Don't think - the key to engaging presentations

Don't think - the key to engaging presentations...

By Mark Helfen

The key idea to an effective presentation is that you don’t want your audience to think.

Or so says Fabian Venter, who will be speaking on Presenting in a “Wired” World at the next SVForum MarketingSIG, on Monday September 10, at our usual EMC location.

I spoke to him a few days ago about his upcoming presentation.

Venter is founder of Presentography, a consulting firm that helps people who deliver presentations  to quickly get to “yes.” His peripatetic past includes living (in alphabetical order) in Asia, Australia, Europe, and now the United States. South America is in his sights. So his experience is broad both in terms of successful presentations and in geography.

Given the deluge of information coming at people, or at least the fire hose of distracting data, people are pretty quick to tune out one more listing of bare facts. His definition of a presentation includes not only the sales person speaking to a group, but just about any meeting where you want your message to be remembered.

The problem is that the high volume communications age has re-wired people brains with a shortened attention span. If you have ever taught a class where all of the students have an open laptop and a Wi-Fi connection, you’ve seen the effect – people drift away very quickly.

Venter’s methodology is designed to overcome this modern “attention deficit,” by engaging your audience’s emotional brain with a narrative – a story with a beginning, middle and end. By “softening” your data, you can get your message into the “long term” parts of your audience’s brain where it is more likely to be remembered.

Your talk should “not be data driven, but emotionally driven,” according to Venter. That’s the idea behind “don’t think.” The objective is to engage your audience, bypassing the factual, rational left brain. Your listeners enter an “altered state” hearing your narrative.

According to Venter, anyone can present, even if you’re shy or scared. “Everyone has the ability to share a story.”

 “There is no formula for success,” but you will learn some tricks and techniques to help increase engagement and minimize your audience’s drifting attention.

So come by Monday, and learn how to tell your story.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Is Pinterest the next marketing channel?

By Mark Helfen

And Now Comes Pinterest…

Social sites seem to have a short if happy life. Myspace, Digg, Delicious, probably others were once the new-new thing, and aren’t anymore. I’m in no position to forecast business model success, but it’s impossible not to see that things change fast.

At Monday’s (Aug 13) SVForum MarketingSIG meeting, Natascha Thomson, Owner & Founder of MarketingXLerator discussed the next new-new thing, Pinterest. According to Bizjournals.com (publisher of the San Jose and San Francisco Business Journals, among other cities) Pinterest was the 4th most popular social media site in July, with more than 24 million visitors per month, starting at zero in early 2011, and on a steep ramp up.

With all those clicks and eyeballs, there must be a marketing opportunity, and that was the focus of Thomson’s presentation (copy on Slideshare here.)

Pinterest is much easier to understand by seeing, as opposed to description, since it’s a visually oriented site. Users “pin” pictures they want to share, either uploaded from their own camera, or from other web sites. Since it’s free, it’s worth signing up to try out.

Like most other social sites, it represents curation over creation, but helps to create communities of common interest. Thomson described it as “scrapbooking for adults,” and added that “it’s strangely rewarding.”

The demographics represent a very specific slice of the market. In the U.S., 80 percent of the users are female. Interestingly, in the U.K., the majority are male. When I signed up for Pinterest (and saw the U.S. site) the majority of images seemed to reflect this. Not to stereotype, but overwhelmingly I was presented with pictures of cats and dogs (all really cute,) shoes, jewelry, furniture, hair styles, and clothing – lots of wedding dresses. Unfortunately I no longer have enough hair for the braid and ribbon instructional photos. And looking around my office, it’s clear that the room decorating ideas are wasted on me.

So what’s the marketing opportunity? I think it would be fair to characterize Thomson’s message with two parts. First, nothing about Pinterest changes the basics – you need a clear set of marketing objectives, a strategy to reach those goals, and a way of measuring results. Second, Pinterest is a new land, yet to be charted. If you get there now, you will be among the first.

At least a few companies have used Pinterest to present concepts about their business, for example IBM and GE. Consumer companies have gotten click through purchases when their customers pin product images from the company’s e-commerce site - clicking on the picture can direct a browser back to the site where the image originated. There is also a SEO opportunity, as Google indexes the text associated with photos and increases page rank based on the number of Pinterest users who “like” an image.

Pinterest seems to be new channel for marketers, with the instruction book yet to be written. Sign up and check it out. And thanks to Natascha Thomson for leading the exploration.



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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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It’s too late to start marketing your product when it’s ready to ship.

By Mark Helfen

It’s too late to start marketing your product when it’s ready to ship. You should develop a trusted relationship as a domain expert long before then.

“Build trust before you sell,” said Steve Farnsworth, by regularly communicating useful and valuable information to your market. When your product is released “your future customer already sees you as trustworthy.”

Farnsworth will be the speaker at the next SVForum MarketingSIG meeting on June 11. The topic will be Lean Startup Marketing, Social Media, and PR. He promises that the evening will be less about theory, and instead focused on practical steps to let a startup or small business develop the market for their products.

Farnsworth is the Chief Blogger at the @Steveology blog, and is included in Forbes recent listing of the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers. He frequently advises Silicon Valley Technology companies on their marketing strategy, but he told me that there is nothing they do that a motivated startup entrepreneur can’t also do. It’s not about money, but it does take time to communicate a marketing message.

The idea is to build trust with your audience, and establish yourself as a domain expert. Farnsworth doesn’t focus on any specific method for doing this – he didn’t mention Facebook (clearly the word of the hour) until I had asked him. His model is to develop the message first, and then decide on the most appropriate tool to communicate with your target market. It could be Facebook, a blog, or even an email newsletter. Your audience should be able to choose the path to get this information that they prefer.

Facebook, Twitter, are all “just tools.” First develop the message, compelling content. Then figure out the platform.

The hard part? “There is no short, easy way to do this,” he said. Communication and developing trust takes time.

Monday’s presentation will be short on theory and focus on the practical, promising “step-by-step actionable ideas.”

 Drawing on ideas from his client base, you should walk out of the room with specific steps to get started. The tools he will recommend are either free or at least cheap, leaving time as the most expensive resource required. Large companies divide these activities across several departments, but a little company can still be effective.

Farnsworth says he tells his clients that they can’t wait until the end of the product cycle to start marketing - it takes longer than they expect. They agree, say they believe him, but then “de-prioritize” the work and just never get started. Perhaps after Monday night your startup won’t make the same mistake.


PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Lean Startup Marketing, Social Media, and PR.

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen
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You would be surprised how much bad marketing there is. After a while you won’t be able to go anywhere without seeing it.

By Mark Helfen

“You would be surprised how much bad marketing there is. After a while you won’t be able to go anywhere without seeing it.”

By focusing on what your readers (or prospects) want to read instead of what you want to say, you can make your marketing program more effective, either getting more results from the same investment, or spending less.

So says Paul Gustafson, President of the TDA Group, a marketing communications company. Or perhaps more precisely, a content production company. Gustafson’s background includes both an engineering degree and experience as a journalist.  Over his career his experience equipped him to act as the engineering, sales, and marketing go-between. Writing was one of his strong points. 

Gustafson will be speaking at the next SVForum MarketingSIG meeting on May 14, at our regular EMC location. (Please sign up in advance at our Meetup page.) His talk is titled Content Matters: Getting Your Audience to Listen.

Content can sometimes have the connotation of creating information of little value with the sole objective of maximizing search engine positioning, but in TDA’s case Gustafson’s target is to write information that closely matches what readers want to see – describing his company as the intersection of technical competence, communications professionalism, and marketing, focused on business-to-business marketing.

Of course, marketing departments and consultants have been producing “content” for a long time, and in large volumes, before it was called content. But social media has changed the equation, putting the reader more in control. As content has become integrated with the social media world, people choose what they read based on their social connections, colleagues, friends, and professional connections. The model has changed from getting “stuff I don’t want” to choosing “stuff I want.”

When people first begin to get technical and product information through social connections, they sign up for a lot. After a while they prune down the list, and you want to be sure that your brand is left as part of the mix. This demands that marketing writers deliver a “higher standard for reader service,” clearly understanding what readers, and potential customers, want to read or learn.

There is also a change in the audience. At one time, technology and business executives were different people. But the differences are disappearing, at least among leading companies. From Gustafson’s perspective every company is now a software company, and every company is now a media company. Your marketing material needs to adjust.

At the meeting, he will outline three strategies to deal with creating content that gets noticed.

- You need to better understand you reader (and proposed customer,) by surveying, or somehow getting feedback.

- You need an outside viewpoint. He uses the example that you can give yourself a haircut, but it doesn’t usually come out very well. To get a clear vision of how others respond to your material you need someone outside your organization to do the evaluation.

- You need a regular production process or workflow. He will outline the process used at TDA to give a working example of how to product content people want to read.


PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Content Matters: Getting Your Audience to Listen on our meetup page:

 


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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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Develop Your Start-Up's Social Media Persona

By Mark Helfen

Social media marketing isn’t just for the big guys. At Monday’s SVForum MarketingSIG (Develop Your Start-Up's Social Media Persona with FB Bus. Pages, Tweets, & Blogs,) you can hear how small businesses from individuals to startups can use social platforms to advance their business.  The idea is to become “inspired,” and to get started now.

The meeting includes a panel of three experts in the key social platforms – Twitter, Facebook, and blogging. Carol Stephens, New Media Consultant at Your Social Media Works focuses on Twitter. Nigel Ohrum is founder of Social Toppings, and will focus on Facebook. Fran Hylinski is founder of Footprint 2.0, will speak on blogging.

I spoke briefly to all three panelists, and some common themes emerged. Your social media strategy needs to engage the audience. It’s not broadcasting - it’s a conversation with two way communication. And you need to get started now. Everyone is an expert on some topic – start now and learn by doing.

Stephens focuses on Twitter. Within the limitations of 140 characters you can show your expertise, engage people (and not just people who already follow you) and extend your network, starting conversations across the twitterverse. She says she has gained new clients through her tweeting.

Ohrum focuses on Facebook. Another way of engaging people, he says that Facebook is a great start for social media beginners. A way of having a conversation, and supplying useful information for people. He talked about the difference between your profile, and the multiple business pages you can manage.

Mobile also needs to be part of your social, and web strategy. According to Ohrum, 53 % of all internet traffic now goes to smart phones.

Fran Hylinski focuses on blogging, and Wordpress as a blogging platform. He believes that blogging is also part of your social media strategy.

For many people, the difficulty of blogging is knowing what to write about. Blogs with a single entry are a frequent internet story. He believes that the things you need to cover include the knowledge and experience you already have – things that are already in your head. Your blog is about you. He lists a foundation, commitment and structure as the requirements for a successful blog. Commitment means to show up and write.

But mostly, “just get started,” said Stephens. You will make a few mistakes, but learn as you go.

“Every single person is an expert on something.”







PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Develop Your Start-Up's Social Media Persona with FB Bus. Pages, Tweets, & Blogs by signing up at our Meetup page:

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Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

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