Author: Julia

On The Same Page

When starting a new business or developing a new project, it’s paramount that all the parties involved are speaking the same language. One person’s “cutting edge” is somebody else’s “yesterday’s news”. A well thought out communications plan can help keep messages consistent and on point. Right after a solid business plan, the best way to share and define your vision is through a document that clearly states the target audience and the image that will be projected to them.

While taking courses at BCIT, I have put together partial and complete Integrated Marketing and Communications Plans for businesses both real and imaginary. This past summer I had an opportunity to build one from scratch for a brand new company that my husband was starting with two business partners. The concept for the business, a high end confectionery business, came about from my own online and real world research. So I was involved from before day one.

The target market and how the products were to be marketed were very clear in my head and it was truly helpful to have a template, such as a Communications Plan, to give order and clarity to the bright images in my brain. It also created talking points for the principals of the business and gave us a starting point for conversations and decision making.

As the business evolved and issues such as locations came up, I was able to tweak and clarify the communications plan and start putting it into action. While the original document was all my own ideas and words, later incarnations were more of a team effort and had input from everyone involved. While it is sometimes hard to have your vision diluted, it is much more gratifying to see it begin to take shape and become something tangible. The word on the page never translate perfectly when shared with the real world.

Blogging

I started my own blog just over a year ago. I’d been caught up in various blogs across different categories: food blogs, mommy blogs, finance blogs, fashion blogs, photography blogs, humour blogs, etc. I felt like I wanted to be part of this e-community. Posting comments was not enough. I wanted a handle and an online identity of my own. I thought about what the focus should be. What could I talk about all day and not get bored? What did I like taking pictures of and sharing with people? What was I knowledgeable about that I could cast my own perspective on? The one answer I kept coming up with was: food.

The best blogs communicate passion and a journey. Some of the most polished looking blogs lose their gleam once you start delving backwards into their archives. I find this inspiring, as it shows that nobody starts doing it perfectly from the start. It is following along somebody else’s journey of growth and discovery that is the most interesting part of a personal blog. One of the most infamous blogs is Heather Armstrong’s Dooce. She started her blog in 2001 and was fired from her web design job in L.A. because of posts about her job. Her blog now is the sole financial income for her and her family. The blog has been her chronicle of living in L.A., as a single woman, meeting her husband, getting married, having two children (and two dogs) and the evolution of the blog itself.

Blogs can be fantastic outlets for creativity or an opportunity to create a personal brand. The only requirement is access to a computer and the internet, the difficult part can be building up an audience. There seems to be an exponential increase in networking amongst bloggers with more meet ups and conferences happening all the time. Food bloggers are invited to restaurant events, fashion bloggers meet up at fashion shows and there seems to be an abundance of photography, writing and tech classes for bloggers of all genres. The bloggers then blog about the people they’ve met and link to their sites. There are also lots of online collaborations when themes are thrown out to bloggers to make a dish or an outfit or a photo with a common thread.

When starting a blog you may not know where the journey will take you, just try to make the ride as interesting as possible.

Spread the Word

Since before the written word, people have  handed down advice and warnings in stories. This oral tradition featured heros and villains, triumph and failure. Stories stick in our minds. Facts and figures can fall out of our memory while stories stay. The beginning: there was a need, the middle: there was a new solution to meet the need, the end: the new solution successfully met the need. The first story any company or organization needs to tell is the tale of their origin.

The publics need to know the why. Why did you start what you are doing? How did you perceive the need? Why did you think you could take on this challenge? How are you different from all who’ve come before you? Stories get repeated and shared. With the new ease of “like” or “share” on Facebook, or “retweet” on Twitter, or “reblog” on Tumblr, a story can go viral in the time it takes to find an article in a magazine that is touted on the cover.

While companies can offer almost identical products or services, it is the story that sets them apart. Was the company started in a garage or a kitchen table? Is it a family business going back generations? This is where the story begins. We all know that Starbucks started with it’s original location in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in the 70’s. Facebook was created by a Harvard student before he dropped out. We see Colonel Sanders and think Kentucky Fried Chicken, how many secret herbs and spices do they use?

Stories are shaped from facts and values, they give consumers something to relate to and help categorize. Are you the underdog? The maverick? Before people know how to look at you, you have to see yourself. If you want people to buy, first they have to buy in. Don’t throw them a pitch, tell them a story.