Thought & Theory

Where does the time go? Has it actually been a month since Part 2? My apologies for keeping you waiting and if you weren’t waiting, well, you should have been!

So recapping quickly, you started your blog in Part 1 and then exhausted your network in Part 2 to promote yourself to your peers. Now we move on to some exciting stuff, Marketing.

Market yourself. The key here is to spend as little money as possible when getting started. There are a bunch of great opportunities you can take advantage of which are free and easy to use.

• An easy place to start is with your blog. If you used WordPress or Tumblr, an RSS feed is generated for you. Make sure to promote this handy little feature as it can be a great way to attract all types of users. It’s a good idea to use Feedburner to have some analytics to review regarding your RSS feed.
• Create a press release. This isn’t rocket science and doesn’t have to win you a pulitzer prize. Think of this as an announcement message to someone who has never heard of your company. A good rule of thumb, if your grandmother doesn’t understand your press release, re-write it. This is a two-parter, as you want to send this press release to all of your contacts. Try using Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp or Constant Contact and make sure to follow CAN-Spam rules and regulations.
• Leverage a social network or two. Obviously social networking is all the rage these days, but in all seriousness there are large audiences you can promote to for free! Create a MySpace profile, you can buy cheap templates that look extremely professional or do it yourself (like we did for Only Human). Facebook Pages is another social networking solution which is easy and free, this one takes no design and you can import your RSS feed from your blog (check out our Facebook Page for Thought & Theory)!
• Start microblogging. This isn’t the end all be all to marketing, but can attract a new audience and help you meet like minded individuals. Twitter and Pownce are good places to start.
• Reach out to get exposure. Local news stations, newspapers and magazines can be a great start to getting your name out there. Obviously do the same with blogs around the web. Don’t be afraid to send someone an e-mail or make a phone call and ask if they would like to hear more about your company/product/service. Don’t get discouraged if someone says “no”, there are a ton of options out there.
• Last but not least, get out there and meet new people. There are BarCamps, Refresh Events, Small Business owners meetings and all kinds of other networking opportunities to take advantage of.

Stay tuned for more and feel free to reach out to us with any questions.

I heard about the Flip Video Camera about 6 months ago and thought “why didn’t I think of that??” The Flip Video Camera is one of those products that just works. Short background from the Flip website:

Introducing the Flip Video Ultra Series, the world’s simplest camcorder. It lets you capture the everday moments that happen anywhere and share them with friends and family everywhere. So now, shooting video is as easy as taking a picture. And sharing is as easy as turning on your computer. Shoot Anything. Share Everything.

NYTimes has a great article reviewing the Flip Camera and all of its success in the past year. Success? I would say so! 13% of the camcorder market in one year, that is amazing. It helps when you develop and market a product for a user base of over 1 million users (YouTube) and your every day video enthusiast on top of that. Marketing that speaks for itself in my mind.

I’m definitely going to grab one of these cameras, hopefully expense it :) and you should see some videos very soon.

So you started your blog right? Good, let’s start talking about getting your name out there. I mentioned before that if people want to find information they are going to Google you and your company. You can get a step ahead of the game and start spreading your information to your existing network.

Exhaust your network. Remember the old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know”? Yeah, that’s probably one of the most important cliches I will ever reference and I live by it.

• The network of people you know is priceless. Family, friends of family, friends, friends of friends, acquaintances etc etc. This group of people is incredibly important and you should never lose site of that.
• Organize your contacts. Excel sheet, Address Book, Facebook Groups, tattoo them on your body - whatever works best for you. Some ideas will be better suited sent to one group of people and others to another group.
• The people around you and the people that you know can easily help you make or break your business. Get your friends and family using your products, sharing your information or even just talking about your business. You never know who they might mention it to and what that could mean for your future.
• Don’t underestimate word of mouth. When we decided to start doing client work we didn’t put an ad in the paper, we didn’t buy banner ads, we didn’t do anything but share our vision with our network. We continue to get referrals and appreciate all the people we meet, regardless if we work with them or not.

Next week I will touch on some light explorations in marketing. You can read Part I - Start a Blog here.

I thought it would be interesting to start a series of posts on building your own personal brand. Over the last few years, I have been inundated with “brand building”. I’ve done a lot of work in my 9-5, working with men’s professional tennis (ATP) and for the past year and a half with Thought & Theory.

First, and most important over anything else that I will mention, is that if people want to find information out about you they are going to use Google. Depending on who you are and how much information there is out there about you, Wikipedia may come in to play. So what are the key factors to building your brand on Google and keeping it informative? Each week I will explain how I have used a tool or service, along with specific details and tips I’ve picked up.

Start a Blog. Revolutionary idea huh? Well let me give you a few more tidbits of info that should help you climb the Google rankings.

• Learn the basics of SEO. You don’t need to know the ins and outs, but you should have a decent foundation. Click here for SEOmoz’s beginner guide. Feel free to skip the HTML/CSS pieces if you aren’t web savvy and are fine with using standard layouts/templates.
• Use Wordpress or Tumblr as your blog foundation. You can use Blogger or a variety of other tools, but WordPress and Tumblr are simple to set up and even easier to use on a daily/weekly basis (not to mention free!). I started my own Tumblr a few weeks ago to see how quickly it would climb the rankings in Google search results. I went from Page 6 when the Tumblr started to the 6th result on Page 1 within 3 weeks.
• When creating information about yourself or your company (blog title and about info), make sure to think about how people will read this information and where it is displayed. Make sure to use your name or company name. This may sound very basic, but it’s all about the basics when growing your brand.
• Consistently add content. You don’t need to be creating pulitzer prize winning articles or finding the most obscure information, but you do want to create and talk about content that is unique to your personality or to your company. Give people an idea of who you are or what your company stands for.
• Market your brand (sharing your blog in this case). Focus on people that might be interested in your company and in your content. Brand awareness is all about giving people the opportunity to get to know you and what you/your company is all about. Send e-mails to friends and contacts, make phone calls, etc. Last but not least, don’t be shy.

Next week I will touch on dipping into large networks of people waiting to hear about your brand!

Yes, it is a very cheesy title, but my grandfather would be proud of the dry humor!

The next step in “sex sells” to build your brand. Very fun and easy to use flash photography application.

Go shoot some photos of Daniella and e-mail them to your friends, courtesy of Taco Bell!