The art of plain talk is critical for anyone who has a message that needs to be understood by someone else. Whether you’re a marketer, a teacher or even someone who emails a lot at work, your writing can either win someone over or just create confusion.

Google the topic and you’ll find a ton of rules like avoid euphemisms, bullet your points, make it short, only use words with 3 consonants or less, etc.

I simply say:  Picture an actual person from your target audience in front of you. If you wouldn’t say it out loud, don’t put it in writing.

The better you understand your target audience, the stronger your writing will be.  You might need to channel your inner 6^th grader to simplify the message or use the latest slang to build rapport—whatever techniques help you clarify it for them, do it.

- Bianca Abate

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The brand that’s made me the happiest this year is Wolfgang’s Vault. I go there on a regular basis, often on Friday afternoons when I’m finishing up administrative tasks and need some ear candy. The more I listen, the more often I return. I’ve heard concerts by artists I wish I’d gone to and concerts from the same tours I saw “back in the day” by artists that hadn’t made it big yet. I started going to the site a couple of years ago to relive some great musical moments in my life—but now I’m getting much more.

I love that the Vault has branched out to newer artists and more recent concerts. Their A to Z list of performers is huge and inclusive, so I can experiment. There are artist interviews as well as concerts. There are lots of free downloads as well as ones you have to pay for. Plus concert listings in my area.

The website has improved steadily. It’s become increasingly easy to use and what Wolfgang’s Vault is adding, I’m enjoying. I must be in their target demographic—they’re hitting me in my soft spot and I love it!

What’s the brand lesson? Do one thing really well and build from there. Innovate around what you know and give your customers and fans an easy path to follow as you lead the way. If the substance is there and you demonstrate that you’re listening, you’ll keep your die-hards and win new ones.

Have a great 2010!

Beth Woolley

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I think it’s different. Murketing can only work a few times before people start looking for it, when it then becomes obvious marketing and loses its luster. Viral marketing, on the other hand, takes creativity or cleverness and uses that as the carrying meme; attention is the currency you pay for hearing the message, versus no message.

-Lynn Parker

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See more about Branding Like the Big Boys at http://www.brandinglikethebigboys.com/.

Watch my testimonial forBranding Like the Big Boys.

-Lynn Parker

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The line between your offline and online brand may be well segmented in your business internally (between departments and roles), but from a customer’s point of view they are non-existent. You are your brand no matter where they find you or interact with you. So, in other words, be the same brand you are on your website or Twitter that you are on the phone and on your product packaging.

Check back often for more on how to build and manage a social brand.

–Jen Travis

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Yikes. That’s a lot to think about. But, when filtered through the lens of your brand—your unique value and promise—it is much easier, because you already have the road map, you just need to make sure you manage the stops along the way (the trip, if you will). How do you ensure that your online presence delivers your unique brand experience?

1. Know your users: Who is coming to your web site or following you on Twitter? What tribes do they belong to and what are their motivations, needs and online behaviors as a result? Segment them, profile them and think about how they would engage with you online.
2. Benchmark your online brand equity: What do your current site analytics tell you about your visitors’ interests and how they found you? What is the current murmuring about your brand in blogs, on Twitter, around Facebook? Review and analyze this to gain an understanding of where you are now and what is currently working (or not working).
3. Collect and categorize your content: What can (and do) you offer your customers? Is it thought leadership? Tools? Resources? Humor? What? Inventory organizational content (intellectual property, images, video, etc.), filter it through your brand, and develop a content development and repurposing strategy to deliver this content on your site and social media channels.
4. Map it all out: How will you organize your content to demonstrate your brand and meet your user’s needs? Conceptually and diagrammatically map out how users will use your content and how that experience demonstrates your brand value.
5. Implement and measure it: Design, deploy and measure it against your benchmark, using criteria and metrics that help you define the brand equity gained or lost, increase in awareness, connections, and of course, conversions.

With 74.4% of the North American population using the Internet, it’s more important than ever that you differentiate, engage and deliver online.

–Jen Travis

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–Jen Travis

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No details were available on the cost of sponsorship, but you can bet your Seafair Pirates’ gold that no one had to wait for hours on Alki Beach for a turn to speak to the sales rep.  So now Alaska has the right of first refusal for the future, and Seattleites, still cringing from the breach of hometown faith by the Sonics, are applauding.  

– Peggy Brown

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