Quiver & Quill

1. Decorate your blog with widgets. See: Lemonade, Widgetbox, Mashable’s top 50
2. Invite a guest blogger to bring a new perspective.
3. Officially become a geek with a Blog badge: Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr
4. Protect your work with a Creative Commons license.
5. Get a job board for your blog.
6. Make a custom radio station for your blog.
7. Know thy reader. Set up analytics.
8. Transform your blog into a book.
9. Make money by turning your blog into products.
10. Write a blog mantra.
11. Speak with your readers live by adding a chat room to your blog.
12. Use powerful images.
13. Captivate your readers with embedded presentations.
14. Turn random photos into sexy slideshows. See: slide, rockyou, ilovephotos
15. Put your point on the map. See: Google, Yahoo, Placeblogger
16. Share data persuasively with charts. Free from Emarketer, or build your own.
17. Embed video in your posts. Youtube, Blip.TV, Videojug
18. Invite reads to take quizzes, polls and surveys.
19. Write lists. Top 10. Top 50. Top 100. People love lists.
20. Add a timeline.
21. Help your readers see their future, or give them a laugh with a horoscope.
22. Develop How To content. Want to know how to do that?
23. Write reviews on your blog. Product reviews. Movie reviews. Web Site reviews.
24. Conduct interviews with experts. Bloggers. Peers. People on the streets or on Facebook.
25. Create a weekly theme for your blog. For example, “this week’s theme is things that make me laugh.”
26. Write a trend watching post.
27. Share an epiphany.
28. Write an advertising critique. See: Media values and Stanford.
29. Develop a fake newstory.
30. Profile a company or compare and contrast two companies.
31. Share case studies. Use Marketing Sherpa as an example.
32. Conduct a before and after.
33. Turn your blog entry into a letter. Dear Apple, or Dear Jet Blue, Dear John, or Dear Bloggers, etc.
34. Share a powerful quote from a famous person or everyday quotes.
35. Post your notes.
36. Run a contest–and give away a T-shirt.
37. Use creative problem solving exercises to generate ideas.
38. Harness your creativity. Limit your time to write a post, or your word count.
39. Evoke archetypes and memes to help analyze trends and craft stories.
40. Write your blog posts on every day things.
41. Share your idea in a creative form. Turn your blog post into a poem, obituary, love letter, cartoon, menu, flyer, vintage advertisement.
42. Find your voice and write in it. Kurt Vonnegut will show you how.

Add a tip for getting your blog in shape in 2008. I will feature several few suggestions to make this list even more useful.

Photos from Flickr used under Creative Common’s License. Citation: MC, Veganstraightedge, Pintong, Purpleslog, Termie, Fish2000, Gwen

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I opened a frozen food package of broccoli stuffed chicken to heat up in the microwave. On the box, I read the story behind the founder of the microwavable chicken company. And then the box  invited me to check its website to read more about the founder and its great heritage.I was baffled and amused. I asked myself: “Finish this James Baldwin novel, or read about the chicken guy; watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, or read about the chicken guy“…it was a tough choice, but I never made it to the chicken guy’s website.This experience made me realize how many advertising campaigns are using stories as a creative approach. Whether it’s “tell us your story,” or “share your store,” or send photos and videos illustrating your story, products everywhere are searching for narratives, like mothers seeking lost children.

So, what makes a good narrative? Hemingway wrote, “In order to write about life, you must first live it.” That lessons applies directly to marketing. How do we create real experiences of products and services that produce true narratives we want to share, rather than create perceptions of products and services using just a clever creative approach?

If that frozen chicken I microwaved was story-worth good, I would not only have visited their website, but I would have also bought a few more of them.

Photo used with Creative Commons License and from lab2112’s photo stream. 

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“What”s a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect.” - Al Ries

I was driving on the highway a few days ago when I passed by a stranded motorist. He was waiting by his car. In his left hand, he held an empty red gas container. He pointed to his car with the other hand. On his face, he gave this perfectly delivered look: a mixture of pleading and friendliness.

Even though I past him at 70 miles an hour, seeing him for mere seconds, the image stuck in my mind. I immediately recognized the situation and made a decision as to whether or not I wished to be involved.

This made me realize how effective branding can be: When you create an image people can relate to and immediately identify with, they don’t need to be convinced or persuaded about an idea, product or service. They know.

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