Branding isn't what you tell people. Branding is what people tell their friends about you.Over the past few months, InfoStream has interviewed members of the Urban Animal Industry to understand how Social Communication Programs are working. Perhaps not surprisingly, experiences haven't been uniformly positive and some have even abandoned or delayed further online involvement. Many of these conversations had similar expressions:
- Websites and interactive online ventures did not achieve the results expected
- Existing talent is already committed so asking them to take on 'social' is an imposition
- Re-posting content from other sites hasn't been effective in developing traffic
- Acquiring original content is expensive and hard to sustain
- Online conversations on media such as Facebook, when negative is hard to manage
- Supporting a real-time Twitter feed is exhausting
- Achieving presence in a noisy online environment is more difficult than expected
The Urban Animal Program intends to create a single digital channel that can enhance the online presence for the entire community. In the coming articles, InfoStream will bring a discussion of what may be wrong with our expectations and also share more about developing a capacity for each community and for subscribers in the Urban Animal Program.
Last week a TEDxYYC presentation was published. Google expert, Chris Adamkowski talks candidly about 'Connecting in the Digital Age'. The video shows how online presence is more about 'Being invited In' than 'about cutting through the clutter' (rising above online noise). Watch the video and see if it helps understand how you can 'invite someone in'.
