Making a good impression by engaging your community

By John McGory 

This blog loves history.  It also loves the Internet and social media.  Put them together and you realize that when old meets new, powerful friends can be created.

Today’s history lesson starts with The Impressions, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soul band out of Chicago via Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler led the group to a string of 1960s and 1970s hits. 

The civil rights movement used many of their songs as anthems. The songs often encouraged community engagement.  Community engagement promotes trust building and arm linking, while raising awareness and visibility.

The band’s 1969 hit, “A Choice of Colors,” http://youtu.be/Zr0SLv9WFr4 captured in a powerful way the importance of improving as a nation through community engagement.  One of the inspiring stanzas in the song was:    

People must prove to the people

A better day is coming for you and for me

With just a little more education

And love for our nation

Would make a better society

The Impressions call for community engagement was not a new one. In the late 1800s, English common law advanced the concept of community engagement.  It was used as a way to actively implement change.

Fast-forward to today and it’s clear that social media and the Internet are the contemporary active agents of change.  So, is not surprising that one of the mantras of social media is to build community through engaging others in conversation.

The emphasis in community engagement is to build honest relationships for the sake of community, not for the sole purpose of moneymaking.  That is what is now termed “content marketing” in social media circles.

If your company or organization is active on the Internet, then you need a community engagement plan.   Here is an eight-step program for such a strategy:

1.       Determine the goals of the plan

2.       Decide on whom to engage

3.       Develop engagement strategies for those you already know

4.       Develop engagement strategies for those you do not know

5.       Prioritize those activities

6.       Create an implementation system

7.       Monitor your progress

8.       Maintain those relationships

This simple plan for community engagement works whether you are selling lawn mowers or improved community relations.  The purpose is to build trust and understanding through conversation.  The Internet simply allows you to expand to a wider community outside of your neighborhood.

You build a community when “people prove to the people a better day is coming for you and for me.”  If your fans don’t think a better day is coming, then why would they want to be in your community?

Social media and the Internet reach more people than Curtis Mayfield could have ever dreamed of when he wrote “A Choice of Colors.”  But the words of the song are more appropriate than ever.   Community engagement is a 120-year-old concept on how people change.  Social media is its new powerful friend.

John McGory is a partner at Webface, a content marketing company www.web-face-solutions.com. Let Webface help you engage your community and give your fans the hope that a better day is coming. 

The New York Giants: It's all about the right shoes

By John McGory

The climax of the National Football League season will soon be here as the New England Patriots play the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.   The big game is often decided by which head coach makes the best in-game decisions. 

The fate of your business marketing plan may well be determined by your “in game” decisions.  What can you do to make sure you make the right choices?  Let’s learn from one Pro Hall of Fame coach on making decisions in the clutch.

The greatest coach’s decision in NFL Championship history arguably came in the 1934 Sneakers Game classic.  It was the second NFL championship game in league history and the Giants were pitted against the Chicago Bears.

The game was played December 9, 1934, at the Polo Grounds in New York City.  The night before, freezing rain hit the city and the ice-covered turf turned into a skating rink.  Giants end Ray Flaherty suggested to Coach Steve Owen at halftime that sneakers would provide better footing than cleats on the frozen playing surface.   Owen agreed and sent Abe Cohen to Manhattan College to get some sneakers.

The Giants were losing 13-3 in the 3^rd quarter when Cohen returned with nine pairs of sneakers.  The Giants took over from that point in the game.  Running back Ken Strong had two touchdown runs and the Giants went on to win 30-13.

The Hall of Fame coach’s decision proved to be critical in his team’s win.  Players from both teams agreed the sneakers made the difference in the game.

Marketing in today’s business world creates many similar challenges.  The Internet and social media prompted unforeseen changes in marketing. Many have learned that the best laid plans are worthless when the playing field drastically changes.

What can we learn from the old coach when facing a dire marketing situation?

1.      Realize you have a problem.  Coach Owen knew he had to do something to change the game.  Too many company leaders refuse to admit they have a problem until it is too late. 

2.      Listen to your people.  The coach listened to Ray Flaherty. Flaherty went on to be a Pro Hall of Fame coach as well.  He invented the screen pass and the two-platoon system.  Owen knew his end was a sharp guy, so he took his advice and it paid off.  Today’s bosses and marketing managers need to do the same.

3.      Take action.  Owen sent Cohen to Manhattan College to get sneakers.  That “out-of-the-box” thinking proved to be the difference between winning and losing.

4.      Take advantage of your edge.  The Giants took advantage of better footing once they changed to sneakers.  If you get an edge over your competition, use it.

The ability to make critical decisions under pressure is the difference between Hall of Fame and losing coaches.  If your marketing program is slipping due to harsh conditions, it is time for action.  What can you do to turn your game around?

John McGory is a partner at Webface, http://web-face-solutions.com. We are a content marketing company that can help you make the right choices about your marketing shoes.  If you like this story then help us out and retweet it.

Nice is Not Enough

By John McGory

Is the lack of corporate creativity in marketing creating a chasm between business and the public?  Can corporations truly be creative or is the threat of offending people and losing market share keeping a lid on attention-getting social media tactics such as content marketing?

Today’s world of content marketing is creating conflict in corporate boardrooms across the world.  It has been a long time since George Carlin riffed on the seven words inappropriate for television and Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds.  The Internet brings an uncut version of the world to anyone who wants it.

The public seemingly wants more and more outlandish content.  Videos need to be faster, crazier and more eye-catching than ever before.  Text is too slow.  No topic is taboo.

Content marketing’s goal is to attract attention to brands by providing interesting and free content to the public in exchange for their attention.  On the surface it makes sense, but putting it into practice is really tough.  The public wants shock and awe and the corporate world wants nice.

The Coca Cola Company is buying into content marketing in a big way.  Its Content 2020 initiative is designed to double its sales through the use of content marketing.

The bottling giant released two videos http://blog.junta42.com/2012/01/coca-cola-content-marketing-20-20/ that outlines how it is going to reach its sales’ goal.  The plan is to “create ideas so contagious that they can’t be controlled.”  Those are big words bound to create big pressure on Coca Cola’s creative types.

Grabbing the attention of the world is a monumental task.  Contagious ideas must be practical and hip at the same time.  Successful ideas for global brands such as Coke must be practical enough to cross cultural, language and political barriers.  The same ideas must also be trendy enough to engage younger markets, while not turning off the more conservative elements of society.

Most corporations are conservative by nature.  Some may see Coke’s content marketing effort as a foolhardy attempt.   Conservative corporations’ attitude is to keep its head down till this fad passes. 

Unfortunately, this approach has less of a chance of working than Coke’s effort.   Consumers today expect to be entertained.  The “let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing” strategy is severely outdated.

So the gulf between what corporations are willing to do to capture customers’ attention and what customers will watch grows by the day.  Coke deserves credit for jumping head first into the content marketing pool.   Whether it can swim in that pool and entertain the masses is another story.

The question for the rest of the corporate world is:  What are you doing to gain the attention of your customers in a world where nice is not enough?

John McGory is a partner at Webface (www.web-face-solutions.com), a content marketing company that can create video and written materials to get the attention of your fans.

Mr. Rogers' Tips on How-To Videos

By John McGory

“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….would you be mine, could you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?”

Most people over the age of 20 know those words well. They were sung at the beginning of every episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  The Emmy-winning show entertained and educated millions of children on the Public Broadcasting System from 1968 to 2001. 

Fred Rogers created a huge neighborhood of fans by showing children how to do thousands of things.  His soft-spoken and direct style was unique.  Rogers’ non-threatening style made him popular with children and parents alike.

Mr. Rogers understood who he was and what he was trying to do.  He taught it all – from tying shoes to break dancing http://youtu.be/Fw_GnjE-des.  He made it feel as if he was having a personal conversation with each viewer.

Today’s companies and organizations are trying to create their own neighborhoods by producing content for social media and the Internet.  One popular method is producing how-to videos.   Creating a how-to video scene using a Mr. Rogers’ approach is still relevant today.  Here are a few tips from his neighborhood:

1.   Be fearlessly authentic.  Initially educated to be a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children. He made an effort to change that by writing for and performing on local, youth oriented Pittsburgh-area shows.  It was easy to tell Mr. Rogers was not phony. Don’t be something you are not.

2.   Provide information relevant to your audience.  Select topics that appeal to the widest audience range possible.  How-to videos are designed to be helpful, not to show your audience how smart you are.   

3.   Leave no viewer behind. Fred Rogers knew his audience and he communicated with them in a style they understood and appreciated.  He didn’t talk down to them, he talked to them. 

4.   Give them all the information they need in a step-by-step process that is easy to grasp.  While videos need to be short, make sure they cover the necessary steps.

5.   Mr. Rogers never did advertising.  Let them know about any tools or equipment necessary.  If you sell those products, display them, but a how-to video is not the time to try and sell those products.

6.   Discuss pitfalls and problems associated with the lesson and empathize with your viewers.  Coming off as a know-it-all will not help sales.

How-to videos are one of the great content-marketing ideas.  Showing people how to do something that they can use is a wonderful way to make a friend or neighbor.

Fred Rogers was an icon of children’s television.  His open, authentic and friendly style brought a sense of peace to televised education that may never be replicated.  It won’t hurt you to try.   Good-bye neighbor.

 John McGory is a partner at Webface, a content marketing firm that can help you produce how-to videos and other marketing materials to get you noticed.  Contact us at www.web-face-solutions.com.