Marketing Melodie

As a marketer I’m always thinking of ways people can enhance their image to be more impressionable and memorable. This is especially true in cyberspace where images definitely trump text. Your avatar is your face in cyberspace and a unique reflection of your online persona. It’s a way for people remember you in an infinite galaxy.

I’ve been known to express my views on avatar choices so I decided to share a few tips on how to maximize the power of your avatar:

Personality: Your avatar is your first impression to many in the online world. Add a little personality to it! If you’re fun and outgoing lets have fun looking at your avatar. If you’re athletic or active, inspire us to work out. If you’re intellectual, how about an insightful image? If you’re a hard worker and proud of your career, let us know!

Consistent: Being consistent helps people recognize you across various social networks, blogs and forums. This builds brand recognition for your online persona. Your avatar will immediately evoke an impression and provide a better understanding of your online purpose and goals. If you use a completely different avatar for every single profile then it becomes difficult for people to piece together your thoughts from different areas of the web. This makes it difficult to build a strong reputation and following.

Memorable: A memorable avatar can be created in many different ways. Use bright and bold colors, a distinct smile or even a strategically incorporated item or logo. Memorable avatars stand out. They’re usually not composed of dull colors and if they are then the image is bold. A great way people remember my avatar is the flower I wear in my avatar that shows up on many of my social networking profiles. If you have a memorable avatar people will see your image and immediately know it’s you without thinking twice.

Recognizable: My test of a recognizable avatar is meeting someone in person. If I meet you for the first time offline and I immediately feel like I already know you from our online interactions then you’ve done a great job at creating a recognizable avatar. I’ve been to many networking events where someone will come up to me and start talking to me as though they know me but I have to ask to make sure if we’re met before because I don’t recognize the person from their avatar. Of course after a few words are exchanged my memory is triggered but the initial recognition was not there. Examples of avatars that aren’t recognizable include a blurry image, a photo where something is covering your face, a photo that’s too light or too dark or even a corporate logo.

I personally always recommend avatars that are a photo of your true self. Unless I already know you, an avatar that’s a logo or image other than your face does not feel as personal. I don’t feel as connected or engaged when interacting with you.

We all remember the night before senior picture day in school. Trying on countless outfits, making sure the colors were right, making sure our outfit doesn’t clash with the background and doing our hair up to perfection. This photo goes into our senior yearbook, something our classmates will hold on to for years. This photo gets sent to our friends and family with graduations invitations. This photo is the reputation we’ve built throughout our primary years of school and this photo is a glimpse into the next chapter of our lives. If you apply these same principals of importance to your avatar choice you’ll enhance your opportunities for building a strong internet presence.

Here are some San Diego Avatars that incorporate many elements of my recommendations. They all definitely have personality and are recognizable. I wanted to include some female avatars but for some reason only guys responded when I asked permission to use avatars!

Companies invest billions of dollars every year to improve their business through marketing to the right audience, branding their logo, cause marketing in the community and more. What most companies don’t realize is that improvements aren’t effective unless they know what needs to be improved.

SuggestionBox is revolutionizing the way customers can provide feedback by creating an online system that allows customers to submit and track feedback to any company. This engages the customer and allows the company to interact and follow up with their most valuable resource…the customer!

Currently when you have a suggestion, here’s what happens:

A. You keep it to yourself because there’s no easy way to share your feedback.

B. You call an 800 # get an operator and after sharing your suggestion, they thank you and you never hear from them again.

C. You go online submit a generic email and receive another generic thank you email back. You then get put on their mailing list as if you don’t already receive enough emails.

You’ll notice a pattern with all 3 options, the ultimate result is that nothing happens! Nothing will continue to happen unless customers and companies take action. So what’s next? Become a suggester Today!

Benefits of SuggestionBox-The Customer

1. User Friendly- Simply create an account and instantly start suggesting ideas/improvements. You may find yourself going on a suggestion spree since it’s the first time you’ve had an opportunity to share all your thoughts.

2. Easy to track- Suggest, rate, comment and track everything in one simple forum. No need to go back and attempt to call or email the company again.

3. Make a Difference- Your opinion matters and counts! Whether you’re paying $50K for a car or $50 for a dinner you’re making the investment so show these companies that you want to help them improve.

Benefits of SuggestionBox- The Company

1. Increase customer loyalty – When customers have a personal connection their loyalty increases. SuggestionBox allows companies to show their patrons they care and are actively working to accelerate their success with the help of their customers.

2. Easy to manage- Companies can easily manage their suggestions by placing them in one of the following categories: New, Under Review, Future, Coming soon, Implemented, Filed away and Deleted. Not only does this keep the company on track, the customer sees their suggestion in action.

3. Earth friendly- I commend any tools that eliminates the old paper method. This is not only better for the environment but now there’s need to hire someone to go over slips of paper in scribbled illegible writing. Show customers that you’re earth friendly.

BJ Cook, the CMO & Adam Levenson, the Online Marketing Manager of SuggestionBox were kind enough to set up a San Diego Speed Networking SuggestionBox. This is a startup so there’s lots of room for improvement. I already have a a list of improvements I plan to execute but I would love as much insight as possible. Please sign up for SuggestionBox, leave me a suggestion and you’ll be automatically entered to win a FREE entry to the next San Diego Speed Networking event in September. This is a $60 value!