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According to the online business journal of the Wharton School, Knowledge@Wharton (@knowledgwharton), the latest research from two Wharton professors suggests that when it comes to creating buzz-worthy advertising campaigns, how people communicate (e.g., whether they talk face to face or over email) is a big factor in determining what they discuss. It's not as simple as blanketing the Web with pop-up ads or blasting the airwaves with commercials, they note. It's about picking the right medium for the right message.

In their paper, How Interest Shapes Word-of-Mouth over Different Channels, marketing professors Jonah Berger and Raghuram Iyengar conclude:

How interesting a product is to discuss matters more when people communicate through discontinuous channels, such as blog posts, texts, emails, and online conversations.

The professors draw a distinction between discontinuous and continuous channels. The latter include face-to-face or phone conversations in which there is an instant response. When people speak in this manner, interesting products or brands are not talked about with any more frequency than less distinctive ones because social convention demands an immediate response. “It’s awkward to have dinner with a friend in silence, or ride in a cab with a colleague without conversing, so rather than waiting to think of the most interesting thing to say, people will talk about whatever is top-of-mind to keep the conversation flowing,” they write. “It's not that people do not have enough interesting things to talk about; rather, they do not have the time to select the most interesting thing.”

By contrast, discontinuous channels allow the participant to take time to craft a good response — or no response at all. It is socially acceptable for a woman to post a link on Facebook about a new pair of shoes that caught her eye, for example, and have no one “like” it. Berger notes, “Imagine if you’re online and someone sends you something. You don’t have to reply. You’re only going to share things when they cross a certain threshold of interesting. The option of not saying anything is fine in a discontinuous conversation.”

“Practitioners often believe that products need to be interesting to be talked about, but our results suggest they are only right for certain word-of-mouth channels,” the authors note in their paper. “If the goal is to get more discussion online ... framing the product in an interesting or surprising way should help. Ads or online content that surprises people, violates expectations or evokes interest in some other manner should be more likely to be shared.”

Read this in full.

Another academic paper, What Makes Online Content Viral? by Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, concludes that positive content is more viral than negative content, but the relationship between emotion and social transmission is more complex than valence alone.

Virality is partially driven by physiological arousal. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that evokes low-arousal, or deactivating, emotions (e.g., sadness) is less viral. These results hold even when the authors control for how surprising, interesting, or practically useful content is (all of which are positively linked to virality), as well as external drivers of attention (e.g., how prominently content was featured).

Also see our previous blogpost “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you generate word-of-mouth marketing for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, especially the Social Media/Word-of-Mouth tab.

The wonder, the art, the magic, the work of creating a printed book  — often forgotten in this digital age  — is demonstrated in the above video. Filmmaker Glen Milner (@glen_milner) visited Smith Settle bookbinders near Leeds, England, where the owners, Don Walters and Tracey Thorne, allowed him to film the making of the 17th Slightly Foxed (@FoxedQuarterly) book, Suzanne St Albans’ memoir Mango and Mimosa, from start to finish. The Telegraph (@Telegraph) reports:

Here, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the printing plates, the stitching of the “signatures” (folded sections), the pressing and gluing, the adding of the ribbon bookmark and head and tail bands, the making of the final hardcover in green linen cloth and the numbering of the copies. All of it done with great care, much of it by hand.

The video below on Kottke.org (@Kottke) shows that back before print on demand, laser printers, and the Internet, even machine printing and binding was a time-consuming laborious process, that took teams of people working together to produce just one book.

Just for fun, here’s a video of what the help desk would look like back in the day when print books overtook scrolls.

And, one artist looks at print books and sees a canvas from which to carve art.

See all the amazing photos.

Also see our previous blogposts “The Technology of Storytelling” and “Introducing the New Book.”

Whether pbook or ebook, contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you pursue publishing in this digital age.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Startup Daily (@thestartupdaily) highlights some of the elements of strong presentations by gleaning tips from 5 books:

·         Skip the stand-up, and start your presentation by talking about the audience (from How to Give a Pretty Good Presentation: A Speaking Survival Guide for the Rest of Us by T.J. Walker (@tjwalker))

·         Blank the presentation screen at key moments to force the audience to focus on you (from The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides by Garr Reynolds (@presentationzen))

·         Effortless presentations are the result of deliberate practice (from The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo (@carminegallo))

·         If a slide is not contributing to the main argument of your presentation, take it out (from The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business by Peter Coughter (@Coughter))

·         Each slide should be simple enough to be processed in 3 seconds (from Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte (@nancyduarte))

The following slide deck by Alexei Kapterev (@kapterev) explains (and shows) the components of a compelling PowerPoint^® presentation.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you clearly communicate your message (your content) to your audience.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

57% of US consumers say that they’re increasingly checking product labels to see what company is behind the product they’re buying, and the same proportion say they get annoyed when it’s not obvious what company is behind a product, according the study The Company Behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust by Weber Shandwick (@WeberShandwick). Roughly 2 in 5 US consumers also say they hesitate to buy products when it’s not clear what company makes them, and that they do research to learn about the companies that make the products they buy.

Our study identified 6 New Realities of Corporate Reputation. Each reality serves as a reminder to business leaders that they cannot view their company’s reputation and their product brands as separately as they once did. Aligning and integrating both optimizes their respective strengths to achieve strong business results.

1.    Corporate brand is as important as the product brand(s).

2.    Corporate reputation provides product quality assurance.

3.    Any disconnect between corporate and product reputation triggers sharp consumer reaction.

4.    Products drive discussion, with reputation close behind.

5.    Consumers shape reputation instantly.

6.    Corporate reputation contributes to company market value.

“In this fast-moving information age, consumers can now readily connect the dots between the brand they buy and the company behind the brand,” says Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick. “Whereas it has long been known that a strong brand shines a light on a company’s reputation, it is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that a strong company reputation adds an undeniable brilliance to the brand.”

What impacts consumers’ opinion of a company?

·         Word of mouth (88%)

·         Online reviews (83%)

·         Online search results (81%)

·         News sources (79%)

·         Company websites (74%)

·         Awards and rankings (63%)

·         Leadership communications (59%)

·         Advertising (56%)

·         Social networks (49%) (are companies not embracing social media in a way that fully resonates with the public?)

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you identify blue ocean strategy for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.; especially the Branding and Marketing/Public Relations tabs.

The Associated Press is talking up a new “visual identity system,” to be rolled out over the coming months (a historical retrospective of AP logos is shown above with the new logo on the right).

The global news network says the look and logo are designed for the digital era and are supposed to unite its various offerings as part of a “master brand” strategy. AP called this the first significant change in its look in 30 years. The first use is on its new AP Mobile news app and AP.org website (@AP). According to its brand introduction (pdf) document, the new visual identity system brings to life the AP values of “integrity, action, and independence...and creates a distinct footprint in the media marketplace.”

AP President/CEO Tom Curley says in the announcement, “We have world-class content and world-class products and now we have the world-class look to go with them.”

The system expands the range of colors and designs available for use in AP products and services. The logomark recognizes the past stencil pattern while the logotype is black with a red underscore, both in a white box. This design is by the firm Objective Subject (@ob_sub), which says the red underscore, dubbed ‘the prompt,’ “evokes AP’s emphasis on editorial rigor and precise and accurate approach.” It goes on, “We retained the original logo’s stencil lettering, which embody the gutsy and adventurous personality of an international news organization.”

The Associated Press Stylebook (@APStylebook) is considered to set the standard in journalistic (and public relations) spelling and grammar.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you establish or update your logomark to convey your brand’s true identity.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Religion News tab.

Author, pastor, and speaker Charles R. Swindoll (@chuckswindoll), broadcaster on the syndicated radio program Insight for Living, has penned a new book about his childhood speech impediment and how he was able to overcome it. The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) asked Swindoll about his life, his stuttering speech as a boy, and the inspiration and drive behind his new book, Saying It Well.

If anyone has ever seen the movie The King's Speech…they will see something of the struggle that I went through. There’s nothing more fearful for the average person in our society than to stand before a group of people and speak. When you add to that the battle of stuttering, your problem is exacerbated beyond words.

So when I began to learn how to speak [publicly], I still had the fear, because I always had my speaking interrupted with the impediment. So it took some time to gain confidence over that. I am thankful that over time I have been able to conquer that battle though admittedly there are still times that I go back to the principles that were taught by my speech teacher....

...when it was at its worst, I think my mind was racing ahead of my ability to put it into words. I had to learn to pace my speaking. The use of pauses was really helpful. Knowing that some words come more difficultly than others, I have found it helpful, when I get to some of those words, that I pause, say it in my mind, and then I speak it more deliberately.

...if you can find ways in your life to conquer the fear of falling on your face or in some ways appearing foolish in front of an audience it would be helpful. I found several things come to my rescue; one is a good sense of humor. I am often the brunt of my own humor. People feel comfortable when you share stories like that.

...it’s important to begin with a statement in your speech that grabs the attention of the audience. I try to make my opening line 15 words or less. It’s the only part of my speech that I memorize and it doesn’t have to be profound, but if it carries with it something that breaks the “ho-hum” of the audience, then I think that is a great way to start.

After you’ve begun with that opening statement, you need to have an introduction that helps the audience know what you’re saying is important....help convince them of the value of what you are talking about.

...then you move into the body of your speech.... You move from one point to the next and on to the next, perhaps to four or five points, and along the way you do a little review of what you just presented. Then you bring up a new point to develop. As you’re moving along through the speech you’re moving towards a conclusion; this is the part many people leave out. Just as you need to have a good takeoff, you need to have a good landing. If you’ve done everything except land well you haven’t succeeded. So instead of just bouncing on the ground when you land, you need to have a smooth landing.

...remember to quit while [the audience is] still wanting more.

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you represent your brand well in any public venue, including public speaking.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Because Somersault (@smrsault) is interested in effectively communicating messages, whether it’s a subject line on an email message, a day-long seminar, or a long-term branding campaign, we’re sharing with you this video that poignantly demonstrates what NOT to do when attempting to reach an audience during a presentation. It’s produced for Habitudes For Communicators by Tim Elmore (@TimElmore), president of Growing Leaders (@GrowingLeaders). Can you relate to it? ☺

Let Somersault help you clearly communicate your message (your content) to your audience.

iPad storyteller Joe Sabia (@joesabia) introduces his TED (@tedtalks) audience to Lothar Meggendorfer (Lothar Meggendorfer at University of North Texas Libraries), who created a bold technology for storytelling: the pop-up book. Sabia shows how new technology has always helped tell stories.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Infographic: The Periodic Table of Storytelling.”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you tell your story and promote your brand.

Do you have Writer’s Block? Consult this Infographic to break through. ☺

Click for a larger version.

By the way, today is the National Day of Listening (@StoryCorps).