This Holi greeting is done in Pollock’s style. It used a Flash-based web program developed by Miltos Manetas.

Happy Holi and have a colorful year ahead.

~Sunil Shibad

Violinist

Tree

Village Belle

Sunflower

Road

-by Sunil Shibad

]]> http://www.jakecando.com/a-study-in-charcoal-art/feed/ 0 http://www.jakecando.com/cloud-computing-fact-or-fiction/ http://www.jakecando.com/cloud-computing-fact-or-fiction/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:41:46 +0000 Jake Can Do http://www.jakecando.com/?p=5155

Surprising new findings suggest an individual will remember a Facebook post longer than they’ll retain the memory of human face or a sentence in a book.

Experts believe the findings demonstrate how our memories favor natural, spontaneous writing over polished, edited content.

This acknowledgement could have wider implications for the worlds of education, communications and advertising.

The international research, authored by researchers at the University of Warwick and University of California – San Diego, tested subjects’ memory for text taken from Facebook.

The text was comprised of people’s Facebook status updates that had been anonymized. That is, the status updates and wall posts were stripped of images and removed from the context of appearing on Facebook.

Researchers then compared subject’s memory of the Facebook post to their memory for sentences picked at random from books, as well as to human faces.

Investigators found that in the first memory test, participants’ memory for Facebook posts was about one and a half times greater than their memory for sentences from books.

In a second memory test, participants’ memory for Facebook posts was almost two and a half times as strong as it was for human faces.

“We were really surprised when we saw just how much stronger memory for Facebook posts was compared to other types of stimuli,” noted lead author Laura Mickes of the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick.

“These kinds of gaps in performance are on a scale similar to the differences between amnesiacs and people with healthy memory.”

A further set of experiments investigated this discovery and looked into the reasons for why this occurs.

Investigators learned that, as one might expect, Facebook updates are easier to memorize as they are usually stand-alone bits of information that tend to be gossipy in nature. However, the study suggests that another, more general phenomenon, is also at play.

That is, our minds may better take in, store, and bring forth information gained from online posts because they are in what the researchers call ‘mind-ready’ formats – i.e., they are spontaneous, unedited and closer to natural speech.

These features seem to give them a special memorability, with similar results being found for Twitter posts as well as comments under online news articles.

Professor Christine Harris suggests: “Our findings might not seem so surprising when one considers how important both memory and the social world have been for survival over humans’ ancestral history.

“We learn about rewards and threats from others. So it makes sense that our minds would be tuned to be particularly attentive to the activities and thoughts of people and to remember the information conveyed by them.”

Our language capacity did not evolve to process carefully edited and polished text, notes author Professor Nicholas Christenfeld.

“One could view the past five thousand years of painstaking, careful writing as the anomaly. Modern technologies allow written language to return more closely to the casual, personal style of pre-literate communication. And this is the style that resonates, and is remembered.”

Dr Mickes added: “Facebook is updated roughly 30 million times an hour so it’s easy to dismiss it as full of mundane, trivial bits of information that we will instantly forget as soon as we read them.

“But our study turns that view on its head, and by doing so gives us a really useful glimpse into the kinds of information we’re hardwired to remember.

“Writing that is easy and quick to generate is also easy to remember – the more casual and unedited, the more ‘mind-ready’ it is.

“Knowing this could help in the design of better educational tools as well as offering useful insights for communications or advertising.

“Of course we’re not suggesting textbooks written entirely in tweets, nor should editors be rendered useless, – but textbook writers or lecturers using PowerPoint could certainly benefit from using more natural speech to get information across.

“And outside these settings, at the very least maybe we should take more care about what we post on Facebook as it seems those posts might just be remembered for a long time.”

 (via PsychCentral )

Here’s how you can get the most out of guest blogging and link building to drive more traffic to your website:

Step #1: Building your content portfolio

Whenever you are contacting a blog owner or editor for a guest posting opportunity on their site, you will want to provide some of your content for them to review. If you are just starting out, then make your own blog your quality content portfolio.

If you own additional websites or have the opportunity to contribute to other blogs, then be sure to do so. When presenting yourself as a potential guest blogger, the more quality content samples you can provide, the higher your chances of getting your guest post accepted.

So what kind of quality should you be aiming for when it comes to your content? That depends on the sites you want to get a guest posting spot upon. For example, if the main sites you want to guest post upon have posts in excess of 1,000 words, then you will want your content samples to be the same length. This is especially important for sites like Social Media Examiner who want you to submit your three top content pieces before considering a post from you.

Step #2: Finding the best guest blogging gigs

There are many ways you can find great guest posting opportunities such as…

• Google Search – Try variations of your niche keyword plus guest post, guest post by, guest blogging, guest bloggers, and write for us. Also, if you know someone in your niche that does a lot of guest blogging, search for their name plus guest post or guest post by.
• Twitter Search – Use the same keywords suggested above, but search them on Twitter search instead.
• Check Backlinks – Do you know of a website in your niche that gets a lot of links through guest blogging? Run their website through Open Site Explorer and look at their backlinks to find some blogs that are accepting guest posts.

Remember that all guest blogging opportunities are created equal, especially if you are looking to get some good links. As a link builder, you probably know what to look for in terms of PageRank and domain authority. Once you get past that, there are some sites that will give you more link juice than others. Here are some things to look for beyond the main blog stats.

• Blogs that place the author bio (and link) before the content – The higher up on the page your link is, the more link value it will have. While an author box at the end of the post is still better than being in the comments, a link at the top of the post would be ideal.
• Blogs that offer an author bio (and link) on the post itself versus a link on the author page – When it comes to getting clicks from readers to your website, a blog that offers a bio on the post itself will get a lot more CTR compared to blogs where the visitor will have to click on your name to get to your author bio page.
• Blogs that offer more than one link in the author bio – If you’re building links to more than one site or you want to include a homepage and internal page link, finding blogs that allow you more than one link would be best. This way you can include a link for SEO purposes and a link to entice clicks, such as a link to your free report or top post.
• Blogs that offer links to your social profiles in addition to your website link – If you can’t get people to click through to your website, getting them to follow you on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ is the next best thing.
• Blogs that mark author bio links as nofollow – The last thing you want to do is spend time crafting a great guest post, submit it, then find out that the link back to your website has been nofollowed and will not count towards your backlink profile.

Step #3: Organizing your guest blogging opportunities

As you find new opportunities, you want to record them along with your guest posting efforts. Why? Because you might need to use them for additional projects down the road. Maybe someone says that they aren’t looking now, but they will be in a few months. Maybe someone else says they would want you to write more posts for them in the future. Keeping track of these responses will give you a database of opportunities to refer back to in the future. You’ll also want to keep track of every post that you get published!

What I would suggest is having a spreadsheet with two tabs. The first tab is for opportunities and contains the following information.

• Blog Domain – Just the base URL to keep track.
• PageRank – Google’s authority ranking of a domain. Find out any domain’s PageRank using toolbars like SEO Site Tools forChrome or SEOquake for Firefox, Safari, or Opera. You can also use PR Checker.
• Domain Authority – The strength of a domain as measured by SEOmoz Toolbar for Firefox or Chrome.
• Subscribers – Subscribers are anyone who follows the site. Keep a column for Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and RSS subscribers. If a site doesn’t display their RSS subscribers but uses Feedburner, you might be able to find out the subscriber count by taking their RSS URL and adding ~fc to the link like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/TechCrunch/.
• Traffic – There are several ways you can judge the traffic of a blog. You could record the blog’s Alexa rank by going to http://alexa.com/siteinfo/domain.com. Blogs with a lower number have the most traffic. Or you can get estimated visitor numbers by looking up the domain on Google Ad Planner.
• Guidelines – This is a link to the blog’s guest posting guidelines.
• Contact – This is a link to the blog’s contact form or blog owner’s / editor’s email address.
• Name – This is the name of the person you need to contact about guest blogging opportunities.
• Response – Once you get a response, be sure to record it in this column for future reference.

The second tab is for published guest posts and contains the following information.

• Title – The title of your blog post.
• URL – The direct link to your blog post.
• Link – The link you included in your author bio.
• Anchor Text – The anchor text for the link you included in your author bio.
• Link 2 – The second link you included in your author bio.
• Anchor Text 2 – The second anchor text for the link you included in your author bio.
• Tweets – The number of tweets your post received in a specific timeframe. You can make the cut off point for this one to two weeks after the post goes live.
• Likes – The number of Facebook likes your post received in a specific timeframe.
• +1′s – The number of Google +1′s your post received in a specific timeframe.
• Comments – The number of comments your post received in a specific timeframe.

Keeping track of the analytics related to your guest blog post will help you in determining which topics work best for a blog’s audience. This will especially be helpful if you are going to become a regular contributor to a blog.

Step #4: Getting to know the blog owner or editor

Once you’ve lined up some potential guest blogging opportunities, your next job will be getting to know the blog owner or editor. This doesn’t have to be time consuming, just start by following and interacting with them on social media sites. Twitter is usually the easiest.Show interest in their blog by commenting and tweeting on posts. Be sure to tweet the posts with the blog’s main Twitter handle in the tweet so they notice too!

You can also try to get an introduction through a previous guest poster. If you know someone who has written for the blog before, ask them if they could introduce you to their contact. This could make a huge difference between your name being another in the inbox vs. someone the blog owner or editor will be on the lookout for.

Another great way to get guest blogging gigs is through networking events. When you meet someone, get their business card and find out what their blog is. Then, after you get back to your home or office, check out their blog to see if it is a good fit. If you decide to contact them, gently remind them where you went and of your conversation. The fact that they will recognize you personally and not see you as a complete stranger will help in getting your post accepted.

Step #5: Learning the ropes

Before you make contact about a guest post, be sure to fully review the guest blogging guidelines for that site. Every site has their own requirements. In particular, pay attention to…

• What to Submit – Some blogs will only want writing samples, one or more topic ideas, or full posts.
• Submission Format – Check the guidelines on how to submit a guest post. Some blogs will want you to send it via email in specific format (Word, Text file, or Google Doc), attach it to a comment form on the blog, or create an account on their blog and submit it through the dashboard fully formatted.
• Topics – Just because you want to write about something it doesn’t mean they want you to write about it. Be sure to stick to the topics that the blog specifies. If they don’t specify, take a look through their archives to note topics and level of posts (beginner, intermediate, or advanced information).
• Length – You don’t want to submit a 600 word post to a blog that typically publishes 1,000 word (or longer) articles, or vice versa.
• Links – Some blogs allow you to include one or two self-serving links within your blog post, while others want you to steer clear of anything with your name on it outside of the author box. Also, watch out for blogs that might not allow you to have links to your site at all, even in your author box.

Also be on the lookout for sites that allow you to submit content on a personal blog which has the potential to be moved up to the main blog. SEOmoz is a great example of this. You submit your blog post to YouMoz, and if the post gets good reception (comments, likes, and social shares), it will get moved to the main SEOmoz blog.

With sites like these, you will want to publish great content and promote it so that it makes it to the main audience!

Step #6: Submitting the perfect guest post

So how do you submit the perfect guest post? Once you fully understand the guidelines, be sure to include extra touches that really customize the post to the blog. Some things to include are…

• Links to related posts – Not one of yours, of course, but theirs. The easiest way to do this is to subscribe to their blog via RSS, then scan through the list of post titles until you find one that matches a keyword or phrase in your post.
• Familiar formatting elements – If you get the chance to format your guest post, be sure to do it to fit the blog’s usual style. This means using the same headers, quotes, calls to action at the end of the post, images, and so on. If you make the post feel like the blog owner wrote it themselves, they are much more likely to accept it.
• Current resources – If the blog seems open to link love, include current resources that support your guest post. There’s nothing worse than when someone links to a post that is out of date or something you do not want in your guest post.

Step #7: Writing the perfect author bio for conversions & link building

Now it’s time to get to the important part for you…the author bio. Once you’ve crafted the ultimate guest post, you will want to craft the ultimate author bio to go along with it. The best way to do it is to look at a few guest posts by others on the blog and see what their author bio’s look like. Try to make yours match in word count and, of course, number of links.

You will want your author bio to really click with the blog’s readers. If you are an online marketing guru and you are posting on a blog dedicated to Facebook, then you will want your author bio to focus on your Facebook services vs. your general online marketing services.

As an example, let’s say you want to link to your blog about pets in a guest post on a blog all about cats.

You could go with your standard author bio of “Jane Smith is the author of Pets Anonymous, a blog dedicated to pet lovers everywhere.” Or you could go with “Jane Smith is the author of Pets Anonymous, a blog featuring the cutest cats you’ve ever seen!” Guess which one will appeal to the blog audience you are writing for and therefore get the most clicks?

When it comes to your links themselves, you might be tempted to always go with keyword anchor text. But with Google honing in onover-optimization, you might want to consider mixing it up with non-keyword based anchor text. Link to your website, blog, or business name, or link it to your own name. Another thing to consider is not always linking to your homepage. Think about the audience you are writing for in your guest post, choose an internal page on your site (preferably a piece of content), and link to that instead.

Also, try different approaches to guest posting. Instead of just doing it for links, do it for conversions. Link to a page on your website offering a free report or eBook in exchange for subscribing to your mailing list. This way you can get your guest post readers directly into your sales funnel!

Conclusion

Now you are ready to start guest blogging and building up your link profile. To get you started, here are some links to the guest post guidelines on popular blogs in the online marketing industry that you might want to start writing for.

• KISSmetrics – Topics include web analytics, conversion optimization, A/B testing, social media, online marketing, and case studies involving KISSmetrics products.
• Smashing Magazine – Mostly about design related topics but does include posts on CMS, e-commerce, usability, copywriting, and content strategy.
• Copyblogger – Topics include copywriting, content marketing, email marketing, landing pages, Internet marketing, and SEO.
• ProBlogger – Topics include anything that benefit bloggers including blogging tips, social media strategies, and SEO.
• Social Media Examiner – If you are an established authority on anything social media related, submit writing samples here.
• YouMoz – Become a member of the SEOmoz community and submit posts to YouMoz. If your post gets enough positive response, it could get boosted to the main site.

So what results have you seen with guest blogging for links?

(via Quicksprout )

Social proof is the assumption that other people know what they’re doing or have the right information to make an informed decision so other people copy them. If you run a business then you will no doubt be delighted if your customers fell for the ‘sheep-like’ effect of social proof.
In many cases the successful split-second persuasion associated with social proof in marketing comes down to the words chosen.

Take the example below, it’s a classic case of tweaking a call-to-action to achieve astonishing results…

“A fascinating demonstration of the power of social proof occurred not so long ago on American TV. Colleen Szot, an American ‘infomercial’ writer, completely obliterated a home shopping channel sales record by changing just three words of a now familiar sales pitch. The record had stood for almost 20 years. Sure, the channel featured all of the usual marketing paraphernalia: celebrity endorsements, catchy soundbites, and an audience that looked like it was on speed. But, remarkably, it wasn’t any of these that finally sent sales through the roof. Instead, it was a change for the worse. Or so, on the face of it, it seemed.

Szot’s masterstroke was to tweak the standard call-to-action line ‘Operators are waiting, please call now’ to ‘If operators are busy, please call again’. At first glance, such nuancing appears disastrous. How does alerting customers to the prospect of inconvenience – dialling and redialling the same damn number – possibly translate into increased sales? But logic, in this case, leaves much to be desired – and fails to account for the magic of social proof.

Think about it. What image springs to mind when you hear the phrase ‘Operators are waiting, please call now’? Legions of bored telephonists staring into space? If so then despite all the flashy, trashy merchandising, your impression of the product is negative. It’s an impression of low demand and poor sales. Why the hell would you want to buy it if nobody else does?

Now ask yourself this. What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘If operators are busy, please call again’? A buzzing call centre full of overstretched staff struggling to keep pace with demand? Now that’s more like it! If everyone else is getting in on the action – then you’re sure as hell not going to miss out!”

An obvious conversion opportunity

It seems obvious when the logic behind it is broken down, but how many times have you come across copywriting on a ‘Contact Us’ page which states ‘We’re waiting for your call’ or ‘We’re ready to take your call’? The idea behind this theory is to set the scene for the potential customer and let them use their imagination to persuade themselves that they have to call your company. Before writing a call-to-action, think about how you want your potential customers to feel. You want them to feel like they’ll be missing out if they don’t get in touch, that everyone else is choosing your company to do business with, that your company is so busy they’ll be happy to be kept on hold or to be put on a waiting list.

I’m far too busy and important to talk to you

If you’ve ever chosen to wait a few hours (or days) to respond to an email or if your diary has become mysteriously booked up when someone wants a meeting then you’re already applying this theory of social proof to your business. If you’re super busy then lots of people must be using your business which means you must be good.

A call to do what?

The problem with calls-to-action is that they’re often just added to a piece of copywriting as an afterthought instead of being seen as a key way to convert customers. By putting some thought into what you actually want your visitors to do, you can craft effective calls-to-action which see results that Coleen Szot would be proud of.

David Hamill, a freelance usability consultant makes the point that a call-to-action needs to tell people to do a specific action.

“Buttons are for actions, like ‘Get a quote’, ‘Download’, ‘Open an account’, ‘Go to checkout’. The text on the button should begin with a verb. Otherwise it’s not a call-to-action, it’s just a button with some text on it. ‘More information’ for example, is not a call-to-action.
Think about what your user would say if you asked him what he was trying to do. If he would say, “I want to compare the price” then ‘Compare the price’ is what you write on the button.”

Hamill’s take on a call-to-action should be used as a checkpoint at the end of every piece of copywriting to ensure your call-to-action does just that – instructs your customers to take action.

Rules of a successful call-to-action

• Know the key action point – do you want people to download, click, follow, share, buy, open?

• Stand out – instead of ‘Click here for more health tips’ try ‘Boost your health with one click’. Or instead of ‘Buy Pulse aftershave now’ try ‘Buy Pulse aftershave now and never go home alone again’. Or instead of ‘Click for more information’ try ‘Click to discover the secrets of this controversial new marketing tactic’.

• Keep it short and simple – this is much easier to do if you know your key action point.

• Keep calling – include calls-to-action within your content throughout your website instead of just at the end of a web page for example.

• Check your results – monitor which calls-to-action gain you the most clicks, these will have the biggest social proof influence and will be worth keeping.

Here’s our call-to-action. Share your insights into calls-to-action below, what’s worked for your company?

(via Pure Ink )

Writing Effective Tweets in 100 Characters

How long is the perfect Tweet? You only have 140 characters to play with and if you’re adding a URL, hash tags, @s or a request for a retweet, you don’t have much space left. According to a recent whitepaper by Buddy Media entitled ‘Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review’, less is more when it comes to Tweet length. This report claims you should “use less than 100 characters per Tweet”. Search Engine Watch studied the results in a blog post which stated,

“Tweets with under 100 characters had 17 percent higher engagement. Keeping tweets short allows room for followers to retweet and add their own comment.”

Most people who use Twitter regularly have the skills to word Tweets so they come in under 140 characters but just 100 characters is another matter. Writing worthwhile Tweets which people read and respond to and which leave them enough room to give you a shout out when they retweet or reply is not easy.

What a great Tweet looks like

Firstly, say what you’re tweeting about. In the following example (a retweet of this excellent infographic on content marketing) the Tweet begins with ‘Content Marketing’, clearly stating what the link is going to be about.

Secondly, the title is short and to the point, posing a question which anyone with an interest in content marketing will want to know the answer to.

Finally, the Tweet ends by telling you it’s an infographic, one of the most popular ways to view data and share information, making it more likely people will click on the link. This Tweet comes in at 82 characters:

There are of course millions of Tweets similar to this which show in a minimum amount of words why it’s worth clicking on a link, retweeting, checking out a photo or simply chuckling at a joke. While there’s no magic formula, other than a touch of creativity and being handy with punctuation, there are some ways you can streamline your micro writing.

Writing with fewer words

To write short Tweets really well you might want to take a tip from Ernest Hemmingway who claimed the best thing he ever wrote was just one sentence long, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”. Hemmingway would have been great on Twitter as he understood how to convey emotion by the words he so precisely chose. If this example was rewritten as “For sale: child’s shoes, never used”, it doesn’t have the same impact, it sounds as though someone’s selling some shoes on eBay. There’s something about the emotion of a baby not growing old enough to be able to wear this pair of shoes which makes this sentence so poignant. All done in a mere 32 characters. If the message is right, you don’t need many words to say it.

Here are some tips for slashing your Twitter character count:

• Focus on one key message – don’t cram multiple ideas into one Tweet.

• Forget the fillers – ditch ‘that’ and ‘which’ and replace ‘and’ with +, use ‘as’ instead of ‘because’ and ‘can’ instead of ‘able to’, there are hundreds more…

• Punctuate your Tweets with commas, dashes and ellipses to save space and add impact.

• Write long at first – if you’re struggling with creating short Tweets then write out what it is you want to say and then tighten this up with each draft.

• Find the emotion – like Hemmingway’s micro story, the best way to connect with a reader is to find the emotion in what you’re saying. This Tweet from Wendy’s was themost retweeted Tweet of 2011 as it has a winning formula of being clear, stating its purpose, having an emotional connection and being just 84 characters long.

Twitter makes better writers out of all of us by forcing us to focus on being clear, creative and concise in our Tweets.

(Via: PureInk)

Make your mark

Whether you’ve been in business for a while or if you’ve just set up, you can benefit from branding. The easiest way to start is by ensuring your logo, company colours, copywriting tone of voice and strapline appear on everything you produce, including your product range, packaging, invoices, business cards, letterheads, website, social media channels and so on.

Keep branding consistent

To build up a brand, you have to consistently deliver the same message to your customers, particularly when it comes to your visual branding. For example, big brands are so consistent with their branding that if they choose to change a small aspect of their logo, it can become international news. In early 2011, Starbucks removed its company name and the word ‘coffee’ from its logo and although the company was criticised at the time, the strength of having a consistent brand which associated the name ‘Starbucks’ with coffee meant that the image in the logo could stand alone. Repetition can help to imprint your brand in your customers’ minds as you build your business. For more information on keeping your business brand consistent checkout our copywriting style guide tips.

Know your values

Although a brand is represented by a logo, branding is much more than this. A brand is about how your customers feel about your business and it represents your company values. In many ways, highlighting your values is easier for a small business as you know what you stand for. It could be affordability, sharing information, fair trade, environmental issues or whatever you feel strongly about in your business. At Pure Ink we put the focus on creating effective copywriting for our clients and providing clear and straightforward information and advice on copywriting without any of the associated marketing speak or guru ‘bumf’ which sometimes go with that. For an example of a big brand which wears its brand values on its sleeve, check out the mission statement on the Ben and Jerry’s  website which clearly states what they stand for and these values can be seen throughout their branding and marketing campaigns.

Tell a story

Storytelling in business is nothing new but it is one of the current buzzwords thanks to social media websites such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram which focus on letting users (and companies) tell their stories through words and images. People love a great story and storytelling makes spreading the word about your business easier as a story is memorable and your customers will naturally share your story with their friends and family. Storytelling also enables you to distinguish your brand from competitors as they won’t have the same story as you. Your story is completely unique, perhaps it’s a rags to riches tale, a moment of eureka inspiration, a story of travelling the globe or a business idea born from frustration. Whatever your story is, from your initial inspiration to your journey into business, make it engaging and tell it to your customers. Big brands are adept at storytelling so for inspiration check out how Macy’s, Burberry, Madonna and Ford use Facebook to tell their story using techniques which can be utilised by small businesses too. Use old photos, team profiles, landmark events, news coverage, behind the scenes insights, hobbies and interests, work in the community, partnership and sponsorship stories to tell the story of your brand and the people behind it.

Keep your content fresh

Big businesses keep their brands in the forefront of people’s minds by constantly being visible through a range of marketing tactics including everything from sponsoring major sporting or fashion events for example to producing adverts for TV, print and online. By constantly keeping their campaigns fresh, big businesses are able to stay at the forefront of their customers’ minds. If you’re on a tight budget then the best way to keep your brand fresh is to regularly update the content on your website, blog and social media channels. Creating content is a great solution as if you’re a good copywriter you can write this yourself or ask a copywriting company to lead a campaign for you. Copywriting is a much more affordable way to build your business brand up through features, blogs, articles, social media and your website than spending money on multimedia advertising campaigns for example.

You don’t need the budget of a global company to brand your own business, just keep your message consistent and follow these top tips above.

(Via: PurInk)

Settling the Oldest Argument in Advertising

Branding and marketing have almost become crossover words in business and you can’t have one without the other to run a successful company. But why are they so important and what’s the difference between them?

Branding originated as a way for people to mark goods  which belonged to them. One of the earliest forms of branding was when cattle owners branded their livestock by leaving a permanent mark on them with a hot iron which would have been shaped into a recognisable mark, or logo. The same thing happens today but now clothes, websites, drinks, food, vehicles, cosmetics and pretty much anything that’s bought is branded.

The point of branding is to get a company’s name or the name of a particular product recognised so it becomes synonymous with the company and its values. Sometimes this can be small scale where a company wants to be known as the ‘go-to’ place for a certain service in a particular area and sometimes it’s global.

The Beckhams and branding

It’s not just companies which use branding in their goal of world domination though, people do too. If people hear the name of a particular celebrity, actress, sportsman and so on then they should immediately think of that person and their public persona, what they do and also the products they sell. A perfect example of this is the Beckhams. Think of David Beckham and most people think of ‘keywords’ such as football, sportsman, successful and good looking which then lead into the products he endorses such as sunglasses, underwear, razors, sports clothing and technology. Think of Victoria Beckham and most people think of the Spice Girls, fashion, weight, success which then leads to her associated products such as designer clothes, perfume and cars and she is now becoming much more recognised for her own designer fashion label. Celebrities need to be careful about what companies and products they choose to endorse as these help to build a celebrity brand. Think of the difference between Victoria Beckham who is associated with high fashion, luxurious products and as being top of the A-list and Coleen Rooney who has built a name for herself by branding herself as ‘the girl next door’ and deals with Asda, Littlewoods and creating her own fitness DVD.

Branding also helps to bring a lot of money into companies. Taking the example of David Beckham again, when he moved to LA Galaxy in 2007, few people in the UK (and probably throughout the world including the USA) were familiar with the club. Introduce ‘brand Beckham’ to the team and they become recognised worldwide and it has a healthy impact on ticket and merchandise sales too. Even though in his first year at the club he barely kicked a ball because of an injury, his brand being associated with the club brought LA Galaxy $13 million.

So if branding helps companies and people to build recognition and also to create an association between the company, person, product or service and a set of values, marketing then is what’s used to get a brand recognised – it promotes the brand.

Don’t believe the hype

Think of what happens when a new film comes out; there’s a frenzy of promotion to raise the profile of the film (and the studio behind it and the cast and crew in it). When a new film is about to be released the following happens to increase hype and promote the film’s brand…

• There’s rumours of a relationship between the two main stars
• The stars of the film do the rounds of every chat show and red carpet event on the planet
• Newspaper and magazines cover the film either in features related to the stars or the theme of the film, or review the film
• The social media world becomes littered with hashtags, trends and pages associated with the film
• There are multiple competitions to win products or experiences related to the film
• Ranges of random merchandise associated with the film are launched

All of the above will need to be done in the right place, on the right platform and targeted to the right audience. A good example to illustrate the above is the frenzy that the promoters of every new Twilight Saga whip up in teenage girls (the target audience) in a bid to create a buzz about the film and get them to spend as much money as possible in the process.

The difference between the two

Marketing can be anything which draws attention to a company, product, brand or service from a single leaflet to a multimillion pound global TV advertising campaign backed up with billboards, social media and PR.

Branding and marketing go hand in hand in business as these are how a company brings attention to what they want to sell, whether that’s football shirts, high fashion or cinema tickets and merchandise. Consistency is vital to all marketing campaigns and branding plays a huge part in this as a recognised logo, colours and values helps people to associate feelings with a particular brand. Big companies spend millions of pounds on delivering a clear and consistent message; think of Nike, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway and Apple which are instantly recognisable across the globe.

Branding is about developing and conveying a suitable and instantly recognisable logo, colours, image and values and marketing creates an awareness of this company, person, product or service and ensures this message reaches the right targeted audience. You can’t have one without the other and even small businesses can benefit from conveying a clear message through branding and marketing.

(Via: PureInk)

“I am based in Sheffield and have worked here since 2002. In 2002 I set the business up as I enjoy what I do for a living. In 2003 I got my first large contract which meant I could move the business into an office.”

Pretty boring stuff, no? Writing about yourself is never easy; knowing where to start, where to end and what to include are the trickiest parts.

Building Trust

About Us pages are a chance to reveal the human side of your business and make a connection with your website visitors. As business author Bryan Eisenberg  says, “The purpose of the about us page is to break down the facade of anonymity of the web and of corporations.” About Us pages are a great way to build trust with your visitors, as the famous sales mantra states, “people buy from people.” If you can show your visitors that you’re genuine then you’re one step closer to gaining their trust.

Where to Begin 

• Who are you?

Firstly, how do you want to present yourself? Even if you run your business alone, you can still present yourself as a ‘team’ if you work with associates and want your business to look bigger than it is. Alternatively, you can become your brand by engaging with visitors on a ‘one to one’ basis as yourself. About Us pages are essentially your opportunity to tell your visitors a story about yourself and your business. This could be based on your personal history or the history of your business but whichever you choose, make sure you tell your visitors who you are instead of just listing what you’ve done.

• Tell Your Story

A good example of an About Us page is from Not on the High Street where it is actually called ‘Our Story’. This page features a video and text which tells the story of how the two founders started the company.

“Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish shared a passion for hunting out the kind of charming, unique and carefully made things that you sometimes stumble across in cool urban markets, village fairs and tucked away boutiques. They also shared a desire to give everyone the chance to buy those things.”

This page works so well because it conveys the founders’ passion for their business and what led them to start the company. The page therefore makes an emotional connection with visitors and as visitors can clearly see who is behind the company, this helps to build up trust.

• What to say

Do you have so much to say that your About Us page is turning into an essay? Or perhaps the only words you’ve written so far are your company name. Whichever way, deciding what to include in your About Us page is a lesson in editing. Firstly, write down what motivated you to set up your business and why you do what you do. Next, add a touch of your personality and write down what you love about the industry you operate in (if you find this difficult it might be time to change jobs!). List your main achievements, what makes you and your business unique and add the key highlights of your career in the business and in any previous roles.

The next step is to focus on relevance. Which points are the most relevant to your current business? What will your visitors be interested in reading? Which parts of your story are most compelling? This might be a good time to ask a friend or colleague to take an impartial view of your About Us page and help you dig out the most engaging parts. When you have the outline of the points you want to convey you’re ready for your first draft.

• How to say it

About Us pages work best when they are written for an individual reader. In the example above from Not on the High Street the copywriting is very personal and speaks directly to the reader.

“Whether for a heartfelt marriage proposal, celebrating a new arrival or simply saying thank you to someone who went out of their way to help, they love the idea of finding products and gifts that tell their stories, or even help create them. And, if you’re reading this and find yourself nodding in agreement, it’s for you.”

Another example of a great About Us page which speaks directly to each individual reader is Problogger:

“Back in 2002 I stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’. I didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed my life. I know that statements like that belong on those cheesy ‘buy my $1000 training program’ sites (don’t worry I’m not selling anything more than a book) but it is actually true.”

This copywriting works because you can imagine Darren Rowse (the guy behind ProBlogger) speaking like this during a conversation with you; it has a natural and genuine tone.

• Find Your Voice

Finding your voice for your About Us page is partly to do with branding and partly to do with just being yourself. The best way to find your voice is to write out the rough draft of your about us page in the way you would say it if you were talking to a friend. Keep it light, keep it succinct and keep it real as your visitors will be able to see right through you if you’re not being genuine.

Which About Us pages do you like? Why do you think they work? Let us know below.

(via Pure Ink)