10 Don’ts for Digital Branding

Ruby’s Pseudo recently published a nice collection of insights on marketing to teens, and brands trying to reach youth in the digital world.

1. Don’t be too flippant and don’t give youth the basic facts they’re looking for; i.e. - What it is? Where can I get it? How much does it cost? etc.
2. Be approachable and accessible to youth.
3. Don’t redirect visitors to another site.
4. Don’t use background music. Youth can see through a false ‘hip’ image.
5. Don’t create a Facebook profile for your brand.
6. Don’t target the emotionally vulnerable with insincere “‘Single? Broken-Hearted?”" questions.
7. Don’t target a small age range, allow your brand to grow with its users.
8. Don’t blatantly rip and appropriate youth-produced content onto your site. This once again presents a false image, of which youth can see through.
9. Don’t use pop-up advertising. It irritates rather than entices.
10. Don’t push the boundaries of social network interaction.

Success Strategy for Creative Projects

This picture has no relevance to the post I just like it, anyway I just came across an interesting post from the good people at lifedev , its about the approaches to starting a creative project, check it out.

The Soak Cycle

When it comes time to washing dishes you take the grimy dish and put it in water to let it soak. Time and water+soap do the hard work. With time the water and soap break down the grease and grime. Similarly letting your project soak will allow your brain to work on the project even while you’re doing other tasks.

Soaking is when a project is thought about but not actively worked on. The project is reviewed at specific intervals. This gives your natural creative instincts time to work on it.

Think

The human brain is a powerful tool. Giving it time to work on a project will lead to a more creative, better solution. Schedule times to think about your project. Depending on the scope or length of the project you may schedule 5 minutes a day for a week thinking about it or an hour every two weeks for 3 months (or anything in between).

When you schedule thinking time, be sure to give yourself enough time to think. Write down notes of your conclusions so you can refer to it in the future. Try to take different approaches each time you begin a thinking session. Many times you’ll get that “Aha moment” (a good idea) when you least expect it, so don’t worry if you feel blocked. People report inspiration frequently in the shower. Giving yourself time to think will give you more shower days to let your brain think about it.

Layer

During your thinking time find ways to break down the project into small parts. Do a few little steps for the project to give you a better understand of what it entails. Do a five minute task. Do any tasks that take just a few minutes to delegate. They should be delegated as soon as possible so the receiver can plan accordingly and it’s not an emergency at the last second. This process is called layering where you “layer” your successes. It allows you to know you are on the right track and gives you tangible results.

Discuss

Put layering and thinking together by scheduling time to talk to people. Talk to thoughtful people about the project, even if they don’t have expertise about it. Just talking about the project will allow your brain to crystallize your thoughts. In addition, others may provide a new perspective on the project you are tackling and give you a new wave of ideas.
Rinse…Repeat

Enlist others to look at your project as you’re working on it. This gives you an outsider’s view. Get a coworker or friend that you can bounce your work off of. Try to get someone whose ideas you respect but who thinks a little different than you. Show them your progress so they can monitor if you’re fulfilling your mission.

You don’t have to listen to them. Just listen to why they are saying it. They may say you should make an element red. They don’t necessarily mean it has to be red- but it has to contrast from the background. Again you see how outside ideas can trigger new thinking and ideas.

Full article here

Humanising Brands

Unwind the mind

It has been a very hectic week, feels like there is so much to do and so little time to do it. In order to be truly productive, you have to have a clear mind. Clarity comes when you give your mind a chance to rest.

A over worked mind, is one of the biggest obstacles to productivity, I have kindly put down some ways to get mental breaks. This is kinda like my therapy, compiling this list will actually help me to practice what I am preaching.

Get More Sleep!

Not only does sleep recharge your body and at the very least keep you healthy, it also gives your mind a chance to rest. Literally. If your mind hasn’t been recharged when the day has started, you’re already 2 steps behind.

If you’re finding yourself getting a little sleepy in the afternoons, take a 15-30 minute power nap. Studies have shown that 20 minutes in the afternoon provide more rest than 20 minutes in the morning.

Music

Although some find music a hinderence when their working, personally I work best with the right music in the background. For me, the best music to work to is jazz. Wordless music seems to work best, but everyone has their preference. What’s important is that it adds a little something in the background, but shouldn’t be something that you’ll focus on too much. It’s just kind of there.

Switch’ It Up

One of the best ways to give your mind a break is to switch up your tasks. I can type on something for 30 minutes, get up and do a load of dishes, and come right back feeling quite refreshed. Not to mention that I’ll probably still be working on what I’m typing subconsciously, while I do the dishes. This way my productivity doesn’t take a hit, and I’m still finishing those “tasks”.

Switching it up may mean switching locations too. Work at a coffee shop, do something outside, it doesn’t matter.

Variety is the spice of life, don't forget.

Do Something Fun!

It’ll actually increase your productivity because you’ll be more refreshed later. Taking breaks is just as (if not more) important than the work.

“Breaks” can take many forms, and the only mandatory thing is that you enjoy it. If you have a job behind a desk, give your legs a stretch by doing something active. If you’re in the manual labour biz, go and get a massage. The important thing is to just do what feels good (within the legal realm of course).

Does success validate your opinion?

'Does success validate your opinion' that's my thought of the day. I like to blog as do a lot of people, and in my blog I present my opinion, as again a lot of people do.

Currently I am a relatively unknown blogger, like many other Joe bloggs, so I have been thinking at what point does my opinion become validated. Is success the proof that your opinion is correct, if so and 20,000 people read my blog daily, does that mean my opinion is now more valid than it was when 5 people read it.

Or if I become successful for a reason not related to my blog and start blogging, is my opinion automatically validated because I am a success in my own right, so must hold a valid opinion.

In closing please answer the question DOES SUCCESS VALIDATE YOUR OPINION?

The secret of the web

For all those that are yet to follow Seths blog, below is in his view, his best blog in the last two years entitled: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

Patience.

Google was a very good search engine for two years before you started using it.

The iPod was a dud.

I wrote Unleashing the Ideavirus 8 years ago. A few authors tried similar ideas but it didn't work right away. So they gave up. Boingboing is one of the most popular blogs in the world because they never gave up.

The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang.

But the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.

I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.

It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web. The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.

The trap: Show up at a new social network, invest two hours, be really aggressive with people, make some noise and then leave in disgust.

The trap: Use all your money to build a fancy website and leave no money or patience for the hundred revisions you'll need to do.

The trap: read the tech blogs and fall in love with the bleeding-edge hip sites and lose focus on the long-term players that deliver real value.

The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that's how long it's going to take, guys.

The power of spoken word.

This young man, is a great example of the power of spoken word. There is something to said, about the ability to speak publicly. Now clearly this youngster is a remarkable child, to be able to so confidently address 20 thousand people, but he must have had some support, empowerment, and teaching to get this point.

So if one individual can learn to speak so greatly, at such a young age, there is nothing stopping others. We really need to start giving our younger kids more, to enable them to be the best people they can be.

In a funny way, this video is very inspiring to me, DO YOU BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!