Modern Media: How to Build Your Business Reputation

January 19, 2015 by

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This is Episode 26 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Modern Media: How to Build Your Business Reputation

Gini Dietrich and I had a great conversation about the evolution of modern media in this episode, from the days when it was predominantly self-serving to where we are today.

Being truthful, most of us will admit we’re still getting comfortable with learning to tell better stories and how to help our target audience, while of course concurrently building our business reputation.

You will learn the practical methods Gini uses to help her clients. So, whether you are just getting started or are doing the work but not getting results from your media, well then, this episode is for you.

Our Featured Guest: Gini Dietrich

Modern Media: Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, an integrated marketing communications firm. She is the author of Spin Sucks, co-author of Marketing in the Round, and co-host of Inside PR. She also is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and the founder of Spin Sucks Pro.

The Evolution of Modern Media

It turns there are as many challenges with creating quality media as there are for being effective in so many other endeavors. Gini assures us that it doesn’t have to be that way.

She helps small businesses use the modern media channels more effectively by starting with what they know best – their business and the customers it serves.

For example, when Gini’s company starts working with new clients, it asks a simple question: What kinds of things happen every day? 

Instead of promoting the business, as most of us have been taught, we only need to learn how to tell better stories about the things that happen to us every day. People are naturally curious and that makes true stories about everyday activities a form of marketing, because embedded within those stories are clues to its values, culture, and true capabilities.

Media traditionally promoted a conceived business reputation. These days media simply delivers honest information that allows the audience to decide for themselves.

It’s Better to Show Than Tell

When it comes to building your business reputation it’s always better to show than tell, and the social media platforms are ideally suited for this.

For example, if you do not enjoy blogging it’s not likely you will do it consistently, and that alone sends a message. Whereas, if you enjoy making short videos to help your customers that authenticity will naturally come through.

For this reason, Gini suggests finding the type of media you enjoy creating and get started to build the habit and gain the experience that will make it better. Also, carefully choose your social media channels to meet your audience where they are now.

It may seem counterintuitive to use your media to share your ideas and hard-earned best practices, but bringing that to a community that values it is a surefire way to build an enviable business reputation that attract and retains customers.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

Gini’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Make the commitment to create media that favorably influences your audience. Soon people will expect it and you will hold yourself accountable to them.

Her Favorite Productivity Tip – Try the Moleskine for Evernote Notebooks. It allows your handwriting and drawings to be instantly digitized with the camera app.

A Quote that has Inspired Gini’s Success – “It doesn’t matter how often you fail. It’s how you get up and redo it that matters.” Anonymous

Key Take-Aways

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About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Your Business Story is Marketing

September 29, 2014 by

Your Business Story is Marketing

Your story is who you are, and the same holds true for your business.

The question is how much attention does your business dedicate to what is arguably its most powerful marketing?

Tell a True Story

Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes says, “What matters now is telling a true story well.” The truth has a way of shining through, and that’s especially relevant for business marketing.

Embedded within your business story is the vision that inspired it, the mission that it is committed to today, and even subtle qualities like your core values. This is why the first pages of most employee manuals tell the story of the company’s beginnings.

For my business in particular, we wanted our staff to know how hard we worked to get our business off the ground. Even important was communicating that everyone’s true boss was the customer.

In this regard, our story was training for our team. Given that they were our ambassadors, that makes it marketing too.

Curate and Archive Your Stories

The story of your company’s beginnings is just one of many that helps everyone associated with your business understand how it got here, what it believes, and what differentiates it from others in the community or industry.

Vision and mission statements have value, but unlike stories, they are seldom memorable. Big brands like McDonalds and Coke have archivists on staff to preserve and manage the evolution of the brand story. Shouldn’t your business be doing the same?

Any business that is actively blogging has a goldmine of stories to work with, but for the most part they are buried in the archives. The solution is to take the best of the best and give them new life by organizing them into eBooks or tutorials.

For example, a series of existing blog posts could become a training program to help customers get more value from your products and services. Media that helps customers after the sale is valuable marketing.

Own Your Stories

Your business story is being told everyday by your staff and customers, not to mention others in the community that may or may not have had a favorable experience with it. Therefore, it’s vital to have a central website you own that tells the truth.

Copyblogger Media is a company that methodically aggregates its best blog content to create eBooks and tutorials for helping entrepreneurs. It’s a practice I am now undertaking, and its implementation just got easier with a new website building platform developed by Copyblogger.

The name of the platform is Rainmaker, and it promises to revolutionize Internet marketing for entrepreneurs.

One of the Rainmaker slogans is: “Media not marketing.” In other words, share stories that educate and inspire your community. That truthful media is what sells today. However, the challenge for building your media website has been the cost, lack of education, and technical skills for getting the job done – but no more!

Having already signed up with the Rainmaker platform, I can assure you that if you know how to blog or upload a video to YouTube, then you now have the skills to build a hosted WordPress website that is beautiful, mobile response, SEO optimized, has eCommerce capabilities, and is safe from hackers. They will even help you import your content from your current site.

I’m currently building a new site with Rainmaker that will offer lots of free content, and also virtual training for people to learn at their own pace. The plan is to roll it out over the coming months.

You can get the complete Rainmaker story here. Even if you don’t use their platform, take advantage of the free content to make your website a better marketing machine.

Are you planning to build a new website? We believe the New Rainmaker platform is the future for small business websites. That is why we are partnering with New Rainmaker to help businesses build their essential home o the web.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

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