Blogging, Branding, Marketing, and Storytelling

Last week felt like “back to school” for me. I attended three sessions at the Denver Startup Week as well as workshops sponsored by two different Chambers of Commerce. The presenters of these program provided valuable insights and tips on blogging, branding, marketing, and storytelling.

So that you, the readers of my blog, can benefit from my experience, here are some of the informational gold nuggets I collected, with the names of those who shared them in case you’d like to research more of their work:

Denver Startup Week

Brian Clark of Copyblogger Media and Doyle Albee of Metzger Albee Public Relations

• Blogging is a key to successful marketing – it is a sales tool that educates people 24/7, builds your audience, and improves search engine results.
• Podcasting can also be a great audience builder. Remember to be strategic when creating your podcasts, as they can eventually be combined to make an audio-book.
• Use email and social media for maximum results – keeping in mind that 91% of all email users still check their email at least once a day.

Harrison List of Elevated Third Advertising Agency

• When blogging, take a stand and engage people.
• Take the approach of being the helpful expert, while keeping your writing simple and clear.
• Try different approaches, even if they seem weird at first.
• Don’t strive for perfection – just start and make adjustments as needed.

Michael Collins of BeStoryDriven

• The best stories create emotional connection and engagement.
• When your stories resonate with others, they start telling your stories.
• Powerful stories draw upon sense memory. Be sure to include specifics that paint a picture and make people want to know what happens next.

 

Chamber of Commerce Presentations

Emilie Downs of imago visual (presenting at the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce)

• Branding should be comprehensive. Make sure yours includes the company’s core values, products and services, words and message, visuals, and the customers’ experience.

• Remember this important distinction: branding is a promise about who you are and what you do, while marketing is the story of your brand.

 

Wendy King of bForward Group (presenting at the Denver Jewish Chamber of Commerce)

• Branding needs to have consistency, attraction, unique endurance, clarity, flexibility, energy, credibility, and passion.

• A brand promise says what you do, who you do it for, and why you do it better than your competition.

• When your brand promise is clear, you will attract the right kind of customers – those who will benefit most from your products and services and move you toward your goals.

 

Here are links to the websites of these presenters:

http://www.copyblogger.com/

http://metzgeralbee.com/

http://www.elevatedthird.com/

http://www.bestorydriven.com/

http://www.imagovisual.com/

http://www.bforwardgroup.com/home/

 

How About You?

How do you feel about your brand? Does it represent you well? Is it working for you? How have your adapted your marketing to include social media along with more traditional kinds of marketing? How do you incorporate storytelling into promoting your business?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com