The Engaging Brand

5 Ways Brands are Valued Today

Brands have always had an intangible value and in the past this has been so important that the valuation has been placed on the balance sheet.

The intangible value has evolved with the evolution of  technology over the last decade.

1. The brand is valued by consumers not as much on perception, more on delivery of promise.
2. The brand is valued by consumers not as just on their own experience as on the experience of their friends, family and even reviewers.
3. The brand is valued not just on the transactional relationship but also on the emotional relationship.
4. The brand is valued by consumers not as much on what the brand tells them but on the strength of their listening.
5. The brand is valued by consumers not what they stand for but increasingly on what they stand against and what they stand UP for!

Intangible used to be something in addition to company assets...not now....intangible as blogged above....are now the most tangible sign of a successful company in today's social media world

What is Time Management in a Social Media World?

"We live infact in a world starved for solitude, silence and privacy"

A quote not from this decade, not from a decade in which social media has been prevalent...no a quote from C.S.Lewis in the 1950's!

As humans managing time has always been a tricky business.....the reason being that how we manage time is based on what we want to do, what we feel like doing and what we must do...

How to manage time in a social media world is challenging only because there are so many distractions to what we should be doing...so there are 3 ways to think about managing time

1. Allow yourself play time on social media. This play time is about consuming. Then recognise a time of day when you are at your most creative and allow that time for thinking, this time is about creating. Best way to justify the play time...even at work...is to use it to bring value to those around you.
2. Match what you love doing with your work. I don't mean that you have to become a Facebook consultant (!), I mean if you love spending ways social networking then build that into your job as a builder to find new contacts.
3. We spend 972 hours tieing shoelaces...buy slip on shoes and gain 972 hrs! 

What is time management? It is about using time to create value to both you...and the world. It is about realising that you have 24 hrs of finite time each day, and we can choose to waste time or make the most of each minute....the social media tools have made you the new expert, don't waste it!

Show 382 - Calculating return on social influence

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Mark W Schaefer, who is included Forbes magazine “Power 50″ social media influencers of the world, of Business Grow joins Anna Farmery to discuss 

• Why measure social influence and what is the return on influence
• Is it harder...to be a citizen influencer today in social media?
• How to influence your social score and is that good or bad!
• How you can't buck influence scoring in the long term 
• Are we moving from return on influence to positive impressions? What is your social ROI?
• How we moved from cost of impression to revenue from impression?
• Why should we join Klout? Indeed why not join Klout!

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

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My Auntie's 10 Steps to Social Media Measurement

There are two ways to measure illustrated by two of my relatives.....

• one has to weigh every single item of ingredient....let's call her my dear Aunt Scales

• one just seems to know how much ingredients goes into a recipe and can't write it down, just says a bit of that, a glug of that .....lets call her my mad Auntie Scales

Both are delicious cooks but there again...both have years of experience....

Measurement of social media is like that at the moment. In a sense I don't understand why....of course if you are playing with social media as a way of exploring then being related to Auntie Scales is fine...But if you are a brand wanting to use social media - then you need to be part of the Aunt Scales family unit of measurement, you need to repeat the recipe of success and understand the ingredients of a social marketing campaign.

In fact I would argue that social media unlike other media, can give you accurate measurement of return on investment, return on influence, return on sales.....

There are 10 simple steps of measuring social media marketing

1. Decide what is your goal  - increase sales
2. Decide what success would look like - sales increase 
3. Decide the amount and timescale - by 5% by end of July
4. Then decide on how.....offer, trial, facebook ads, thought leadership
5. Then decide on how social media can help - tweet a daily offer, blogging on ideas, interviews on podcast with offer of trial etc etc
6. Measure through the links
7. Refine
8. Measure
9. Refine
10. Continue on meaure and refine journey until the end of July

The key is not starting with social media...it is about deciding what your goal is....then how social media can help take you towards that goal of your marketing strategy.

Auntie Scales maybe be easier...but you can only achieve that through years, decades of experiencing failure...and in business that is not an option.

Find your brand recipe, find the ingredients that make your brand the favourite to be "consumed"

How to influence the influencer

Democratisation of the web, does not mean there are no gatekeepers....it's just that the gatekeepers have changed.

• Publishing has moved from editors to google algorithm engineers!
• Article sharing has moved from editors to bloggers
• Awareness has moved from the world of advertising to the word of mouth
• Gossip has gone from the Friday night leaving do to Twitter and social networking....local to global.

The gatekeepers have changed but there are two differences

1. There are many more influential bloggers than editors in the world. The gatekeepers have broadened and also become much more accesssible.
2. There are tools to find the specific niche influencer....and you don't have to play squash with them!

But the key has not changed.....once you have their name...be it a customer, a blogger, a tweeter etc etc....they need one thing answered before they will share your story...

What value does it create for me and my network?

Too often people attempt to gain buy in through seeing the product or service through their own eyes....the intricate technical benefits....

But to find gain the access key from the gatekeeper to your audience...you need to turn around and see what emotional value do you offer them....

Are you the new expert?

The reason I ask is as the web becomes the expert village, technology is redefining what we mean by experts....

The concept of expert appears to be evolving from a technical skill to an emotional and personal skill.

The individual is becoming empowered as their own true expert. 

1. The internet is allowing YOU to do your own market research, YOU to often know more about the product than the sales person.
2. No one can design a mass product that suits YOUR distinct personality....YOU are now the expert on what you want and companies are the conduit for its production such as Nike trainers and....
3. 3D printing allows YOU to design and produce products from as diverse as chocolates to furniture.
4. Social media allows YOU to be the commicator of your own message, your own expertise. No one has the distinct, unique skills that you have....and that set of skills combined with the means of portraying them...gives you the expertise to share your knowledge.
5. Social media is allowing you to build your own specialist crowd to fill in your own knowledge gaps....YOU are your own yellow pages/directory.

You are your own expert...the question is...what will you do with it?

You can be your own producer, salesperson, marketer, designer......because the world has give you the technology to build your own world, and no one is more expert than you on what you require...

The question is .....if you are the new expert for your own world...how will you use it to make the world a better place?

 

What's Your Brand's Snowglobe?

Watching a film at the weekend it reminded me of my fascination with snowglobes as a child. 

Maybe as well it has prompted my fascination with social media and therefore social marketing.

For me social media is like an online snowglobe.

The more I shake it.....or google it....the more the picture changes.

The more I look, the more I see....

The fascination was that although lots stayed constant, the special effects always made it feel new.

And for brands they could learn too.....shaking the globe will create different experiences...but the underlying scene is not changed.

Social media for brands is just the same....the ideas on which you build the offer must stay constant...but social media can add the extra special snowflakes to bring the scene alive...

How to achieve perfection

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away"

Antoine de Saint Exupery

So often as people, as companies...as brands we complicate our offering to the world.

The question is when all the 'fluff' is stripped back....what is the essence that makes you different?

In a complex world in which we seem to value rushing more than enjoying, more rather than what makes us happy......we too often ignore the value of simplicity. Yet how many times do we crave that simple life....

In truth, personal development happens ...or that move towards perfection...when you strip away what you think is required and

deliver the true essence of what you value....simply, easily and authentically

What's Your Social ROI ?

I have been reading about the concept of return on influence - clue to new show coming up! It hasgot me thinking about the measurement of impressions.

In the "old days' advertising was judged on the cost of impressions, but in social marketing

I believe that has now changed....how?

Haven't we moved from  cost of impressions...... to

REVENUE FROM IMPRESSION

Social marketing is now not about mass advertising that spreads the impressionS of the brand...and more about personalised messaging to create the right impression of the brand....

As with the right impression comes the trial of the brand and recommendation to others.....more trials means more revenue....

So it is not about the cost of creating those impressions that you should measure....

But for the new social business...

It is the growth in revenue that illustrates the improving impression of your brand?

Show 381 - The Art of Search Optimisation

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Eric Enge, CEO of Stone Temple Consulting joins Anna Farmery to discuss The Art of SEO...a book recommended by the wonderful digital marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik of Google, who said these guys know more about SEO than any other people on the planet!

We discuss

• What SEO is not!
• What is the art of great search engine optimisation?
• Is SEO optimisation a science or an art?
• How search engine optimsation and internet marketing depends on great planning, research and measurement...not just the seo in itself.
• How to plan business websites for great search engine optimisation
• Search engine optimizing vs optimising for a consumer's Google search
• What is vertical search?
• How to rank highly for local search for business local
• How good are the free search engine tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Google Webmaster Tools
• How to write for search engine optimisation - should you incorporate 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+ keyword terms?

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

How you can listen to The Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed