Things are looking up today. It is no longer news that social Media is gaining a lot of ground in Nigeria. Many people are now looking for news around social Media because it is an open truth that these web-based communication tools are helping start up and corporate entrepreneurs  in no small way. Because of the excitement around this, many people are diving into the river without necessary skills that will help them to scale through.

In the last two months we have had the privilege and exposure from the regular media to expound, open the eyes of Nigerian audience to the potentials and huge benefits associated with right application of the social media tools. Yes, we keep saying the environment is not ripe, the infrastructure among many other factors. Interestingly the numbers of internet users in Nigeria is increasing. A release in January 2009 estimated Internet users in Nigeria  to be  twenty three Million, as of last week I understand it stood at forty four million and it is increasing. So as we have opportunity with regular media, we have been championing, spreading the buzz around.

In the last two months, I havehad  series of Telephone interviews with major Newspaper and those interviews had received wider coverage. I have also been on Television programmes like ‘Sunrise’ of Channels Television talking about Social media and relationship building as well as Social media and security issues. We currently running empowerment seminars that are delivering right tools and knowledge to right audience. The results are showing as many of them are better users of the media. More importantly, we have also noticed an increased in numbers of undergraduates (studying Mass communications, Marketing etc) who are interested in learning how these tools affect their professions. In this regard we have helped those we can as time permits. Today also I was on Eko 89.75Fm talking about Entrepreneur, Youth, Empowerment and such sessions are encouraging with the kind of feedback one is getting.

We can do more and we keep hoping that regular media will join us in this crusade. Social Media has vast potential. I am also of that we will step up advocacy to ensure Nigerian audience do it right. We also hope that we will be able to affect the youth who are involved in internet scam through skill refocusing (if we get funding for that project). We will keep you posted as events unfold.

We live in an age and time when attention is becoming a highly priced item. Nobody seems to care any longer about what you have to say except when it hits the right cord with them. Many wonder why their brands’ consistent efforts have not gotten proportionate returns. One of the issues I have noticed with such brands is that they  doing a solo run without knowing. They have been flexing muscles, flaunting their powers without consideration for what their clients want to hear and how that will help the target audience to  achieve their goals.

In my research recently on why many brands  apply strenuous  efforts without result, I stumbled on one of Jim kukral’s work ($7.95 Marketing Plans) which proffers solution to my question. This EBook opened my eyes to some ‘small’ details that are often overlooked but which hold the key to getting required attention. According to kukral,’ if you are not memorable, you are forgettable’. But getting attention or being memorable is the first step, if a brand does not know how to convert the attention to money that is the tragedy.

But today let us begin by examining ways to turn attention to your brand.

Simplicity: People out there do not want unnecessary jargon or jaw- breaking names, words, highly technical issues when simple approach will do. Look for ways to make life simple. Ensure you are not taking people through complex solutions when your brand can bring the same solution through easy process. Do not try to demonstrate unnecessary technical prowess. Be simple and compelling in your approaches.

Explanatory: If your brand must attract or direct attention to your offering, be sure that your brand’s language, visuals, promises are explanatory enough to those who will be having contact with it everyday

Memorable: in all, the brand has to be memorable in the mind of the potentials no matter how short the time the potentials spend with your brand.

Solves A Problem: To turn on the green light on your brand, make sure your brand demonstrates the problem it is solving with such a uniqueness that glows. Always remember, your brand must solve a problem and solve it in a way others are not doing in other not to be one of the packs. I think, turning a green light on your brand process should start with the brand’s name. Apply the process above while choosing  the brand’s name.

Someone says the spelling above is not right but that is the title of a film I watched. So pardon the title spelling. Those who are close to me know I am not a huge fan of movie and films. When I take the chance to watch one it must be that I am fascinated by the title (which I presume can teach me something new).

I am a huge fan of anything that can spur me on to pursue excellence as well as increase my value. So when I saw the title I felt it may contain some nuggets that will help me achieve my goal. One of the hidden challenges I have and which some keen observers of our community will have noticed is that my writing style is not at the best level.

I keep struggling with this each new day and sometime I am embarrassed with my post or structure in other piece I have done. Interestingly, when others give me their materials to read all my senses are always alive. So I wonder why I could not apply that to myself. If I must be honest, sometimes this discourages me from writing a post here as I knew some international readers may judge my brand with this shortcoming.

So one of the reasons that attracted me to the film was what I can learn in my pursuit of happiness with regards to my writing style. The storyline is about a young man (Chris Gardner) who had a disordered childhood. He never had the opportunity of meeting his father until he was twenty eight. This young man decision was to be a role model for his young boy but unfortunately his marriage was threaten by poverty to the extent that his wife could no longer endure and she left. He went through hard times but he eventually made the glorious limelight he desired. So some of the personal branding lessons I learnt from the film are:

Have a goal: Whatever circumstance you find your brand today should not determine where it can possibly be. A written goal, dream of a better future will keep the energy inside the brand to glow. Without a goal and dream, there will be no life inside the brand. Each time Chris goes out, he dreamt and saw how he could become better as he saw others leading enviable life.

Trash excuse: everyone has a ton of excuses that can stop them from achieving their goals. Chris dreamt of becoming a certified stock broker/dealer despite huge financial burden. He could not pay his house rent and was sent packing. He has to sleep in ‘free Dorms’ where light will be off at a regulated time. Despite this he would light candles to read.

Take calculated risk: despite the fact that Chris did not have money, he went ahead to enrol for the job of his dream and started reading at any available opportunity.

Develop confidence in your capability and brand: never allow the situation to determine your confidence level. When Chris’s wife left because she could not go ahead with him, and his house owner ejected him, Chris’s confidence level did not drop. The height of this that really touched me was that he was ejected and detained in police custody a night before his job interview. Chris never allowed this to affect his performance at the interview panel. Imagine someone leaving police custody without shower and moved straight to interview panel?

Hold on, be consistence and damn present circumstance: Chris’s life showed a high level of consistency, persistence in his dream. He works his ‘ass off’. Nothing could discourage him from moving ahead. Though once a while he shed tears in the midnight when he thinks about his situation that seems not to have expiry date.

Enjoy the moment: You do not have to wait till major breakthrough comes before you celebrate yourself. Live each day at a time. The first day Chris made an income of two hundred and fifty dollars he took his son and they went to sleep in a hotel room instead of sleeping in a Dorm they were used to. He and his son had fun. From this story I am learning to be happy with myself, my writing style even though it is not near what I desire. I will keep improving till I get there but be happy with the moment. Do you have anything to share? Transparency, honesty and sharing keep life going. Over to you, Use the comment section.

Brand success is all about stories that aligned with a niche. If you have ever known what poverty is and you are able to break free from it and you can craft believable, creative, emotional processes of how you move from ground zero up, you will attract a good chunk of audience that is still struggling to survive. What is true of individual is also applicable to brands. Be it corporate, institutional or national. Japan has a verifiable national strategy story that moved her from a third world to a leading nation around the world.

People love stories particularly when it appears it has some semblance with their lifestyles. Every brand story that will sell must be crafted in a conversational way. This story must speak with the audience. When it is a monologue, it will take time for the audience to join you or follow your thought. I must admit there are few exceptions. But a story crafted with conversational note sells. Never forget that great brands have great brand stories which point to their origin, tradition, geographical location, association, influence among many other factors. Having said this, let us examine vital indices that come to my mind now on how to create a brand story that sell.

Tell; show that you are expert in a category first: When a story is crafted to show off only, it may irritate the audience. Stop showing first. Many brandspractice this. This may affect their credibility because it does not tell how. Always and I repeat, always tell first. ‘Tell’ that you are an expert, leading solution provider in the category before you start showing. Showing without verifiable evidences will destroy brand equity. Brand story should build brand equity and not to diminish it.

Show, parades your successful clients in the category with emotional case studies: after crafting a ‘telling ‘ story which the brand audience or its potentials want to see, the story must go ahead to show. You must parade happy and successful clients in the category who have become satisfied through your brand’s involvement in their daily lives. Do not forget another major factor when you are ‘showing’ which  is the fact that the story must use the weapon of emotion to its own advantage.

Itemize proven results of your clients in their categories: since the brand story is expected to be target driven within a niche/market, let it produce proven result of brand’s client in the category you are trying to reach. Do not forget this. It is a major part to credibility building.

Promote your core values and how it has helped sustained business relationships: Each brand must have core values that drive its operation. In fact it is what some potential customers often look out for before considering doing business with the brand. Brand’s value is the foundation that determines the way, how brand operations are run and it will also reflect in corporate and internal audience behaviours. So ensure your brand’s story promotes your core values and how it has sustained your business relationships. Is anyone out there with different opinion or want to add something to this? Use the comment section. I love to hear from you.

Many new things usually attract fascination either from pros or quacks. Everyone wants to be seen as current and up to date. In our effort, many forget to understand the rudiment. They rather try and fail than to be seen as not have tried. Great attitude but I guess what is worth doing sometimes is worth given necessary attention in order to excel in it.

To get the best from brand’s social media effort, I have quick tips that one may need to consider to excel in this new found bride that everyone seems to be courting.

Truthfulness/honesty: this platform will require that you do not engage your audience with lies. Showing energies and stuffs you are not made of as if they an innate will soon backfire. This platform thrives on honesty and truthfulness; people may find out that your brand has being living large on lies. That will become a terrible blow to the brand you have labored for in years.

Authenticity: Always make sure that your social media effort is not a product of ‘me too’ game. Sit down and count the cost of participation. Show evidence that you are really interested in social interaction that may eventually lead to business opportunities. But if it does not, word of mouth would have spread about your brand; your brand may have also gained visibility, awareness in the process. Be open enough to demonstrate your true story.

Timely: you want to gain easy and wide recognition for your brand efforts? Be timely; break the news as fast as it happens even if it is your own mistake. People will forgive you if you do than to pretend it does not exist, happen.

Be human: it is good to demonstrate great grasp of technological prowess but always remember that this arena is called social media and not technological domain demonstration.  

Consistency: You do not go far with once in a blue moon update. Out of sight is now out of mind. Plan your time well, hire someone to do it for you if you are busy. Guy Kiyosaki was quoted last year as spending about two hundred thousand monthly on social media through hired consultants. Even if that is not the correct version of the story, what is clear is the fact that he is investing in social media to remain in his target audience’s radar. Do you think that is important? He alone can answer that. But the point is, make sure you are making progress towards the achievement of your brand’s goal through your activities in social media.

Let me conclude this piece with what Derrick Daye says when he wrote “Engagement is not a fad; It’s the way today’s consumers do business.Marketers will come to accept that there are four engagement methods including Platform (TV; online), Context (Program; webpage), Message (Ad or Communication), and Experience (Store/Event). But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Marketers will continue to realize that attaining real brand engagement is impossible using out-dated attitudinal models”.

There is no need repeating the obvious. Humans thrive when there is interaction, bonding and not when in isolation. Humans are not wired to live in isolation. To be successful human/brand needs solid relationships, engagement with others. since the world has become a global village, building engagement withy locals only deprive brands the benefits that are available to all.

 As many professionals know, productive, profitable engagement in the midst of noise level today is not a child’s play. It is real work. What I have noticed is that many give up so soon when their efforts are not yielding immediate result. The pressure from management that has invested much in online branding is not helping matter. Community manager must educate the management on the time lag it will take to make meaningful impact. There is no overnight success.

Whether there is instant success or not, we must be able to see clearly like DNA13 suggests ‘joining conversation and shaping public opinion holds promise of reducing cost of communication’. Strong community engagement thrives where there is strong collaboration among the major actors which includes the community manager, the community members and other stakeholders. Conscious effort must also be made to recognize, value active promoters of community well being. The community leader, manager must be a bundle of inspiration. He/she must not be lazy or tired of maintaining the conversation so well with relevant content. The community leader must also learn to build quality relationship with the community stakeholder and be willing promptly attend to community concerns.

Any brand that wants to maintain solo, one man squad approach to managing, promoting, positioning itself will end with lots of regret.

The marketing plateau is changing. The marketing war zone is also changing. The last two decades have witnessed such a tremendous change that every professional in the field of Marketing, Branding, Public relations has to relearn what they were taught in school. Buyers, clients have turned  the internet to another market place where they make enquiries. Internet now encourages dialogue, feedbacks. The search engine has turned people into independent product and services researchers. They do also consult their friends, associates before making buying decision. It is obvious therefore  that any brand that helps the buyer make decision in their favor will earn more credits than the one that stands aloof, waiting for a call that may never come to them.

The above has necessitated the birth of content marketing as a way to educate, entertain, court the attention of buyers to brand’s services and products. It appears to me that every new buzzword always attracts attention of both the qualified and quacks. Doing it well is now a major concern for many brands as they are now faced with several acclaimed consultants who know nothing to jack about it.  Great content marketing and management offers several opportunities to brand who have qualified hands to do it well. Content can be used to educate potential industry consumers, provide possible solutions or choices available to clients, exposing sound practices and to initiate a process in relationship building. Content marketing helps the customers start a relationship with you before they eventually decide to buy from you.

As good as this may sound, delivering great content is not a joke. No one brings the gift from heaven, they are learnt.The basic ingredient is passion.This should be helped with great creative writing skill to make a great headway. Content marketing has been defined as the art of understanding exactly what your target want to know and delivering that to them in a relevant and compelling way to grow business. The content must only be relevant but must be compelling to sustain attention. Great content establishes the brand a resource centre, guide in buying decision. When a brand can successfully do this, it credibility and chances in the market will skyrocket than those who wait for something to happen.  Great, relevant and compelling contents that adequately informed the buyer will make the brand to first position in the minds of the prospective and real buyers.

One of the best ways to increase visibility, awareness, relevance and gain more market in this recession is to give away free, reliable information that can assist potentials to buy from your brand is through content marketing. Before you ask them to buy, be a source of helpful information without an attached string. It positions your brand as a thought leader, caring and proactive. In conclusion for now, remember that with great content and no promotion, you will remain in darkness. Adequate content promotion through right channel is important. But the content must offer value, solution to make required effect.

Most times what leads to crisis is often subtle, careless approach to issues. Though there are clear cases of crises that are product of act beyond human control. Every crisis begins with issue that is not properly identified or managed before it generates into a major crisis. Crisis like strange disease or epidemic often begins with a small infection. Infection not properly managed often leads to epidemic. To manage crisis, brands need to be proactive. Waiting for crisis to happen before strategies are put in place is a bad policy that does not help anyone. Strategy that will help prevent, manage, recover/reconvert negative to positive is really important if a brand must escape total extinction after a major crisis. Brand’s ability, capacity to recognize volatile issues and nib them at the bud will help much than to wait so long for issues to have gained front burner both at the online and offline-traditional media. Every assumption that any issue will die a natural death must be erased. There is need for a prepared team that is versed in necessary skills, software that can handle pre-crisis as well as post crisis/recovery stages. Without all these, the brand in crisis will suffer untold condemnation. For pre-crisis preparation and planning, the old method of reliance on traditional media is no longer enough. The rate at which the crisis can spread online is now viral. So a comprehensive crisis plan that covers online and offline is really important. The team must know how to monitor forums, blogs, facebook, twitter. They must also keep a keen eye on traditional media guys, owners, editors etc. The team that will handle brand crisis must also have ready made contact lists of those who holds the anvil in continuous message dissemination. We will discuss at length the topic in our subsequent write ups. But let us conclude this piece by considering the following points when a brand needs to extinguish the fire of a crisis.

 1. Identify the crisis source

2. Identify the affected audience

3. Pull out your communication tools.

4. Select the right tools to use based on circumstances, situation

5. Keep an eye on the effect of your brand communication on all targets (online, offline)

6. Evaluate results, strategy effectiveness and work hard on lapses

There is nothing good that does not has a cost attached. Everything that worth it will always make a demand from you. Today social media has become the buzz word. Many marketing communicators, public Relations experts and brand drivers are rushing into learning how to take advantage of the new trend. Trends as it is known do not last eternally. No one knows whether this will be applicable to social media though we seem to have come to the  logical conclusion-by our actions that it has come to stay for good. Social media is reputed to create awareness, build relationships, encourages conversation, increase personal, brand visibility among others. But with every great idea comes with a responsibility, certain demands and fears.

Authority counts in social media. To become an authority, you must establish trust, engage the community, sacrifice personal and corporate time. Maintaining control is becoming increasingly difficult. What we say and hear more today is ‘lose control’, brand democratization and voice of the stakeholders. Getting attention in the sea of noise is also a great challenge. The need to go for more knowledge is now  popularized as no novice can play the game. Online reputation demands knowledge of adequate software. Web 2.0 is what we are playing with now and web 3.0 is already around the corner. It means that in order to be relevant, we must up our knowledge to stay in control. Today, we are emphasizing words of mouth. Getting customers to buy in and voluntarily communicate the brand to relatives, friends and colleagues. The challenge here is daunting. There is also the issue of measurement of results. Yet many top executives are not even persuaded that social media holds some magic wands to bring new and improved ways of doing business. Developing contents, marketing it is a huge task.

I read an article by Mike Herman recently where he counseled that we should not carry issues to the extreme when it comes to social media. According to him, a research conducted showed that we still have huge percentage of customers who are not hooked with the juice of social media because they do not have access to personal computer nor internet. He also claimed that social media has not been widely trusted. The fact that everyone can blog does not make their opinions valid. Mike conclusion was that it is too early to place faith in it.

Given that social media will take away personal freedom with regards to openness, place a demand for a frequent and consistent content update among others, do you think it worth the coins? This is what I am thinking about today. I am an addict of social media if I must acknowledge that.

There is no denying the fact that the recession effect is still on. The marketing communication industry is actually feeling the effect as budgets are now low to go round. Expenditure on frivolity is now reduced to zero. The market indicators are clear to every one and it will take long term strategy to remain relevant without engaging in a short time maneuvers that will permanently hurt the brand. It is now clear that the conclusion we can draw is that brand must embrace definitive and integrate all workable strategies to remain afloat, visible to the necessary audience despite low budget. Consistently manage relationship with audience whether they are buying from you or not today will go a long way in keeping your brand in their hearts. It is also good to occasionally supply necessary information that can help them out. Today let me help out with what I think can help your brand to remain relevant during and after the recession and if you like you may say factors that can help recession-proof  your brand.

1. Hone your differentiation: it is becoming a hard job to actually own a place now as others are jumping around to survive and are by the way polluting every differentiation stream. You need to work as hard as you can to let the target see what you are good at in terms of your expertise and how you offer your services differently.

2. Do a ‘collabo’ or partnership: if it is possible, think of partnership that can enhance your visibility and strengthen position in the market.  You may need to carefully assess the route before you enter into it as some may mar your brand. The damage may take years to erase. So watch closely the other brand’s value whether it will tally with yours before any partnership

3. Be a resource brand: Every brand that is at the top of the industry has relevant, current information about the industry that is not just confined to local news but seasoned with international flavor.

4. Share the knowledge: help your clients out with valuable knowledge that can help them out of their present challenges without charges.

5. Forget totalitarianism:  we are now in the age of brand democratization. If your brand will still continue to be a despot, dictator to its audience, it will not be around for long. We are now in the age of dialogue and conversation and there is now way your brand will have all the answers, ideas that will work. Remember that everyone, brand that remains relevant since last century is always looking around for what works and not what used to work. Take initiative, be willing to change, embrace innovation