The Internet Startup - The Branding Exercise Step-By-Step

(This article will take 25 minutes to read)

In Brand Management Musings I touched on the subject of 'brand' and I shared some ideas on how to encourage brand awareness within a business through Brand Ambassadors and also connecting your brand to your vision, mission and values.

This post will consider the scenario of a new internet start up company that is primarily going to do business on-line, servicing both the B-2-B and B-2-C markets.  Many start ups get caught up in the excitement and energy that is the new business and tend not to take the time to consider a more planned approach for their new business branding.

This post therefore will guide you through what I believe are the key steps that a new business, and particularly one that is planning to do business on-line should consider on its branding journey.

The 'Brand' is constituted from two elements: one is the 'brand identity' and the other the 'brand image'. Brand identity is how the brand owner, founder or custodian sees the brand in their own eyes.  The brand image is how others perceive the brand. I will refer back to these two elements throughout this post.

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Updated: How to buy a Kindle Paperwhite in South Africa from Amazon International Directly

(This article will take 2 minutes to read)

Following on from my article "How to buy a Kindle Paperwhite in South Africa" where I stated that at the time of writing you could not buy a Paperwhite in South Africa via Amazon international directly - well now you can :)

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A Social Media Experiment in South Africa

(This article will take 3 minutes to read)

It was whilst in Johannesburg at a conference that I made the discovery that many company’s create a social presence through various social media channels and then don’t monitor it nor as a result engage and respond.

This is what then spurred my idea to conduct a social experiment.  I am an avid social media fan and I engage on twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and FourSquare both in my personal capacity and also for the business that I work for.  As a result I regularly “check-in” to interesting places, tweet my experiences and generally share on the appropriate channels my actions or experiences, that are appropriate.

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Congratulations! You have one of the top 5% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012

(This article will take 2 minutes to read)
 

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SharePoint Saturday Cape Town 2012 - Video

(This article / video will take 10 minutes to read / view)
 

As a part of my year 2012 in review, once again a highlight was the hugely successful SharePoint Saturday Cape Town 2012 event that ran on the 8th September 2012.

As a sponsor of the event Intervate once again decided to capture the essence of the day in video by capturing some of the highlights of the days' activities.

Thanks again to Jo,our very capable video director and producer, thanks to the speakers and the attendees, and thanks to Sanlam for sponsoring the venue and thanks to all the other sponsors who collectively put the funds together to provide this free event for the whole community to enjoy.

Thanks for reading my article - if you liked it or found it useful, please click the FaceBook Like or Tweet/ReTweet my post if you are on twitter, so that others may enjoy and benefit from it.  Thanks for your support.

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How to Buy a Kindle Paperwhite in South Africa

(This article will take 2 minutes to read)

Following on from my article "How to buy a Kindle in South Africa" I recieved a number of comments from my readers that they could not purchase the new generation Kindle eReader - the Kindle Paperwhite, from Amazon.

So I tried it myself and behold I got a nice message telling me that they would not ship to my address in South Africa.  So I emailed Amazon Customer Service and this is the reply that I received:

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How to delete music from your iPhone or iPad once you have turned on iTunes Match

(This article will take 2 minutes to read)

In my view Apple didn’t really think this one through fully.

If you turn on iTunes Match on your iPhone (after enabling it via iTunes) your iPhone’s Music library will be converted to sync with the iCloud service and not with the iTunes app on your PC or Mac.   

So this was surprise number 1.

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ECM Strategy and the ECM Maturity Model ECM3

(This article will take 4 minutes to read)

What is an ECM Strategy?

AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) defines Enterprise Content Management (ECM) as "the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organisational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organisation's unstructured information, wherever that information exists." 

In simpler terms, ECM is about taking a holistic view of managing your organisations unstructured information.

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The ubiquitous 'Elevator Pitch' - How to get it right

(This article will take 2 minutes to read)

What do think of when I say 'elevator pitch'? 

Do you think of brazen sales people pitching uninterested buyers?.  Probably - and I want to dispel this myth - and in fact show that having an elevator pitch can be useful tool to more than just the sales force.

"The purpose of an elevator pitch isn't to close the sale. It's to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you're with wants to hear more even after the elevator ride is over." Seth Godin

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15 Grammar Goofs that WILL make you look silly

(This article will take 2 minutes to read.)

I am an aspiring (not inspiring...read on to understand my joke) writer and as such I pride myself on being able to write in the English language - especially as I was well educated in the use of it and I grew up on the island!

Be that as it may, I often read others writings with a critical eye and sometimes wonder, did they actually read what they wrote after they wrote it. I think not sometimes.

I came across this infographic on twitter courtesty of MeganMBiro who through a few viral turns found it originally from Brian Clark of copyblogger.com.  Its a great infographic which highlights some of the most common grammatical mistakes that are made with the English language and really do serve to make the writer look less of a writer as a result.

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