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3 TED Talks to Inspire You to Make the World Better

Here at Sparx Publishing Group, we enjoy hearing and sharing great stories.   

But what makes a story stand out? A good story captures the audience’s attention with content that is interesting. An even better story, we think, leaves a lasting impact and inspires you to change the world.

Sparx is always on the lookout for interesting content to share with our readers, so we have compiled a list of three must-see TED Talks that we believe encapsulate the essence of our motto of “content to make the world better.” 

Telling a Great Story

How do you tell a good, or even great, story? Sparx shares a TED Talk that focuses on how you can effectively share your message with others and get people to listen.

Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread

“The thing that’s going to decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed, what gets purchased, what gets built, is: ‘Is it remarkable?’”

In this presentation from a TED conference in 2003, marketing entrepreneur and blogger Seth Godin discusses his popular “purple cow” marketing concept. Organizations must stand out in a world that is already bombarded with too much “ordinary” content. To get noticed, you must be “remarkable,” like a purple cow.

Godin states, “‘Remarkable’ is a really cool word because we think it just means ‘neat,’ but it also means ‘worth making a remark about.’” He adds that in order to capture the attention of others and get ideas to spread, thought leaders must appeal to a defined audience that cares. How do you get them to care? It starts with finding like-minded people who share your business’s common interests. 

These pointers are important for companies, such as Sparx, that strive to share and create interesting content that makes the world better and to spark positive change in the world around them. 

Expanding Your Mission

Sparx believes it is important to highlight the positive outcomes of sharing a compelling story – or, in this case, hundreds of thousands of stories. In the next TED Talk, you’ll learn how an experiment by one radio producer blossomed into the “largest single collection of human voices ever gathered.”  

Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear

“[The] simple act of being interviewed could mean so much to people, particularly those who had been told that their stories didn’t matter.”

In 2003, Dave Isay had the “crazy idea” of setting up a booth in New York’s Grand Central Terminal where individuals could bring someone to share a personal story in 40 minutes. This experiment quickly gained momentum and StoryCorps – an ongoing oral history project – was born.

In his 2015 TED Talk, Isay shares how having a meaningful discussion with someone can become an important moment in the lives of everyone involved. Through StoryCorps, Isay has shared an array of stories from a diverse group of individuals who range in age, race, and socioeconomic background. On why he feels so many individuals are impacted by these conversations, Isay says, “You’re hearing something authentic and pure at this moment.” He adds, “So many of these are just everyday people talking about lives lived with kindness, courage, decency, and dignity.”

Following his TED Talk, Isay was named the winner of the 2015 TED Prize and awarded $1 million to expand his storytelling platform. Today, more than half a million Americans have recorded their conversations for StoryCorp’s archive at the Library of Congress, and the project has garnered widespread attention.

Spreading Good in the Community

Finally, Sparx wants to share a presentation that showcases a thought leader whose innovative ideas led to bold actions that are making the world better today.

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

“Food affects the mind and the body.”

In this TED Talk from 2013, Ron Finley – also known as the “Gangsta Gardener” – shines a light on the rising obesity rate in South Central LA, an impoverished area that has an overabundance of fast-food restaurants and minimal access to fresh produce and healthy foods.

As a result, Finley, along with a group of volunteer gardeners from LA Green Grounds, started planting communal vegetable gardens in unconventional areas, such as abandoned lots and along curbs. His initiative was met with challenges when the city issued a citation and demanded that he remove the gardens. However, the Los Angeles Times shared his story, and people who shared his vision circulated a petition that helped him get permission for the curbside community gardens.

Finley’s actions highlight how a spark of an idea and a commitment to change, no matter how small, can make a lasting impact on the world. In addition to feeding residents, he is using his gardens as an opportunity to train youths to become more involved in the community and to lead sustainable lives. Finley states, “I have witnessed my garden become a tool for education, a tool for the transformation of my neighbourhood.” 

Let Sparx Help You Make the World Better

If you have an idea that you would love to see come to life, or if you have any marketing-related inquiries, don’t hesitate to reach out to Sparx! We’d love to work with you and help your vision come to fruition. Feel free to contact us here.  

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

How to Create a Successful Business Blog

What does a successful corporate blog entail? In the first and second installments of our three-part series on blogging, we analyzed the potential benefits and challenges of starting and maintaining a business blog.

If, after reading the two previous blog posts, you believe that the pros of content marketing outweigh the cons and are leaning toward a corporate blog as the right choice for your business, then read on for tips and examples of putting together a successful blog.

A Successful Business Blog Starts With a Clear Purpose

As mentioned in the first installment, 4 Benefits of Having a Business Blog, the core advantages of having a corporate blog are flexibility, connection, ownership, and authority. To reap these benefits, it is critical for your company to develop a corporate blog that provides consistent content that readers find interesting and that aligns with your company’s objectives.

How can you do this? The first step is to determine your blog’s core purpose.

A corporate blog can help you promote and fulfill your company’s mission, such as increasing brand awareness, generating sales and revenue, or sharing knowledge on a matter that your business is passionate about. It can help you solidify your brand and demonstrate your expertise. 

Once your blog’s primary purpose is established, you can more easily determine your target audience and create content that provides value for that audience. In doing so, your corporate blog will help you cut through the noise in a world overloaded with marketing content. You will be able to nurture and build lasting relationships with your readers, and if done correctly, your audience will be more likely to think of your brand and promote it via word-of-mouth marketing. 

At Sparx Publishing Group, for example, we generate content that not only brings value to our audiences but also stays true to our mission of creating “content to make the world better.” 

Our blog’s core purpose is to “amplify better” by using our platform to showcase stories of individuals and organizations (including ourselves) working to make the world better. 

Sparx provides tips for fellow marketers, raises awareness for important causes, and brings interesting topics of discussion to light. The content on our blog is an important vehicle for connecting to our readers and making a positive impact on the world.

Three Examples of Successful Business Blogs 

Today, there are many great examples of successful blogs to emulate. Three examples that Sparx finds particularly interesting are from IBM, Seth Godin, and Garth Turner – all of which help make the world better by providing readers with valuable information that they can use to improve both their professional and personal lives. 

IBM, also known as the International Business Machines Corporation, is a multinational technology and management consulting company that is committed to “creating innovations that matter for the world.” IBM highlights their thought leadership with a catalogue of blogs on various topics catering to a wide range of clients from different communities, including software, social, cloud, business, and more. The depth and variety of blogs showcase the breadth of their technology expertise, and cements their reputation as a trusted thought leader in the consulting space. One great example, the Watson Blog, demonstrates their proprietary, cutting-edge AI platform and the ways IBM’s innovations are shaping the current business landscape. By sharing knowledge through their blogs, IBM is also able to encourage forward-thinking change in society, which helps meet their mission of creating a “smarter planet.”

Seth Godin is an American best-selling author, entrepreneur, and speaker who has launched “one of the most popular blogs in the world.” His blog, seths.blog, shares his wealth of knowledge from the worlds of marketing and business, providing helpful insights and tips for his readers. 

What makes this blog stand out? Godin brings value to his audiences by sharing content that is unconventional, or even weird. His blog is a “purple cow,” which is “a term he popularized that describes ‘something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.’” Importantly, Godin is able to consistently create and share posts every day, which provides readers with a reason to come back regularly to stay connected to Godin’s content and business endeavours.

Another successful business blog example is GreaterFool.ca, a blog by the Honourable J. Garth Turner. A former member of the Canadian House of Commons, Turner is a Canadian business journalist, best-selling author, entrepreneur, financial advisor, and speaker. The Greater Fool blog shares Turner’s wisdom on economics, real estate, and finance, as well as his perspectives on current events. Like Godin’s blog, Turner’s captures attention from a well-established niche audience with a consistent schedule (he posts almost daily) and content that is of great value and interest to his readers. The success of this blog has in turn helped generate exposure, revenue and new clients for Turner’s investment business, Turner Investments.

Other Ways to Elevate Your Business  

While business blogs are a great way to enhance most businesses, maintaining a blog might not be the right choice for every company. As outlined in the second installment of this series, 4 Reasons a Company Blog Might Be Wrong for Your Business, the drawbacks of maintaining a corporate blog are commitment, continuity, competition, and cost.

If your company does not have the resources to start and maintain a consistent blog, you can allocate your resources toward alternative strategies and tools for sustaining your business. 

For instance, you can focus your efforts on sharing content through social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest. By using social media, your brand can capture readers’ attention without exerting the same time and energy that is needed to research and write longer blog articles. Social media provides quick snippets of quality content that are easily digestible for readers – in fact, “Twitter originally billed itself as a ‘microblogging service’” – and is also an efficient way to engage with your audience.

Other ways you can elevate your business without a blog include email newsletters and paid Google advertisements. Newsletters provide your stakeholders with up-to-date announcements without the pressure of a high publishing cadence, while paid media ads on Google can help you attract new potential clients and customers.   

Sparx Publishing Group Can Help With Your Business Blog

No matter which digital communication tool you choose for connecting with your audience – whether it be a business blog or otherwise – these tools are important for the success of your brand and are invaluable to helping you promote your company’s purpose.

If you need help starting, planning or managing an effective corporate blog, or if you have any other content marketing inquiries, contact Sparx Publishing Group today – we’d be more than happy to help! You can reach us here. 

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

3 Marketing Thought Leaders You Need to Know

Whether you’re thriving in your career or feeling a little stuck, it helps to look to those who have forged their own path in new and innovative ways. These three marketing thought leaders are sure to spark inspiration.

Seth Godin

To see marketing through a new lens, seek out the work of Seth Godin. The entrepreneur and author has a unique perspective on marketing and its purpose. And he shares that information through 20 best-selling books and a widely read blog that has been updated daily for over a decade (that’s more than 7,000 posts, for those keeping count). He’s known for pioneering ideas such as permission marketing, which directly challenges the more common interruption marketing that overloads consumers with ads.

To Godin, marketing often boils down to a story to tell or problem to be solved. He uses as an example a problem he encountered during a trip to India with VisionSpring, which sells affordable glasses in developing countries. He noticed that only a third of those who tried on glasses proceeded to buy them. Why was that? Those trying on glasses needed them, and the price was within reach. So he reframed (no pun intended) the challenge and instead handed people their new glasses and said, “If they work and you like them, please pay us three dollars. If you don’t, give them back.” The result? Sales doubled, simply by changing the scenario from paying to have something to paying to keep it. And in doing so, they helped twice as many people see clearly.

Another Way Seth Godin Is Making the World Better

Godin believes in working to fix systemic problems, not just to address emergencies. He’s written and spoken about the need for nonprofits to challenge the status quo and to embrace failure as an unavoidable part of innovation.

Simon Sinek

If you want to be inspired, look no further than author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek. He describes himself as an “unshakable optimist” and has made a career of motivating both leaders and organizations. Sinek may be best known for his 2009 TEDx talk How Great Leaders Inspire Action. It’s the second-most-watched TED talk of all time (no big deal), with over 53 million views. During his talk, he explains how the best leaders are able to articulate the “why” of what they do.

Interestingly, that talk led him to new ideas on trust – ideas that became more concrete following a trip to a military base in Afghanistan, where he was bumped from his flight and had no idea when he might get home. At first he panicked, but then he realized his reaction was like a selfish boss, more concerned with himself than others. When he finally was able to fly home, in the belly of a cargo plane, he shared the trip with the flag-draped casket of a fallen soldier. He called that experience an honour, and it solidified his thoughts on trust – not just through actions, but through environment, too – which eventually became a book, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, and another TED talk that, you guessed it, has been viewed millions of times.

In short, Sinek wants us to find our dream job – one that inspires us, makes us feel safe, and has incredible leadership at its core. 

Another Way Simon Sinek Is Making the World Better

An eternal optimist who has helped the leaders of countless companies to be better at leading, Sinek is also active in the nonprofit world, which he prefers to call the for-impact world.

Marie Forleo

When Oprah herself dubs someone a thought leader, we sit up and take notice. That’s why we can’t help but pay attention to best-selling author and entrepreneur Marie Forleo. Her goal is to inspire others to find fulfillment through her books such as Everything is Figureoutable, YouTube web series MarieTV, podcast, and online business school.

Her trajectory was an indirect route: She waited tables, cleaned toilets, worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and was even one of the world’s first Nike Elite Dance Athletes before she discovered her niche. So how did she end up founding one of Inc.’s 500 fastest-growing companies? Well, if you asked her, she’d tell you this: optimism. It’s an outlook that helped lift the self-made millionaire out of debt and turned her into a global brand that inspires many. Oh, and earned her a nod of approval from none other than Oprah Winfrey.

For Forleo, optimism isn’t about sugar-coating, it’s about asking, “What’s next?” That’s what makes the obstacles we face “figureoutable.”

Another Way Marie Forleo Is Making the World Better

Forleo is actively involved with an array of nonprofit organizations, including Charity: Water, Malala Fund, and Kiva.

Find More Inspiration

If you have any inquiries about content marketing, or you would like to discuss how your company can inspire others through your own marketing efforts, feel free to reach out to Sparx Publishing Group here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

4 Reasons a Company Blog Might Be Wrong for Your Business

While it’s important to have a strong digital presence, starting a corporate blog might not be the right strategy for every business. The digital landscape is already crowded with content, and creating a blog puts your company in competition with many other content producers.

It’s important to take a big picture approach to your business objectives when it comes to communications and marketing. Analyze the time and effort that your business will need to invest to make your corporate blog successful. If you’re already stretched for time, a blog might not be right for your business and you may want to consider alternatives, such as paid advertising, to getting your company noticed by digital audiences.

A Business Blog Requires Commitment

For a company blog to be successful, it needs to become part of your business processes.

Some successful bloggers, such as marketing expert Seth Godin, strongly recommend posting every single day. Hubspot, a leading content marketing firm, recommends three to four new posts every week for a smaller blog, and four to five posts per week for a larger blog, in order to drive organic traffic. For purposes of brand awareness, they recommend one to two times a week for small blogs and three to four times for large blogs.

These numbers aren’t a hard-and-fast rule, so it is important to learn what your desired audience is interested in tuning into. If your business publishes too many posts for the type or size of your brand, it can lead to a diluted audience and burnout for your team.

However many posts you intend to publish, it’s important to integrate content creation into your business practices. If the time commitment isn’t accounted for and scheduled, then a company blog is often the first project to get pushed back, leaving your audience wondering what happened.

Maintaining Continuity Is Difficult

For any type of media, from magazines to TV shows, audiences have a set of expectations for consistent content. If a reader picks up an issue of Forbes magazine and finds articles about plumbing instead of business or entrepreneurship, they likely won’t read the magazine again.

The same is true for blogs. Readers expect thematic and narrative continuity, and they won’t become return visitors if you don’t provide that.

Depending on your business, having enough variation in your content to keep it interesting, while still maintaining thematic continuity, requires investing the time in planning.

If your business addresses a niche market, your corporate blog might struggle to find enough new or interesting things to talk about. Conversely, if your business addresses too broad a range of topics, your blog might risk alienating your desired audience.

Your business blog also needs to be published consistently. If you set a schedule for posting but start missing weeks or months, your readership will drop off considerably. Audiences have short attention spans, and if you don’t stick to your schedule, they will move on quickly.

Audiences also look for narrative continuity. A series of posts on a particular issue keep readers engaged and coming back for the next installment. If you want to court return readership, you have to plan your content calendar strategically, which requires, you guessed it, time and attention.

If time is something your organization can’t spare, you won’t be able to maximize the return readership of your corporate blog and might be better off scaling back or going without one – at least until you have time or resources.

Competition in the Blogging Space Is Fierce

It’s tempting to think about the internet as a space with infinite capacity for more business blogs. And while that may be true in theory, in reality your audience does not have infinite capacity.

Each reader can follow only so many sources of content, and your company’s blog is simply one node in a vast digital ecosystem of content. To put it simply: You are competing for the attention of your audience against a whole world of digital content – more content than anyone could possibly consume in a lifetime.

Adding to that, the world of blogging constantly changes and evolves, requiring you to learn new tools, new rules for SEO, and new best practices for web development. If your company already struggles to stay on the cutting edge of technology or digital change, your corporate blog will quickly get left behind.

To make sure people read your company’s blog, you may need to promote your posts. It’s not enough to simply publish on your website. You may need to push out notifications to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites meaning that your small blog project scope will be larger and more costly.

You might want to consider promoting your corporate blog with paid advertisements. It might sound counterintuitive, but acquiring ongoing readers who will expand your reach by sharing your content on social media often requires an initial monetary investment in ads.

Beware of the Hidden Costs of Blogging

Even if you do everything right, plan your content months in advance, post regularly with interesting content, and promote your corporate blog appropriately, it still might never generate interest or become “popular.” It might fail.

Internet audiences can be fickle, and they may simply not resonate with your work. If this happens, you will have invested a lot of time and money, with little to no upside.

At the end of the day, your corporate blog will take time and effort to cultivate. If your company doesn’t have the time to build it up slowly, you’ll be disappointed by early failures and potentially pull the plug on the project before it has a proper chance to take off.

Being aware of the challenges your business blog might face and the costs it might incur, will help you maintain hope if success doesn’t come quickly.

Learn More About Business Blogs

Be sure to read our next installment in this three-part series, where we will compare the pros and cons of having a business blog and ultimately help you decide if starting a blog is right for your company.

If you have questions about getting the most out of your corporate blog, or any other content marketing inquiries, feel free to reach out to Sparx Publishing Group here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Sparx Publishing Group has compiled a list of the key marketing terms that every successful businessperson should know.

Note: We will frequently update this blog and add more key terms down the road, so check back regularly.

What You Need to Know

Blog

A blog is a regularly updated website that provides readers with viewpoints on a variety of topics. There are two main types of blogs: a business blog, which is run by a company, or a personal blog, which is updated by an individual person.

Business Blog

Often referred to as a corporate blog or professional blog, a business blog shares updates and perspectives on a range of topics related to a company. This type of blog releases professional content with the needs of its core audience and stakeholders in mind.

See also: Personal Blog

Call to Action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a company wants a potential customer to take. A business may use a corporate blog to entice readers to sign up for a particular service or to make a purchase. For example, a brand may end a piece of marketing material with a catchy CTA such as “Subscribe to Our Newsletter!” or “Download Your Free Ebook Now!”

Content

Content refers to any marketing material that is created and distributed to a company’s target audience. In order to attract readers to their brand, a company must publish content that is valuable, relevant, and consistent with their audience’s needs and interests. Content can include articles, ebooks, social media posts, videos, podcasts, or webinars, to name a few.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to help a business garner the attention of a defined target audience. A business can appeal to their target audience by strategically distributing relevant and consistent content that caters to the audience’s needs and wants. This marketing approach helps a business reach their goals, such as increased sales or email registrations, for example.

Earned Media

Earned media is any content that has been published or broadcast about a business that has not been written or paid for by that company. This type of media is produced by a third party and can include news coverage, an article, or a social media post. Earned media helps a business build brand awareness and publicity in an organic manner. One form of earned media is word-of-mouth marketing.

See also: Paid Media

Interruption Marketing

Interruption marketing interrupts the customer’s experience to show them promotional messages. The audience does not have to give their consent to receive such messages. Interruption marketing is often characterized in negative terms, such as annoying and disrupting. An example of interruption marketing is telemarketing phone calls. Other terms for interruption marketing include interruptive marketing, interrupt marketing, traditional marketing, direct marketing, and outbound marketing. The opposite of interruption marketing is permission marketing.

See also: Permission Marketing

Lead

In the world of marketing, a lead refers to a potential customer and client. Marketing efforts aim to generate new leads and then convert them – or, in other words, acquire new customers and get them to respond to a call to action, such as visiting a website or making a purchase.

Similar to earned media, paid media helps a business garner attention and awareness. Unlike earned media, however, paid media involves marketing efforts that a company has purchased. It includes traditional advertisements and commercials.

See also: Earned Media

Permission Marketing

With permission marketing, the audience is given the choice to opt in to receive promotional messages. The audience must consent to receive such messages. Permission marketing is often characterized in positive terms, such as personal and relevant. An example of permission marketing is opt-in email newsletters. The opposite of permission marketing is interruption marketing.

See also: Interruption Marketing

Personal Blog

A personal blog is usually written by one person who shares their viewpoints on a wide range of topics. Unlike a professional blog, the writer can write and release content as they see fit, without a focus on the audience’s specific needs.

See also: Business Blog

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is a form of earned media. If a business releases something buzzworthy, then organic discussions about that particular brand, product, or service occur. These discussions can influence others to look into the brand, product, or service, thereby building awareness for the company. Word-of-mouth marketing is a cost-effective way to generate buzz.

Ask Us Anything

If you have any additional questions, or if you require any marketing-related assistance, feel free to reach the qualified marketing experts at Sparx Publishing Group.

You can contact us here, email us at [email protected], or call us at (604) 488-1097. We’d love to hear from you!