Using the New Media Shift to Your Advantage

Traditional forms of media, such as television, radio, and newspapers, haven’t gone away, but their influence has waned. The most effective business model has flipped from being media-driven (creating something and then broadcasting to get results) to being consumer-driven (listening first, then creating and sharing). You must pay attention to what your target markets are saying in order to create goods and services that meet their needs. If you can succeed at this, your customers will reward you with loyalty and with positive word of mouth, which can help you in a number of ways: If a crisis surrounding your brand erupts online, for example, customers from around the world will automatically vouch for you. And, of course, word of mouth makes for priceless advertising: In a growing number of age groups, consumers look to their online friends’ experiences with a brand or product before they buy.

The consumer-driven business model is a natural business model. After all, listening before you respond is fundamental to basic human communication. Picture two people having a conversation. Ideally, one person listens intently as the other person speaks. The listener does her best to interpret the message correctly (which can be wildly inaccurate if you consider the “telephone” game), takes the speaker’s thoughts into consideration, and then responds with her own message.

This is far superior to the broadcast model. When two people talk at the same time, there isn’t much higher thought being generated on a topic, and they’re certainly not reaching any common ground, which is essential to establishing a real rapport. In this scenario, if real communication happens, it’s a complete accident! You deserve better odds.

As with face-to-face discussions, listening online is a form of love. I know I do better when I listen intently first and then thoughtfully respond. Asking clarifying questions helps a lot too. In this attention-starved culture, listening is a gift, and it will draw faithful, responsive people to you online. By earning people’s trust, you will gain clients, and you’ll also gain friends — people who will speak up on behalf of you when you aren’t around online. That’s pretty powerful stuff.

Employing the familiarity bias to build trust

It’s one thing to connect with people over the products and services you offer, and quite another to make connections so strong your customers feel like family. This is the familiarity bias — people will feel more comfortable about you and your brand when you make them believe they have more in common with you than a passionate love for knitting bicycle seat covers, for example.

The need to build familiarity especially applies when you’re introducing a new technology or a new idea. Brainstorm to determine the characteristics of this idea most people are already familiar with (and feel positive about!). You may also consider forging relationships with thought leaders or already established brands to help your new idea seem safer.

Tailoring your message to short attention spans

Zzzzzzzzzzip! What was that, you ask? It’s the average online reader’s attention span! Experts agree that the average person spends less than one minute looking at a website but will spend hours flitting around on social networks because he can customize his experience.

Go with the attention-span flow and position yourself on as many social networks as possible. In Chapter 8, I show you simple, effective strategies for keeping your head above water while still claiming your brand on as many places as possible online.

If you want your message to be memorable and if you want to maintain your visitor’s attention for longer than a second or two, you need to keep your message and branding simple. The more I work in design and consulting, the more I appreciate the value of communicating your real, unique value proposition in simple terms. It’s more difficult than it seems, but well worth your effort. With people’s lightning-quick attention spans online, you have to hook their interest immediately, and without guesswork. You want your page to have just enough distractions to keep visitors engaged, but not so many that they get overwhelmed and seek a more rewarding experience elsewhere.

Colorful, eye-grabbing graphics and effects have their place, but when overused they become distracting and can make visitors feel awkward and over-stimulated. Still, when you’re trying to attract attention, they can be hard to resist. Just say no.

Instead, follow these rules to make your message instantly memorable:

Keep your message simple and clear. Write in a style that’s more conversational and less like a term paper without losing meaning.

Make sure that all the content you post is consistent with the overall goal of your branding. Personal blogs are wonderful places to discuss shabby chic craft projects, dog-training techniques, and fantastic food finds. Unless your brand is specifically related to such hobbies, however, you’re better off discussing something else. If you must talk about off-brand topics, get yourself a personal blog under a pseudonym and have at it. (See the nearby sidebar, “Hiding your personal-blog identity.”)

Identifying your target audience

If you can’t identify whom you want to influence, then all the time, love, money, and attention you’re lavishing on your online reputation is being mostly squandered.

Identifying your audience is not just for niche brands. Even brands with huge marketing budgets spend a lot of time and money figuring out exactly who their customers are and where to find them. Wal-Mart, for example, owes a lot of its early success to the day somebody defined the target market as people who live from paycheck to paycheck. The rest, as they say, is history. Even if you don’t want to emulate Wal-Mart’s business model, you must agree the thoughtful attention the company pays to its target market is impressive and successful.

If you’re a do-it-yourself (DIY) kind of person (like me!), I suggest the following time-tested advice for discovering who your primary target audience actually is. Although it’s a lot easier to look at somebody else’s brand and arrive at that “Aha!” moment. Mine remained largely elusive for long months after I transitioned from doing web design to brand (online image) consulting. After brainstorming and muddling through for months, I have finally put together this process that really helps:

Create a list of the most wonderful clients you’ve ever worked with. Really think about what makes them tick, why they were such a joy to work with, and why you’d clone them if you could, because the experience was so mutually beneficial and fun.

Now ask yourself:

What do they love?

What do they hate?

Where do they hang out online?

How did you communicate with each other?

In what ways was your product or service exactly what they wanted?

This process can take months, but your answers to these questions will give you the most reliable start.

Protecting your interests

Don’t assume that a disgruntled or sloppy web developer, web designer, or social media agency won’t block internal access to your social media network and website. Before you do business, get a signed agreement that clearly states that all your social media network access and domain access must be in your company’s name with your company’s e-mail as the primary contact.

Sometimes even large, prestigious firms say they write code to fit their proprietary platform and (therefore) own all of it. If a client becomes unhappy with the process and goes elsewhere, he leaves empty handed and with no monetary refund. Read every contract you sign and look out for your own interests.

Co-creating your brand with your fans online

One of the reasons identifying your target audience is so critical to your online reputation is that your audience will be shaping your brand with you in the upcoming months and years. The new-media business model, after all, relies on listening to your customers and then making changes according to their wishes.

Because new media is in a constant state of growth and expansion, your online experience evolves by the minute, and the way you communicate your reputation needs to change with it. By staying close to your ideal client base, you’ll hit the mark more often than you’ll miss and you’ll have a more enjoyable time in the process.

Your best branding should focus intently on the benefit that people most enjoy from associating with you (instead of what you think is the most valuable). Beauty is in the eye of the paying client, er, the beholder.