This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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Technology is making it easier for you to connect with your customers and build your brand. And lately, that trend is gaining momentum. As evidence, USA Today is running the following story: H-P kicks digital entertainment into high gear.
"The goal, H-P Chief Executive Carly Fiorina says, is ‘delivering simplicity into what is today a much too complicated world.’ Digital electronics in general are too expensive and too difficult for consumers to use, says Fiorina, who will give a speech Friday at the giant trade show. They should "work together easily and intuitively," she says."
I’m hoping that’s not a new revelation for Carly. I’m a long-time fan, and I’d hate to think she’s been blind to the complexity thing till now. In any event, I think you’ll see other tech companies following suit to simplify the technology.
If you’re a blogosphere regular, you’ve undoubtedly heard the term podcasting being thown around like a beach ball at a baseball game. If blog is the #1 word for 2004, it’s looking like podcasting may be the #1 word for 2005 (remember, you heard it here first).
ipodder.org explains podcasting this way:
"Think how a desktop aggregator works. You subscribe to a set of feeds, and then can easily view the new stuff from all of the feeds together, or each feed separately.
Podcasting works the same way, with one exception. Instead of reading the new content on a computer screen, you listen to the new content on an iPod or iPod-like device.
Think of your iPod as having a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates. Today there are a limited number of programs available this way. The format used is RSS 2.0 with enclosures."
Basically, podcasting seems to be the convergence of RSS (blogging), digital audio recording technology and mp3 player technology. And everyone’s talking about it. Well not everyone, but here are a few in my world . . .
Smart Blogging Babes Yvonne Divita and Jennifer Rice, along with Jackie Huba (Church of the Customer), participated in a podcast hosted by Effern over at The Vision Thing.
Kimberly Black of Agile Business Content podcasts from the beach and talks about "podcasting, making money, finding your own voice and making plans for the new year."
800-CEO-READ podcasts an excerpt of Built to Last by Jim Collins. It’s a nice little try-it-before-you-buy-it kind of a thing. Good idea for you AudioInfopreneurs out there to help sell more stuff.
Although it’s not a true podcast, copywriting guru David Garfinkle recorded a series of short interviews with marketing experts, and made them available on his World Copywriting Blog.
Mike Stewart, The Internet Audio Guy, is capitalizing on the podcasting craze. He even takes it step further, and incorporates video into his sales pitch. Again, this is not true podcasting, but I’m sure you’ll see video becoming available via iPods and other media players.
The Digital Podcast Directory currently lists over 500 different podcasts on topics ranging from business to erotica to travel.
Lately, I’ve found myself saying that marketing is a conversation. 1000 years ago, if you were yak dealer, you had to take your yaks to the market, where you hopefully met people wanting to buy yaks. That’s the only way you could talk to your prospects.
Then the phone came along, and you could just call prospects and talk to them without leaving your home or office. Or you spoke to people through your brochures, flyers and other written materials.
Then came websites, which made it even easier to talk to people, assuming you could get them to your website.
Then came blogs. And the thing about blogs – relative to websites, brochures and such – is to be an effective medium, people expect you to be real. They expect you to write like you talk to your friends. They don’t want the marketing-ease language. They want you to show up as you. And if you do that, and they like you, and you create something of value for them, they will probably buy it.
Now comes podcasting. It’s another was to easily CONNECT with your prospects. It’s not even fitting to call them prospects any longer. These are your friends, your network, your partners. Podcasting lets you talk to them, and it allows them to walk around with you in their back pocket. Assuming you offer value. As suggested in the Customer Evangelism Playbook, it’s another way to "napsterize your knowledge."
This is how you build your brand in the 21st century.