Think About This: 23 and 1/2 Hours
Aside from being a cool use of video and illustration, this is a powerful and easy message for living healthier.
My Online and Offline Personalities
A couple of weeks ago, a Twitter friend of mine and writer for the Austin American-Statesman, Omar Gallaga, asked a question: “Do you behave differently online than you do offline?” I do not.
If you read Omar’s story and/or watch the video that accompanies it, you’ll see that some do handle themselves differently. Some have more confidence, some feel more freedom to debate and argue issues, some flirt more online than in person.
I have always tried to be as much me as possible both online and off. I interact with clients, friends, coworkers and family all regularly online, and I think someone in that group would quickly call me on it if I wasn’t being authentic.
I have though, since getting online for the first time back in the mid-late 1990s, always conducted myself using one filter: my mother. As I told Omar, whether online or offline: “As long as my mother wouldn’t mind, I’m going to do it.”
Do you behave differently online?
The Photos Made Me Do It
I’m sitting at my desk in my office, keeping one on eye two computers and one eye on the street out front. I’m waiting patiently for my first bushel delivery from Farmhouse Delivery. This week’s delivery is full of sweet corn, pears, sweet potatoes and fresh herbs, all from local farms.
I just learned about Farmhouse Delivery last week, but I’ve been following one of their competitors on Twitter and getting their e-newsletter for over a year now. I would read the contents of the competitor’s delivery basket each week and tell myself “I should sign up and do that.” But I kept hesitating for some reason I never really explored.
So what made me dive head-first into a purchase with Farmhouse Delivery? Same to-my-door service as the competitor. Locally grown produce just like the competitor. Pretty much the same price. I opened both websites side by side and I knew in an instant what it was. The photos. Farmhouse’s photos made me jump and hit the “join” button.
The photos scattered throughout their website — some of vegetables I can’t even identify — made my mouth water. The photos are clean and uncluttered. They look professionally done, not just snapshots thrown up to fill space. I just couldn’t resist having what those photos are selling.
Photos do so much! Good photos can make customers out of casual readers and can make super-fans out of regular customers. They can illustrate, tell a story, evoke emotion, encourage action and rev up the senses. Photos shouldn’t be overlooked or ignored to then later be considered as an afterthought in the design and content planning process.
One year of visiting a competitor’s website and not doing a thing. Two minutes of my time on Farmhouse Delivery’s site and I’m staring out the window like a kid waiting on Santa. I’d say photos are a very important piece of the content puzzle…
Let Me Fascinate You With Power
Last week at Content Marketing World, things were kicked off with a presentation about fascination by Sally Hogshead. She didn’t just get on stage and talk about being fascinating — she’s has done years of research into why consumers are fascinated by certain triggers and what different companies do to fascinate and attract customers. There are seven fascination triggers:
- Power (take command)
- Passion (attract with emotion)
- Mystique (arouse curiosity)
- Prestige (increase respect)
- Alarm (create urgency)
- Rebellion (change the game)
- Trust (build loyalty)
Volvo uses trust. Godiva uses lust. Fedex uses alarm. (“When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.”) Triggers help companies sell products off shelves, persuade shareholders to invest, and convince key employees to stay.
Sally has done so much research into the topic, that she has even devised a test so that everyone who has clients or customers — or even just wants their husband to help with the dishes — can determine which triggers they work best with and which ones they could be utilizing. So, I decided to visit fscoretest.com and see what I had going for me. I expected that Trust would be my primary trigger, the thing that draws friends and strangers and clients to me. I’m reliable and stable after all. I was wrong. (Though Trust was my secondary trigger.)
It’s Power. I’m wielding Power. That was a bit of a surprise.
What wasn’t a surprise for me is that my dormant trigger — the one that I’m not using at all but could — is Rebellion. Give me a deadline; I’m going to meet it. Ask me to RSVP; I promise I will. I put on my seatbelt before I even pull out of the garage. When my results were presented to me, the question was asked: “Should you dial up your Rebellion trigger?” Doing so might help me “tweak boring traditions, shake up dusty routines, and become a more pioneering force for your message.”
It’s all very interesting to me. How can I use these triggers to help in my work at Creek Content? Can I use my Power? Will people continue to Trust me? Should I Rebel and buy a pair of leather pants?
Content Marketing World Ends on a Sweaty, Profanity-Laced High Note
I have a new celebrity crush: Kevin Smith.
Before Content Marketing World, I knew of him, but I can’t say that I knew much about him. Sure, I knew that he made movies and that he had a little conversation on Twitter once about an experience with a certain airline. But today I learned that he is a passionate storyteller, he curses just a bit and he loves every minute of what he does.
During the closing keynote of CMWorld, Smith spoke without taking a breath for about an hour under hot spotlights, looking into a dark room. I could have listened to him for three hours more. He said so much in his time with us.
He told us that Ben Affleck likes to ad lib during filming. He told us about words that Harvey Weinstein said to him years and years ago that still stick with and guide him today. And he told us to surround ourselves with “why not?” people.
Yep, “why not?” people. Those are the people who encourage us, who listen to our ideas and no matter how off-the-wall and wacky those ideas might be, they say “why not?” and stick by our side and offer support as we go for it. So what if you fail or fall short when you try it! So what if it doesn’t work at all! At least you can say you tried, learn a lesson and move on.
His words were so encouraging and inspiring. And he urged us to be encouraging and inspiring to others, to be “why not?” people for those around us. His words — the clean ones at least — have me thinking and dreaming about doing bigger in my own life. Not only in my personal life, but my work life as well. Can I do more with my photography? Why not? Can I think bigger for clients and offer great ideas to them, even if they don’t implement those ideas? Why not? Can I lose another 20 pounds? Why not?
There were so many take-aways in his Q&A with us, I can’t wait to watch it again when the session videos are published to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Plus, he’s so cute in person!
“Being Human Is the New Black”
I wish I could remember who said that this morning at Content Marketing World. I suppose if I were to dig through tweets, I could probably find it. But I’m lazy, my brain is mush and I’m heading to the gym to work up a good sweat before being a bum and ordering room service. But today’s message was clear: It’s not enough for a company to have a blog or tweet. Real people want interaction with other real people.
Day two — our first full day of sessions, networking and eating — went as well as I had hoped and expected. I attended sessions focused on small businesses and storytelling, content marketing to your own internal audiences and even heard a pretty good Grover impersonation. I’ve got pages of notes that I hope I can turn into great blog posts not only for me here but for Creekmore as well. And I think what I’m learning is going to be beneficial for clients too. Maybe by the time I get off of the treadmill, it will all have itself worked into a nice editorial calendar and the posts will just write themselves!
Until then, a few pictures.
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Time to Rock
It’s been a long day — starting with getting up at 4:45 a.m. to catch two flights to Cleveland for Content Marketing World. But it’s been a good day! My flights were smooth and uneventful. My hotel is nice. I’ve already met three other people from Austin, and the opening reception for Content Marketing World at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was great! Somehow I missed Lady Gaga’s meat dress, but seeing some of Janis Joplin’s lyrics in her own handwriting was pretty cool.
The next couple of days are going to be filled with stories about telling stories. And I’ve already got several blog posts brewing. For now, here are a few pictures from day one.
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5 Things to Look Forward to at Content Marketing World
I’m going to Cleveland next week for a conference for work — Content Marketing World. From the looks of the agenda and the buzz around Twitter, it’s going to be an exciting and informative conference. Throw in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hosting the opening reception and Kevin Smith closing us out with a keynote, and I’m guessing some fun will definitely be had!
I’m the only one from Creekmore going, and from what I can tell, no one that I know in Austin is going, but I’m still planning to make the best of it. Although content strategy is what we do every day, content marketing will always hold a special place in my brain and heart. The agenda includes topics such as emotion and storytelling, handling content for highly regulated industries, curation and customer acquisition. I’m going for the awesome agenda and speakers, but there are other things I’m looking forward to, too:
- Lady Gaga’s meat dress in the Hall of Fame.
- Not being wakened at 2 am by a hungry dog.
- 74 degrees — that’s the predicted high for Wednesday!
- Meeting people from the content marketing and strategy industries that I follow on Twitter in real life.
- Room service.
A Thousand Words, Two Hands
Your Home Page Is a Hotel Lobby
When we visit New York City, we try to avoid the chain hotels and stay at the local “boutique”-type places. One of our recent favorites in the Distrikt Hotel. With only five rooms on each floor, it’s quaint and quiet. And the lobby is nice. A full wall of ivy, beautiful mahogany accents and couches that look very comfy. But the 20 seconds that it takes me to walk from the front doors to the elevator is about the most time I’ve spent in the lobby.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with the lobby. It’s modern and lovely, but it’s simply my entry point — the welcome that sends me where I actually want to go (usually up to my room or to the bar). According to a webinar I attended yesterday, the same can be said for your website’s home page.
Christine Perfetti, CEO and principal of Perfetti Media, made the comparison between a website home page and a hotel lobby. And I think she was spot on!
Follow her thinking here: No one comes to a hotel to hang out in the lobby. Sure, it needs to be welcoming. It needs to give you an instant positive impression of the hotel. And it needs to be laid out in a way that allows you to easily find what you’re looking for. But it’s not the place where people tend to show up and linger.
Imagine your site’s home page the same way — whether it be your blog, a corporate site or a small business’ online shopping site. That single page needs to make a great first impression, welcoming readers and visitors and making them instantly feel comfortable visiting your site. But it’s the content behind that home page that ultimately matters, and readers need to be able to get to it. Can they easily find your contact information? Your hours? Your products? Your latest case study? Your most recent blog post? The services you offer?
My mind is spinning with the other hotel-home page analogies that can be made — the elevator as navigation, customer service chat as registration desk, interior pages as different floors. But I leave you to look at your home page and ask yourself this: Does your home page serve as a quick and beautiful hello that then allows visitors to easily find the content they really came for?
