Calmstock

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

I operate in two worlds. By day (and often into early evening) I craft brand-focused communication programs for a variety of mission-driven organizations. By night (and often into early morning) I write, perform and record with a band as part of Boston’s vibrant independent music scene.

There’s always been a synergy between the two, as I often draw on my marketing and branding experiences while managing promotions for my bands. The last year or so, however, I’ve noticed the tables have turned a bit.

Nowadays, however, I find myself bringing my DIY music marketing experiences to bear on my branding projects at Sametz. Music blogs focused on independent artists have become an excellent source for current thinking on building connections in our increasingly noisy, fragmented world.

With limited resources, independent bands must make the most of every opportunity. At the same time, they’re less encumbered by red-tape and drawn-out decision making processes, and more willing to take calculated risks. As a result, musicians and bands are out in front of many mainstream marketers. Consider… Read more »

A new demo, and perhaps a Longwalls song to be.

It’s about leaders, survivors, lovers, martyrs, and traitors… in that order.

Enjoy!

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

I live out of my Victorinox messenger bag.

Me and my Victorinox have walked every corner of this city. It’s been with me on planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia.

And then, last week, while crossing Tremont Street here in the South End, one of the metal rings that connects the shoulder strap to the bag gave way. The 1/4 inch metal had completely severed! My bag fell to the ground, its contents strewn about in the middle of the street. Fudge.

Sitting in my office an hour later the realization began to set in. How the hell am I going to operate without my bag? I logged on to the Victorinox website looking for repair info and quickly found a service phone number.

Great! I just need my receipt and registration card, right? Read more »

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Have you ever thought of your brand that way?

Think about it…

Independent media channels provide a distinct voice, and view the world through a particular lens not shared by others. Independent media channels engender trust and loyalty, giving audiences reasons to connect above and beyond particular programs.

Your brand can––and should––do the same!

You’re a content publisher, after all. Your brand, by way of your website, blog, e-newsletter, Twitter stream, YouTube channel, and Facebook wall provides a mosaic of content that audiences (ideally!) find engaging, useful, and worth talking about to others.

And out there on the inter-webs, information disseminated solely in support of commerce doesn’t cut it. You have to engage and hold your audience’s attention. In fact, your ability to engage––to spur people to respond in some way and come back for more––is more important to brand-building and your bottom line than anything you say about your programs, products, or services.

Why? The web has rolled content, commerce, and entertainment into one. Going forward, successful brands––for profit, non-profit, retail and B2B alike––will be those whose audiences view them as an independent media channel… providing a differentiated mosaic of content that engages, entertains, and encourages action.

Is your channel coming in clear? Does your mosaic of content reflect a greater “picture” of your brand people can understand and connect with?

Some tips…

Continue reading at ‘Round the Square >>

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Storytelling has been with us since our earliest days. And while methods have changed over time, the power of a good story endures.

Why?

As a means of engendering common beliefs; exploring our fears; gathering context from history; celebrating prosperity, beauty and love… well, storytelling just works.

Stories move us, shape our beliefs, and carry our history forward ––and most importantly, they’re easy to share, and they stick.

As referenced by Roger Sametz in his seminal Storytelling through design (PDF) article for the Design Management Institute, storytelling expert Stephen Denning¹ tells us:

Storytelling is natural and easy and entertaining and energizing. Stories help us to understand complexity. Stories can enhance or change perceptions. Stories are easy to remember…and engage our feelings…Storytelling enables individuals to see themselves in a different light, and accordingly take decisions, and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities.

This is why storytelling is so critical to brand building. After all, thoughtfully planned, well executed, brand-focused communications should ultimately work to influence thinking and behavior––in your favor.

With the proliferation of social media platforms, and the emerging practice of intentional content strategy, it’s apparent the power of a good story is more relevant than ever. The “hows” of delivering stories through myriad communication channels is a post for another day, though.

For now, let’s concentrate on how to collect and refine your brand stories.

Continue reading at ‘Round the Square >>

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Putting customers first, and brand second, can be somewhat of a tough pill to swallow for marketers.

Sure, most understand the need to build communities around their brands, and to nurture those who cluster around the experiences their brands enable. For many, however, it largely remains lip service. Marketers talk about putting customers first, yet many continue to focus on the more transactional tactics of marketing products, programs, and services to build their brand.

They’re missing out.

Human nature doesn’t drive us to connect with brands. Rather, people desire a sense of connection with other people. (Does anyone really love Facebook? What people do love is the easy means of connection Facebook affords.) Your brand, informed by those communities around it that matter most, is a means to an end—a platform for interaction among like-minded individuals.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Armed with new tools, and more timely constituent information than has ever been available before, businesses (nonprofits and for-profits alike) can effectively put people first and build their brands in the process—increasing loyalty, decreasing costs, and bringing important feedback and new ideas to the fore.

A few things to keep in mind:

[Continue reading at 'Round the Square]

[Orginally posted at Dysonsound]

For the past few years new media guru Chris Brogan has practiced the “My 3 Words” exercise to guide how he conducts his many efforts in the coming year. The idea is to chose 3 resonant words around which you set goals and develop projects. Given our increasingly over-complicated world, I found this to be a fresh way to plan my year as an indie musician and marketer.

As winter turned to spring I began to realize how perfect this exercise is for the indie musician. We’re bombarded every day with new tools, new platforms, new “best” practices. new opportunities and new challenges. “My 3 Words” is a great way to make sense of it all, providing a means to organize, prioritize, and focus. So, without further adieu, my 3 words for 2010 continue to be…

Content. Network. Equity.

Continue reading at Dysonsound >>

[Co-written with Roger Sametz; originally posted at Sametz.com]

Connecting your value and values to those of your constituents can give youa leg up.

The nonprofit world is a crowded one, and it’s only becoming more so. According to the Independent Sector, there are more than 1.4 million 501c3 organizations operating in the United States, and from 1998 to 2008, the number of charitable organizations registered with the IRS grew by 73 percent.

As the number of nonprofit organizations increases, so does the difficulty of raising funds. And with costs rising and support from foundations and government agencies flat or declining, more and more organizations are seeking to diversify revenue streams. They are working to increase earned income by appealing to a wider set of constituencies through an ever-expanding array of communication modes—all while trying to bolster the flow of unearned dollars from foundations, corporations, government, and individual sources. Building and sustaining this income mix is a complicated job, and no component is more important to current success and long-term sustainability than realizing the potential of significant support from individual donors.

Of course, it seems every organization is trying to boost its individual donor efforts. Competition for major donors is fierce, the landscape is cluttered and increasingly noisy, and every dollar secured is hard fought.Success is about knowing who your friends are and, perhaps more importantly, who they could be. Raising money from people whose values and personal vision align with yours—people with whom you can have a dialogue—is a lot more fruitful than simply making “asks.” Before you can raise funds, you need to raise friends.

Continue reading at Sametz.com >>

[Originally posted at Marketing profs]

You’ve done your homework and designed a strategic brand program. You’ve found insight through research, learned what makes your constituents tick, established a strong brand foundation, developed a framework for messages, and evolved a system for visual expression—all necessary to help your organization realize its goals and vision.

Now it’s time to build.

An Architecture of Action

So how do you translate your planning and strategy into tactics that drive desired outcomes?Although you can define your brand in a corner conference room, it doesn’t really exist unless your constituents “get it.”

For that to happen, you need communications—both outbound and inbound, articulated and acted out. And those communications must address the needs and opportunities presented by target communities; they must help people see their personal brand in the context of your corporate one; and they must get the right information to the right people, in the right format, at the right cost, at the right time.A “communications architecture” is your best tool for planning and then executing the communications most likely to achieve those goals—and eliminating the ones that aren’t.

Continue reading at Marketing profs >>

[Originally posted at Marketing Profs]

Know whom you serve, and why they care.

Much more than just “your customers” or “your audience,” your constituents are all the people for whom your work is meaningful—the internal and external populations whose interest, participation, and advocacy are important to your stability, growth, and long-term success.

Many of these people know you through your products, programs, and services—or because they’re staff or volunteers—but some know you only through how you communicate and through the reviews, posts, tweets, and comments of others.

Whether you’re a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise, your goal is to have relationships with your constituents—to move beyond transactions. But as your organization evolves and engages in more areas of endeavor (it’s rare for a business to do one thing these days), the challenge is to start and nurture more relationships than ever before.

Doing so successfully requires that you have two-way conversations with your constituents—dialogues. It’s not enough to push out communications from headquarters. To have conversations that are meaningful, you need to know who your constituents really are. You need to learn what they care about, what moves them, what keeps them up at night, how they like to be communicated with, and what your value to them is—or could be.

Read more at Marketing Profs >>