In the digital world, six months equals six years.  That’s how fast things are changing.  As digital media becomes more intertwined in our lives, everyone’s expectations continue to grow.  

With 17 new forms of digital media (if not more), the internet can better approximate, and sometimes exceed, real world experiences.  We are far past just posting information on the web about our company or organization.  Rather, people want to interact and engage with us as if we were right there with them.  They want to strip away the veneer and get to know us in an authentic way.

So how do you thrive, let alone survive, in the era of millions of channels?

Start with your most important piece of real estate: your digital presence. We have moved beyond the need for one single website that tries to meet everyone’s needs. Now, people expect you to be wherever they are, when they want you. If you’re not, they’ll find someone else.

It’s like we have moved from being a planet to being a solar system. By creating a well-conceived strategy that assembles the right mix of audience-focused websites, attention grabbing email-marketing, strong SEO/SEM, engaging videos, and other digital media tools, you can tell your story better than you have ever before.

When’s the last time you upgraded your Digital You? What are you doing differently now than you were two years ago?

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We love helping people pull off big things. Let’s be candid, scaling a seemingly insurmountable summit is an exhilarating experience.  But it’s not for the faint of heart.  

Why? Growth requires truth and not everyone wants to know the truth.  Some find it easier to listen to what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear.

Our interconnected world is shining a much brighter light on all of us. Information is everywhere and what once were little-known-facts are now available to anyone with internet access. Even your high school yearbook photos.

While some may be tempted to shrink back from the light, it is far better to embrace it. The digital world gives us the opportunity to be authentic and transparent to the world in ways not possible before. [Just check out our company profiles].

Truth comes in two forms: honesty and clarity. Honesty is telling the truth to yourself and others. Clarity is seeking the truth from others. Be honest and seek clarity; it’s that simple.

Just look at how the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is embracing these concepts through their new blog, Evolution of Security. In its first week, their blog helped stop a rumor that was circulating. Plus, responding to feedback they received, they have eliminated a recently introduced screening procedure. I find it refreshing to know that at least one part of the federal government has embraced this.

How about you? How are you using truth to grow?

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Walk up to the average person on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear “sales and marketing” and you’ll get responses like “liars”, “shisters”, “they’re just trying to sell me something.” Sales and Marketing have a long earned negative reputation to shake off before consumers will be willing to listen to their messages again. So how do we overcome the consumer with his fingers in his ears? By being honest and transparent.

I know, I know. The idea of throwing open the doors of your company might make you feel, well, a little tense. That’s to be understood. In the past, marketers sold products by making them look better than they really were. I still spend most Saturday mornings with my kids warning them that the toys in the commercials during cartoons “Aren’t really as fun as they look.” No one is going to create a commercial for a toy that says “It will break after a few hours. But, boy, you’ll have fun for a little while!” Today’s consumer has too many choices and information venues to fall for an exaggerated sales pitch. They want the truth. The truth about the product, the price, the quality, and how the product will improve their lives. If they’re unsure about your claims they’ll just hop online and read product reviews and blogs. They’ll watch videos involving the product and post to message boards asking if anyone has bought it.

Let’s take the iphone as an example. Their ads were clear. Apple showed the phone and what it does. They didn’t film hip people being cool while holding the phone. They didn’t suggest that you’d be left behind. They demonstrated the phones features. The actual features you’ll find on the phone when you purchase it. Did it work? Oh yeah. They’ve sold millions of phones to people willing to wait inline all night for the privilege of shelling out three times what other phones cost. Why did it work? Because Apple was confident that they had a quality product that people would find useful if they knew how it worked. If you can’t be that open about your product then, well, you have other issues that need to be resolved first. So here’s the lowdown…

5 Tips for Transparent Marketing

1. Blog about the development of the product. Talk about your plans, get feedback from consumers. Be honest about the time line for its release and your efforts to make it the best possible.
2. Advertise the product’s actual features and uses. Don’t waste your time, or your consumer’s time, trying to convince them that they’ll be cool, hip, skinny, pretty, smart etc if they buy your product. They can figure that out on their own.
3. Give consumers a voice. Don’t wait to find out that people are disappointed by your product when someone starts “_Your Product Name_ Sucks.com”. Create an open dialog through development and after the product is available and, here’s the big bit, LISTEN! Listen to what consumers are saying.
4. Don’t make excuses for your product. Make improvements.
5. Make your advertising viral. Post commercials and other product info in a format that people can pass along to a friend, post to their blog, and share in other ways. If you’re being straightforward and interesting people will want to share your message. Let them!

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If you blog then you know the feeling of sitting at your keyboard staring at an empty Word doc or Wordpress page, thrumming your fingers on your coffee cup, and trying to decide what to write. Some days I have a hot topic in mind and I can’t wait to get to my desk. Other days I’m lost in thinking “What do people want to know about?” and I end up reading RSS feeds until I find inspiration.

I often coach businesses on how to blog for increased corporate transparency, better relationships with customers and business partners, and as a way to develop their vision in a larger conversation. For an individual it’s not that much different. A blog, whether for a CEO or a grad student, is a way to reach out to others to engage in dialogue. The concept of dialogue or conversation through blogging is important to me. It’s not a monologue I’m writing here. It’s not a soap box. It’s the opening volley of a conversation. “I think this. What do you think?” and then I wait eagerly for comments, rebuttals, additions etc. However, if I want those conversations then I have to keep in mind who is reading and write about things they’ll want to comment on, not just read and close. So we end up where we started, writing something that will please others rather than just expressing our own ideas. It’s not a bad place to start but it can stump you if you don’t know who is reading your blog.

Back when I was blogging on my Second Life Education Research blog I had huge traffic. It was a very niche blog with an observant, engaged audience but since I moved to Ubernoggin (a move I made because I’m not teaching this semester) I’ve struggled to reestablish a significant body of readers. I’ve watched the traffic in response to certain entries, kept up with link backs etc. to stay in the conversation, but it’s been a real experiment in practicing what I preach to other bloggers about how to build traffic and establish a steady readership.

So, after all this pontificating, I want to make a list of the ways I try to increase the number of readers who come to participate in the conversations I start here:

• Be sure your blog is registered with search engines like Technorati, google, and Pubsub so people can find you.
• Use categories in Wordpress. Be sure the category tags are descriptive, specific, and popular with your desired audience.
• Write often. The more you write, the more your page is updated and the higher your search rank. If you don’t have time to write often, write several entries at once and post date them to post later in the week.
• Use headlines that are descriptive of the content not kitch or puns.
• Let your network know you’ve written. Don’t spam your friends with your blog address but posting it as a Twitter message, a Facebook status update, or even a gmail status will let your friends know you’ve written something they might be interested in.
• Link to other blogs you like and pay attention to your trackbacks. If someone references your blog go read what they have to say and participate in the conversation on their blog.
• Include your blog address in your email signature and on all online profiles.

What would you add to this list? How do you drive traffic to your blog? How do you encourage conversation? (btw, ending with a question will encourage people to comment and engage in your conversation as well!)

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The Millennium Generation are by far the most media savvy generation around. They live in a hypermediated world surrounded by their Ipods, hundreds of TV channels, YouTube etc and they don’t fall for gimmicky, fake advertising. They can smell a product lie a mile away. Need an example? Check out the video below from the girls at 3iying, a marketing strategy firm started by a few super smart teenage girls who are sick and tired of insulting advertising hype. Their call for honest, clear advertising is right on. Traditional ad agencies are panicking to try to reach this generation and these girls make it pretty clear that the efforts aren’t working.

So how do we reach this generation? We engage them in dialog. Talk WITH them not AT them. We use transparent advertising that doesn’t rely on gimmicks but, instead, tells them the true benefits of a product or service. We give them ways to talk back and we actually listen!

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