Delightful Archive

In the information age, we are all influenced by the inexhaustible flow of digital media, content, and messages.

All of the time.

The Internet makes it more difficult for brands to manage their online reputation and consumer sentiment because they themselves are not the main source of their own message anymore.

Brands are simply not as authoritative as they used to be:

• Fewer than 10% of shoppers actually visit manufacturer websites when researching a purchase.
• 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations while just 33% trust ads.
• 43% of people say they turn to blogs when they are looking for inspiration.
• 48% of consumers discovered new brands and products, mostly while browsing content online.

(From Influence Now)

So who are sending out the messages that actually influence your consumers? How can you find them in order to build healthy relationships? Should you start an influencer program or campaign in the first place?

A recent e-book >> Influence Now by Linkdex and Momentology answers all these questions for you.

Mel Carson, Delightful’s Founder, has shared his thoughts in the book on what makes a successful influencer.

Read More

Join Delightful’s Founder – Mel Carson – and the team from PR Week on Wednesday June 24th at 9.30am PST (12.30pm ET) for a webinar in PR Week’s Performance series entitled: Perfecting Your Personal Brand

Here’s the blurb:

From amplifying efforts on behalf of your brand to making you a stronger representative of your current organization to paving a path to genuine thought leadership, establishing a personal brand is a crucial career-advancement element.

In today’s social media age, it is more important – and challenging – than ever to communicate who you truly are and what you stand for. The benefits of doing so effectively – and, conversely, the issues that could come from doing so ineffectively – can have far-reaching impact.

Presented by Mel Carson, founder and principal strategy consultant at Delightful Communications, former digital marketing evangelist at Microsoft, and frequent speaker on the topic, Perfecting Your Personal Brand will be a 90-minute session detailing the key dos and don’ts of establishing and reinforcing your personal brand.

Crafted specifically for communications pros, this is the latest offering in the PRWeek Performance Series, webinars designed to help you do your job better.

Subjects covered in Perfecting Your Personal Brand will include:

• Analyzing and improving your current digital footprint
• Strategies to amplify your best work and instill more trust in your company/clients
• How your personal brand helps you stand out in a competitive workplace environment
• Cutting-edge tips to make a better impression offline
• How to become a thought leader and back up your personal brand claims

Register here for this 90 minute webinar: Perfecting Your Personal Brand Hosted By PR Week

Hope to see you online in a few weeks!

May has been an amazing month for Delightful Communications as we’ve been able to share insights broadly on digital marketing and personal branding both online and in-person.

Earlier this month, Mel was invited by the University of Washington Foster School of Business to talk about social media strategy with the students. In back-to-back lectures to two different classes, Mel talked about integrated digital marketing using social media, big data and content marketing to reach new audiences and satisfy current customer demand.

He then stepped up to talk Personal branding with SEMrush and Simplicity Consulting to share ideas on how to build a compelling presence in a professional capacity both online and off it.

Watch the on-demand webinar below if you missed it…

How to Build a Compelling Online Personal Brand

This month we made two more steps further to perfecting your personal branding strategy:

Step 3:  How to Establish Your Professional Purpose

Step 4: How to Lear to Listen and Practice Empathy

Please sign up to The Delightful Times so you don’t miss a single edition!

Also, check out Mel’s new articles on Entrepreneur.com:

Improve Your Content Marketing to Increase Your Business’s Reach

8 Digital Experts Entrepreneurs Can Learn From

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Bianca Hu – Delightful’s Digital Marketing Specialist

Twitter is a must-have for brands who want to build an engaging community, raise brand awareness, drive web traffic and generate leads. Most marketers are aware of it, but how many of them are utilizing Twitter properly?

A few weeks ago, Mel Carson, Founder of Delightful Communications, was asked by Momentology to provide some thoughts on how brands should effectively use Twitter for marketing.

Their comprehensive Twitter Marketing Guide covers every aspects of Twitter marketing including the characteristics of Twitter, how Twitter Advertising works, successful brand stories, and tips from industry experts, etc.

It is a perfect how-to guide to Twitter Marketing for newbies , but also provides interesting insights that will titillate experienced marketers as well:

• Among all online adults in the United States, 19% use Twitter. Men tend to use Twitter more than women.
• 90% of people consume content; 9% of people occasionally create content; 1% of people are power users and create the majority of content consumed by others on the network.
• More than 78% of Twitter users access the site using a mobile device.
• People who follow businesses online are influenced to take action on company information shared on Twitter more than on any other online channel.

For more insights and tips, see the full guide from Momentology.

And don’t forget to:

Subscribe to The Delightful Times

Follow @Delightful on Twitter

Like the Delightful Facebook Page

Join us on LinkedIn

Thanks for reading,

Bianca Hu – Digital Marketing Specialist

I was contacted a couple of weeks back and asked to help Fast Company reporter Chris Gayomali revamp his personal brand and give him some tips on how he could position himself as more of a business journalist.

Click on the link below to see what happened:

What It’s Like to Get a Personal Brand Makeover by Personal Brand Consultants

Cheers,

Mel

This Thursday – at 1pm PST – I’ll be talking all about Personal Branding during a Twitter chat – #MarketingChat – organized by those fine people at Experian US.

I’ll be answering a bunch of questions on Personal Branding from the Experian Community Manager – @MikeDelgado – and anyone can join in with their questions and thoughts as well.

These occasions have drawn some engaging and inspiring conversations – like this one on Facebook marketing featuring Brian Carter, Mari Smith, Raymond Ray and Andrea Vahl – so I’m thrilled to be asked to impart some of my experience of helping people with their personal brand!

Again, the Twitter chat starts at 1pm PST this Thursday 12th of February.

Follow me – @MelCarson, @Experian_US and #MarketingChat for all the action!

Hope to “see” you there on Thursday!

Cheers,

Mel

Over the last few months I’ve been asked to do a lot of interviews and write a bunch of articles about Personal Branding which makes us very happy because we’re obviously onto something here at Delightful.

From a Q&A on Brafton’s site to a two part radio interview on Webmaster Radio with Brad Geddes: Learn About Personal Branding with Mel Carson and Learn How to Increase Your Personal Brand with Mel Carson coupled with being invited to write weekly for Entrepreneur.com on personal branding and pretty much anything to do with digital marketing and start-ups, I’ve been busy sharing my thoughts on how business people as individuals can stand up and stand out in their niche through their personal brands.

Asked to share some more insight based on a LinkedIn post I wrote a few weeks ago, I’ve also recorded an interview on how to present yourself with true confidence and sincerity for a local job network as well.

This immense interest has given us much food for thought on how we can expand our personal branding services in 2015, so stay tuned…..

Hope you enjoy listening and reading and, as always, do let us know what you think and if you have anything to add!

Cheers,

Mel

One of the other speakers at the Digital East event I gave a talk at a few weeks ago was Andy Beal, CEO and Founder of online reputation tracking tool, Trackur.com.

I’ve known Andy since his SEO days and when he founded Marketing Pilgrim, so in this interview we talk about how he got into the online reputation management space, how he thinks brands and CEOs should approach online reputation and personal branding, and where he believes PR teams should start when letting the executives in their company start using social media to promote themselves and the company brand.

He also give us some advice on what to do with Google Plus, now authorship has been dropped.

Thanks to Andy and the crew from Digital East for lettings us film at the event!

Enjoy!

We’ll be having many more Delightful Conversations like this, so subscribe to our Delightful Communications YouTube Channel and you won’t miss a single one!

Cheers,

Mel

Next week I’ll be heading to Washington DC for the Digital East conference run by those lovely people at TechMedia.

I’ll be there with my Majestic Brand Ambassador hat on and speaking at 9.50am on Wednesday 10th September:

Agile, Delightful & Unexpected: When Social Media and Digital Collide for ROI

Big Data and Content Marketing are all the rage right now, but few marketers are nailing the opportunity they present or integrating them in a cohesive digital PR strategy. In this session, delegates will be taken on a whirlwind journey through what data matters, why content marketing is not such a new thing, how to reach influencers who’ll wax lyrical about your brand, and what it all means for your bottom line!

It’ll be the third TechMedia conference we have attended, and I must say I’ve been really impressed with the content and organization of the event.

If you have a chance to attend this show next week in Tyson’s Corner, then register here!

The cost for a ticket is very reasonable given the amount you’ll learn over the course of the conference.

Hope to see you there!

Mel Carson – Delightful’s Founder and Principle Strategist

We’re off to sunny San Francisco in a week or so for the ClickZ Live digital marketing conference!

I’ll be speaking on behalf of Majestic at a theatre session on Wednesday 13th August entitled: How to Use Link Data to Boost Your Social Media and PR Efforts

The premise behind my talk will be that Big Data has so much more potential than just being a buzzword, and I’ll provide a smorgasbord of ideas and case studies that will show the audience how to quickly and easily get ahead of the competition with a little bit of lateral thinking across the disciplines of social media and digital PR.

Immediately after that I’ll take the stage with the fabulous Katherine Griwert from Brafton on: Scaling Engagement: How to Drive Results with an Efficient Content & Social Strategy

Here’s the blurb on that session:

If you’re interested in engaging customers online, you’re probably already posting content on social media. Even though the average company uses 6 social networks for marketing, they’re largely “unsure” about the results. So how do you know what to post, and when, and where, if you want social ROI that really matters? A multi-channel content approach sounds like a lot, but a smart strategy has built-in opportunities to engage prospects and influencers. In this session, led by content marketer Katherine Griwert and Digital PR specialist Mel Carson, we’ll walk you through tips and tactics on strategic content for social.

You’ll learn answers to common challenges, including:

• How to tap into social conversations to create engagement-focused content
• How to carry one content asset across your social pages for maximum ROI
• What types of unique headlines, hashtags and interactions work on leading networks
• How to get the right influencers to share your brand’s message for better engagement and reach
• Simple ways to measure success so you can make intelligent, efficient content choices

Brafton were kind enough to interview me a couple of months back on personal branding strategies and I’m thrilled to be working with them on delivering a top-notch session for the ClickZ Live audience in San Francisco.

Hope to see many of you in California for this fabulous event.

If you won’t make it, we’ll be sure to post the presentations on SlideShare soon.

Cheers,

Mel