In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel provides a wealth of great advice for anyone who wants to leverage social media to extend their reach and strengthen their corporate or personal brand. He keeps it simple and practical, recounting some of his own experiences in establishing his own brand and company. In addition, he showcases examples from other companies who have built vibrant and active online communities.
As Mitch points out early on in the book, your brand is what Google says it is and everything you do, good and bad, is online forever. If you want to influence your brand, you need to be present online, participating in the conversation and providing valuable content. You need to be helpful, be sincere and be credible. That’s not to say that you should give all of your knowledge away for free. The primary objective is to drive consumers to take action and keep them engaged, so that when the time comes that they need a product or service like the one you offer, yours is the first one that comes to their mind.
To achieve this, Mitch suggests that you think in terms of ripples, not splashes. While traditional advertising and marketing is all about making a big splash to grab attention, social media is all about creating ripples with a continuous stream of content.
To help you evaluate and communicate your brand, Mitch asks a lot of great questions in the book, including:
- What do people “feel” when they think of you?
- What does your brand do for people – and do they want to tell others about it?
- What are you doing to get found – marketing, trade shows, networking events?
- Are you speaking at events and helping to organize them?
- What is your unique promise?
- What makes you different from others in your industry?
- Why do your most loyal customers keep coming back?
Once you’ve determined your niche and what you want your brand to become, you can then begin to build an overarching strategy for your content. This is the point where you really need to think about what your audience is interested in, not about your own products. For example, if you are a personal trainer, people don’t want to hear about the services you offer. Instead, they might be interested in some tips for getting in shape, eating healthy and managing stress.
In the end, it’s about finding your voice and keeping it going. It’s about being willing to experiment and evolve. So if you’re looking for some inspiration and help to get started, I highly recommend reading Six Pixels of Separation. And to keep you going, check out Mitch’s blog.
