawn of the Web Potato reports that ‘web surfing’ is over - and that looking at content takes up 47% of the typical Internet user’s time online.
What are the lessons for knowledge marketers?
Know your niche - it is easy to find you.
Speak to your audience about what they are interested in (as my friend and colleague Jon Ward says: “the secret of marketing is simple: it’s not about you.”)
Find your voice (ahem - i still feel I have training wheels on).
Distill your message – in this A.D.D. world if you don’t make it simple your customer will do it for you - and it may not be what you want!
Think Video - and not just with a ‘movie’ camera - even Apple’s new software, Keynote (their answer to PowerPoint) has a direct export function to YouTube! Awesome for making a presentation with slides, moving images, audio, more.
Share about what your customers love and hate - and what they know and what they don’t
Beware the curse of assumption: “Oh they’ll already know that” or “They won’t be interested in those details.”
I spent the weekend with two inspiring women who are on a mission to share their knowledge and experience with women around the world. Christine Harvey and Liz Uible are founders of the organization Women for Wealth.
They have created a unique methodology that empowers women, tapping into their collective wisdom as they support each other with the power of a knowledge community. Knowledge + vision + spirit = marketing power.
So far they have reached women all over the US plus have some overseas members as well — and as part of their vision have initiated training and investing programs in Rwanda (where 46% of the members of parliament are women).
What better place to strategize an expanding vision, but inside the Washington DC ‘beltway’! There is something crazy/special about the energy here. Center of the empire?
Lavazza coffee lounge in Chicago - and their story is refreshingly different to Starbucks.
CNN Money article 
So far they have reached women all over the US plus have some overseas members as well — and as part of their vision have initiated training and investing programs in Rwanda (where 46% of the members of parliament are women).
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