What are we to make of Facebook’s Timeline? Ever since its inception in 2004, Facebook has routinely introduced new changes, some which have been well received, some which received criticism, but most of which were eventually accepted by the general social networking community and eventually forgotten. Timeline, on the other hand, seems to have shaken up the online community in a more profound way than ever before.
Facebook Timeline, for those of you who are not familiar, is a revolutionary new user interface which Mark Zuckerberg introduced in September, 2011. Timeline aims to “Tell your life story with a new kind of profile”. Just as before, Facebook’s new creation essentially seeks to share your stories, and highlight your most memorable posts, photos, and life events, the difference being that now, all of that content is neatly arranged by chronological order, making it easy and convenient for you to see what exactly you had to say to the social networking community in, say, June, 2008, or any other time for that matter. You may be thinking, “that sounds great!”, and initially many people did, and still do. The main concern is that this new method of delivery included an entirely new method of presentation, which didn’t sit well with a significant portion of Facebook’s users.  In other words, to some people, it just didn’t look or feel the same.

While it is to be expected that any change which affects an estimated 845 million people will be met with at least some level of initial resistance, the drastic shift to Facebook Timeline really seemed to rub some people the wrong way, resulting with some users threatening to part ways with the online giant, and many other actually following through.
Most users, however, complained for a day or two, and then moved on with their lives, and many have now come to prefer Timeline to some of the older formats. As one user said, “At first I didn’t really care for Timeline, but once I got used to it on my personal profile I switched the business page over and have adapted to it quickly.” Hopefully, more users will come around as time goes on, because Facebook currently has no plans to switch back to its older format and it appears that Timeline is here to stay.

What does this mean for marketers and businesses using Facebook to communicate to their customer base?

Many people wonder will this layout transition be more of a Myspace trap or will it increase business engagement? The switch to a graphic focused page may take away from the clean, streamlined look that many users have become accustomed too. Consistent feedback on Timeline for businesses sites that it feels more “pushy” and like users are being bombarded by the brand instead of interacting with the information. It will be interesting to see how businesses and users receive the switch after it becomes mandatory for all businesses this coming week.

America needs a Brand Champion

It’s July – we just had our Independence Day and we have been in a recession for years. Millions of people are and have been out of work. We are facing a debt and budget crisis. Our political parties seem to just be jockeying for positioning instead of getting real things accomplished. The people of America want and a need a Brand Champion.

Brand Champions don’t come up with catchy slogans or cool-looking logos. No, they understand that real results come from developing a brand promise that people can get their arms around, and they deliver on that promise by creating a great brand experience, consistently.

America is just like any other business or organization that needs a leader to take charge. Who will define what an organization wants to get accomplished, craft and create how that is going to happen, and execute that on a consistent basis. We need someone – anyone – within our government to step up and be our Brand Champion, and act as a leader who builds consensus and builds bridges. We need someone who has not just an idea or an agenda, but a real action plan. Someone who has tactics that will help us as a country overcome our problems, (debt and budget) and put people back to work. This requires a Brand Champion that all people, not just one party or the next, but all people can believe in, stand behind, support and have faith in.

Like other brands our Brand Champion has to be real, in that he can connect with his constituency with real ideas. He must use tactics that will show signs that we are making real progress. He can’t be all hat and no cattle, he has to deliver the goods and produce economic stability that helps businesses and the markets buy into his plan. This plan needs to work and signal stability, and with that stability, businesses can start to hire again: bringing down the unemployment rate, stabilizing the housing market, and generating cash into the marketplace.

America and I need a Brand Champion that we can believe in, whoever this Brand Champion is will probably get elected or re-elected this coming year. Whether that Champion is our current president or someone else, I pray that this Brand Champion stands up soon and leads the charge to a real plan that produces results, because that is what real Brand Champions do. They deliver real results through their leadership, consensus building and ability to get things done and execute.

Will our America’s  next Brand Champion please stand up, NOW?

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”
-Lucile Ball

You can’t avoid that these economic times are putting a lot of companies out of business. Here at Brand Iron, we have been constantly reminded of that; in the past 9 months, we’ve seen two, very local marketing companies close their doors.

We are happy to report that through a lot of hard work, our clients are going strong and Brand Iron is going strong. Everyone at Brand Iron is very excited that we are a finalist for the DMCC’s Small Business of the Year Award.

We wanted to pass on a few things that have helped us confront and dampen the economic blow:

• Build you database – broaden your world of potential clients
• Go to where the money is – focus on your most profitable vertical markets or geographic areas
• Keep your brand message relevant to your target market – adapt to their pain points
• Increase your sales and marketing activity levels – it is vital to “touch” your prospects

At Brand Iron, we don’t believe in luck – we believe in hard work, targeted work and working intelligently on the aspects of your brand strategy that make the biggest impact. Our goal is to help you keep your doors open, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, to keep new clients and customers coming through them.

Please contact us today to learn more about how Brand Iron can help you develop a holistic brand plan that addresses your sales, marketing and operations.
Written by Josh Barker