danny brown

Collaborative Marketing

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:51:44 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about collaborative marketing lately, and how we can turn co-existing businesses more into partners and less about missing opportunities. I think there’s a great untapped market for someone that really wants to grab collaborative marketing and run with it.

For example – imagine you’re going on a trip. You have to fly to get there, so there are a few processes you need to go through before, during and after:

Buying your ticket.
Driving to the airport.
In-flight activities.
Hotel or accommodation when you land.
Rental car.

These are just the basics – I’m sure there are a lot more depending on what your individual needs are.

Now.

Imagine if, instead of doing this all separately, there was some form of collaborative marketing behind it to make your life easier? I don’t know about you, but I know when my own life is made easy, I’m inclined to use the same service or product again. So.

Imagine if, when you buy your ticket (online or offline), the airline has a deal with all the major car hire firms like Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, etc. So, you buy your ticket and you have an option to hire your car at the same time. The rental firm then comes out and drops your car off. Or, better still, the airliner has a deal with airport cab firms to pick you up and take you to your flight.

Now, let’s also say that when you’re buying your ticket, you have the option of logging onto the booking site via Facebook Connect. If you’ve filled out your Movies and Music preferences on Facebook, the airline sees this. They then load this information into the media options available to your flight using something like iTunes. You can then watch your type of movies (if there’s a screen on the back of the seat in front of you), or your favourite music via an iTunes console.

With regards the hotel or accommodation, if you have to look after it and your company isn’t paying for it, again the airline has a partnership with hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and more, and not just the big ones but of all sizes. You fill out a short cheat sheet when buying your ticket and the most suitable three accommodations pop up.

And the rental firm that started it all off? They’re there (obviously) at the other end. But what they’ve done when you booked initially is ask what type of trip you’re having, yet also what kind of things you like to do when relaxing. So, when you pick up your car at the other side, the GPS is loaded with some destinations you might enjoy. And they’re tied in with local businesses that are part of the collaborative marketing approach of all the above.

Now, this is a pretty simple take on basic marketing 101. Yet, as an example of true collaborative marketing, it’s a start. What’s your take, whats the best examples of existing collaborative marketing between multiple businesses you’ve seen?

Tell Us Your Social Media Story

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:55:14 +0000

What’s your social media story? If you could have the space to say exactly what social media meant to you personally, how would your story unfold?

Would it be about the fantastic job opportunity you got?

Would it be about the great connections you’ve met and how they changed your life?

Would it be about how a cause dear to your heart was suddenly launched into the stratosphere?

Would it be about friends you’ve made that have no real interest in social media, but simply use the tools to make new friends themselves?

Would it be that love story that wouldn’t have happened?

The reason I ask is simple. We all hear about the social media success stories, but they’re usually the same companies (JetBlue, Zappos, Dell) or the same practices (marketing, PR, customer service). And while they’re great examples, there’s much more to it than this.

There’s the human side and the people stories. The things that we can really relate to. So here’s a request/offer. I’d love you to share your social media story with us. Here’s how.

In the month of April, I want to feature ten personal social media stories. It could be any of the reasons featured in the introduction to this post – job, connections, cause, love, friends – or how your business succeeded. Or your blog growth. Or your skill sets. Anything.

Each story will be in the shape of a guest post. This can be normal text, or podcast, or video – the choice is yours. However you feel most comfortable. All it needs to be is either around 300-500 words for text, or 5-10 minutes for audio or video. If you’re interested, here’s what to do:

Send a Word document, audio file or video file to my email address.
Title the post, and if it’s text, highlight where you’d want any sub-headers.
Reference any links you wish to.
Include a picture of you and a 2-3 line bio with up to 2 links back to your blog, or social profile.
Send it in by March 30.

That’s it. I’ll choose ten that I feel really show the people, personalities and cool success behind each social media story. If there are more than ten posts come in, I’ll do the same in May, then June, and on.

The cool thing? This isn’t just another “guest post opportunity”; this is about going deeper than that and showing the real social media stories – YOU.

What say you – in?

photo credit: Travel Aficionado

Opening Up Social Media for Local Small Business

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:50:04 +0000

While becoming more mainstream, social media still holds fear for many businesses, especially small local business.

Fear of time involved; fear of where to start; fear of where to be.

While this fear is understandable, it also means that many local small business owners miss out on social media and all the benefits it can offer, especially when it comes to competing with the big boys.

While I’ve written before about how expensive social media can be from a corporate campaign viewpoint, for small businesses it’s still one of the most cost-effective methods of being visible to your customers, new and existing. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – they all offer possibilities for the small business owner.

Then there’s the real workhorse – the blog. The best marketing tool you will ever have as a small business owner, a blog can be a myriad of things:

A promotional tool.
An information hub.
A resource centre.
Your own personal social network.
A live, ever-fresh FAQ section.

In fact, the only limitation to what a blog can do for you is the limitations you put on the blog itself. And again, this is where many small business owners – especially local small business owners – bypass social media’s strengths and opportunities.

Fear comes back in. Fear of what to blog about; fear of how to target an audience; fear of how to promote a new (or existing) blog; fear of setting yourself apart when there are so many other voices around.

Apart from that fear, perhaps the biggest stumbling block is setting up the blog in the first place. If you’re not doing it yourself, where do you find a designer (and for many small business owners, one that doesn’t break your budget or rip you off). Again, this fear is only natural.

Yet help is at hand.

In the next couple of weeks, a new course will be unveiled that takes the fear out of social media and blogging for small business owners. Some of the features will include:

Using social media and your blog to market your small business.
Using online tools to benefit your brick and mortar business (or a simple home-based one).
Getting a fully-functional blog and social media tools set up from day one.
Course “mentors” that bring a vast and comprehensive set of skills to the table (oh, and me).

These are just some of the features and benefits, with more to be announced over the coming weeks. It’s a course designed specifically for small and local business owners that get social media and its benefits (like blogs), but need that extra bit of help to really start utilizing it. Best of all, it won’t cost you anywhere near $22,000 a day…

More information will be available very soon. To make sure you get the latest updates, as well as details of what’s in store and who’ll be part of the course, you can sign up for the latest news via the newsletter form below. Don’t worry, you won’t be spammed and you definitely won’t be sold to any dodgy characters!

Social media and blogging was made for small business owners. Here’s a great chance to be that business – look forward to seeing you in a few weeks.

photo credit: DBarefoot

Why the Headway Premium WordPress Theme Kicks Ass

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:18:12 +0000

When it comes to the Headway premium WordPress theme, there’s no question I’m incredibly biased about what it can do for bloggers.

I’ve written about it more than once on here, and I use it on the three sites I’ve created so far, with more to be shared soon. In fact, it’s the only product that I’ve fallen in love with so much that I’ve signed up as an affiliate. So yes, when it comes to premium WordPress themes, Headway stands head and shoulders above everything else (at least I think so).

Yet as much as I recommend the theme, it’s still only words (and obviously the design of this blog, the 12for12k site and Just Kickin’ It) that tell you some of the cool stuff Headway can do. Sure, I can say it’s easy to use and it really does make your life a hell of a lot easier when it comes to designing your blog/website. But words only tell half the story.

Which is why this video from David Wang is perfect. In less than ten minutes, he takes the standard Headway theme layout and transforms it into a great-looking business site. Sure, it’s just the home page and you still need to add all your other pages and posts. But as an example of just how quickly you can begin to build your blog/site, under ten minutes is pretty damn impressive! Have a look for yourself.

Now that you’ve seen how simple it is to make the Headway theme sing on WordPress, what else does it have in store for you? Currently version 1.6 is in beta, and I’ve been messing around with it behind closed doors. Some of the cool features include:

Live CSS editor. While the theme allows you to make a great website with absolutely no coding needed, it also allows you to get as down and dirty as you like with coding. The new live CSS box means you can drop CSS code in and see the changes take place right in front of your eyes – no saving and checking to see how it looks.
Skins and Templates. When Headway first hit the premium WordPress theme market, one of the things it promised was the option for skins. This is where you can upload a specially developed skin that changes the look of your blog completely (if you don’t want to design your look yourself). This is now live with Headway 1.6 and you can access them from within the dashboard or from dedicated theme stores.
Default Leaf set. Headway uses a system called Leafs, which is basically your content body and sidebars (albeit in a far cooler, interactive way). While you can use any mix of set-up for your blog, with a different sidebar on every page, Headway 1.6 allows the option of a standard leaf throughout your site. Perfect if you don’t want any extra work when designing your blog.
Automatic SEO slug clean-up. This is a great new feature that cleans up your search engine visibility by removing words like “the” and “and”, etc, that Google doesn’t really bother with. You can switch this on and off in the SEO area of Headway.

These are just some of the features that the guys behind the Headway theme will be bringing to you soon. The beta is almost ready to go live, and will be available as a free upgrade for existing users and available for purchase to new users imminently.

Watching the new features that developer Clay Griffiths puts out in each new update is almost like a game in betting on just what he won’t add in each new version – it’s that crazy how much he gives WordPress bloggers. And the support is second-to-none as well.

If you’re looking for a new premium WordPress theme, Headway delivers in spades. And as a special promotion, any purchases of the theme via this blog in March will see all affiliate earnings go to the current 12for12k charity.

So, the best premium WordPress theme around and all Headway sales going to charity – what better time to upgrade your blog? Just click on the image to the right to get your copy.

© dannybrown for danny brown, 2010. | Permalink |
Post tags: 12for12k challenge, blogging, headway wordpress theme
14 comments

Big Business Needs to Think Smaller

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:01:18 +0000

Here’s a question for you. If you’re in business, how do you treat your clients?

Or, to look at it another way, how do your clients treat you?

Is it with respect and shared passion for doing the same work, or is it just having a need for each other and no more?

When dealing with a client, do you meet your deadlines or do you constantly offer excuses why their project isn’t ready? Do you work closely together, listen to/make suggestions for improving and strive for excellence on the fly, or do you simply turn in the work, take the money and walk?

I ask this simply because it seems many big businesses have forgotten the art of either being a client or providing for one. From having a maze of contact information to wade through to losing the personal touch that won them the following of the customers in the first place, larger businesses are forgetting how to communicate.

So here’s an idea.

Go back to basics. Remember when you first started your business and you had time for everyone (because everyone was important)? Find that business owner again.

Ask yourself how you’re communicating and how you can improve. Are you using the online space effectively? Look at your Internet strategy and see how your brand is viewed. There’s a billion voices waiting to answer you and offer you invaluable advice and insight into making your brand the authority in your niche.

The question is, will you be listening?

photo credit: fofurasfelinas

Celebrating Mountains

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:31:33 +0000

How do you overcome your mountains? The challenges you face both in business and personally – are you dealing with the small mountains to overcome the big?

There’s a fairly well-known phrase that goes, “Stop making mountains out of molehills.” For anyone that’s not aware of it, it’s basically saying that there’s no need to make a big deal out of something much smaller.

Usually it’s aimed at people who make a song and dance about the smallest thing.

You know, the drama queens for whom the wrong kind of butter on movie popcorn is akin to the worst kind of insult you could make, and boy are you going to know about it.

But you know what? I say let’s make mountains out of molehills. Let’s take the small things, make them larger, and let everyone know about it. Why should anything be insignificant or too small to take notice of or worry about?

Would Bill Gates or Steve Jobs have the loyalty and gratitude of millions if they had left their ideas about consumer and business technology as molehills? Maybe instead of being two of the most influential men on the planet today they’d simply be working undiscovered at a small-town IT company.

With the ease in which people can communicate today and with the support network that is social media behind us, we can all turn our molehills into mountains.

Our small idea for a business start up? Throw it to the community and get constructive feedback and help from people who’ve been there and can guide you through the pitfalls.

That dream of making a difference in people’s lives through change and charity? Social media and the people in it can help you spread the message like never before.

When we accept that molehills are the norm and that mountains are scary obstacles to overcome that should be avoided at all costs, we lose the freedom of choice that makes us who we are. We all have greatness inside us – all we need are the tools.

Social media gives us these tools. What say you – ready to start climbing mountains?

photo credit: swamysk

© dannybrown for danny brown, 2010. | Permalink |
Post tags: climbing mountains, personal growth, social media
19 comments

Why Simple Works – Free Ebook

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:56:08 +0000

Sometimes, as marketers and/or business owners, we over-complicate matters and offer so many facts on ideas and products that none of them stick. Sometimes, the simplest of ideas work.

This ebook is a collection of simple ideas that may work for you (they originally appeared on my Posterous account). Enjoy.

(Either click on the image to open, or right click and “Save Link As” to download)

Little Green Men

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:53:21 +0000

In 1947, a businessman from Idaho named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine strange disks of light in the sky while flying above the Cascade Mountains in the US.

While his experience wasn’t the first time unexplained objects had been recorded, it was the first time that they were recognized as alien craft. The myth of the UFO was born.

In 1934, one of the most famous photographs in supernatural or unexplained history was taken by Colonel Robert Wilson in Scotland.

Showing what looked like the head and neck of a plesiosaur-type dinosaur, it brought the legend of Nessie the Loch Ness monster to the attention of the world.

What do these two stories, and more like them, have in common? Simple – the promise of something fantastic that captures the attention of millions worldwide.

While they may or may not have some grounding in fact, what can’t be denied is that they both sparked conversation, interest and tourism to their relative areas that is still fervent today.

In other words, they built interest and started a huge viral chain reaction before viral was even used. By offering a glimpse and nothing more, they let people’s imaginations take over and built an industry around what was perceived, rather than what was.

Whether you run a business or a blog, have an offline or online identity, the premise of something fantastic can often be better than the reality. The teaser of something that can be unique for everyone depending on their take is the bridge between you and your audience.

What tales of the fantastic are you using?

photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry

An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:34:03 +0000

So this week’s been really quiet on here, due to a particularly busy project over at Maritz Canada. Now that project has at least resorted to more normal activity levels, I’ll be jumping back in here and reverting back to normal frequency.

First up will be the continuation and conclusion of the 7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub series, and this will be followed by some thoughts I’ve been having around operational social media and marketing differently. So, thanks for your patience during this recent quiet spell – really appreciate it.

But before all that, I’d like to ask you a favour – share your blog.

Leave the URL and a little info about it in the comments section (don’t worry if it doesn’t appear immediately – I use a filter for multiple links, but I will publish any filtered as soon as possible).

You kindly come here to read and maybe share a post or two with your community; now I’d like to do the same. The comments are yours to share your blog with us. And while you’re there, make sure you check out some of the blogs left there – you might just find some great new reads.

Thanks for being you, guys.

photo credit: nicora

Untapped Episode 1: Stupidity Tries

danny@dannybrown.me (Danny Brown) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Untapped is a weekly video blog that looks at everything and anything. Not just social media; not just business; not just blogging; but more the human voices behind these and more. To receive the latest episodes, feel free to subscribe via email and get the latest video in your Inbox every week.

Stupidity Tries