Category: Creativity|Success

With all that exists on the Internet for people to consume, it’s not easy to create content that spreads like wildfire and grabs people’s attention. But whether you’re a marketer or a small business owner, if the people you are trying to reach spend time online, then understanding how to create signal with content (Valeria Maltoni defines “signal” as the ability to convert traffic to a website) is really important.

So, how does one successfully create the type of online content that people want to share? What we discovered during this week’s Tweetea chat is there are some core reasons why people are motivated and inspired to spread content online.

We have the Detroit in Ruins photo gallery on the Guardian’s website to thank for this lively discussion. As of today, it has been tweeted 7,234 times and shared on Facebook more than 71,000 times. Those are mind-boggling numbers! Here’s the key question this example prompted:

What motivates people to share online content?

I was feverishly taking notes of my suggestions and those of the Tweetea participators this week because I didn’t want these great suggestions to only stay within the Twitter chat. So, here are 22 reasons why online content spreads:

  • It helps people improve/become better at something.
  • It’s community-oriented.
  • It’s innovative and unique.
  • It’s all about an emotion. Thoughtful, inspiring, sad, funny, etc. Evoke emotion through content and people will share it.
  • It deals with unexpected experiences. Surprise the viewer/reader/listener.
  • It’s inspiring.
  • It’s current and relevant.
  • It’s beautifully crafted.
  • It’s something people have never seen/heard of before.
  • There’s a compelling message, whether positive or negative.
  • It tells a good story.
  • The timing is right.
  • It’s something impossible to contrive.
  • The site is clean and simple to navigate, so it’s easy to share the content.
  • The content or site it’s hosted on has strong SEO.
  • It’s a component of a well executed marketing plan.
  • It tugs at the heart strings and is heartwearming.
  • There’s a newsworthy angle.
  • There’s humor.
  • The quality is great (poor audio turns people away from your content).
  • It’s accessible via mobile devices (you can’t watch Vimeo videos on an iPhone).
  • People with a large community spread it.

One piece of advice kept making it’s way back into the conversation – You can’t ever guarantee that content will go viral. And if it does, that content better be part of a bigger plan to help sustain interest in the product/service/company/person long after the shiny object syndrome dies down.

What are your thoughts on online content? What’s missing from this list?

** Shameless Tweetea plug – Join us every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. either in person or on Twitter using the #tweetea hashtag for more fun and interesting convos like the one that inspired this post!

Photo credit

We learn in college that we must know how to effectively communicate our skills and knowledge about the career we’ve chosen and our related experience in order to find a job. Once we start our careers, we must continue developing who we are both personally and professionally, distinguishing ourselves from the millions of other people who are in our chosen field. Essentially, we need to know how to “self-package” our unique attributes and what makes us who we are. This is personal branding.

It’s not easy to think of yourself as a brand, and I understand the notion of focusing on making an impact versus building a personal brand. Call it what you want, but we all want to be perceived in a certain way. Same thing goes for companies and brands.

The social Web adds a whole new element to the concept of personal branding. How do we stand out among the hundreds of millions of individuals, companies and brands vying for people’s attention online? How can we use the real time Web to continue pursuing our passions and achieving our professional and personal goals?

Brand Camp University is an interactive conference that aims to answer those and many other questions related to how social media has forever changed the way individuals and companies position themselves personally and professionally. Hajj Flemings founded the conference in 2008, and it will take place this year on October 8 at Lawrence Tech University. Continue reading “Creative Q & A: Hajj Flemings, Founder of Brand Camp University”

How many times has this thought crossed your mind: “I’d have so much more time to do (fill in the blank) if I didn’t work so much.” I’ve said this to myself on several occasions. I don’t hate my job in the slightest bit, but I wish each day was about 10 hours longer so I could dedicate more time to things I love (playing tennis and reading books in Spanish, to name a few).

I learned about the Lemonade movie from Chris Brogan’s post, “Have You Been Laid Off”, and Valeria Maltoni’s post, “50 Ways to Make Limoncello When You’ve Been Laid Off”. Side note: If you are currently out of work or fear you may lose your job soon, READ VALERIA’S POST!

According to the the Lemonade movie Web site, more than 130,000 advertising professionals have recently lost their job. Lemonade showcases what happens when people who used to receive compensation to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives. Rather than wallowing in their sorrows, the people featured in the video seized the opportunity to do something that really matters to them. The job loss was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because these creatives explored new paths and rediscovered a part of their lives that had been missing.

Do all job losses lead the person affected on a magical journey of self-exploration and creative freedom? Absolutely not. Trust me, I’ve witnessed how a job loss can completely demolish a person’s life. But it’s reassuring to watch this video and see how happy these people are because they are doing something they really love…all thanks to a job loss.

This video should also raise a few questions with anyone who watches it. Do you devote enough time to your passions? Do you need to do a better job at prioritizing what really matters in life?

We need jobs because we need to earn a living. We also need a will to live. Something deeper than living solely to climb the corporate ladder. I adamantly believe a person’s success in any career derives from passion, but passion must exist in other forms in order to have a healthy and meaningful life.

Have you found a successful way to balance work and activities you love? Has the “lemonade” affect happened to you or someone you know?

Photo credit: cfwhitney

Image from Learning 2XL

I’m a dreamer, but I’m also a realist. As much as I would love to, I can never change all the blight that exists in our world. It all comes down to the theory of quantity versus quality (this comes up all the time with my clients). You can put a little bit of effort into a lot of different things and nudge the needle ever so slightly in many areas. Or, you can start by putting all your efforts into one area, find others who are doing the same, and come together to make a tremendous impact. I realize this is a debatable topic, but I believe I have many more years of learning ahead of me before I’m ready to “conquer the world”.

I never imagined three years ago when I chose to start my career in Detroit that I would meet so many people who shared my same goals and ambitions. I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now, but many creative and talented people live, work and play in metro Detroit. I definitely have social media to thank for connecting me to people whose paths may have never crossed with mine if it weren’t for our common interest in the digital world. Many of us have bonded together, but I know there are others who for whatever reason aren’t letting their voices be heard.

To tie this back to my original point, I’ve been investing a lot of my free time to help bring together metro Detroiters with similar aspirations. Communications and social media are very broad fields, so why not reel in all those who fall into these industries and connect them with each other? The purpose is to encourage the exchange of ideas, advice and sometimes even business. Now don’t get me wrong – finding potential business prospects isn’t the intention of this collaboration, but sometimes it just works out that way. By rallying together, we create new relationships and form new initiatives that continue to propel this region forward.

So what am I involved in? Tweetea and Social Media Club Detroit are the two biggies (these are Facebook links, so you have to log in to view the pages). I wrote about Tweetea before, but SMCD is a newly-formed group that has massive potential. I’m also working on growing a group that met earlier this summer to discuss how social media has impacted the world of communications. This may seem contradictory to the idea of “quality versus quantity” because I’m investing my energies into three separate initiatives. However, the overarching goal is the same for all three: Bring people together to make an impact in metro Detroit. By starting at the core, hopefully our successes and achievements will echo nationally and we’ll gain more respect and credit for being a thriving community.

Here are a few other examples of some creative initiatives that focus on connecting people and/or highlighting the positive stories:

I know there are many more examples, but these are the ones that initially popped in my head. If you’re part of a group that’s working to advance our community or know of one, please add a comment with the details. I’m also interested to know if other cities/regions are making these same efforts, or are we more driven because we’re fed up with all the negative attention Detroit gets?

Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity one day to make a big splash on a larger scale. But for now, I’m keeping it simple and local. Each individual person in our community has potential, but together we’re much more powerful. So, who’s with me?