The latest insights, ideas and news on business relationship building.
Politics, Profanity & Unicorns: How Personal Brand & Professional Reputation Go Hand-In-Hand
Politics are never pretty, but the 2016 presidential election was particularly nasty. The nastiness was magnified by social media, with people across the political spectrum adding their own two cents—often at the expense of their personal brand and professional...
Stop Playing It Safe: How to Win at Trade Association Branding
Playing it safe is not good enough when it comes to trade association branding (or rebranding, as the case may be). Chances are you know a professional trade association—or are a member of one—that emerged from a rebranding project with little more than an updated...
Delicious, Nutritious & Fun: The Bento Box Approach to Content Marketing
Let’s be honest: Content marketing can feel like a chore. Generating deep and meaningful branded content on an ongoing basis is hard work. Sometimes you can’t think of a single idea worth sharing. I feel the same way about school lunches. It’s exhausting to come up...
Social Media for Manufacturers: 5 Practical Marketing Tips
When a high profile B2C brand like Nike or Red Bull posts online, it might get thousands—sometimes even millions—of social media likes. That’s impressive until you realize that the Kardashians get the same response when they share their latest “news.” As a B2B...
Turn Ideas Into Action: How to Create a Winning Brand Plan
To turn a brand into an asset that is managed and measured, you need a strategic brand plan. This is harder than it sounds. Many companies struggle to allocate the time and resources necessary to turn big ideas into everyday actions. It’s like trying to move a massive...
Use Selfies to Build Your Company Brand
Like many Americans, I visited a National Park this summer. And like many Americans, the crowds overwhelmed me. (Read “Record Crowds Make America’s National Parks Hard to Bear.”) On the one hand, it is heartening to see so many families enjoying our country’s natural...
Turn Your Brand Strategy into a Compelling Brand Story
You’ve invested organizational resources to develop a solid brand strategy, one that differentiates your company in the marketplace and provides a clear plan for success—only to realize that the average attention span is only eight seconds long. It’s a problem that...
Every Brand Story Needs a Hero
In content marketing, the brand story is everything. While content marketing is relatively new, storytelling has been around for ages. Stories have always been the key to convincing people to do something, buy something, or tell their family and friends about...
What Would Prince Say? A Brand’s Misguided Tweet Offers Social Media Lessons for All
With Prince’s death, the world has lost another musical legend. An ambitious artist with unbelievable talent and style, Prince's legacy as a songwriter, singer, producer and showman will live forever. Not surprisingly, social media has been flooded with tributes and...