first state of the union

On January 8, 1790 President George Washington gave the First Annual Message to a Joint Session of Congress.

It is known more today as the State of the Union Address.

It was held in the Senate Chamber of Federal Hall in New York City.

Washington's speech was a milestone for the Constitution. He was displaying the separations of the three branches of government. 

Washington’s address was a precisely calibrated political statement. The president was positive and encouraging, even as he subtly sought to direct the actions of Congress.

Federal Hall - New York City

Washington did make the call for a standing army. He also touched on establishing a currency and the need for standardized weights and measures. Oh yes, and there was immigration. He too mentioned a need for a postal system and education improvement.

Washington new the challenges that lay ahead for the new nation. He addressed them with determination. He proved he was a leader. He proved he was sincere.

The source for this post: First Annual Address

 

blogging helps business success

I wanted to put up some blogging statistics. Blogs are a key business, as you'll observe.

• 6.7MM people publish blogs
• 12MM write blogs using their social networks
• 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice they get from blogs
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links
• The projection is that there are 128 million blog readers in the U.S.
• 92% of companies that post multiple times on their blogs acquire a customer from their blog
• B2B marketers get 67% more leads than businesses that do not blog
• 23% of online time is dedicated to social networks or blogs
• 61% of U.S. online consumers made their purchase based on a blog recommendation

Blogging helps you exceed in business.

An article from writtent.com was the inspiration for this post

that "something special"

Challenge
Create content that stands out. Blogs, news, videos distribute content.
Content must have that "something special" to get noticed.

That "something special" is high-value, interactive content.

It's content that:

• Incorporates dynamic elements such as videos, animations, and image carosels.
• Involves the participation or feedback of the end user.
• Engages the viewer by giving them a role to play in the unfolding story.

Brands are leveraging the power of interactive content. They are telling their story.

One of there interactive approaches is the e-magazine (interactive magazine). This way, cool features are shared. The latest news is published. The users get a great feel of the brands presence.

fiesta roll

When Ford Motor Company prepared the 2010 North American roll-out of the Fiesta, its initial marketing push was solely through social media. Ford supplied 100 people with a Fiesta to drive for six months. They were the right 100 people. They were digital influencers (bloggers, podcasters, YouTube celebrities, and automotive journalists) who produced tweets, videos, podcasts, posts, and articles relating to the Fiesta.

Fiesta interior

A single Web page was made aggregating all this data where folks could watch the test drive unfold in real time. Ford did not edit, script or delete any of the information. The YouTube videos got 7 million views. There were 40 million tweets that contained the campaign's name ("Fiesta Movement"). 130,000 people registered online to receive more information when the Fiesta went to dealers. 83 percent of those people had not owned a Ford. U.S. brand awareness went from practically zero to 58 percent! Talk about "buzz" creation.

All that "buzz" wasn't mere chatter. Ford converted 10 times more pre-launch purchase reservations into actual orders than it did for previous model rollouts. People got to witness people enjoying the benefits of the Fiesta.

I know this event is not new. I decided to create a post on it since "consumer-driven" brand information is so popular these days. In this case, the 100 people were practically responsible for creating the Fiesta brand. Certainly an excellent example to talk about when thinking of brand engagement.

Information for this post came from the January/February 2011 edition of CFO magazine.
CFO.com

7 tips for presentation

Here is a good post from careerealism.com that gives pointers on the presentation.
7 tips to success:

1. Positive first impression
2. Legitimate info
3. Connect with life experience
4. Interact
5. Visualize
6. Have a back-up plan
7. Reward your audience

Here's 7 Tips For A Successful Presentation http://t.co/1HVzv90kHY #branding

— Mike Bertelsen (@mikebertelsen) May 24, 2014

pandora's contribution

Drake Baer put together a piece that really interested me. It's about Pandora, and what they've done to frankly change the music industry. Pandora is now the infrastructure for 100,000 artists. 2011 was a big year for Pandora... that's when they really took off.

From the artist's point-of-view, getting the music heard is key. That's it. But that is where all the innovative effort pays off.

Your music gets a "thumbs up". People have expressed a liking and/or an interest in it.

 

RASCALS LIVE - MOLINE IL

That's a place to start. Pandora has taught engagement with an audience. They're getting into the mapping environment. They are taking their product to a new level.

Bands take note. Get on you social platform and create maps of where you've been playing. This means promotion for your product. This will give your fans the knowledge of where you've been.  This is a good place to start. This produces a promotion pipe. This builds your brand.

BRAND STRATEGY AND SUCCESS

reader engagement ideas

Do you wish to improve reader engagement? This isn't anything new. This could very well be the top social media issue. I find it more of a tactical issue. You might keep that in mind.

Consider quick links. This allows you to distribute much information. These references are many: public speakers, influencers and authors.

ENGAGEMENT IDEAS:

Write items worth sharing.
Sell your own products.
Reply to comments.
Write great content.
Be actionable.
Offer much information. (Create value)
Have trigger topics.
Comment on many sites.
Build an email list.
Choose narrow topics.
Appeal greatly to a small audience.
Create a system. (Social media system)
Create quality SEO
Write personal stuff.
Find a group of like-minded bloggers.
Join tribes.
Join groups.
Write in a conversational style.
Use Google+ hangouts.
Conduct interviews.
Build your own commenting tribe.
Have a clean site.
Concentrate on copywriting.
Create weekly link roundups.

Learn from this post. Take part in the discussion.

in-image

                                                              

Engagement. A challenge. What can better engagement gives brands? Plenty. How is engagement taken to a new, higher level? That's where the creative community comes in. The creative community is usually open to new, dynamic formats. This is meaningless to brands without delivery to scale.

Engagement has received a profound impact from contextually-related ads on images. Attention is focused on them. These ads have proven better than standard banner ads. New channels are created for advertisers and monetization is created for publishers.

Images need to be understood. Research over the last five years has shown that images are a powerful way to advertise. Have we always doubted that? Apparently so. Even when we have been bombarded with images our whole lives. Perhaps it's putting the image category, as I'll call it, into the online experience.

Technology has come a long way. There are about 5 trillion images online. While not all of them are suitable for advertising, the sheer volume has got to help the contextually relevant ad campaign. To first categorize images, we must first know what images are all about.

There are three basic image "meanings":

• COMPUTER VISION. For purposes of in-image advertising, programmatic image recognition has so far been geared toward automobile i.d., skin detection and facial recognition.
• SEMANTIC ANALYSIS. Information about photos can be identified through meta data.
• HUMAN CLASSIFICATION. Review and enter information about photos.

In-image ads can be served as display overlays or embedded links.

• DISPLAY OVERLAY. Serve a relevant ad during the time a viewer's attention is focused on the ad.

• EMBEDDED LINKS. Embedded links within images can convey more information about a photo and send people to the marketer's site.

Examples of both are at the top of this post.

 Understand with this kind of advertising, there are creative and targeting strategies to consider. Concentrate on engaging the target audience. This will make the experience more consumer relevant.

10 website essentials

10 Essentials Every Small Business Website Needs

Link to the story:http://www.business2community.com/small-business/10-essentials-every-small-business-website-needs-0477425

Engaging video is listed in the story.
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