How to harness the power of images for marketing (and be cool)

Images have long been used for communication of ideas since the dawn of human societies, well before any forms of written language.

We are hardwired to process our world visually, to judge threats, opportunities and make fast decisions.

A few thousand years later, images began being used in advertising and marketing. As soon as people worked out how powerful they are at communicating desires and emotions. You know the saying – ‘a picture says a thousand words’.

And now, with our ability to publish content to the world at will, in just a few seconds, the majority of sharing and interaction on Facebook and the other large Social networks are images. So much so that I would suggest that Images are the currency of the social web.

As Web and Graphic designers, we are essentially dealing in images constantly. Whether they are photos, logos, advertisements. Almost everything we do has a visual aspect to it.

We get a lot of requests from clients or potential clients to ‘just get an image from Google images’.

This is something that except for a very few (legal) circumstances we won’t do. Images on Google images ARE NOT FREE. They are not there for anyone to use as they wish. Somebody has taken that photo of created that image (in the case of graphics), and they own the copyright.

One more thing… an image from Google Images, isn’t your business. It isn’t helping you relate anything about you and your company to your website visitors, or readers of your brochure.

Be cool.

My opinion is you should whenever possible, create and use your own images from your own business, your products, your customers, your staff and your events. Make them authentic… People can tell.

If you have some important images you need to showcase your business for branding purposes, use a professional photographer.

If you need some shots for your social media efforts – take your own. Get into the habit of taking photos just for the sake of it. If you’re developing a new product – take some photos; running a workshop or seminar – take some photos; attending an event – you get the picture (sorry).

While most of them won’t be great, you’ll be amazed how often some shots you took will come in handy.

Want more about the power of images in marketing

One of the recent episodes of our podcast ‘The Local Social Business Show’ covered a broad range of uses of images to promote your business online. From Blog posts, to Facebook and Pinterest, we cover it all.

Jump over and have a listen to the episode here, and subscribe to the show in iTunes to listen to all of our marketing tips for free every fortnight.

Filed Under: Social media Tagged With: graphic design, images, Marketing, photos, social media

The attention battleground – The art of standing out from the crowd

Every moment in time is made up of infinite unique details. As humans traversing our lives we process, categorize and file these moments, but most are discarded because our conscious minds can not make sense of so much information.

With so much information, bombarding our senses, you and I are hard-wired to ignore anything that is predictable, or irrelevant… So we can free our brain to focus on things that are important to us at the moment.

A direct effect of this filtering, is we reduce the memories of our entire lives, to only the truely remarkable moments and highlights.

This excellent video highlights exactly how good we are at ignoring information our subconscious classifies as irrelevant… Even things that are seemingly impossible to miss.

How does this relate to us in business?

Everyday you are exposed to thousands of advertising messages, from posters, billboards, radio, TV ads, and a hundred other mediums. So how many do you remember from today?

Don’t be discarded

If you want to be noticed. If you want to grab attention – you MUST be remarkable. To escape being filtered and discarded, you have to stand out from the crowd.

‘Me too’ businesses don’t win because they become a commodity that’s too easy to ignore.

How to stand out and get attention

There are countless ways to stand above the sameness of the crowd… here are a few to try:

1. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing

Write yourself a list of the standard practices in your industry. What would happen if you deliberately changed one or more of these standard practices? Can you change the business model entirely?

2. Have a strong (even controversial) opinion

Ever meet someone at a party (or anywhere else) and they agreed with everyone about everything they said. They never have their own opinion because they are scared of saying the wrong thing or offending somebody. Lets face it, people like this are just plain bland.

Heres the thing, you might not dislike them, but there are hardly interesting enough for you want to become best mates with. You can;t be mates with them because you never know who they are.

You don’t have to be liked by everyone. In fact… no matter what you do. someone l won’t like you or you business.

If you take a stand on an issue, some people will disagree and hate you, some will absolutely love you for it, and others won’t care much either way. But no-one will be able to ignore you.

3. Tie yourself to an event or person that is already getting attention

People are always talking about some current event or other, from a change in the seasons, to sporting events and topical news. Clever campaigns to relate your business to these existing conversations can let you share the spotlight.

One more thing…

We also notice people we have a relationship with. When you walk down a crowded street, you always recognize a friend or someone you know well. Enter Content marketing and Social Media. By forming a relationship with people before you sell to them, you gain their trust and attention.

What examples have you seen of businesses standing out from the crowd? Do you have any tips or tricks to stand out from the crowd? Share them in the comments.

Be cool… share this on Facebook, Twitter or with someone that will get some value from it. Everyone else is doing it.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social media

How to put your word-of-mouth marketing on steroids

Everybody in business knows that word of mouth is the absolute best form of marketing for their business.

Having a third party recommend your business is more credible in the eyes of the potential customers. Numerous studies have shown that recommendations from friends and even complete strangers have much higher levels of trust than advertising.

The problem with word of mouth marketing is that it is really hard to instigate, encourage or control. For someone to recommend your business, you need to be top of their mind when they happen to be having a conversation with someone who needs your products or services. Basically the right person needs to be in the right place at the right time, having the right conversation to make the referral.

Enter social media

Social media removes some of the barriers of word-of-mouth referrals and makes it easier for your customers to refer or recommend your services. In fact, it makes it so easy, often times, people don’t even realise they are doing it.

Staying Top of mind

Social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, a blog, or even email, allows you regular contact with the fans and customers of your business. That regular contact is critical to reminding your fans that you exist.

Here’s the thing… The contact doesn’t have to be anything heavy. It doesn’t have to be a sales call, a product offer or any form of ‘marketing message’. In fact, it is better if it isn’t (of course there is a place for promoting sales from time to time).

The point is purely to let them know you are still here. Doing your thing. Helping people.

Make it easy to share and promote your business

Before social media, contacting people was slow and expensive. But now, taking 10 minutes to post a photo or a tip on Facebook, and you’ve made contact with all of your fans who are interested enough to follow you.

The trick is posting something interesting that inspires your fans and followers to want to have their say. To share it with their friends.

It only takes 2 seconds to click the ‘like’ button or send a retweet on Twitter, or a minute to compose a comment. On Facebook, every interaction with your content spreads your idea and the visibility of your business further, to reach a larger audience. Effectively removing the barriers of referring your business.

How to make this work for your business

If you haven’t already, set up your presence on these platforms.

Think about what sort of content would be useful or interesting for your customers, and plan some cool content. Remember, content, can be short text tips, long articles, photos or video.

Get some fans. Spread the word with your staff, friend and customers, and give them all a reason to follow you on these services.

Get publishing. Be cool.

Speaking of being cool. If you found this article helpful, I’d appreciate it if you took a moment to write a comment below or share this article on Facebook.

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Social media, Uncategorized Tagged With: Facebook, local business, Marketing, social media, word of mouth

How to use Facebook places to market your local business

Facebook Places just went live here in New Zealand yesterday.

I just posted this Cinchcast which covers, what Location services are, how they work, and why they are important in marketing your local business online.

Heres what you need to do now.

1. Go and make sure you are listed on Facebook places (and Foursquare for that matter)
(Beg or borrow a smart phone from a friend if you don’t have one yourself…. or go buy an iphone because you should have one anyway.

If your business isn’t listed, then add it.

2. Go to www.facebook.com/places and claim your listing
(just follow along with the instructions)

3. Encourage people to check in to your business. Put up a sign, ask customers as part of your sales process. Especially customers playing with their nice new iPhone in the queue.

Could you do me a favour and leave a comment below. Tell me if you found it helpful or if you have any other questions.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social media Tagged With: Cinch, Facebook, Foursquare, internet marketing, local business, Location Services, Marketing, Places, social media

3 things all top influencers do on Twitter

Twitter continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. And still the mainstream struggles to get it. Meanwhile others are building huge audiences and loyal fans all targeted to their particular industry or niche.

Twitter becomes more interesting the more followers you have. While engagement is the goal, more followers increase the readership of each update you post.

Over the years I’ve been on Twitter I have noticed some common characteristics of popular tweeters.

Here are 3 characteristics of top influencers on twitter that you should be emulating

1. Tweet more than average

By tweeting a lot, you increase your visibility. If I only log in to twitter a few minutes per day, I’m more likely to see your tweets than others. BUT before you run out and start tweeting like mad, influencers don’t tweet a lot purely for the visibility, their volume is related to spending the time on the points below.

2. Engage in conversations with others

Conversing with others shows you to be a real person with real opinions. It shows you are listening to and willing to engage with the community. The best tweeters really do build and maintain valuable relationships, which often lead into ‘real life’ relationships and opportunities.

On twitter, conversations has the added bonus of being public – you are sharing your audience with those you’re talking to, again increasing your exposure to new and wider audiences.

3. They promote others

Reciprocity is valuable on twitter as with all networks whether online or off. Nothing gains loyalty from someone faster than promoting them or their cause. Hailing someone as an expert or someone worth listening to is a huge compliment. And it is as simple as passing on their content or mentioning them in a tweet.

Two bonus tips:

4. Have a core message

Aside from the conversation and promotion of others, influencers have a core message. They specialise in one or two topics and become a hub of information and discussion around these topics. While they may make up less than 25% of their tweets these topics are consistent themes. It is much better to be a specialist rather than a generalist on Twitter (until you get at least 30 thousand followers).

5. Produce valuable content outside of Twitter or Facebook

Whether it is a blog, video on youtube, or photos on Flickr, consistently producing great content that people can use is the number one way to gain credibility in a field. It reinforces a core message and gains links and notoriety as it gets passed around Twitter and the wider web.

The most influential tweeters have most if not all of these factors in their twitter profiles.

How many of these characteristics apply to you?

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Social media Tagged With: connecting, networking, social media, Twitter

Who are you selling to in Social Media?

When did you last go to a networking event looking to buy a product or service?….. No me either, and neither does anybody else. Ivan Misner calls this the Networking Disconnect.

So you aren’t buying at networking events, and neither is anyone else, why do so many people go along to events with the goal to sell something to those they meet? There is no hungry crowd to feed.

The same is true of Social media.

Why are you on Twitter and Facebook? Do you have something you want to buy? – If you are honest, probably not. Sure you might follow Dell or some account that offers regular discounts, but of all the people you follow or friend what percentage are these? (and have you bought anything?)

If no one is there to buy, why bother?

Networking, whether online or offline, offers something more than a one off sale… It is the opportunity to build credibility in your industry, to create an audience and rally a tribe.

By providing as much value as you can you will gather others around you who want to spread your message and recommend you to others. The wider you spread your net, the more customers you are likely to catch.

Here’s an everyday example…

I don’t go to a barbecue and start selling to my mates over a beer, but what I do is build great relationships and I listen to them and find out about them and their business. And I tell them what I do and how I help people.

When I need some wine for a party, some electrical wiring done, or my car painted, I’ve got friends that I’ll go to without even thinking about any of their competition. I go to them because I know them, I like them,and I trust them. I also know when they need a product or service I offer, or even some advice, they will come to me.

I am NOT saying you shouldn’t be selling on Social Media OR that no one is buying – Just that no one is there with the intention to buy so you should be connecting and selling yourself first.