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Discovery Channel Hostage Taker James Lay Lee & Other Terrible Ways to get your Message Across

Topic: Managing Your Business,Small Business Marketing | Comments Off on Discovery Channel Hostage Taker James Lay Lee & Other Terrible Ways to get your Message Across

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin

On September 1, 2010 a man wielding a gun and possibly an explosive device took a bunch of hostages at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters. This deranged man is presumed to have taken these extreme measures in order to get his message across to the organization and to mass media. Violence, threats and other acts of this nature are  abhorrent in all forms, and this is an obviously a case of extremely poor messaging, decision making and circumstances but with so many people out there trying to get their message across it can feel like your message is getting lost in the cacophony.

Understanding common messaging mistakes is important to make sure you are investing your valuable time towards effective messaging tactics. The following are a list of serious blunders I see in frequently in Social Media and traditional marketing. Are you making these mistakes in your messaging?

Blunder #1: Only Talking about Yourself and Your Business in your Social Media Platforms

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. If you rely on social media and you only talk about yourself and your product you will have a hard time acquiring and retaining followers, advocates and fans. Not only is it frowned upon and viewed as bad form it’s quite frankly boring. Nobody has enough interesting stuff in just their own product or business to keep people interested with the frequency that the social media beast needs to be fed.

One great, recent example of generosity is this guest #FF post on ShopBop’s Blog that highlights blogger favorites that they recommend you follow on Twitter. ShopBop is a has grown to be leading purveyor of contemporary fashion and commended for their connection to their community.

Blunder #2: Not Talking About Yourself Enough

Have you ever seen an ad on television and thought, “huh? I don’t know what this is for…”. Well that can happen also in the land of many messages. People get so excited about sharing funny/cool content that they forget that above all if you are spending time and effort on a strategy it should in some way enhance your brand.

Some of our most popular content on the WorkingPoint Blog are the Botpreneur Comics from Sparky Firepants (Aka David Billings). While not strictly about accounting or small business resources, this comic captures and touches on themes that are relevant to our user community, many of whom face the challenges so humorously exposed in the comic strip. That is what makes the content “worthy” of our effort to promote it via our twitter, facebook and blog, not just that it is cool and funny.

Before you repost, retweet or write a blog post stop and ask yourself these questions to avoid these business messaging blunders:

How does this content relate to my brand, message, or product? Why should I invest my time in promoting it?

When was the last time I shared great content from someone else? (In general, I like to do a 2 for 1 rule on Facebook 2 things from other sources for every 1 thing I say about us).

If this is about my product only can I complement it with something interesting from some other source?

Speaking of sharing great content from other sources:

WorkingPoint wants to congratulate  WorkingPoint Guest Blogger & Solopreneur Expert Larry Keltto, author of the popular Solopreneur Resource Blog The Solopreneur Life, who launched a good marketing idea by creating  “From Idea to Market in 10 Weeks” a Solopreneurlife Mastermind Group for his community of solopreneurs.

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