“Why blend in, when you can choose to blend out.”
In today’s hyper fast, stimulus filled and information overflowed world, anyone who doesn’t noticeably communicate a valuable message will get stuck with very low reach and most likely stall. Making a difference, rippling the pod and ultimately blending out is mandatory.
This Lexus IS TV commercial, even though in a completely different field, brilliantly states what blend out means.
“People may forget what you’ve said or did, but people never forget how you’ve made them feel.”
On 2014 I attended LinkedIn Talent Connect in London. Among other great keynotes, Dave’s talk caught my attention and inspired me to write this post. Dave shares his thoughts on how organizations can embrace digital revolution to communicate and amplify brand, company presence and their followers’ loyalty.
I still remember the reasons that led me to my current company. It was a tech company, born and raised in my home country, already with some cool flagship clients and projects and, if I had a company of my own, it was the type of company I would create - an agile network of complementary startup-like business.
Back then, information channels were scarce and quite different from those we have today. I heard about the company in a pitch they made in my University and managed to dig a bit deeper in a sponsored (carbon) newspaper supplement that fortunately was issued when I was finishing my degree and searching (sending paper resumes) to prospective employers. It was the 90’s and the Internet was still an infant.
Today, we have multiple channels and means to broadcast information very fast and everywhere. But reach out target audience and get their attention is quite difficult and requires a new breed of communication.
An example showing it is possible is Dollar Shave Club, a small company fated to wrestle with and differentiate from the razor blade giant global corporations. Their fun approach gathers hordes of followers eager the see what was their next move.
How can one be different and stand out between so many others?
Being memorable. Telling stories. Sharing experiences. Intersecting and cross-pollinating subjects like marketing, communication, sales and recruitment. Taking a journey together with the followers and pack fill it with engaging, honest, valuable content that inspires like L’Oréal, educates and shares useful information like Hootsuite, amuses like Kmart or convinces and creates awareness like Microsoft.
Only then can organizations have, not clients or candidates, but living fan communities that sure some day might become clients, candidates or partners, yet above all that are ambassadors and brand advocates since day one.
Some great examples of communities include the community built around Conan O’Brien after he got out of NBC and the one built by L’Oréal that celebrated the 500.000 LinkedIn follower mark with this inspiring video (currently, and less than one year after, they have 680.000+ followers).
People establish relationships with the companies and brands that better satisfy their needs, but also because of the reason why companies and brands do what they do.
If you work in a company that fits this description, a company that delivers solutions or products of excellence to its clients, half of the equation is already solved.
To solve the other half, you just have to share your story and your experience so others can see how is it like. Just like an architect or an artist proudly shows his work.
Spread your word and blend out!
(A version of this article initially feature in Tonic #6, Novabase's corporate internal e-magazine, in March 2015)
Photo Day 321 - Zig, When Others Zag from Marcus Peaston under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0