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Last weekend I helped a client and friend at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival. If you have never been to one of the MBS, they are the main alternative health and New Age tradeshows in Australia.  They are packed with niche businesses selling to passionate people interested in all things New Age - the perfect combination … if you know what you are doing.

So in today’s post I thought I would share with you the story of two very different stalls. My client’s stall and the stall opposite her.

The stall opposite had a great product that would naturally appeal to many of the visitors. It came in four different price points to suit all buyers. So far so good. But the problems with their strategy and marketing meant that they lost a lot of potential sales.

What were their mistakes?

• They only had enough brochures for the first day of the tradeshow and no business cards. The ultimate sin!

• The brochures they did have were bland, boring and had no call to action - so even if someone did take one, there was no reason for them to call, visit the website or buy the product.

• They did have one professional sign at the back of the stall - but the rest of the walls were blank. This made the stall quite uninviting and not worthy of a second glance.

• There were no prices on the products. The owner just told the people a price based on what he thought each person could afford. This meant his prices varied wildly throughout the day and were subject to his own desperation on how many sales he was/wasn’t getting.

• The display itself was monochrome - nothing to grab the eye or highlight features of his products.

• They didn’t make use of nearby poles to put up posters or publicise their products.

• The sales person spent a lot of time on their mobile phone and not engaging people walking by with either eye contact or a simple hello.

On a plus, they took advice - so by day 2 their sales improved and on the final day they did quite well.

So what about my client? Well Julie McLeod from www.diyfengshui.com.au is a very savvy marketer and had a very different experience of the MBS. She had massive sales and her website traffic after the show has gone through the roof.

Here’s a few of the things Julie did right.

• She knew her audience and stocked the products that her audience were looking for. She stayed within her niche and didn’t stock products outside her area. Narrowly focusing on your niche generally increases sales - you are seen as an expert.

• Even though her business is online - she used offline strategies to generate business to her online store. Use offline marketing to drive business to your website.

• Julie researched all of the issues her customers had asked about in the previous 12 months and ensured she had products that specifically addressed the issues. For example - she had a shelf display for “fertility” and another for “wealth” rather than just a loose collection of products. People looked at the issue and then chose products to solve their issue (the old features vs. benefits).

• She did a major purchase of a low price ticket item (incense) and due to her bulk buying could offer a massive offer (2 for $3) that still made her a profit while generating a lot of sales.  People taking advantage of the offer also spent time looking and buying additional items on the stall. Create a bargain offer with a low priced entry point into your business.

• All items were clearly priced. There were bright ’shelf talkers” and large colourful star burst price tickets to grab attention. Make it easy for people to buy from you.

• All purchases (no matter how small) went into a colourful bag that included compelling marketing material directing people back to the website. Her trade stall banner was her website address. Always take the opportunity to cross promote your business and reinforce your brand.

• Small items of old stock from her store rather than being written off was wrapped in gift paper and added to the lucky dip box. The lucky dip box was on the opposite corner to the incense and grabbed people’s attention as they came from a different direction. This was very popular and again had the effect of people stopping to look and buy other products near the lucky dip. Shift old stock at cost price or below rather than writing it off and throwing it away (assuming the product is still safe).

• One of her incenses (loose sage leaves) were burning the whole event. People smelt the incense and then bought the product. People are attracted by smell - use it in your marketing.

• Julie planned the layout of her stall based on estimated direction of customers. No matter where the customers spotted the stall - the layout was eye catching, and had interesting products begging to be looked at. Have you looked at the view into your store from different perspectives? Do the highest foot traffic areas display the most profitable and highest selling items?

• She provided expert Feng Shui advice on each of her products if required (she adopted the strategy Pharmacists use in  explaining how to use medications - the shop girls could say the same thing, but it carries more weight if coming from someone “official”) Expert advice is valued. Who is your business expert?

• A number of high ticket items were included on the stall. These sold well - people are not afraid to spend on what they desire. Don’t make assumptions on what people can and can’t afford.

• She selected the stall based on busy foot traffic. It was a corner stall right near the main stage. Yes, during some speakers the aisles were blocked, but all that traffic had to go somewhere after the speakers - back past her stall and a large percentage stopped and bought. Always place your business near passing traffic.

• She had a sign on sheet for her newsletter. People signed up in droves to get more advice from Julie. She didn’t offer a prize for sign-up - just good quality information. Customers who asked Julie a Feng Shui question about the products they were buying were prompted to sign up for the newsletter. Her ezine list grew dramatically over the weekend. Never forget to get the email details of people and send regular informative emails to them with a minimum of 80% content. People value information - if you are heavy on the info and low on the sell you gain loyal customers.

• Finally, she spent a lot of time getting the energy and approach of her stall and her team feeling “right” and staying right throughout the days. Keeping everything balanced meant customers picked up on the feeling and were more comfortable with their purchases. How does your business feel - calm or frantic?

So, here were just a few of the many great strategies. What could you use in your business?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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Smart bricks and mortar businesses are realising that the internet provides them with a  whole new channel of customers.  Many start by dipping their toes into the internet water by creating “brochure” websites - essentially putting information that customers would normally see in their store or office online.

As they gain confidence we start to see the increase of strategies such as ezines rather than print catalogues, blogs and forums to encourage discussion around the areas of focus for the business and then adoption of social media such as Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to engage and interact with consumers. Online stores either as part of their regular website or as part of eBay also are explored as ways to tap into other customers.

In a small - mid sized business it is easy to integrate your on-line/ off-line presence. Generally the same or a small team of people are responsible for the branding, strategy and outcomes. When you start getting up in size you need to ensure cross team co-ordination happens.

Paul Marshall from Salmat Digital Force recently presented at the Retail World Summit in Sydney. He had some words of caution for businesses heading into the online world.

• Keep your online/offline businesses integrated.
• Ensure consistent return policies between both your online and offline stores. Customers don’t see any distinction between how they buy from your company - neither should you. Customers should be able to return goods bought online at a regular bricks and mortar store.
• Ensure your loyalty programs are transferable - all reward points (no matter whether accrued online or offline) should transfer.

I would add in a few more points

• All your online/offline terms & conditions need to be reviewed by an expert IT lawyer (I recommend IdeaLaw). You may need to review both sets of T&Cs to ensure you are complying with international sales law.
• Ensure you have consistent branding across all communication channels. If you are not careful you will present multiple brand images and styles - ensure you have a strong corporate style guide in place.
• Plan carefully before you leap - strategies such as forums and blogs are great for Google traffic. They also take a lot of time to maintain and develop. Like all cultural change - unless you are willing to invest the time and resources needed to maintain the change - don’t start. You will contribute to change fatigue for your employees & customers and it will be harder to get them motivated for your next big thing.
• If you are going to have a Twitter account - then take the time to respond to complaints/praise. Learn how to track comments about your business in real time and take action - never leave a comment about your business unacknowledged.

The bottom line - integrate, interact & intelligently plan your online/offline strategy.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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When you think of branding most people think of logos, colours and designs. But the way you write and the words you use are as much a part of your brand as all of the other visual elements.

Think about Virgin’s Brand – cheeky, taking a poke at the establishment and very fresh. When they write ads or brochures each part of their writing reflects their overall brand – fun and saying it like it is.

Now think about some of the major banks – their business writing is often dry, corporate and staid.

Many small businesses make the mistake of being too formal with their writing. They use big words, formal sentence structures and refer to themselves in the third person. However the trend in marketing is personalisation – people want to know and trust you, the people behind the logo. You can achieve this by being real and open in your communications.

Some indicators of this trend are the shift in ads on TV. Gone are the ads promoting a company “Woolworths the Fresh Food People” to be replaced with ads showing Woolies employees showing their expertise with fruit via weekly information about new seasons fruit and vegies. Bunnings shows their employees talking in their words about their company. Even the banks are cashing in showing their tellers in social settings.

This trend has also shifted into writing. Gone are the boring web pages or brochures. People want to know more.

When we work with a company I always have a conversation with the head of the company. I want to hear in their own words what makes their company great. I also want to hear how they speak, what makes them laugh and what makes them tick. We use this information to ensure there’s no disconnect between the words people read on websites and brochures, and the words they hear when they talk with the company.

As a freelance copywriter, here’s my process to make sure your writing reflects your brand:

• Describe your brand in words – what does it mean, what does it stand for, what sort of people work there, what sort of experience do people get when they work with you?
• Ask a few of your friends and top clients to describe your brand to you.
• Look for common words and themes – for example fresh, vibrant, trusted.
• Use these words as part of your unique selling proposition (USP).
• Run writing past the ruler of these words – if someone didn’t know you and they read your words would they think this company was (fresh, vibrant, trusted)?
• Always write directly to your clients or customers. Refer to “you” and “we” not “the client” and “our company”.
• Insert emotion – have some fun with your words. Don’t try to be someone or something you’re not. You are perfectly fine the way you are – if you represent the essence of you in your writing the right customers will be attracted to your business for the right reasons.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance copywriters

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All good marketers look through their Google analytic reports to check out the search terms people are typing into search engines to find their website. It is a great way of refining your website keywords and improving your search engine results.

But … how many people look all the way to the end? Prompted by @silkcharm and @the_gman rather funny experiences I scrolled all the way through the thousands of terms to bring you the top 20 strangest terms people have typed into a search engine and then been taken to the Heart Harmony website.

1. 21st birthday ideas

2. 21st birthday presents

Hmnnn - perhaps I can see a niche needing to be filled.

3. metaphors

A perfect storm of metaphors for those addicted to explosive writing.

4. Joke small people small packages

I wonder if people really buy small packages full of small people?

5. Rich people vs poor people

I will help you here - rich people have more money, time, love, happiness - but not necessarily all at the same time.

6. Art niche ideas

Niches as in wall niches or as in niches for artists that haven’t already been done?

7. Best way to claim a laptop on tax

You may want to talk to your accountant for that one.

8. Chicken shop names

9. Chicken shop menu

Ok - there were actually about 15 searches relating to starting a chicken shop - I didn’t know they were so popular as a business idea. But coming soon … a great new e-book on How to Start a Chicken Shop (by the people that brought you Chicken Soup for the Soul).

10. Ebay excavators

You can buy anything eBay these days, so why not excavators? What they have to do with copywriting or Heart Harmony is a bit beyond me though.

11. Email finger

What the?

12. Facts about rosary beads

This is a very strange one.  I have a client that has one website selling first communion gifts (and another site selling pasties) - perhaps we could ask them?

13. Global meltdown

The end of the world is coming!

14. Global meltdown online sale

… but first you can buy rugs from Rugs a Million at 75% off.

15. I hate to be on hold

If you are on the Telstra service never ending problem solving recording … my best tip is to say “talk to a human” - for some reason it works and you get a real person to talk with. I just love the startled “it sounds like you want to talk to an operator” response from the automated recording. It’s worth ringing Telstra just for that moment.

16. I want to work at Smiggle, how do I get a part-time job there?

You contact a Store Manager … and ask them!

17. Quentin Bryce’s leadership skills

This search may or may not have come from the Prime Minister’s Office before he appointed her as Governor-General.

18. Stab proof cloting

Yes - it was spelt cloting. Stay safe dude!

19. Waiter deal complaints

Perhaps Rugs a Million are offering a deal - buy one rug get one waiter free.

20. What does until next time mean

It means … until next time

What is lurking in the bowels of your keyword analytics? Any funny ones you want to share?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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Day 2 dawned and I missed the first speaker answering the 121 emails that had lobbed into my in-box overnight (the joys of running an internet business!)

Ari Gelper was the first speaker we saw. Fascinating how someone could create a 2 hour presentation out of the message “to get more sales - put in a chat box onto your website”.  He kept telling us how he was giving us amazing content - the best we would ever see. Well - in the words of Shakespeare “methinks he doth protest too much”.  Yes the software was useful - but two hours of rah rah about what was in effect a widget for a website - give me a break!

After lunch the brilliant John Carlton spoke. John is one of the world’s best copywriters and one of the people I learnt my craft from. I had never seen him present before - so wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Irreverant, rude, funny, challenging, shambolic, hilarious - all are words that come to mind … but the content was superb.

His view is that every person is in sales, and that sales is just a conversation between friends. If you have a great product that makes a difference to people, you are doing yourself and others a disservice if you do not do everything in your power to get the message out to the people who need it.

He took through audience through a brilliant process to craft their elevator chat - helping people craft their USP in real time, and critiquing the drafts. People chosen to have their elevator speech savagely critiqued were rewarded with an autographed bottle of beer (gives you an idea of the presentation).

John also looked at the rational and lizard brain reasons people make buying decisions - and why in all sales you need to provide people with rational reasons they can tell their friends as well tapping into the real reasons people buy.

The final speaker was Kerwin Rae. Kerwin was entertaining, funny and high energy. He looked at the science behind setting up effective joint ventures by analysing successful JVs such as McDonalds and Disney.

Things to consider:

1. Identify who is your target market
2. Identify their patterns of interest (what is the common theme amongst your target market)
3. Identify non-competing businesses that serve that market
4. Create a compelling and irresistible offer for both them and their clients
5. Make it a win-win-win offer
6. Identify all actionable steps
7. Set a deadline
8. Get an endorsement from the JV partner
9. Check the results
10. Work out what next

So what were my main take-aways from the weekend?

• Some of the best speakers were the least polished. They gave greater content and shared more of themselves in the process.
• There are lots of brilliant courses out there to build your skills that don’t involve formal study. Follow where your heart leads to take the next step in your business.
• In case I didn’t already know - copywriting rocks!  It is one of the least understood skills and the most critical for ongoing business success.
• Informal discussions with people who have already been there - done that are very powerful ways to fast track your development.
• Plus … a huge addition to my to do list of things to polish/improve/refine for our business

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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Day 1 of the Ultimate Marketing Seminar saw 4 world class speakers grace the stage here at Brisbane - Siimon Reynolds, Adam Ginsberg, James Schramko and Brad Fallon.

It was fascinating watching them each tackle their topic (basically how to grow your business) from different angles - and how they wove their pitches to buy their seminars throughout their content.

Siimon Reynolds is definitely a showman. His pitch was very fast paced and content rich. His gems from decades in the marketing game were certainly high quality.

I particularly loved his stories of campaigns that worked like Bamboo Lingerie - a local lingerie store in the US that chalk stencilled onto the pavement “From here it look s like you could do with new lingerie. Bamboo Lingerie 200m”. Very clever, funny and cheap as chips to create.

I also liked his analysis of USP/ESP & TSP. USP = unique selling proposition, ESP = emotional selling proposition (the emotion you build your brand about) and TSP = Tribal selling proposition (where you create a tribe around your brand).

His question “Is what you’re doing living up to your marketing of your company” is one all businesses need to ask themselves - as if your marketing is creating one impression, but your company misses the boat on key customer touch-points then you are setting your business up for failure.

Adam Ginsberg is the most successful e-bay seller in history. Unfortunately his session was basically one long pitch - with zero real content. It was entertaining and amusing to watch - but without content to back up the fun, it left me hollow.

James Schramko is one of the truly nice guys in internet marketing. I have been fortunate to see James present a few times and to meet with him socially. He is as my grandma would say “one of nature’s true gentlemen”. He is a doer and not a polished high gloss speaker - what you see is what you get - honest, genuine and real. He spends most of his time happily building his business and and has only recently started presenting after much badgering by his colleagues.

James knows his stuff and went through what was in effect abeginners guide to the world of internet marketing. Showing many possibilities and ideas - and stretching imaginations. Having someone put together a coherent picture of how all the internet marketing pieces fit together and how people can harmonise them into a thriving business is rare. All I can say is if you truly want to succeed in Internet Marketing - James would be one of the ones to learn from. Check out James’s blog and get his e-book to get an idea of the sort of things he can teach you.

Finally Brad Fallon from Stompernet took the stage. Brad is an icon in the internet marketing world and this was the first time I had seen him present. What really stood out for me was how well read Brad was - his speak was littered with references to amazing books to tap into (and as you know my love of books you can imagine Amazon’s joy when I go shopping over the next few days to pick up the main ones).

So here’s a few to look for “Execution”, author Felix Dennis, “Predictably Irrational”, author Ken Fisher, “The Choice”, “It’s not luck”.

Brad’s presentation looked at a whole raft of business blocks that stop people from succeeding drawing from the best business theorists.  The insight that “every business has 1 thing that limits throughput the most”  and our job is to identify and eliminate the one thing is quite powerful. Think about it for a moment - “if you could make a lot more money in the next 6 months if I just (fill in the details about the one constraint)” - what would you do?

Brad demonstrated the power of the word free in campaigns and why the free line has shifted over the years.

He looked at four core limiting things that trip people up:

1. Reality is complex
2. Conflict is inevitable
3. Others are to blame
4. The sky is the limit

Finally he looked at how to create a “Mafia Offer” - one that customers can’t say no to. Very very clever and worth joining Stompernet to learn.

What else did I learn from the seminar - the value of upgrades. I paid for an additional upgrade package - which meant access to a VIP room. So what? Well at the simplest level it meant coffee without queueing, lunch and snacks. It also meant meeting people who were serious about their business (and I booked 2 new clients yesterday during the breaks).

The highlight was access to a cocktail party in the evening to chat with the speakers and other like minded businesses. From my side of things, talking with John Carlton (one of my copywriting heroes) was priceless. Catching up with James with my colleague Donna-Marie Coggins was also brilliant.

Well - off to get ready for Day 2

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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Last night I attended a black tie awards dinner for the Qld Sustainable Business Awards with my client Spick & Span Commercial cleaning. Although Nuwan didn’t win - the winner in that category was  a truly remarkable industrial estate that was 100 self-sustaining and carbon neutral (Mitchell Enviro Industrial Estate), it was  a brilliant evening.

What made the night spectacular was looking at all of the visionary businesses who wanted to make a difference to the environment. Each business owner was sparked by an idea - one that filled them with passion and excitement and which they turned into thriving, profitable businesses.

There was the Qld Complete Printing Service that only uses biodegradable soy ink and enviro sensitive paper. There was the innovative Cooee DustBloc company that reduces water needed on mine site roads by 90% through a special blend of road coating (given sites generally use 4 million litres of water a year that’s a huge saving), and a brilliant sustainable building at Bond University.

There were many other fascinating businesses on show last night - all founded with a spark of creativity.

What was also interesting was the under-the-sea theme of the event. Guests walked under a giant 20 octopus to get to their tables with lighting and table decorations to give the impression of being underwater.

The entertainment (other than the band) was a group of 5 men with stuffed nemo like fish on poles that waggled when they walked. This caused much discussion at our table - trying to work out how the guys came up with the idea - and how they would pitch their entertainment to business owners “let’s get five very serious guys in black and get them to waggle fish at people”.

Fish on Sticks

These guys took their job very very seriously. Only one smiled the whole night of waggling - the rest just quietly walked around with their fish in a school. The fish school periodically would stop at a table and swarm the guests or the table centre piece and then quietly move on their way. Not a word was spoken by the fish wagglers.

We tried to work out what hourly rate you would pay fish wagglers, and how you could possibly find them on Google. But then we decided that sometimes creativity just has to be enjoyed - there is no other purpose. They had the ultimate small business niche.

The fish wagglers were no different to the industrial estate creator - they had the same spark of creativity and the same passion - they just applied their creativity differently. Where does your spark of creativity do you have in your business?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance writer

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You don’t have to pay the national debt of a third world country to pick up great marketing lessons. Over the past 10 weeks I have sat through a group of Year 8 students from the local High School learning to debate - and the lessons that businesses can pick up from their experience is worth a motza.

1. Matter - manner - method. You will be assessed on your matter (information), manner (how you say what you say) and method (how organised is your approach and thinking). This holds true no matter which business you are in.
2. A little bit of confidence goes a long way. If you present confidently, it hides a multitude of flaws. Be confident in who you are and the power of what you have to say.
3. Drama is important. You need to create light and shade with your voice, build drama with your approach and use appropriate physical gestures to engage your audience. People love drama and to be entertained. No one bought something because they were bored into it.
4. You need to create signposts. People want to know what you are going to say, when you are going to say it and you need to remind them what you said at the end of your pitch. Signpost your pitch so people can follow along and they know exactly what you want them to do at each point.
5. Think of objections and counter them. People will always find reasons not to agree to your pitch. You need to think about what they may say and find real and compelling reasons to counter them. Even if you hear an objection you hadn’t considered, you need to find a great counter for that objection and persuade people that this objection is not relevant.
6. You can over-prepare. If you sound like you have pre-recorded your speech - people will not engage. People like the immediacy of your thoughts and ideas - which includes stumbles, falls and trips over words. People buy from people and not from recordings.
7. A smile is still important - as is eye contact. Use both regularly.
8. Take your time. When you pitch, you may come out of the gate speaking at a rate of knots. The floor is yours. It is OK to grab a sip of water and gather your thoughts before the first word is spoken.
9. Success is a team sport. You need to know the roles each of your team play in a pitch - and not cut across each other, but back each other up and reinforce each other’s points,
10. Facts are good - but don’t overdo them. Yes people like to hear the facts - but they also want to be engaged and emotionally involved. Long lists of facts put people to sleep. Balance facts with engagement and interaction

So there you have it. 10 brilliant marketing and copywriting techniques you can instantly apply in your business - and they came from a year 8 debating competition. And if the kids can learn this over a 10 week period through trial and error while still carrying full study workloads, there’s no excuses for business not to have a go!

Oh - and before you ask, yes … I am a proud mum. It was great to see the progress my daughter made over the time and given the constraints the team had. It was also interesting to watch team personalities come into play - with some of the kids more focused on self rather than team and winning rather than learning- but that is all part of the lessons of life that the kids have to experience. No … they weren’t ace debaters at the end. They did what they set out to do - which was learn, give things a go and to step up the plate. Each kid tried their best - even in the face of their fears of speaking in public - which is all you can ask of anyone.

Adults can learn a lot from kids at times. When was the last time you were willing to face potential public ridicule doing something new and terrifying - yet these kids all did it.

Look around you for other day to day opportunities to learn to build your business. Enlightenment comes from unusual sources.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

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It’s a truism but society changes over the years. What is acceptable and even “hip” in one era is outdated and seen as “on the nose” in another era. And yet many businesses and managers don’t keep pace with the times.

TV is a great barometer of what is acceptable in our culture at any given time. Think about what was acceptable on  TV over the decades. In the 70’s we had Number 96 full of nakedness and much bed hopping and the Benny Hill shows showing a middle aged fat man chasing buxom women. Workplaces were still coming to grips with women in the workplace and many women of that era experienced sexual harassment within their jobs.

In the 80’s we had the influx of more shows showing good guys overcoming bad with Knight Rider, the A-Team, McGyver as well as power plays of Dynasty and Dallas. Gone were the hippy 70’s and enter power dressing and tough guys. Women started to move into positions of power in the workplace and benchmarking systems and processes were the order of the day in many businesses.

In the 90’s we had Mad About You, Beverley Hills 90210, Ally McBeal, Frasier, Home Improvement & Sex in the City. Here smart scripts, relationship analysis and humor were the messages of the decade. There was movement in workplaces towards embracing diversity and inclusion. Leadership became experiential rather than management driven and women embraced their strong independence.

In the millenium we have a huge influx of reality TV - where everyone gets their minute of fame - as long as they are quirky and different. Workplaces are trying to keep pace with the influx of social media and ensuring all employees are valued and recognised for their different contributions. This is the decade of the individual and tailored solutions.

What has this got to do with business? Well, many businesses seem stuck in a previous decade of interacting with their staff and customers.

A classic case is the cast of the Footy Show and Gordon Ramsey.  These blokes obviously were reared on a 70’s/80’s diet of culture - and didn’t move on. They still work on the old style humour and old fashioned ways of interacting with women - and haven’t yet realised that the world has shifted. That their approach to humour isn’t funny anymore (if it ever was) and their presentation style is the equivalent of wearing a safari suit to a modern day cocktail party. There time is past and keeping them on TV shows the lack of awareness by the TV programmers of the shifts in society.

During the last State of Origin match there appeared to be more women watching the match via Twitter than men. And many were commenting on the poor commentary put forward by Channel 9.  They voted with their feet - and chose other than the mainstream offering.

While we cringe at Sam Newman and Gordon Ramsey’s antics which look a heck of a lot like Sir Les Patterson on a good day, businesses need to also stop to consider if any of their managers are giving off the same outdated message.

Do they look at their marketing images to see if they are still using the equivalent of bikini clad females holding tools or draped over trucks? Do they check their marketing strategies to see that they are socially inclusive rather than one way systems and process driven? Do they look at the language they are using to ensure it reflects the diversity in society rather than marginalising groups of people?

In my experience every business needs a significant brand review at least every 5 years to ensure it is keeping pace with the society it serves. When was the last time you took a serious look at your business? Do you reflect the culture of today - or are you stuck in a decades old time warp?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance writer

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Last night I watched a football match with a few thousand mates.  No, I wasn’t at the pub and the living room wasn’t packed to the rafters, I decided to watch the State of Origin match via Twitter, with the TV just quietly going in the background. What a fascinating social experiment it turned out to be!

Twitter generated a similar feeling as going to the stadium - people fell into respective team camps and there was good natured ribbing on each side. The referees came in for the odd blast just like a regular game and there were cheers and boos at all the appropriate places.

What was very different and what made it fascinating, was people quickly organised themselves into conversational groups around the game through the use of hashtags # to identify which conversation they wanted to be part of. No one told them to do it, there was no central place where people copied down the hashtag of the day - someone just started the conversation and then people found out via osmosis and tuned into the conversation.

This simple us of hashtags to designate the conversation demonstrated the power of the internet in creating tribes or communities of interest and how people quickly find their tribe.

Using real time search tools on Twitter applications such as TweetDeck, people could gather these conversations and respond to what other people said. It was like a very noisy party. You could start a conversation with anyone in the tribe, or they could drop into your conversation to share their insights. It was immensely powerful!

So what happened? Well, for me it was like watching football commentated by a swarm of stand up comics. A large proportion of the comments were funny … very funny.

The main hashtag conversations I spotted last night were #origin, #nrl, #qld, #nsw and my personal favourite #origincliches.

#Origincliches had everyone listening to the on-screen commentators and jotting down all of the thousands of cliches that were trotted out. It captured mangled English and the creation of new words such as “outoriginated” by the Channel 9 sports commentators. Seeing all of the cliches listed out was cringe creating - but oh so funny.

But it wasn’t just the football and the commentators that came in for discussion. The ads in the breaks of the game, the most expensive TV real estate of the year, also were up for discussion and debate, as well as what was happening on other TV stations. People who hated football added in their comments and overseas people who spotted the hashtags in trending topics dropped in to work out what it was all about.

So what was the point of watching a match via Twitter? Twitter is certainly the next big thing and like all next big things something else will take over and move it along in years to come. But right now Twitter is huge, so it pays to work out what human needs it is fulfilling and why it is so big.

What Twitter does well is it taps into the intrinsic nature of people. Their need to be part of something bigger. Their need to belong to a group that makes them feel welcome. Their need to share their opinions and ideas and their need to have fun. Twitter fills these human needs with no fanfare, no fuss, at 140 characters at a time.

How can you apply the lessons of Twitter to your business? How can you make people feel welcome and that they belong to a cohesive group? How can you encourage debate and sharing of ideas? How can you make your business a fun place to be? How can you make it quick and simple? These are the true lessons of Twitter.

There are two more State of Origin games in the next few weeks. You may want to get onto Twitter and watch the next few games to get an idea of the sheer power of watching human needs fulfilled, and to have a few laughs along the way.

Join me on Twitter www.twitter.com/ingridcliff. I look forward to connecting with you there.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

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