“Getting an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.”
Bruce Springsteen
Our summer continues and we are just returning from a road trip touching on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. It also involved taking in the Vans Warped Tour – – a day of hardcore music – my son’s ears are still ringing!
A few weeks ago was the first of a series of articles I have written based on my recent opportunity to attend the annual Tweetstock.ca Conference, which was being held for the first time in Hamilton. I had never attended one before so was not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of speakers who came from across North America.
The wealth of insights and information shared was so rich that I put together a series of articles, each one summarizing a lesson from six key sessions that I attended.
You can read the first two lessons here;
Lesson #1 The Power of Video – Why Your Brand May Need Vine
Lesson #2 – 5 Social Things You Can Do For Your Brand
Lesson #3 – 8 Steps to Captivating an Audience
When I read the bio of Sam Fiorello prior to the conference, like many other attendees, I was looking forward to a larger marketing/social media agency perspective.
What blew us all away was Sam’s sharing of a very personal tragedy. His planned message about captivating an audience was still relevant because of the action he took after the tragedy.
8 months ago, Sam’s son Lucas, who was in the robotics program at Queens University, took his own life. It transpired that although Lucas was obviously going through a very tough time, he still counselled as many as 18 other young people facing their own challenges with thoughts of suicide.
Suicide is the number one cause of death amongst young people aged 15-34 in Canada.
From this tragedy and finding out more about the challenges young people face, Sam has embarked on an ambitious project called The Friendship Bench and their #Yellow is For Hello. This is a plan to place a yellow bench in every university and college across Canada. The benches are intended to be a place where someone can sit and others will join them to talk.
During Tweetstock, he shared the lessons he learned from his experience with launching Yellow is For Hello, about captivating an audience, especially using social media.
- Have a Point of View – don’t just share news – have an opinion.
- Augment – Do not duplicate
- Be Visual – our attention spans are getting shorter so use video to tell a story or communicate your message.
- Think Global, Act Local – its great to have a big idea, but first establish and build close to home. It can get bigger later.
- Build a Community – release to a group of people and be prepared to let go. The community can build the momentum way faster than you.
- Engage Influencers – find like minded others with large spheres of influence to share your message.
- Don’t Be Too Social – your brand can easily be damaged by over sharing or sharing content that really should not be on line.
- Be Consistent – rather than over commit, pick a schedule that you can manage and stick to it.
Sam’s ability to share such a personal story and also take that to have a purpose from such a tragedy was inspiring.
What similar campaigns have moved you?
Have a brandtastic week.
PS: This week I will be posting a video each day that I shot while on the road trip I mentioned. See if you can spot the locations! You can see all my personal branding tips videos on my Facebook page – CLICK HERE or on my blog by CLICKING HERE
P.P.S. Tweetstock confirmed for me that many small business owners and individuals want to benefit from social media. However they may not have the time to do it all themselves. That is why I have launched Social Media Sensei – you can sign up to receive weekly social media tips by clicking here: Social Media Sensei this content will be different from the personal brand tips here.