Your Brand and Message on the World Wide Web

If brand is really about what your audience says it is, not what you say it is, then treat your messages the same way. Tell your audience what they want to hear, not what you think they should hear. The days of dictating exactly what your brand is to a captive audience and expecting absolute buy in are over... thanks to the World Wide Web and the advent of Social Media.

We are in the person to person, information sharing era. Where an estimated quarter of the Earth's population are using the services of the Internet. They're searching information, stating their opinions on Social Media channels, chatting about them and blogging about them. What they say about your brand goes. So it's important your message says the right thing, in the right way and on the channels your target audience are tuned into.

Perhaps you've noticed your old marketing approach isn't quite working. That's because we now live in a world where people trust their friends or followers opinions more than your advertising words - however cleverly created. Not to mention, people just aren't connecting with traditional advertising the way they used to. Not with the power of the Internet and Social Media so easily accessible. 

Potential clients now have a myriad of ways to find the real skinny about your product or service. This in itself has forced transparency.  Businesses no longer set messaging rules. Not when potential clients can seek and find the real story online and talk about it with all their friends. Good if it's positive info, really bad if it's negative.

Companies looking for new customers have to get real - literally.

You actually have to discover who you're talking to and speak directly to them - honestly, sincerely and with their best interests in mind. Know your target audience as well as your product, then every interaction is truly in their best interest. Don't think for a moment a message without audience specs in mind will ever resonate. Not today, not on the World Wide Web with Social Media.

It's time to get busy forging lasting realtionships. Solve problems, answer questions, give them the service they've always deserved. If you speak their language, listen-up and solve their problems, you'll eventually get conversion. And that's conversion for the long term. Sweet.