Consistency In Your Message Beats What You Do
The ability to build a network is to create content people want to engage with, whatever space your message resides.
Lets look at the importance of consistency in your message in multiple media formats.
The hub by default is recognised as our websites. This is the space that people come to that represents the stamp of your authority and a place that is not distracted by someone else shouting above or below you saying ‘look at me.’ If someone is locked in for eight seconds, they are with you for another eight seconds.
Circling around the website is the ability to distribute, with the intention to drive traffic to the central place (your website). Every space that you reside represents an ability to continue credibility. Are you representing consistency in every place you are seen?
The England Job & The The Sidetrack
This is something that seems to be a relevant topic this week.
Consistency in every touch point you have with our audience is key. If you abuse this you lose trust. You only need to look as far as what has happened this week (Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th September) with England manager, Sam Allardyce, losing his job over the fact that he used his role to negotiate a £400,000 deal to offer advice on how to ‘get around’ rules to sign players.
Whilst it looks like his England career could be over, at least he had a 100% win rate. The way he has conducted himself does not transfer to the virtues of the man built on drive and an everyman approach where people work with him, not for him. Trust seems to be one thing that is in tatters this week.
Consistency Solidifies Decisions
People come to platforms with their minds already made up. 68% of people who visit YouTube know exactly what they are looking for. Are you serving the right information for people, rather than a merry dance that says nothing about you and what you believe in?
What is happening now is that there are points of reference to what you represent and the ability to be consistent with a message.
Every media space that you are present, from the website, to social, to ads, to video, to audio represents a continually virtuous network, that comes back to a core central promise.
As an example, my promise to others is based on this idea of ownership and sharing with others the ability to own their media via a content marketing approach. This has to be consistent in every other place that I am present.
From the weekly Marketing Homebrew to the monthly You Are The Media Lunch Club (the next one is Thursday 27th October), the persona I create has to be consistent everywhere. This is what helps build accountability, responsibility and maintain a consistent message.
Consistency Breeds Confidence
I am flying to Brazil next week to talk at FIC2016 in Sao Paulo and Port Alegre and from looking at the media culture in South America, this idea of a consistent network framework is apparent. Rather than the focus being one place that becomes the sole spoke framework, there is a network that surrounds a core principal.
Porta Dos Fundos is a comedy group who found their media home with YouTube. They currently have (as of September 2016) 12.6 million followers and 2.7 million video views. In terms of comparison PewDiePie has his video game army of 48 million subscribers and in the UK, KSI takes the lead as an independent (not a music group) with 14 million subscribers.
Their journey started in 2012 and the decision to do everything ‘our way,’ according to founder Fabio Porchat. With sketches published on YouTube every week, this has led to a TV series (O Grande Gonzalez) to 2016 seeing their first ever feature film (Contrato Vitalício) released this summer. Brands have also jumped on board for custom made videos that include FIAT, Visa and LG.
The message I am trying to highlight here is that no matter where you are watching, from online to cinema, the Porta Dos Fundos message is consistent through every platform. From YouTube in 2012 to their film in 2016,
Porta Dos Fundos improved on what they had (the ability to entertain), rather than what they lacked (sizeable production budgets when they started). Brands want to work with them too, highlighting that if you can confidently deliver and there is consistent proof, people want to work with you.
Only As Strong As The Weakest Bit Of Your Chain
You are only as strong as your weakest link (or in Sam Allardyce’s case the lure of £400k on top of an annual £3m salary). You may have spent a huge amount of time creating your new website that looks stunning but if your message is not consolidated in every other space you are present, the website just becomes a project of self congratulation.
For instance, your website may highlight the virtues of listening and getting to know a customer base on a deeper level than the rest of your marketplace (well that’s what 75% of websites seem to highlight to give a broad outline). However, when you look at this in action on social feeds, the whole direction is one-way traffic of links where the focus is on broadcasting and turning the megaphone on everyone, rather than turning the megaphone back on the company.
Lets go deeper and show this from a brand level.
Nestle highlight their responsibility and commitment to raise awareness to water conservation and improve access to clean drinking water. They have met their 2016 targets early.
However, Nestle sued Ethiopia for $6m during the time of its worst drought in 20 years. They wanted compensation for Nestlé’s stake in the Ethiopian Livestock Development Company (Eldico). Ethiopia had nationalised Eldico and sold the business. The government could only afford $1.5, the maximum they could afford.
Who Ever Wanted To Be Fake?
So, what does this mean to you and your business? Whether you move from the core (your website) to the periphery (inviting someone to find out more about you and your business when handing over a business card at a local event), if your message is not consolidated, you have a problem.
Your persona has to be the same everywhere; otherwise you come across as fake.
One inconsistent message can make you look like a fool. Everything comes down to trust. If what you say is not backed up, we withdraw. For instance, if I asked you to champion one UK sports retailer, with a choice of JD Sports or Sports Direct, what would you go for?
Lets Round Up
Having consistency in what you say has its foundations in what Seth Godin states as the ability to, “hold the truth when it was easier to lie and because they kept to a promise when they could have gotten away with breaking it.”
We have a web of touch points we create with others and a multitude of tiny interactions that cement what we believe in or become an inconsistent mess. While others focus entirely on one place and hide behind it (the website), when you open up and have a presence everything starts to connect.
Consistency helps you get noticed in the continual quest to remain relevant.
