Make Your Value Crystal Clear – Keep It Simple

October 9, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

Got an email from a friend of mine the other day, it’s very much “right on.”

“Make what you do simple. People buy simple.”

And it’s very true. Constantly, the decision many times go to the person or company that made it as simple and crystal-clear as possible, despite the inner complexities.

People want to feel as if they understand what they’re buying, and quickly. In this down economy, and in this region that’s really bracing for impact as it’s ground zero of the “old economy,” it’s even more important as the ones who can’t make a compelling case and the ones who aren’t that great at what they do are going to have a very, very tough time.

How to make your product or service value proposition simple?

1) Get it into 30 seconds. Fifteen if you can. Practice with your wife, your dog, anything – and get the value proposition down to short and sweet.

2) Make sure it’s a value proposition for your customers. Many times, I hear “value propositions” that really aren’t; put yourself in their shoes and see it how your customers are going to benefit, and why they should care.  You may have worked months on your new widget, service, or product; but that doesn’t necessarily relate as to why someone should plunk down their hard-earned (or the companies’) money.

3) Give value.  Lots of it. Now, don’t get jerked around and waste forever with tirekickers, and don’t get taken advantage of – but there are ways to give value without wasting your time.  Blogging is one of them.  Podcasts.  Newsletters.  Conference calls.  Build your brand, whatever it is, in any way that’s positive.  And within that information, you can talk about your value proposition; in some ways, communicating it without even directly saying it.  People’s “I’m being pitched/sold” meters are extremely sensitive right now, especially because they’re defensive about their money in uncertain times.

What are your tips for making your value to customers crystal clear? Need help with clarity? Ask away!

Filed Under: Business, Tips Tagged With: Blog, brand building, conference call, keep it simple, Podcast, show value

Fundamentals of Social Media For The Uninitiated

October 7, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

Pretty often I see comments like this… and I won’t link to it because I saw it referring to a friend of mine but it could of been referring to something I said myself.

“Not sure your audience understood what you were trying to tell them about social media.”

I run into this a lot myself, and have been “brewing” some thoughts and I’d love your feedback. I’m pretty lucky to have a “rear view mirror” of five years that maybe gives me a little perspective.

One thing that’s a definite is that people are comfortable in the constructs they’re in. That’s understandable and okay.  Even in the online space, people who come from radio think the internet is radio; people from print focus on text; people from television sometimes think it’s all about video.

But it’s not TV. It’s not radio. It’s not print. It’s it’s own thing.

Social Media has it’s own norms and caveats, if not rules. After all, there are strong suggestions but few “rules” in other media channels as well.  If you treat Social media with the respect you do the rest of online, print, TV, etc. as a channel then you’re already on the right path.

A teacher of mine said, everything is about fundamentals. Let’s start with a fundamental.

Social Media Is About Giving to Get.  In Short, the Bullhorn Is Broken.

Many who first wade into social media make some pretty big mistakes early on. And those mistakes almost always revolve around the same theme – that one promotes themselves at the expense of a readers’ or viewer’s attention (inspired by Seth Godin).

No one wants to be sold, but they love to buy.  Really excellent sales people have known this for decades. Posting on a forum or blog is under no circumstances a cold call nor should be an ad; it’s about giving value that’s relevant to the audience… because your audience is constantly asking, “How does this relate to/help me?”

It’s not necessarily about how big your audience is, but are you talking to the right people, and are you engaging them.

This is the first post in a new Fundamentals series.

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Media Fundamentals, Tips Tagged With: audience, fundamentals, giving to get, Social Media

Podcasting and Events Tip 1: Show Your Value

October 6, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

Podcasting and events go hand in hand.

There’s a few philosophical thoughts around openness, value, and content to get out of the way before actually podcasting the actual content of your event, however, you don’t need to get into that argument to still use podcasting (and I’ll make that argument later that you should definitely podcast your event and let it out there).

However, before you even open the doors, podcasting can really benefit you, especially tied in with other channels (both online and offline media).

Here’s a “for instance.” Let’s say you have a speaker series; ten speakers either over a course of a day or a course of a few months.

You should have a 5-7 minute interview done with your speakers to talk about what they’re going to cover.  Give your audience a preview of the awesome you’re going to give them, and build buzz.  If you’ve got a 10 speakers, start early to allow time for the information to percolate.  Ask good questions; a great interviewer who’s personable is really key.

If you can, put it as part of your blog (you don’t have a blog or site for your event? Well, we have another conversation we need to have).  Event attendance is all about showing value and building buzz… two things social media and online marketing are really good for.  Have an online registration form? Make sure it’s nearby.

All of this should be well-integrated so that someone who is only capable of internet browsing gets all of your content – and oddly, I’ve found over the past four years that simple is hard.

What are the results?  We’re pretty proud to have a 80% sell-out rate when we do it for folks.  Others do pretty well too.

One More Bonus: When you make reporter’s lives easier, they cover you more.  If they can click and get the gist of what’s going on at your event and the value, they’re more likely to cover you.  So it’s marketing AND PR rolled into one, which in a lot of ways is inevitable online.

Filed Under: Business, Podcasting, Social Media, Tips Tagged With: events, how to promote, interviews, Podcasting

Authentic Voice

October 5, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

I have wondered, as social media grows – as all things do – what’s the value in an authentic voice?

With all the folks offering pay-for-post and ghostwriting, are we entering an era where again, you can’t trust that what you’re reading is coming from the proverbial “horse’s mouth?”

I think that era is upon us, especially in business-owned blogs. But I’m going to make an argument as to why you should seriously consider not paying that $10-$50 per post to have someone else do your dirty work.

Each and every medium has it’s own “standards” and “rules” even if they’re not codified. In the blogging world, it’s all about a person or multiple person’s thoughts, with little external filter, that tell actual stories and feelings in the words of the writer.  Social media at it’s core is about people not entities. If it is an entity, it’s about a valuable story that is made up of people.

Blogging is more than it being a CMS, more than it using WordPress or Moveable type, a blog is about that personal story, told by the writer(s) in their words.

Maybe it is going to be ghostwritten, but you’re not going to get the full benefits of community, of the power of connection with an audience that loves you or your product.

Why should your business allow such a personal touch?  Because in this world of cold screens and generally bad service, people want connection to what they’re buying.

Traffic’s easy to get.  Good traffic, love for your brand, that requires authenticity.

p.s. – just remember, social media guru Chris Brogan’s advice is to “be your most frequent commenter.” In my opinion, the facade falls apart when there is real discussion.

p.p.s. – This post is highly inspired by Merlin Mann’s How To Blog that’s out there on the interwebs. Read his stuff.  He’s smarter than me.

Filed Under: blogging Tagged With: blogging, ghostwriting, pay-per-post

Moving Content…

October 5, 2008 By Jeremiah Staes Leave a Comment

Hey folks,

I’m using my sunday to move some content over to my new Social Commentary blog so that you can have a little bit better understanding of all the things that are out there in the interactive and social space.

We’re going to inject a little more personality on this blog; and hope you enjoy.  But if things are a little messy for the next day or so, please pardon our dust.

Filed Under: Uncategorized
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