A long time ago, when I was first starting out in my career, I met with an advisor named Marty. Marty knows a ton about business, but it’s his personality that really drew me in. Like me, he has an oddball sense of humor, and can be a bit… um colorful in his dialogue. Anyways, one day I was meeting with Marty and one of my other associates when someone (I can’t remember who) brought up the subject of mistakes. I don’t remember how the question was posed, but I do remember Marty’s response vividly. For the sake of discussion, let’s say it went down like this…

Me: “What is the best way to deal with a mistake?”

Marty: “Easy. Just admit that you’re a $#!%head and move on.”

Me: “What if it’s someone else’s fault?”

Marty: “It doesn’t matter. Let others play the blame game. You’ve got work to do.”

Just like that, my eyes were opened.

I have to say, this advice has really served me well. Many business professionals, when confronted with a mistake, tend to point fingers, or try to justify their decision. All this does is waste time. A true professional is focused on results, and when a mistake has been made there’s no time to sit around and play the blame game. Instead, just own the problem and move on the best way you can. Sometimes, the mistake really is someone else’s fault, and they will try to divert the blame on you. “Fine, whatever. It’s my fault. Now can we work on fixing this.” That’s the attitude I’m talking about. Who care’s who started the fire. It’s up to you to put it out.

Discuss below… or face my wrath!!

Yesterday I mentioned that a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out this link for an example of this. Video game developer Naughty Dog (known for creating the amazing Uncharted games, the Jak & Daxter series, and the Crash Bandicoot series) is apparently quietly sponosring kennels for animal shelters in California.

They didn’t make a big deal about it. They didn’t alert the media and say “hey look at what we just did! Aren’t we a great company.” No, they just went out and did it. And guess what? I read about it online, just like you are now. In a world where everyone has a camera, it was bound to be publicized in some way. Even if it wasn’t, who cares? At least they still helped some homeless dogs out.

The moral of the story is not to do good things and then sing your own praises; instead, do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, then let your community spread the good word for you. Then sit back and reap the rewards.

I’ve talked about it before, and will probably talk about it again. Authenticity. The third trend that Godin discusses in Meatball Sundae is “need for an authentic story as the number of sources increases.” How many times have you looked for information on a corporate website? I’ve visited my share, and they’re all filled with the same old corporate talk. Even when they are trying to have fun, it’s corporate. It reminds me of the 50 year old man wearing the backwards baseball cap calling me dude or man, or those guys with the fake mohawks (you know who you are). That’s fine if that’s who you are, but if you’re not, watch out. Big brother is watching… and so is big sister, and everyone else in the world for that matter.

Corporate websites are great if you want to hear what the company is saying about itself, but to get any kind of objectivity, you usually need to look elsewhere. It shouldn’t have to be that way. The internet is a big place, and there are tons of sites available to find the information that your looking for. Customers are going to visit the sites where they will get an honest, unfiltered answer. And why shouldn’t they? You don’t like being lied to and neither do your customers. Be honest with them, be authentic to your brand, and you’ll never have to worry about getting caught lying.

There are tons of stories about people saying one thing and doing another. We hear about them all the time, Godin discusses them in his book, so I’m not going to bother listing them out (maybe later). The bottom line is that if you say one thing and do another, you will get caught eventually, and the world will find out about it in minutes. And then you’ll be stuck sending out one of those fake apologies written by a PR person, and I will make fun of you.

Trend #4, “Extremely short attention spans due to clutter”, will be discussed later.

Notable quotes from this section:

• “Saying one thing and doing another fails, because you’ll get caught.
• “When consumers are making a decision that matters to them, they often rely on the truth as they receive it from the community, not on the story the marketer manufactured.”

There are many profound statements in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “Crush It!”, but one in particular had me jumping up and down like a maniac (okay, maybe I should lay off the Jack Daniel’s when I’m reading… nah). In his 9th chapter, “The Best Marketing Strategy Ever”, Vaynerchuk breaks it down for us in the most simple and direct way I’ve ever seen it explained. In his words… “care.”

That’s it! And you know what, he’s dead right. I’ve worked for many different companies (both as an employee and as a consultant), and this is the one ingredient I’ve seen missing all too often. Many times people care about the wrong things… short term sales, their own jobs, etc. As a marketer you should care about these things, especially about being profitable, but more importantly you should care about your product, your customers, your brand, your industry, and your fellow employees. Look at the most successful people in the world, from business people to pro athletes, and you’ll see this quality in every single one of them. They love what they do, strive to be the best, and do what they can to elevate their chosen cause. Why should it be any different for you? If you put 100% into what you do how can you possibly fail? This goes back to what I’ve been saying in previous posts. Be authentic. If you genuinely care and communicate in an authentic way, then you will have no problem monetizing your brand.

I’ve been involved with companies that only care about profits, and you know what? They don’t last too long. I’ve seen people go from caring about their industry and their customers to caring only about profits and losing jobs. It’s a deathstroke for business, and kills any kind of forward momentum. Why does this happen? Because people at the top level dictate the culture of a company, and when all they care about are the wrong things, guess what? It trickles down to everyone in the company. If you are a business owner, don’t let this happen. Set a good example and care about the right things.

So how does all this apply to building your personal brand? It goes back to everything we discussed before. If you are truly passionate about what you are doing, then it will come naturally. Just keep it in mind the next time you have a tough decision to make. In these trying economic times, it’s easy to get sidetracked into focusing only on profits. If you do a good job at building your brand, the money will come eventually, maybe even sooner than you think. If you communicate your passion in an authentic way, you will most definitely be on your way to building a strong brand with passionate customers.

What do you think? Comment below or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

As I said before, we live in a time where people are more media savvy than ever before, and no one is fooled by your phony prepared marketing statements. It seems that every day we hear yet another lame prepared PR statement from some knucklehead or another. I know these people are merely trying to do some damage control / avoid a lawsuit, but I personally can’t stand having my intelligence insulted. What ever happened to a heartfelt statement. Why does everything have to be prepared by an attorney first?

Here’s my list of favorites in no particular order, I hope you find them as entertaining as I have…

• Chris Brown - Wow a genuine apology… written by a PR exec
• Michael Vick - Close, but who really talks like this?
• Tiger Woods - As the guys at Marvel Comics say ‘nuff said
• Don Imus - He didn’t even look up from his paper!
• Kobe Bryant - His lawyer even speaks for him. I love the way he pulls his wife’s chair out for her. What a gentleman; not an act at all.
• Mark Sanford - I tried to stay away from politics, but found this one pretty funny.
• Mark McGwire - “I’m not here to talk about the past.” I’ve got to remember that one.
• Alex Rodriguez - though you could really pick anything that A-Rod has ever said.

Who talks like this in their daily lives? Most if not all of these are apologies of some sort, and the hallmark of a good apology is that it is authentic and heartfelt. How can your statement be authentic if it is coming from your attorney? Remember, the word of the day is “authenticity.” To be fair, it’s kind of unfair to single out any one celebrity since just about every single thing that anyone says in the media is written by some PR person or lawyer.

I know alot of marketers will disagree with me on this (especially in these most litigious times where everyone sues anyone for anything), but I think more companies should shoot from the hip and be more honest, open and authentic. Many people are tired of the politically correct phrases that advertisers, marketers, and celebrities use, which is why many of us go online to see what real people are saying (in this day in age though, sometimes it’s hard to determine who is a real person and who is a plant. Yes companies even try to fake authenticity in this way, but more on that later). Prepared statements are the old way of doing things. If you’re going to send a message my way, please leave your lawyer at the office.

What are your favorite prepared statements? Go ahead and link them in the comments, I’m always up for a good laugh. Also, what statements do you feel are actually good? I’d like to see those as well.

We’ve talked about why you should build your brand, about creating content, and some of the different platforms you can use to promote your brand. However, the majority of your effort online will be about building a community around your brand. Creating content may seem difficult if you’ve never done it before, but if you’ve picked your topic successfully, it’s the easiest part of the entire venture. The most difficult aspect of building your brand online is creating an active community. In his seventh and eighth chapters, respectively titled “Keep it real… Very real” and “Create community: Digging your internet trench”, Vaynerchuk discusses how to go about building your online community.

In my opinion, alot of marketing I see is very phoney. I think that people today are more media savvy than ever before, and they are also aware of how fake marketing efforts by major brands has become. We live in an age where prepared PR statements are a way of life (stay tuned for a list of some of my favorites). I’m not fooled by them, and I don’t think anyone else is either. People value authenticity. It’s why they go online and seek out consumer opinions. By building a community around your brand (personal and as a business), you won’t have to sound your own horn, your community will do that for you.

So how can you build this magical community? Through alot of hard work and time. The basic idea is that you should create your content and distribute it (see previous post for details), then start looking at and commenting on other people’s content. You should make the most of every interaction, stay on topic, and be yourself. Resist the urge to post things for the sake of posting them, and instead only post when you have something of value to share. You should follow people on Twitter, or sign up for some pages on Facebook. Basically, you need to get involved. You can’t just post content and hope that people show up.

When people visit your site, they will be hooked on your outstanding content (you do have outstanding content right?). You also need to make the most out of those call to action buttons (subscribe, follow-me, share, etc).

Next we will discuss the best marketing strategy ever, and you won’t want to miss it.

Notable quotes from these chapters:

• “Being authentic and being perceived as such by your audience relies on your ability to ensure that every decision you make when it comes to your business is rooted in being true to yourself.”
• “Creating community is about starting conversations.”