This post is part of a larger series on the important role Influencer Outreach plays in Modern Branding. For the introduction to the series, please go here.

Are you finally getting the hang of this whole Influencer Outreach thing? You’ve identified potential Influencers on the web scene? You’ve checked their Klout Score™? You’re confident they’re spreading messages of significance? You’ve cross-referenced them with other, similar brands?

What is that last element, then, that will make them perfect for you? The last step in assuring they’re the voice you want spreading your word? The answer is finding Influencers empathetic enough to your brand that they feel emotionally compelled to promote it––or what is commonly called Tribe Building in modern ad speak.

1. Figure Out What Makes You “You”

Every brand should strive for a Unique Value Proposition, or more directly, provide something intrinsically different than anything that currently exists. And coincidentally, it’s that which sets you apart that draws others in. Being able to clearly define and articulate what makes you one-of-a-kind will drastically improve your internal and external communication, and allow you to easily disseminate your ideas to others, Influencers included.

Remember: The easier your brand is to emotionally digest, the stronger your tribe’s responsiveness will be.

Moreover, recognizing how and where your brand can align with people’s lives on a deeper level (than say, sellers and buyers) will help you discover Influencers inspired to tell your brand story. They’ll back what you do because you’ll have tapped into something beyond pithy wordplay or compulsion driven imagery. Finding a truly great Influencer means you may be able to organically stimulate their personal investment and passion.

2. Align Yourself with Strong Leaders

Defining what sets you apart may be easy, but it’s also important to know whom you should align yourself with. When searching for your ideal Influencer, listen closely to the language they use. Are they regurgitating someone else’s spiel on their blog, Twitter, and Facebook profile, or are they passionately sending their own message? Thinking their own thoughts? Sharing their own ideas? A great Influencer is both a free thinker and a brand advocate.

Finding a person who shares your message in a way that is authentic to them and their audience will give you and your brand immediate credibility, and it will empower your Influencer in a very intrinsic way. Having liberty over the message will embolden them! It will move them! It’s those –– the Influencers who are inspired by your values, who promote your growth –– who become the essential members of your tribe. And like any other tribe, this collective unit’s goal is to ultimately help the group prosper as a whole. It’s cyber-symbiotic: You win, they win. They win, you win.

These members will do their part in finding more people to bring into the fold. Like a chain reaction, those invested members will go out of their way to initiate more people into the tribe, until you have a thriving, talking, sharing community actively engaged in your little (but quickly growing) brand.

3. Add that Person(al) Touch

More than anything, Tribe Building is common sense. The more emotionally devoted a person is to your brand, the more likely they are to evangelize it on your behalf. Think of all the times a friend has championed a restaurant, movie, or band they loved; and their unsolicited recommendations probably held more sway over you than any advertising that could have been manufactured! Having a group of Influencers that resonates with that same fervor and affinity for your brand will help create interest in what you’re doing and motivate others to check you out as well. They will spread your story like wildfire because they will feel enthused by your vision.

Photo Courtesy of Stonyfield Yogurt®.

The deliciously clever yogurt company Stonyfield implored this tactic in their 2010 Barnstorming Tour promotion. The campaign targeted specific food and health Influencers to spread the word of Stonyfield’s organic yogurts by inviting them to visit the actual farms where their ingredients are grown. On top of the “mud on your boots” experience, the yogurt company gave $5k to the charity of choice for the finalists.

This simple call-to-action encouraged sharing the message, and tapped into the allure of meeting folks who actually grow what people eat––it was a logical carrot to entice their audience. The campaign built a strong community in which people could personally interact with one another, which strengthened their attachment to the brand. As word spread, potential participants poured in. Check out this blogger’s genuine gusto for the opportunity.

By going the extra mile and finding bloggers who were truly enthusiastic about organic farming, Stonyfield created a small army of Influencers tied to the success of the brand. Ostensibly, the yogurt company had built a tribe.

All right. Let’s recap! When Tribe Building, it’s crucial to:

• Find Influencers who you think would share an emotional bond to your brand. Having them form the base of your tribe will guarantee you’ll be supported by members who will work to see your ideas flourish.
• Identify your brand’s Unique Value Proposition and convey that definitively to would-be Influencers. They’ll appreciate that you’re trying to do something different, and are much more likely to board your train if they know you have a game plan that sets you and your brand apart from the crowd.
• Empower your tribe to spread your message as they see fit. If you’ve done your homework and found great Influencers, then their natural tone will lend credibility to what you’re doing. No micromanaging! The more their voice becomes infused with your messaging, the stronger connection other people will have to your brand as it gets passed along.

Ultimately, Tribe Building works because it involves community. It’s people talking to other people. One of the most important aspects of any marketing tool is to remember you’re always dealing with other humans––the same sentiments and appeals you respond to will ring true to them. Sure, the mediums have changed, but the message has not. Despite everything existing online or in the digital clouds, be cordial, be polite, and treat others with respect, and they’ll reciprocate that to your brand.

Finding and empowering the right Influencers will build you a tribe that will be digitally social, human, and unstoppable. Big-budget ad spends can’t buy that kind of cache, but some well placed investment in professional tribe building can. So spend less, do more, and start building your tribe.

Content Specialist

This post is part of a larger series on the important role Influencer Outreach plays in Modern Branding. For the introduction to the series, please go here.

The quality of what people are saying (and what their disciples say) matters when it comes to finding the right Influencer for your brand­­. And being loud is not the same as being an Influencer! Remember that person in school who talked constantly, yet said nothing of value? In the world of digital doers vs. digital sayers, you want people who walk the walk––avoid those who have their message received as gossip and target those whose message is taken as gospel.

Where Do Large Brands “Shop”?
A good tactic to ensure you’re unearthing Influencers who spread worthwhile information is to find proven brands, and check out whom they align themselves with. Your aspirational brands are most likely shooting for the same qualities in an Influencer as you, and they may have recognized a pattern or trend you’re simply not up to speed on. Drafting pacesetters means you get there quicker. And sometimes in life, being willing to stand on the shoulders of a giant is the only way to see as far as you need to.

In short… having one awesome, diamond-in-the-rough Influencer is worth more to your brand than twenty chatterboxes.

Do They Speak Your Language?
Every brand should have a distinct tone and feel to its voice; its own vernacular that makes its value promise more relatable, believable, and attractive to its target audience. Maybe your brand is confident and professorial? Perhaps it’s silly and good-natured? Whatever your brand’s attitude, your Influencer should be a direct extension of that––they are a brand partner in many ways. Do a little legwork here. Be thorough! The time you spend researching the ins and outs of your Influencer will payoff tenfold when they accurately articulate your brand’s mission with just the right expressiveness and tone.

How about a real world example?

Long before Ford was set to bring back its reinvented sub-compact, it launched the 2009 “Fiesta Movement”. This campaign gave 100 vehicles to web-savvy “millennials”: young adults born after 1979. Ford understood that some 70 million millennials would be driving when they launched the Fiesta –– and 77% of them use social media –– so Ford picked 100 driving Influencers and gave them a Fiesta for six months. The caveat was these “agents” had to share (online) their experiences as they took part in monthly missions.

Influencer Paul Stamatiou takes a photo of his unintentional crash test. Photo courtesy of http://paulstamatiou.com.

In a matter of months, the program generated 4.8 millions views of YouTube videos and 3.4 million Twitter impressions. Ford knew who they were selling to and used them to generate buzz around their product. Check out this Influencer’s take on the ride. Pretty honest.

Go Big or Go Home
Don’t be afraid to dream a little big as well! Too often, brands (especially smaller ones) will make the mistake of not pursuing those whom they consider to be the perfect catch––their reputed Big Fish of Influence. You’re in the same ocean as everyone else, and the only way to make a palpable connection may be to go for it. Good things come to those who ask. And if you want a little statistical courage, think of all the other brands out there not getting in your message’s way because they won’t be trying.

3 Keys to Assuring Your Influencers Are Saying the Right Things:

• Take the time to learn whom other brands are listening to. Who inspires your heroes? Who is doing a great job getting their message out? Taking a cue from those that have been there before isn’t just smart, it’s responsible.

• Establish that your targets are saying thoughtful, poignant things when they speak. And make sure those that are following them have some level of insight as well. Spreading your message to the masses doesn’t help if those masses won’t care.

• It’s okay to think large. Gigantic, exponentially large, if necessary! Go after those who you know can get your brand’s message out, no matter how out of reach they may initially seem.

When you think you’ve found the right person –– whose communication is worthwhile and aligned with your brand voice –– make sure you approach them with the tact and courtesy you would reserve for any other professional relationship. These are allies in your success. Cohorts in your brand’s ubiquity! As this series continues, we’ll dig into how to fine-tune your messaging to the strengths of your advocates, and how to assure they’re emotionally invested in your brand’s success.

Content Specialist

This post is part of a larger series on the important role Influencer Outreach plays in Modern Branding. For the introduction to the series, please go here.

The first step to reaching Influencers (who can provide a tangible lift for your brand) is learning how to single them out amidst the Internet buzz. This may seem like finding needles in haystacks initially, but a true trendsetter has the ability to make an announcement and generate a spike of activity in the digital world, similar to the wake created when a large ship passes by. These spikes can be measured in the form of how many people are in that person’s sphere of influence. Once you recognize the spikes, you can spot the Influencer creating them.

Locating these ripples in the digital abyss doesn’t require a web-psychic or a ton of intern legwork either. There are great tools that already exist that rate and categorize Influencers on the Internet. Here’s a free plug for one of the best: Klout®.

Klout® is a website in which people are given a number score based on their audience, the channels they frequent, and the true amplification of their messaging. For a fee, Klout® will even cultivate a list of Influencers within your self-designed niche. (There are other effective software programs and web processes out there that measure a person’s social influence, but currently, Klout® has the most… well… clout.)

How Heavy Hitters Are Leveraging Klout®
Using Klout® saves you time in identifying who matters and who doesn’t. And some pretty big names have already jumped on the brand wagon. This year, Audi ran a special San Francisco event where targeted Social Media users were given the opportunity to test drive the 2011 A8. The invited few were identified by Klout® as Influencers in the fields the automobile manufacturer has a stake in: cars, technology, consumer buying habits, etc. One special blogger even won a weekend trip chock full of driving––a sort of romantic getaway for the user and the car. By using Klout® to find the participants, Audi hedged their bets on the premise that these Influencers would write honest and persuasive thoughts about the event, about the Audi brand, and specifically the 2011 A8.

Their logic is simple: Genuine, positive insights from Influencers drive (pun intended) sales.

And Audi isn’t the only one to tap into these Klout Perks® programs. Influencers of the movie-going public were given the opportunity to see a private screening of NBC Universal Picture’s The Adjustment Bureau before it hit theaters. Prominent computer/technology bloggers were sent a HP Pavilion dm1-3020us Entertainment Notebook loaded with movies premiering at the Cinefest 2011 film festival. In both cases, the brands were banking on these select individuals to get the word out on the products they just used.

Kutcher's high score comes not only from his celebrity, but also from his advocacy for tech. startups. (Photo courtesy of Klout.com)

Klout® even released a list of celebrity chefs with their social scores, explaining that when these cuisine authorities tweet about a specific restaurant or post a recipe, their foodie followers move the needles.

Knowing Where Cool Kids Hang
Determining who is popular has always been a necessary and difficult task when branding, the only thing that’s changed is mediums! We know what you’re thinking.

And yes, it is kind of like high school. Except instead of counting the number of friends a person is surrounded by at the lunch table, you’ll identify how many friends, fans, or subscribers they have on Facebook®. How often are others commenting on their blog? Do they have a lot of Twitter® followers? All of these are great indicators of a person’s reach (or how many people they can digitally touch).

3 Keys to Identifying True Influencers Online:

• Make sure you look for a person who generates a tangible buzz after they disseminate something online. A genuine response within their sphere of influence means they are true Influences.
• Use the awesome and cheap analytical tools out there to measure a person’s true influential worth whenever possible. If several databases say the person have a high score, then they’re definitely worth your time.
• Always target a potential person who is fluent across various mediums (Facebook®, Twitter®, etc.) and who has a great following. True Influencers may prefer one to another, but they understand that the best way to be heard is to speak through as many channels as possible.

Once you find these Influencers, it is important to have a plan and the resources in place to build and nurture their relationship with your brand. They are after all, the potential spokesperson for your message. Our future posts will provide insights on how to maximize your outreach efforts, and what to say when you do make contact.

Content Specialist

If you’re one of the seven people who haven’t been on the Internet for a decade (and if you are, Welcome Back!), you’re probably a little overwhelmed by what it has become. Stunned by all the websites and the traffic being driven to things that weren’t relevant a year ago, let alone ten? You may have noticed almost every major brand, person, and pet now has their own Facebook® profile. Many have their own Twitter® handle, and possibly a blogging site where they write their thoughts, share photos, or pass on information they find useful. To state the obvious: It’s freaking crowded out there.

Social Media may have flooded the world with a torrent of information, but reading our proverbial tealeaves will weed out the winners from the whiners.

Despite everyone jockeying for the attention of everyone else, it’s actually become easier for small or mid-sized brands to have their messages heard. PR stunts, favorable reviews, and traditional marketing plans just don’t have the same impact on the everyday consumer they used to, and the days of giant agencies monopolizing the People’s Vote are over. Buyers now dictate what story they want to tell and how they want to tell it. This shift means little guys have the opportunity to find their voice amongst the throngs. Big ideas from small places can, for the first time, approach an audience on the same playing field as well-funded competitors.

There are also fresh, outside-the-box techniques that tap into this growing stratosphere––they use the online social world to sing praises for brands who get it right, and jeer those who don’t get it at all. Think of it as the modern word-of-mouth phenomenon! Understanding these marketing tactics means your brand can get its message out without resorting to an online shouting match, or spending tons of money advertising to people you hope will take what you say as meaningful.

One of the most effective, new tools of the trade is Influencer Outreach. Influencer Outreach is simply finding the right people –– who have the right voice, following, and emotional inspiration –– to help spread your brand across their online community. This practice should be an integral aspect of any contemporary agency, as it places the brand directly into the hands of those who can help launch it.

Like anything new, though, Influencer Outreach doesn’t come without its challenges. Understanding the best practices that shape the act, and how to avoid its hidden pitfalls are crucial to success. Luckily, modern branding is what we do best.

We have identified a few best practices to guide brands efforts in Influencer Outreach, including:

• Not Everyone Online Is a True Influencer – Every market has key individuals able to sway opinion and drive action, and the effort to identify the people who are fluent across mediums and can generate a response is critical.

• It’s Important Influencers Say the Right Thing(s) – The quality of what people are saying online matters––being loud is not the same as being an Influencer.

• Build a Tribe of Enthusiasts – Find Influencers empathetic enough to your brand that they feel emotionally compelled to promote it––or what is commonly called Tribe Building in modern brand speak.

In a series of upcoming blogs, we’ll outline some of the beginning steps to help guide you on this path, and teach you how to figure out whose ears are worth whispering into. 

Brand Characters are proven successful in becoming the voice of the brand. The Jolly Green Giant, Aflac Duck, Geico Gecko, Michelin Man and Tony the Tiger are several successful examples. Leading with a brand character as the primary medium to deliver the brand’s message pillars requires the character’s personality and the manifestation of this personality to be as defined and focused as the brand position itself.

In my 22 years of branding at MicroArts, we’ve launched a few brand characters that became brand phenoms such as “Doc” for Xerox (he is very successful and prominent in their OCR product line). Doc (short for Document) and his girlfriend “Page” have one job and one job only…to demonstrate the new features to be launched in the OCR product line, which of course would be the 3 primary why-to-buy statements behind upgrading your OCR technologies.

Then we launched Zac, the caped-super mouse for the wildly successful Zac Catalog. Zac too is laser focused in his purpose and personality. He tells you about each product with no marketing speak, no BS, Zac tells it like it is, everything good about the product and everything not so good. His opinion is trusted by millions of consumers. Zac was acquired by one of the big publishers and went multi-lingual. I think he was sold for around $30 million or so, not bad for 4 years work. I miss Zac he is a cool dude. His original owner is a great guy too, wherever in the Caribbean Scottie might be. I digress…more on brand characters.

We are crafting a new brand character for a great brand that is well on its way to becoming a household name iconic for being the undisputed best in its product category. This is an exciting time for our agency, which prompted me to write this down and once again totally immerse my mind’s eye into the creation of a brand character. Let’s start at the beginning…

A brand character has forever represented many household brand names in the form of an endless success story. In many well-known cases, the brand character was introduced at the inception of the brand. I suspect, in most successful executions, the brand character had to plan their “life” within the brand. Once we cement our to-market strategy for the brand character, we can then detail the action plan and bring her/him to life.

To set the stage, let’s take a look at the world of brand character strategies around us.

In some cases brand characters symbolize the creator of the brand (Johnny Walker, Sara Lee, even our neighbors at Lindt, leverage a Mr. Lindt character in Europe). In other cases, the character symbol and personality exudes the brand’s direct differentiating benefit and qualities like Snuggles Bear, Mr. Clean and the Michelin Man (who is puffy to feel like a cushion of safety and exclusively talks about the safety benefits of their tires). Then, some strategies are focused exclusively at the emotional connection between the brand and target demographic. A good example here is Tony the Tiger (They’re Greaaaaat!), he wants you to “eat” great but more importantly he is the “feel” great, “go get ‘em Tiger!” which is why you should “Start your day with Tony.” Finally, some characters are stuck in the middle of these strategies as opposed to picking and sticking to one in order to own it. I won’t slam those brands, at the moment they are already hurting enough.

I find in most successful character strategies [massive media spends aside], there is one, sometimes two target demographics to appeal to. We’ve launched a Monster Maker brand character that speaks to Moms’/ Parents’ sensibilities while still enticing and appealing to children. Easy enough. We recently inherited a brand character that had to appeal to every demographic, Moms, College Types, Seniors, Execs, Org-types, Teenagers, Teachers, Researchers and Greenies (just to name a few, there are many more). Who set this strategy? I call this the hot dog strategy…it has so much stuff in it that it becomes bland, like a hot dog, so the agency starts tossing relish, onions, mustard on it to try to make it appealing. Our challenge, creating a brand character appealing to all, could get generic and unfocused due to an over-extended purpose. These brand characters die. And this was ultimately our recommendation to this client.

In most strategies the brand character speaks volumes for public perception of the parent brand’s identity, in these examples characters were chosen in fact as brand portraits. They represent the brand’s traits and features in the etymological sense by delivering the brand name’s origin or word history.

In this brand character’s case, I believe the character is not the brand, but rather the manner in which the parent brand voices its own characteristics…its “brand pillars” if we want to use fancy pants speak. To offer an analogy using a human brand character, Michael Jordon is not the Nike brand, however, having offered his face, abilities and attitude, he demonstrates the manner Nike [origin: Goddess of Victory] can be perceived at a given period of time in the brand’s history. Our new brand character will speak volumes about the brand personality and the relationship it builds with the public. For example, Ronald McDonald is patient and happy, he is the kindly uncle with whom one learns and plays…and eats. Our character must, like Ronald, maintain a consistent message and focus through time. Once the message is widely known, it can expand because “people” grow, but not change. For example: the Ronald McDonald House is an example of a character’s personality expansion.

So I ask our team, who is this brand character? How do you guys want to define this brand character? We have some of this nailed, but there are still empty buckets that need filling.

What is its name?

Is it male? Female? Can you tell?

What is its purpose?

Where does it live, not live? Will this change over time?

What is its personality traits (no more than 6)?

Show me a drawing of this iconic ally depicting these 6 personality traits

Now, plan the character’s life. Walk me though 5 life situations this character will depict…make sure these dovetail with the parent brand’s messaging pillars.

More on this soon…back to work.

It’s really not a phenomenon. It’s human nature. To share that is.

But think about the last time you forwarded a link to a friend, bunch of friends, colleague… your family… Whether it be a You Tube, website URL or even a “story” you heard about a national brand. Perhaps you may social bookmark web pages to promote its content for the greater good. Or maybe you RSS your favorite sites or leverage Twitter to stay in the know.

The common link, no pun intended here, is that its human nature to share “Discoveries.”

My guess is that you’ve never forwarded any web content that you think there is chance that the recipients have possibly seen it before. Interesting isn’t it. So basic yet fundamentally it is true. Humans share discoveries.

So the key is to be discovered. That’s the art to this science. How can your brand be carefully seeded so you are discovered, and therefore forwarded – again and again?

We do this everyday for our client’s brands. Call it social branding. There, now it has a name too. Fun job huh?

Need to convey key brand messages to your target markets and user groups while making your website extremely visible for the search engine terms and concepts driving new business? If the answer is yes, you definitely want to consider executing an SEO press release.

Why SEO Press Releases?

Every month more than 27 million people in the United States are visiting online outlets such as Google News, Yahoo! News and MSN News to find information around their interests.
According to Neilsen/NetRatings, the unique audiences of Yahoo! News and Google News now rival the online audiences of other current events global news destinations such as CNN and the BBC. By optimizing your press releases you are creating a strong presence within the areas in which your prospects frequently visit. Below are some recent numbers related to online news searching;

Use of search engines among the press and public:

128 million American adults go online
-88% use a search engine to find information
-70% get news

54% of American adults go online daily
-31% use search engines
-26% get news

98% of journalists go online daily
-92% for article research
-81% to do searching
-76% to find sources/experts
-73% to find press releases

Advantages of SEO Press Release:

• Generate value adding and highly favored links by Search Engines
• Attain higher keyword rankings
• Reach prospects, leads, customers, bloggers and industry influencers
• Get publicity and targeted traffic
• Target all interested audiences
• Enable tracking for new pickups and coverage

Best Practices for SEO Press Release Creation:

1. Get your SEO in gear and properly extend it–prior to drafting your release you should have identified all of the keywords and search concepts that are valuable traffic generators in the form of a keyword portfolio. If you don’t have a keyword portfolio in place we strongly recommend having one created.

   Using your keyword portfolio you should identify your top 3 “champion” keywords or phrases that are consistently driving leads into your site. Also, you should look for a few words that need a little extra boost, these might be your long-tail keywords or the words that provide solid engagement and could use a jump in the search engines.

2. Get yourself ready in the Social Media sphere–If you haven’t done so already setup some accounts in Digg, Delicious , Reddit etc. Also, look for additional areas you can set up interested groups that are ready to consume news like a Facebook page or group, a LinkedIn group or even Yahoo! answers. All of these areas will help you boost the viral potential of your news.
3. Do a web brainstorm–using the general topic or basis of your release do some related digging online. What are competitors doing? Who is talking about related news? Where is related news appearing?

   Using this information think about how you can start weaving a web around your release by including additional keywords, references or links to examples. Try to imagine if your release was submitted on a stand-alone web page. How could you create ways for people to find it using relevant terms, links and references?

4. Create your release–Using what you have collected within steps 1 and 3 with the contents of your news story will be the keys to success. Below we have shared the exact guidelines and best practices to follow when creating your release:
   • Make sure to use anchor links within your release
   • Keep it newsworthy–don’t try to do to much
   • Add keywords identified in step 1 where possible
   • Use at least one champion keyword in your release headline
   • Make sure keyword density stays appropriate, 8-15% is good
   • Use information collected in step 3 for additional viral opportunities
   • Use targeted landing pages to pay off any long-tail keywords
   • Quote individuals or industry leaders to reinforce and support your story if possible

• Submit and “Viralize–In this last step you will want to distribute your release to all areas that will deliver awareness and engagement with the desired places. We recommend using a wire service like PRNewsire or PRWeb to hit your major targets. Using these services you can pick a number of different distribution options and formats that will work best for your release. In addition to using a wire service we recommend putting together a VIP list of bloggers, media and editorial contacts, friends, and prospects that would be interested in you news.
  As soon as you have submitted your release you should make sure it is up on your website and include a share this toolbar at the bottom so every visitor has the opportunity to bookmark and share your release. Make sure to follow-up to see where you story has been submitted so you track the popularity and share with additional contacts.

We encourage you to contact the MicroArts PR and Internet Marketing team when thinking about doing your next release. We will work with you in following the best practices shared within this post and take a few extra steps to ensure we create the biggest splash for your next piece of news.

Google results are the dominating manners in which your potential customers feast on your facts, other’s opinions and the media’s hubbub about your brand. Clearly, it’s a powerful brand awareness advantage if your search results placement yields 100% or 1000% more readership than your competition about your brand’s promise of superior value. Not to mention, revenues.

Soon…conversations in highly specialized social communities, the Technorati-like blog-o-spheres, will be leveraging more sophisticated Digg-like taxonomies to deliver the most relevant facts, opinions, videos and media noise around your brand and the search terms surrounding your brand. You’ll come to call it “participatory media and content.” It’s happening. Count on it. (Yeah, that sentence hurts my head too.)

We know the Internet is constantly changing and evolving. For the better. All searches queried by your potential customers will be yielding more personally-relevant results to them. How great is that?

A key to being a dominating brand in generating free online traffic, boiled down to almost nothing:

Offer free, personally-relevant content to your brand’s potential customers on the web.

Content that must somehow directly exude or indirectly illustrate your brand’s ability to deliver its differentiating value proposition in a manner that is tangible and believable.

That’s it. Go do it.

This basic content creation discipline on behalf of your brand must be ongoing. In other words, your brand’s supporting content must evolve at the same break neck speed as your business itself. Do this, and no matter how the Internet search result’s taxonomy technology improves, your brand will be positioned for traffic generation dominance.

To me, this really requires nothing more than Internet Public Relations, or what we lazily call iPR.

iPR is simply the combination of your Old School Public Relations [OSPR] content creation, your Search Engine Optimization [SEO] and Social Media Optimization [SMO] strategies into one dovetailed effort. It’s sensible, since at their core they are both based upon – you guessed it,

‘Offering free, personally-relevant content to your brand’s potential customers and followers to consume both online and offline.’

It’s not necessarily sensible that you have 3 different agencies working on developing this content.The job of managing message consistency makes my head hurt.

Success in OSPR, SEO & SMO nets the same success for your brand’s website, your business. Whereby, the start of your sales process is initiated:

More brand awareness of your superior difference
> More web traffic
> More qualified traffic
> More customers
> More revenues
> More brand knowledge
> Bigger EBITDA multiple
> Get one step closer to brand ubiquity

Sure, OSPR content creates is clear, concise, bulletproofed and validated announcements for editors to consume. And of course, SEO strategies are employed to digitally influence algorithmic machines so to speak [Google, etc.] for higher-ranking results. Lastly, SMO strategies are employed to digitally influence web people in communities et-al.

Yet, the end result for both is the same. More web traffic…

To make your brand’s differentiating value proposition more tangible, more believable, “package” its personally-relevant content in as many forms the web empowers us to do so:
> Brand success case studies in download print
> Brand success case studies in video
> Blogs, forums, white papers, silver papers {what’s this?}
> Viral videos
> Emailed “spoon fed” pitches to analysts and media
> Optimized PR pitch stories
> Optimized PR releases
> Internet PR [iPR]
> Digital sales collateral
> Webinars
> E-Newsletters
> A creative social media program

There is more, but I don’t want to bore you. The point is, go craft a ton of meat and potato content and then give it your iPR and creative team to package it into outreach programs for your brand.

It works. [Google: Brand Launch Agency or Creative Agency, what comes up? ]

If you don’t have the time or expertise, team up with a disciplined, progressive rand creative agency to dive into your head and deliver.

In North America 66% of the population polled believed that citizen created content online is a trustworthy source of information.

This study reaffirms the need to focus remains on building brand evangelist’s and providing them the means to create content and share opinions in the online world. Doing so can create higher levels of awarness, trust, and increase purchase consideration.

Customer evangelists are people who advertise for your product without (monetary) compensation. They are key for a company’s true success, for they represent satisfied and devoted customers. To evangelize your own product, or create customer evangelists, you must (a) create an idea, (b) differentiate from the market, and (c) construct a model whose base is the customer.

Why is this so important to do today? Web 2.0 mediums and applications enable evangelists to easily create content around your brand and share it with the world in a matter of minutes. Digital Evangelism is where traditional word-of-mouth hits the web running and spreads via the creation of unique content within a highly connected world. It is essential for all online companies to provide the right mix of tools an spaces to capture the energy of brand evangelists. Using tools such as blogs, wikis, and forums as well as creating a presence in existing mediums can help businesses leverage the power of and create digital evangelists for their brand.