In the last few months I have been part of a new startup company, working with loyalty programs and their mobile presence. This has led me to think how one can apply the strategies and tactics of corporate loyalty to the peronal branding space. It might be a little controversial, but I think there are some valid points to consider.

Most people associates loyalty programs with points or miles, but there is so much more going on in the background. If you were to set up a loyalty program for yourself, it might look something like this.

Members

The members would be your target groups or target persons, just as loyalty programs divide their member base in different segments.

Channels

These are the different ways you could communicate with your audience, eg. e-mail, snail mail, phone, text message, personal meeting, lunch, networking event, etc. Different people are more likely to answer in different channels. Maybe you can ask your contacts for their preferred way of communication.

Positioning your offer – Your message

What are you going to communicate with each group/person and how are you going to formulate and deliver the message? When talking loyalty programs, it is all about conversion rates and keeping the member loyal to the brand. It is crucial that you keep this in mind since it is even more important to you (with fewer “members”) that the message is leading towards you goal and that the recipient feels that he/she want the same as you.

Segmentation

This is one of the hardest tasks for a large scale loyalty program since it is very hard to find a group of members that are similar enough to respond to a common message. If you use social networks, a blog or sending out newsletters, you will have the same problem, but when formulating a specific message to a specific member you are able to aim it just to that person rather than a group of persons. It is more work involved, but definitely worth the extra effort.

Follow up

As with everything else, it is extremely important to work with a follow up system that gives you the feedback to refine and improve your efforts. In loyalty programs this is not optional, and it shouldn’t be for you either. Make sure to set up a system that works for you.

I would not recommend taking it as far as giving “points” to your contacts, or calling them “loyalty program members”, but thinking about loyalty is definitely something that can empower you personal brand–if done right and based on the groundwork you have laid.

What are your thoughts on using loyalty program thinking to enhance your personal brand?

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The last two weeks has been really inspiring.

I have been speaking about Social Media, been networking with some of Sweden’s most inspiring networkers and visited two castles.

Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden 2011 (photo: Cecilia Lyche)

First me and Victoria Ahlén held a seminar on New Business through Social Media for entrepreneurs and innovators in Uddevalla last Wednesday. The seminar was arranged by ALMI Företagspartner Väst and Entreprenörsriket and it was the third seminar with the same theme. The attendants integrated with us in a very good way and I look forward to the last seminar of this serie in Gothenburg the 11th of May 2011. Do you want to attend, please sign up in the form below.

Last weekend I attended the yearly conference of Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden with a lot of inpiring seminars and workshops (special thanks to Johannes Hansen, Olle Bjerkås and Gustaf Josefsson), great food and great networking at Entreprenörskyrkan as well as at Häringe Slott (the first castle). Thank you all 77 entrepreneurs that attended the weekend and of course a special thanks to the organizers Gustav Nisser, Petra Jonsson, Jesper Lejfjord, Jesper Lindmarker.

After being in the South of Sweden this week working with business development for ScanCord, I went with my wife Zuleyma to my uncle in Helsingborg where we just got back from a visit to Sofiero Slott (the second castle).

Last weekend was full of energy, inspiration and a lot of opportunities. This weekend is more focused on resting and recharging the batteries.

I look forward to next week as I know we will reach a new level with our new venture… stay tuned!

Please register for the Social Media seminar in Gothenburg the 11th of May 2011:
[contact-form-7]

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The other week, exiting things happened to my Google Apps account, things that will significantly facilitate my life. This doesn’t really matter to you, but to me it meant an important step towards offering you as a reader my knowledge on entrepeneurship, digital media and personal brands.

From today forward, the articles I find the most interesting, amusing and exiting will be published on the site Ola Recommends.

Besides seeing the tips on the website, you can subscribe to them on E-mail or through RSS.

Here is an example of what the tips might include:

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I have read about changing your maiden name will dilute your personal brand, and that taking another name will give you less salary. That might be so if you do not work with your brand in a focused way, but if you do it can strenghten your brand.

This summer I got married to my wonderful wife, Zuleyma, and for me it has meant nothing but positive effects on my brand.

A stable family situation

With marriage one is looked upon as being more settled in life, having more responsibility at home and less tendency to change jobs often. Studies in Sweden shows that couples that are married have a higher income than unmarried couples in the same age group.

I have seen this when dealing with clients as well, they seem to feel more comfortable after I got married.

Connecting competence

To have your spouse’s competence spill over on your brand takes place even when you are just a couple, but when your last name is the same and people see you as a more united entity, this effect will be even greater. Don’t be afraid of using this to your advantage, it could even be included in your resume or the cover letter to emphasis your strengths, ex. “I have a great passion for marketing and trademark strategies, which always is a topic for discussion with my wife who is a lawyer specializing in trademark and intellectual property law…”

If it is a match for the position you are looking for, don’t be afraid to spice up your own skills with the competence of your spouse.

So what about the last name?

At least here in Sweden you are allowed to keep your own last name when getting married, however a name change is not always for the worse. In Latin American countries the bride will keep both the fathers name as well as the spouses name (eg. Zuleyma Montenegro de Rynge), which in my opinion is a great way for keeping your brand and adding additional value to it.

If that is not a possibility, you will probably run into problems with vanity URLs and Search Engine Optimization and people not knowing who you are anymore. You still have your connections that is easy to inform of the change, it might take some time for them to associate you with the new name, so make sure that you can still be found while searching for your maiden name. If you are i control of the search results for your name, this normally is not a huge problem, and might even be a possibiltiy for you to create an even stronger brand since the new combination doesn’t have any history.

Well, marriage is one thing, but if you do not live happily ever after, that might dilute your brand. But that’s another blog post.

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Original posted at http://blog.brand-yourself.com.

Last week I wrote about how to think multi channel strategy when working with your brand, based upon what goals, results and outcomes you are looking to achieve. The goals, results and outcomes are very much dependent on to whom you are communicating your brand since your brand is a reflection of what others think of you. So this week I was thinking that we should look into the different target audiences and how to find them.

Differentiation towards different target audiences

When looking at different target audiences, you should always keep in mind that your core values are the same and that these should always be in the center of your communication, but since you are reaching for different persons that will interpret your communication differently you have to adjust your message to be aligned to

1. The outcome your are reaching for
2. The person you are talking to
3. The situation that you are in

Different persons act and perceive things differently in different situations, and that is why you have to plan ahead for how you are going to act and communicate to send the right signals to the right people.

Groups of target audiences

The target audience can consist of many different groups and sub groups, and they can be divided by different factors. Demographic variables such as age group, gender, marital status, etc. are often used for traditional marketing; while psychographic variables such as personality, values, attitudes, interests, etc. are more often used for digital and social marketing. I believe in using both for your personal brand, but you probably already know the persons you are targeting so for that reason I would use them as a base for how to communicate with each individual. Let us look at a few individuals and groups of people you are likely to encounter or want to meet:

• parents and siblings
• spouse
• children
• extended family
• friends

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• future employer
• current employer
• collaboration partners
• clients
• future clients
• venture capitalists
• competitors

Make your own list, preferably with names of the person, where you are likely or plan to meet them, and also what are the variables for the specific person and the specific situation. And while your at it, add the wanted outcome for your communication with each person. It might be that one person are connected to more than one situation and/or outcome. When that is the case, make a separate line for each combination.

After trying this technique for a while you will feel that it will come naturally to you, but I would still recommend you to use it for new contacts.

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Rynge Media Monitor looks into social and traditional media on the Internet, based on specific key words and phrases defined by the user. Let’s say that I as an user adds “The Rynge Group” and “Ola Rynge” as specific key phrases. Then the Rynge Media Monitor looks into different sources for new content generated during the last two days, and then it keeps looking for new content until I remove the key phrases.

The results are then presented as an RSS feed, which is a standardize format for presenting frequently updated works. These feeds can be read through the most common e-mail programs (eg. Outlook, Thunderbird) or other specific RSS readers. We recommend the use of Google Reader which is free, but requires the user to sign up for a Google account. The advantage of Google Reader is that it is has a lot of functionality to share, delegate, sort and act upon the news results.

What can and should you do with the incoming articles/posts?

When looking at one of the results, you are probably asking yourself what to do with it.

Step 1 – is it relevant?

Relevant or irrelevant – is it irrelevant, you might want to refine your search term. If it is relevant information, then you should define in what way it is relevant.

Step 2 – how is it relevant

You should define certain categories that are relevant to you where you can sort incoming articles. The way I have defined my categories are: Possible leads, positive feedback, negative constructive feedback, negative non-constructive feedback, product development, key opinion leader, educative.

Step 3 – act

Depending on which category I act differently:

Possible lead
For possible leads I try to identify who is the persona that I need to get in touch with to see if this can be converted to a sale. If it is a possible lead, but it is another person in my organisation or network that should contact the lead, then  I forward it to their e-mail via the E-mail function at the bottom of each post in Google Reader.  Here I can add a note as well and suggest action points.

Feedback / Product Development
Positive feedback is always encouraging, so I share positive feedback with my organisation, but I also thank the person that published the positive feedback. If appropriate I might even suggest an additional service based on the positive feedback. I am however very careful to not be over selling.

Negative constructive feedback should be answered in a polite and respectful manner, explaining why the negative thing happened,  why the product do not include the specific feature or whatever the negative feedback is aimed at. Maybe an excuse is in place if a customer has been treated bad. Negative constructive feedback is very valuable if responded to in the right manner. The client could turn from being dissatisfied to become a raving fan due to your fast and caring answer. It could also be used for product and service development.

Negative non-constructive feedback is never easy to handle. You can say that you are sorry, but that is pretty much it. Sometimes non-constructive feedback is better left alone.

Key Opinion Leader
I use key phrases to identify who are the key opinion leaders for my industry in different networks. When identified, I follow them, I learn from them and I try to connect with them. When successful, the key opinion leaders likes you and your products and will spread the word about your excellence to their followers (which probably are your potential clients).

Educative
You probably consider yourself and your organization to be experts in what you are doing. To stay up to date with the latest trends, methods and news in your industry, you can use the media monitor as well. Read the interesting news, spread the word internally and externally through your networks. Add some thoughts or comment on the content if possible and you will probably be a key opinion leader yourself in your social network.

How do you work to stay on top of things today? Please share in the comment section below.

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More and more information is being published online, on news sites, social media, blogs and discussion boards. Knowing what is being said or reported about your organization or industry is essential to establish communication with the press, your clients and other stake holders. It is also a great source of information in the decision making process.

We have been developing Rynge Media Monitor to provide a tool that is easy to set up, easy to integrate and use and that provide the essential data for your organization. News websites, social media, forums, blogs and video blogs are monitored on an hourly basis to track the issues important to you.

Do we need another media monitor tool? I think so since the ones out there are overly complex, focusing on fancy graphs, big corporations and lack the focus of business value and usability. The Rynge Media Monitor will be easy to use, we will provide cases for how to best use the tools and want to create a dialog with the users to constantly improving the quality of service and increasing the business value.

During the spring we will launch the service to the public, but if you want access already today, sign up for our private beta.

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This is the second article in a series about Creative Relationship Marketing – Customer focused traditional and social media marketing (the first post can be found here). Since the abbreviation CRM was already taken, I will use CRM² for Creative Relationship Marketing. I think the extra ² is suitable since the Creative Relationship Marketing approach takes CRM to a new level. And since it is on a higher level, you have to make sure that the right resources are in place.

To think marketing and being creative about it is not something that comes naturally to everyone, and even then corporate traditions and culture will make anyone losing their creativity if it is not stimulated. So how can you make sure if you have the right person for the job?

First I usually look for someone within the (marketing) organization that has an interest for new methods of spreading the message and are not afraid of trial-and-error, but at the same time have a keen ear to customer requests and reactions. The person should also have some experience or at least interest in the new social technologies. Even if a lot of the social relations tools available are free or cheap, there is a cost involved since every relationship needs nurturing and care, which consumes time. Time that the person and his manager must be willing to invest to make the effort worthwhile.

So what if there are no one with the right qualities and/or time? Then there are basically two options:

1. Find a new co-worker suitable to the task
Employing someone is always a big step, but the reward of having a dedicated CRM² officer can be immense if it is the right person.

2. Create a long term relation with a consultant
This is a faster and more flexible solution, but normally a more expensive one.

The advantage of a consultant is that he/she (hopefully) is an expert in the field, but the disadvantage is that he/she is not an expert in the industry and your company. In most cases the best solution is a mix of a consultant and a current or new employee, where the consultant is a part of creating strategies, routines and plan. If you have found a great partner to work with, the consultant can inspire and awaken the creativity of the employee(s) and coach them to learn how to think in a creative manner and hence develop new creative ways of marketing the company’s products and services.

So, look at your organization to see if you have the resources available to enter the world of CRM². When you have done that, let’s take a look at setting goals for your new marketing efforts.

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I do not like the phrase “social media”, even if I work with it every day. The reason is that it tries to describe something new and often in a free standing context. Creative Relationship Marketing is broader but also more to the point. It is broader in the sense that it also include the use of traditional media in new ways, but more to the point that it is about marketing and building relationships.

Every day we market our product and services, our ideas and ourselves, but it is really all about communications and relations. This is my view on the current and future of marketing and communication.

Creative Relationship Marketing

Social media is not new. Viral marketing has been around since forever, online forums since the time of the Bulletin Board Systems (pre-Internet) and real time communication existed in the early days of the Internet via IRC and ICQ, blogs been around for decades etc. The thing we call social media is really just new web services that has reached a broad enough target group to be interested to marketers.

What is new is the creative use of the media and the focus on creating relationships with clients. Well, this is actually not new either, at least not for some persons/companies, but the mainstream use of creative solutions are new. Many of the mainstream users still have still to understand that it is about relationship building and not about pushing a message through as many channels as possible.

Ons should also observe that for many persons the above is not new at all, if you are part of the younger generations (born in the 80′s or later) you are probably more prone to test new channels without reflecting over that they are new and creative. You are then probably more interested in the functionality and what problems it solves. You can belong to another generation and still have this focus, but you will find that the percentage is much higher for the young.

The basis of marketing and communication (that you learn in the universities) are not very hard, but to apply it with creativity and gain a competitive advantage, that is the complex part.

Over the next weeks I will go into different aspects of Creative Relationship Marketing and how you can apply this thinking to get the most out of your business. Even though the posts will be business focused, with just a ounce of creativity, you can apply it to develop yourself and your personal relations as well (if you make a distinction between business and personal).

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When I first started to write this post, the title was just “Brief is beautiful”, but then I thought “In which cases is this not true” and then I had to change the title. One should always ask the question:

“In which cases are my line of thought not true, and why is that?”

When it comes to Breif is Beautiful, I am refering to written material for marketing. When explaining what you do or what are the benefits of your product, you should be as concise as possible, using just as many words as you need to get the point across. Write your texts as long as necessary, and as short as possible, keeping the following two points in mind:

1. Brief and to the point

2. Short and clear

This is the difficult and interesting point, as short as possible for one target group does’t necessary mean that another target group doesn’t need a more elaborate text to get the point of the text. It is always harder to write a concise text than a long rabbling text, and since more and more literature is produced online, it will be more and more important to be able to write short concise texts.

When is long beautiful

Long texts can be beautiful, and the most obvious case is when the text is not about selling, but building a stage or feeling, like books in fiction, biographies or history, in contrast to manuals, sales brochures or textbooks that are better off as concise texts.

Did you get my point, or do I need to be more concise?

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