10 Branding Lessons That Every Business Graduate Should Know (But Doesn't) The conventional wisdom in the business world is that if you want to be an entrepreneur, then you need to get an MBA. The MBA will teach you the principles behind running both young and mature companies, how to avoid mistakes and even the theory needed to build a profitable brand. What’s interesting is that a lot of that advice can be turned on its head or even ignored.
I’m not knocking MBAs—I know they offer a lot of value. But while theory is good, old fashioned practice (learning by doing) really is the best method, and the real world marketplace is the best classroom. So, what I want to offer you today are the lessons that I and other successful business owners and managers have learned through the school of hard knocks. Let’s take a look at ten branding lessons that you won’t learn in graduate school. Lesson #1: Being smart isn’t enough to create a big brand You also have to be a leader. The book was Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence. Lesson #2: Build a cult…not a company. The Anatomy of Going Viral (Infographic) Whether it is a new meme or the Kony 2012 video, every week there is something new online that goes viral and catches everyone’s attention. So what makes something go viral?
Ultimately viral content needs to evoke some type of emotional response from a targeted audience that motivates them to share it with their social networks. Here is how your content can go from one view to millions! Add this infographic embed code to your blog! <a href=" rel="lightbox[4314]" title="The Anatomy of Going Viral"><img src=" alt="The Anatomy of Going Viral"/></a><br /> [Via: <a href=" >Single Grain - A Digital Marketing Agency</a>]
How to Break Into New Markets Using Disruption and Contempt. A 4-Part Branding Strategy For Startups. The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. Ever wonder why some trends take off and others don’t, why some ideas spread like a virus and some just die, why relatively small changes to products, marketing or advertising messages can have huge effects and why significant growth often only comes after a critical mass is reached? In The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell draws on stories as diverse as Paul Revere’s famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington to warn of the British attack, the Reagan/Mondale presidential election campaign, Sesame Street and Blues Clues, the rise and fall of New York City crime rates and the success of the company behind Goretex to illustrate what he calls the three rules of epidemics: - The Law of the Few – a small minority of people contribute most to the dissemination of ideas or messages.
Gladwell categories them as Connectors – people with extensive networks of contacts, Mavens – those with in-depth knowledge, and Salesmen – those who persuade others. 5 Ways For Startups To Grow Their Brands On Twitter. This is a guest post by Ryan Spoon (@ryanspoon), a principal at Polaris Ventures. Read more about Ryan on his blog at ryanspoon.com. Last week I began an effort to answer the questions I get asked most frequently by entrepreneurs, starting with how to create an early-stage pitch deck. Today, I address a topic as relevant for early stage startups (vying for consumer attention) as it is for more mature companies (focused on customer relationships): How to grow your brand on Twitter? Twitter is the ultimate marketing platform. Separating yourself from the masses really begins with the recognition that Twitter is first and foremost a platform for conversation.
And once your goal is to foster conversation and engagement, you can follow these five guidelines: 1. 2. 3. 4. Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish a Book. I’ve published eight books in the past seven years, five with traditional publishers (Wiley, Penguin, HarperCollins), one comic book, and the last two I’ve self-published. In this post I give the specific details of all of my sales numbers and advances with the traditional publishers. Although the jury is still out on my self-published books, “How to be the Luckiest Man Alive” and “I Was Blind But Now I See” I can tell you these two have already sold more than my five books with traditional publishers, combined. If you, the entrepreneur, self-publish a book you will stand out, you will make more money, you will kick your competitors right in the XX, and you will look amazingly cool at cocktail parties.
I know this because I am seldom cool but at cocktail parties, with my very own comic book, I can basically have sex with anyone in the room. But don’t believe me, it costs you nothing and almost no time to try it yourself. A) Advances are going to zero. B) Lag time. C) Marketing. Now, 1. The Unexpected Way To Use Your Social Network Strategically. If it’s a clear night tonight, go outside about 9 p.m. and look west at the two brightest stars, beautiful as jewels, one above the other. Low to the horizon will be the planet Venus, the “evening star,” just beginning to set. Above Venus is the planet Jupiter, the gas giant with more than 60 known moons (and still counting).
Now turn around and face east. Coming up off the horizon you’ll see another jewel, this one quite reddish; that’s Mars, the Red Planet (two tiny moons). On March 3 this year, our Earth (one giant moon) will pass closest to Mars, overtaking it in our orbital race around the Sun. The solar system is a network of planets, each of which has its own network of moons, so it provides a picturesque (if inexact) analogy for social networks, which are also networks of networks. Everyone seems to be on the social media bandwagon now, with the most enthusiastic advocates often competing to build up their networks of Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or LinkedIn connections.
Crisp.