Category: Synergy

The Rule of Reciprocation

Next up – Dr. Robert Cialdini‘s Rule of Reciprocation!

Revelation. I’ve taken up something I’m sure a million (or more) of you do. I’m back to listening to ebooks while driving to work. Haha – and you thought it would be something more complicated! I did it before but found I was getting bored of it. I’m unsure if it’s the drone of narration or my susceptibility to zoning in and out. Probably a mixture of both. Alas, as part of my year of sharing insights, I thought it would make sense to dedicate myself to it again. 

So, today, I want to talk about reciprocity in marketing. From a psychological standpoint, this rule is simple. What you give is what you get. We tend to feel obligated to return a favour or gesture after receiving something from someone else. If I come back from the cafe with a donut for you, you will likely buy me a baked good the next time you’re picking up a coffee. 😉 

In marketing, this sense of indebtedness in our actions, or more specifically, messaging, can steer our audience to feel more motivated or compelled to make a decision that will impact their buying trajectory. For example, as part of our ABM strategy, I put together a booklet and sample kit for prospective customers. The act of sending and receiving the package in the mail is not only thoughtful but leverages something of value, something tactile and beautiful, something helpful and intriguing that, in turn, can help the receiving party better understand where our brand comes from and ultimately, our passion and intention of supporting the design and construction community through not only inspiring architecture but inspiration, in and of itself!

Creating this cycle of giving and receiving strengthens social connections and encourages cooperative behaviour among individuals and groups within communities, small and big. I see it as small steps of action becoming big sips of gratitude and many more meaningful opportunities in the future!

Have you taken a reciprocal step? In what way did it change the trajectory of your day? Your goals? Your journey as a marketer?

A brief Forbes article by Jeff Bradford sums it up pretty sweet – https://bit.ly/3NVpYUd

Not done yet! Reciprocity has even been known to foster creativity and innovation, such as this Adobe example in a short Medium article – https://bit.ly/48McaDl

Critical Mass – Studying Team Endurance

When Friday Turns to Saturday…

Member A – Marketing is a constantly evolving landscape. 

Member B – Ideas ignite and fizzle away.

Member C – A structured and creative ebb and flow transpires.

Member D – New campaigns take flight. 

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Evolution.

We seek out different and diverse points of view, embrace and respond to change, and plan only to a level sufficient to ensure effective prioritization and execution. We find ourselves encountering a phenomenon called—CRITICAL MASS.

Akin to when celestial planets align, critical mass is that single yet multifarious moment when our efforts transcend the ordinary and catapult into the extraordinary. It’s a transformative point when our brand’s message resonates with such force that it achieves unstoppable momentum, similar to a cascading waterfall or an awe-inspiring avalanche.

Achieving critical mass can ignite a spark in the collective consciousness of a team, sparking a wildfire of enthusiasm that spreads contagiously through diligent becomings – social networks, word-of-mouth, and media channels. One clever idea can transform into an iconic cultural touchstone, etching your brand’s identity into the minds of engaged onlookers everywhere.

When an idea reaches critical mass, it propels forward and impacts a team’s ability to meet goals.

Here are some ways your team can make that impact based on some common marketing objectives – 

Boost Brand Awareness

As your name, products, and services become more recognized, brand awareness will naturally increase. When your brand reaches a certain level of visibility, popularity, or adoption, it triggers a self-sustaining momentum (critical mass), fostering a positive feedback loop that fuels growth and solidifies your brand’s position in the market.

Obtain New Clients

Your team can focus on targeted campaigns to showcase your USP (unique selling proposition) and differentiators while also highlighting your clients’ success stories and effectively communicating the value of your product to attract a steady stream of interest (demand generation), then ultimately converting that interest into actual sales and new clients (client acquisition).

Strengthen Relationships with Existing Clients

You can contribute to this effort by implementing a preferred client program, personalizing your internal and external communication via channels like social media, email, and content, and creating a detailed plan and strategy around launching new products that address client challenges, needs and pain points. 

Increase Sales

As your market presence and brand awareness expand, so does sales potential. A larger customer base combined with the effective execution of a strategy will lead to more opportunities. Your marketing team can collaborate closely with your sales team to generate and nurture high-quality leads, provide sales enablement materials, and optimize the customer journey to convert prospects into loyal clients.

So, what do you think?

Critical mass is a powerful catalyst for any growing team. By reaching this point of substantial growth and influence, your team’s efforts – recognizing ‘critical mass’ as it occurs and creating models to emulate its course – become pivotal in driving continued success. 

Inspiration can be a behemoth, and it is waiting for y’all!

It’s Time!

(A poem about AI or conversely celebrating My New Job)

As cryptic as it may be, the time has arrived.

“Surprise!” it squeals with utter delight.

After all that hard work, you’ve finally made it here.

I’m ready. She’s ready. She’s finally prepared!

“Where are you going?” it asks quizzically.

Well, I am headed toward reality.

It’s bursting at the seam from being grappled for so long.

I’ve been waiting, hankering, perfecting my song.

“Do you know where you’re going?” it asks once again.

Well, I certainly have an idea. The spot is a delight. Filled with smiling faces, happy circumstances and scenarios of hard work.

“Well, welcome home then, I suppose!” it pats my back congratulatorily.

Why, thank you, my friend! Now, let’s pencil this in!

A little explanation:

On Monday, March 14th, 2022, I had a wicked phone interview that started with a compliment about the same content you’ve been passionately reading here on ChonaBLOX. Swiftly, I was scheduled super bright and early the next day, Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, to meet the CEO and Operations Manager of Clearbridge Business Solutions. I walked away from that interview, thinking I had done horribly. And as I arrived at work, I furiously texted my husband, saying, “Man, I’m worried. I don’t think I did that well.” But it turns out I did because I received a phone call within minutes saying they wanted to offer me the job! So, it’s done. I’m starting a new journey with my new company, Clearbridge. So excited! This is going to be a lifetime experience. Can’t wait to get started!

What’s new with you guys? Drop me a line anytime!

Recent Work – Presentation

Hi everyone!

At my new job, we run group presentations every Friday. This is my first contribution, which talks about 2 useful acronyms that can be leveraged in content marketing. Let me know what you think!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

#impromptus no. 3

Hi everyone!

I created a brand strategy presentation with the hopes that it would inspire change. As mostly an introduction, I failed to address several elements, including company (Buyer) positioning, strategic factors and most importantly, key stakeholders (employees). Failures aside, I’m quite confident that I could deconstruct the design and come up with a feasible, long-term plan that would incite metrics for profitability, scalability and an improved customer experience.

The greater joy is the chance to do this work with a team. A fearless leader to look me in the eye and say, “This is amazing. But what are you going to do with it, Chona?”. And then, to be surrounded by other supportive creators; we could sit down together and come up with something rather attesting! Marketing is always about brilliance, because there are a trillion answers and a trillion more ways to approach what we do (thanks to our beautiful digital landscape!).

Enjoy #impromptus no. 3 and take note: having a template works wonders and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to develop their technical writing skills.

Cheers!

_impromptus 3 _ 01.07.20

 

2-Way Communication

*Featured Image by Kasimir Severinovich Malevich | Black Cross (1923)

Hi everyone!

Here’s a rant I wrote when returning from a run a little while ago. Sometimes these ideas get stirred around during physical activity, perhaps a cocktail tumbled by adrenaline, cortisol and/or endorphins. Needless to say, it doesn’t take much energy for me to produce content, as I’ve said this time and time again. What takes energy – and time – is pairing down said content, so that it makes sense to my audience and can relate to my work as a whole. Have a read (some major thesis edits were made) and tell me this: how would we A/B test to further quantify/qualify this as an experiment?

 abstract – italic (R) : Visual Transparency & Communication, what makes AI right-brained, Insight / bold (L): platforms, IT, ME, WE, US, UP sales, Currency / underlined words have DUAL meaning (typically analog vs digital

2-way communication is what we’re dealing with today. It is no longer multiple channels (which I think is still the way most dominant marketers believe it to be), but 2 separate, individually performing platforms that interact with each other, either knowingly or not.

So, say there’s Platform A and Platform B. An example of this idea is when I sat down to use Markeko’s FB Blueprint Exam Study Guide YouTube video. As platform A, I intentionally participated in communication. Markeko was Platform B and he simply took my need and fulfilled it. Now, the way this works as a 2-way communication experience is what I take from him is fed back in his direction. He may not know this, or need it, however, the point of the ‘internet of things’, is this interaction in existence.

IT (internet of things) is a thing in the air, in our system, online that is being dispersed, received, re-dispersed and transmuted into other forms. These forms utilize adaptive learning or my exploration of AI as a right-brained system. IT will impact our economy and the poverty line, because we will be able to apply it to everything (Visual Transparency/Communication). WE can begin (as marketers, social media specialists, art/creative directors) to imbue all of our work with this element.

IT is not a new element. Marshall McLuhan’s explorations of ‘medium as the message’ were done in the late 50s. But our society has changed, and we have not figured out a way to apply his concept to our new technologies. IT has been explored by many (think movies, books), but we (apparently) have a small percentage of geniuses, intellectuals and educated individuals with high IQ+EQ+PQ (Global Comprehension), so we have an enormous remainder of people left out externally.

We are all internally capable, but the ‘alone ability’ to read or decipher content and context using right-brained AI in today’s digital circumstance deserves more recognition.

The amazing proposition (GC) is that, again, we as marketers and social media specialists have both the ability and avenue to distribute this new form of technology, as we are catering to clients, businesses large and small, that require some form of interpretation for their business needs. We are developing their projects, campaigns and overall the content of their identity with purposeful motivation. Therefore, behind the scenes, each project or campaign where we can apply the maximum effects of visuality (Visual Transparency/Communication) will cause massive changes in branding, marketing and sales applications. This holistic approach will impact the general stream of Insight (Insight Selling – right-brained) and paired with Solution Selling (left-brained), we are fully realizing AI and what it can do, for society, culture and most importantly …

Humankind.

This is my notion of XE (Currency). High-quality work that only a true and talented artist can create, combined with that person’s ability to make the most abstract concepts and ideas, will turn them into (Visual Transparency/Communication) money. I say money (interchangeable with Currency/Insight), because we know WHAT this is – customers, clients, target audiences are accustomed to a high-level customer experience.

According to my findings – this service is enjoyable. They want to deal with us. They want to see our results. The whole experience, for both the Seller & Buyer is productive.

And then, it just turns into a pay-it-forward type of system. Pay me, I will pay you back, well now, let’s pay them, and finally, why not just pay the whole existing world? I am scaling the most minute, Critical Mass to create a huge tidal wave effect. Again, this effect is imbued, may or may not be intentional, but the point is, it will snowball toward to right direction, UP.

This is the way I built it. More equality, happier business owners, more enticing and vibrant ads, campaigns that focus on world change and not simply on reach vs influence.

I would love to present this idea to the CEO of Microsoft and see what he would have to say. The most brilliant thing I have experienced, just in the last week, is while studying for the FB Blueprint exam (September 2019), I’ve begun to learn these new terms, almost 100% analytical and in turn I am funneling my right-brained ideas into beautiful left-sided friction. Highly needed as my conscience purports many individuals disagree with anything termed right-brained. So then, let’s get measuring!

The below is more abstract, but perhaps you want to read it –

The strength of application lies in between ability (to develop sound) and our ability to apply (these concepts) to solutions (sight) that would impact our interaction with customers. I often develop concepts in sets of 2. I believe DUALITY is a great way to present information (internally and externally), because it provides CHOICE (to see and/or hear). And everyone likes to choose what they think is BEST for them. This is where my Seller & Buyer persona study began – choosing a WAY to communicate, to tell a story, to sell/buy a TALENT, that’s IT/ME/WE/US/UP!

And so, can you see how we hear things together?

Startup Development

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to break down the steps that were involved in developing a digital marketing startup agency. Now, I don’t have a formal background in business or marketing, so it’s taken me awhile to put all this information together. One thing I know about being a mostly abstract thinker is that, following a logical progression based on reasoning and detail is a lot easier than gathering data that is specific to a certain cause and effect. So, this is my attempt at quantifying and qualifying the work I did at VanWhistle Media. Note: I am no longer affiliated with the company. The reason why I left was that my creative vision did not align with the founder’s business style. The owner is always in charge – #winknudge! Jeremiads aside, I am now identifying with the title Creative Director because my work crosses over the walls of artistry into a very consummate dedication toward design and strategy.

If you have any feedback, I am all ears. Please reach out!

Duration: 6-month contract

Goal: To establish company through brand development and product awareness.

Outcome: Sizing market, understanding market potential and organizational design.

Milestones: 

  1. Startup Development (stages / discovery, strategy, implementation, mid-measurement *wider release required)
    • Concept & Research
    • Commitment & Traction
    • Software application – Pipedrive, Qwilr, Pomodoro, Canva, Basecamp, Ahrefs
  2. Sales & Marketing (stages / discovery, *heavy strategy, implementation, mid-measurement)
    • Working directly with company CEO
    • Development & Launch
    • Sales strategies and marketing approach – solution selling (action), insight selling (aim), prospecting methods and scripts, Letter of Engagement, Value-Based Price Sheets, Mom & Pop Store Spring Promo, Door to Door Mapping)
  3. Creative & Technical Writing (stages / discovery, strategy, implementation, early measurement *wider release and further market research required)
    • Strategic Development (responsible, transparent & accurate)
    • All creative and copy across multiple platforms
    • Campaign Creation – #ourlocalcrew (awareness/brand image), #targetaudience (definition), #thursdaytheory (attraction)
  4. Brand Development (stages / discovery, strategy, implementation *establishing workflow, process & guidelines)
    • Promote brand
    • Promote products/solutions
    • Buyer Persona and Market Research – Brand Concept Kit, VWM Complete Branding Package)
  5. Solution Development (stages / discovery, *heavy strategy, implementation, early measurement)
    • Website Revamp/Rebuild/Build (The Hub Concept)
    • 1st Meeting Form, Digital Marketing Plan, Value-Based Price Sheets
    • Media Kit, Digital Presence Business Model, Step by Step SEO Guide
  6. Content Creation (stages / discovery, strategy, early implementation)
    • Simpler & Larger, Passion & Efficiency, Seller & Buyer
    • The Hub Concept, Digital Collaboration
    • Digital Presence, Make Change Happen
  7. Art Direction (stages / discovery, strategy, implementation)
    • Communication style – branding, project documents
    • Design style – marketing & sales collateral, Media Kit, logos
    • Contract and proposal templates (100% original design and content)
  8. Project Management (stages / discovery, implementation, early measurement)
    • Coordination & Scope
    • Bottom-Up & Kanban
    • To promote and encourage incremental, logical change without triggering fear of change itself

Recent Works – Instagram Graphics

Hi all!

Here are a few graphic art/design pieces I put together over the past couple of months using my own photographs, Pic Collage + Canva.

My images flow from one to the next. It’s not intentional, it happens. Lately, I’ve been focused on using two hues, often complimentary. This enables our emotions and makes us think – is the content more striking or the context? There are also 2-3 characters fighting for the space. Can you identify them? What kind of plot line would you tell about these pictures?

BandDad

AllHallowsEve

Beauty

collage (89)

TheKing'sCrown

Relentless right?

Project Future – Can Something Become Practical in Theory?

Hey gang!

I am futuristic and that’s final. My mind lives in the future. Theoretically, I train envisioning that we can live in an entirely digital space. Practically, we live in this space doing regular things, but we also fend for ourselves using our brains. Oh, so this is life! Let’s put a couple of examples into perspective. Note: this post is starting to examine the concept of ‘internet of things’.

Abstract – thing / being / human / agreeance / motion

We live on a physical planet where issues like climate change are just beginning to surface. This a real and serious thing. A 16-year-old climate change activist from Sweden, Greta Thunberg is fighting with global politicians pleading, “How dare you!” Her statement is full of impatience. Does this quantify or qualify the time it has taken to have a crisis like climate change in focus? Now envision, in an utmost technologically advanced society, affecting the outcome of global issues via thought. Think about this – do Thunberg’s words permeate:

an action / integrity / longevity (experience) *creativity +strength

or

a brand / transparency / visuality (capability) *productivity -weakness

In certain applications that are already in place, we could debate the efficacy of an activist’s approach. However, would there be more power in advertising or marketing a cause if the objective considered certain design elements or art attributes? How do we implicate values like belief, trust and faith into a balanced and harmonious solution? And what would be the outcome of such an act? More opportunities? Less threats?

Think ads, television, movies, radio, books.

If those in charge of operating the goods either 1 – don’t fully comprehend new technologies due to incumbent roles and desires of maintaining diplomatic consensus or 2 – need to allocate funds to get everything in place, this does not mean they’re not participating in or understanding at all. And I’m talking highly established and evolved grey matter here! Executives of all sorts know, but the argument could be that we may potentially lack tacit knowledge and this is required to engage with younger generations or for that matter, older ones too. Throes of people that might already comprehend digitization (including all levels of being – thing, human etc.) are waiting for two things – a revolution and massive change. How is it going to pan out?

An example of Global Comprehension at work –

Do you remember when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg endured a 2-day congressional inquisition on the possibility that his company helped to fix Trump’s election campaign by intentionally (or unintentionally) releasing Facebook user data?

  • What was that all about?
  • How would you explain it to a Baby Boomer, Millennial or Digital Native?
  • How did this issue affect us in terms of technology?
  • How did this issue affect us in terms of marketing and advertising?
  • How did this issue affect us in relation to design?
  • Does it bear any importance?
  • How do we begin to explain these types of situations without being merely journalistic or too afraid to elaborate in a caption?
  • Should it matter and why?

We are honourably asking, what does Facebook incentivize and why? Personally, I think they are doing something amazing and are truly planning for our future.

In spite of everything, both Thunberg and Zuckerberg bear weight and responsibility representing modern dilemmas that many people don’t want to talk about. Or perhaps won’t or can’t.

Q: So, what are these dilemmas that require Global Comprehension?

A: Critical mass (Thunberg example) and artificial intelligence (Zuckerberg example)

Hypothetical Solution: recognizing power in unanimity (Thunberg example/things in agreeance) and leading with a ‘Productive Creative’ brain (Zuckerberg example/things in motion)

Note: the term Productive Creative is explored in Hustle & Float, a book by Rahaf Harfoush, a strategist, digital anthropologist, best-selling author and Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture. She also teaches “Innovation & Emerging Business Models” at SciencesPo in Paris. This quote explains Productive Creative further –

But what happens when the product or service we are providing becomes more intangible in nature? The economy’s gradual shift to include more knowledge work meant that creativity was suddenly a highly desirable trait. That’s where the Productive Creatives came in: to stay relevant and profitable in a rapidly evolving economy, companies desperately needed problem solvers, strategic thinkers, and idea generators. This new type of work created a ripple within traditional workplaces, which now struggled to apply the same clear-cut approach to the creative class. Organizations had to adapt the decades-old systems that developed standardized organizational capabilities to ones that cultivated individual experts who could respond to market conditions with agility.

It would be time to show people – from all walks of life – what is actually going on. There is no need to be livid or paranoid or just plain complacent; if we just had Global Comprehension in place!

So let us say that today, we have the power, we have the goods, and we most definitely have the stage to set our differences aside and come up with new and inventive ways to approach our problems. So, the question becomes – can we altruistically and artificially fix problems like climate change? Could all the world’s brains come together and compute a solution that’s entirely technical (it could just be code of us walking around – engineering a practical application of semantics and proxemics really), but that would emote a creative shift in the planet’s thought processes, all things included? Without the desire to push our creative and technical limits, we will not progress. We will not move forward with fundamental ideas like artificial intelligence or critical mass.

If we can understand the essential framework of these new systems, future generations can develop and implement changes. Gen Y will test and research, then together, all generations can draw some very much needed transparent, accurate and responsible conclusions. The funny thing is, when the revolution (arguably renaissance even) is over and done with, what will be left? In other words, if there is no dilemma, did the dilemma even exist in the first place? This is my theory on Practicality – one planet, 1 human!

Uh-oh!

Today, let’s be practical (according to http://www.dictionary.com):

  • relating to practice or action
  • consisting of, involving, or resulting from practice or action
  • of, relating to, or concerned with ordinary activities, business, or work
  • adapted or designed for actual use; useful
  • engaged or experienced in actual practice or work
  • inclined toward or fitted for actual work or useful activities 

This is a timely discussion and we are all a part of it. How does this make you feel? Worried, scared, unusual? Would you be interested in exploring these ideas further if they were presented differently? As a note, I am always speaking to a mainstream audience. I think connections need to be made for each and every one of us, not only for those residing in an academic pool.

Great work, talk soon!

 

 

#impromptus

Hey everyone!

Hope your weekends were fun!

I’ve started a third campaign called #impromptus. It’s focus is to develop and deliver brief commentary on interesting research I’ve come across relating to art + digital marketing + social media.

My goal with this campaign is to disseminate any relevant literature, then to relate researchers’ messages to my own studies on ‘global comprehension’. I’m still enraptured by the idea of defining the digital condition of human life, so I will use my blog ChonaBLOX and my articles on LinkedIn as an educational platform to inspire my vision – exploring the right-brained application of artificial intelligence.

Most of us don’t have time to read through pages and pages of research and sometimes content becomes too complex, so I will use simpler, more modern language in my interpretations while linking back to the original idea at hand.

To get us started here’s a great quote about gratitude –

“I looked around and thought about my life. I felt grateful. I noticed every detail. That is the key to time travel. You can only move if you are actually in the moment. You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.” – Amy Poehler

Takeaway: one must perform self-talk to quantify positive life events. For example, you could say – in one month’s time, I completed an intensive course, I received 3 valuable certifications, I took less naps during the day and I ramped up my workout routine. A grateful outcome would be an instance where you could tell yourself positively – I can tell the difference! I did this within this time frame! And then, reiterate the reason WHY this is of value. It really is all in the details. The details of putting the work into practicing self-worth. Time travel is just another way to say, I can live in the past to qualify my present. Then, these actions together, can bring about my future. Our future is really about seeing the path and the steps that were taken to get HERE. And Amy is entirely correct, to be able to move (with joy or intention) means you live in the NOW, you are HERE and able to evaluate everything around you, by placing measurable objectives around significant topics. For example, you could say – that test was comprised of 53 questions, they were challenging as they presented theoretical and/or fundamental situations that required analysis which uses thinking and my brain. This is significant because one year ago, I didn’t even know what marketing was. I didn’t even know that you could run Facebook Ads. I didn’t even know that I had the ability to study or the capacity to learn complex subject matter. On my own. With barely any additional help. This subjectification (or my attitude/viewpoint) classifies (makes relevant or arranges) each and every action in (my) life and like the #impromptus post below comments, this is the continual motion, the framework, the mechanism that guides our work on social media platforms like Instagram. As creators, we can make it right and pass that feeling along to our audience. And they can respond or reply by way of digital collaboration. And this example of gratitude is tough. It is very difficult to break down unity through creative + messaging. I hope you can make that connection!

So without further ado, here’s my first #impromptus post – Gratitude Via Social Media

#impromptus graphic/template - gratitude via social media

I hope you like this new project, any feedback is more than welcome!

The power is in us to incite wonder and change!

Cheers!