Let your brand do the talking by producing stories that your audience cares about.
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I didn’t ask for an assessment of my brand, but during a conversation with B.O.L.D member Rashaun “DJ Reezey®” Williams, who recently made world history by being the youngest content producer published by the London-based news platform Niuzly.com, I got one.
“Techbook Online has an aggressive, yet gentle voice,” he said, noticing that for public figures that do wrong the content produced about them is of a harsh tone, whereas those folks who are changing the world get a warm, fuzzy post, one worthy of a print-out and a spot on the fridge.
His comments were spot on, as Techbook Online has intentionally developed an original voice that’s clearly recognizable, unapologetic, versatile, and consistent.
So as I ponder about what meaningful message I want to present today to the more than 50 executive directors, program developers, young professionals and government and corporate officers at the OIC 50th Anniversary Celebration and Conference—where I will offer my expertise on leveraging content and social media to attract stakeholders—it only makes sense that I elaborate on how to get your brand to talk and an audience to listen.
This time last year Techbook Online was a hyper-local publisher of news and events in Philadelphia, with a unique, yet not fully fleshed-out voice. A year later—after strategic investments in research and development, narrowing in on a target audience, finding our voice and then using it to produce stories that people care about—we’ve seen the traffic towww.techbookonline.com stabilize and increase 50%, the circulation of our original content grow up to a 100 million readers a month across channels and platforms, the brand expand internationally, and our talent roster grow from one to twelve, with us recently electing our first female to the Board of Leaders and Doers, a world-class roster of thought-leaders, subject-matter experts and active citizens who produce content across disciplines and platforms.
Establishing, diversifying, and amplifying our voice—and by proxy, the causes we care about—was the sole reason B.O.L.D was developed in late 2013, it’s the direct action behind Techbook Online’s corporate mantra: Together we can write an end to the world’s toughest problems.
Additionally, Techbook Online, a millennial-led marketing and news organization, firmly believes that serving the public is no longer enough; rather the public we serve must first be assembled and given a voice.
That core value influenced the brand’s product development and outreach strategy: create non-rival knowledge goods by strategically clustering talent and leveraging their unique thought-leadership and experiences into narratives.
By executing the strategy flawlessly, the eco-centric technology brand within a year now enjoys a modest footprint in the E-publishing business, with our most popular publication, Minding Climate Change: A Call to Action, being downloaded nearly 3,000 times since April 22nd – with 50% of downloads coming from the first week.
Furthermore, The Black His-Story Book: A Collection of Narratives from Black Male Mentors—which we published in the first week of February, after successfully running a storytelling campaign with GoodMenProject.com in January celebrating National Mentoring Month—has been downloaded more than 5,000 times over the last five months.
What we’ve learned from the numbers—other than a large part of our audience is made up of black men and those that love them, and tree huggers with an affinity for digital content—is that getting a brand to talk is a simple as understanding what the brand’s audience wants to hear, which means spending quality time with them and doing more listening than talking. And in terms of getting an audience to listen, that’s easy: let them ignite conversations on the appropriate platforms and as a natural instinct they’ll invite their friends; it’ll be your job to retain them though.
Getting your brand to talk requires it first has something relevant and timely to say. Convincing an audience to listen requires you first become familiar with their lifestyle, and then produce content that enriches and adds value to their lives, either through knowledge sharing, advice, timely news and information, or good ‘ole fashion entertainment.
The moral of this story is two-fold: wherever there’s content there’s a need to socialize and optimize to facilitate attraction, engagement and sharing; and wherever there’s people there’s an opportunity to produce content by leveraging their voice.
If people make the world go around, it’s their stories that keep us balanced. If corporations are people, the brand is their personality. And if building, maintaining and growing your audience is of the utmost importance to you, leveraging your network into narratives that facilitate the conversation online and the collaborations on the ground should be what you invest your time and money into.
As an entrepreneur, you work hard enough; so let your brand do the talking!
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™