I see that you studied marketing at Montclair State University and you are now a marketing manager.

I’m thinking about going into this field. Is this a field where you only need a bachelor’s degree? If so, should someone apply to the business school?

If you can please give some advice, I would greatly appreciate it!

Muhammad,

I believe, regardless of the career or field you’ve chosen for yourself, the foundations of marketing and communication need to be known and practiced. Your career success will depend on your ability to position, present, sell, or persuade – especially when seeking a job.

I didn’t start college with marketing in mind

When I was in high school, I wanted to become a corporate bond trader so I applied to the School of Business as an Economics major with a concentration in business. However, after learning about the reality of the American debt-based economic system and the Islamic stance on interest based contracts and business dealings, I didn’t see a future for myself in it.

After my sophomore year in college, I left the business school and spent a couple years exploring careers by either taking classes or doing work on and off campus. I settled on the idea of pursuing a professional career in the area of media, marketing, and communications.

Here’s an interview of, yours truly, where I tell my story of how I came to that career decision.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When it came to finally settling on a major, I saw four options;

• School of Broadcasting
• Filmmaking
• Mass Communications – Public Relations, Journalism, Organizational Communication
• Business Administration with a concentration in marketing

I decided on the latter since I had already taken a lot of the business school classes and thus, continuing with the School of Business would allow me to graduate the quickest.

Academic counselors are good only if you know where you’re going.

Just a word of caution. Through my experience, I came to the conclusion that academic counselors are useless if you don’t know where you want to go or what you want to be. However, if you know what you want, in terms of major and intended graduation date, and what you want to be, they’ll show you the fastest way to do it.

With that in mind, the sooner you know what major you want to concentrate on, the faster you’ll get into it, and the faster you’ll get out of school.

Befriend professors with real world experience and connections.

Many of my colleagues and I myself can attest to the value that professors with real world experience are a great bridge to the professional world. They’re there to help you and see you succeed. Approach the relationship with humility and leverage the wealth of experience and relationships they bring with them.

Tip #1 – A degree in marketing won’t get you a job in marketing

I’ve studied martial arts since I was in third grade. I earned my black belt when I was in high school. One of my teachers in high school was also a martial artist. When I told him that I finally earned my black belt he told me, “Great! Now you have all the skills you need to begin learning.”

Think of a college degree as a black belt. What it’s really saying is that you’ve now learned the thinking and learning process.

However, having a good thinking process won’t get you a job, technical skills will. Gaining technical skills in a specific area of marketing will really be up to you. Either through self-teaching – project based learning, or through rigorous internships, or simply working for free several months at a time.

Tip #2 – To get a job in marketing, there are three general skills you need to learn

Learn to write, present, and/or produce compelling multimedia. All of these are used to sell, and in the world of business everyone is selling.

As a kid, my family moved almost every year. I had attended nine different schools before high school. To “survive” as a kid I had to not be afraid to meeting new people, thus I learned to make friends quickly. Through this I learned to present and sell.

All my life, since I can remember I grew up with a computer around me. In middle school my dad had me learn HTML and graphic design to make him a website, thus I was never shy of being a geek. I went from websites, to graphic design, to photography, to video. Thus, I learned how to produce multimedia.

I learned the importance of writing in high school, but didn’t really put a conscience effort toward building this skill until I was well into college when I discovered blogging.

I’ve used all three skills heavily throughout my career. When asked about how to get a job, I believe Seth Godin said it best:

Fortune 500 has been responsible for a net loss in jobs over the last twenty years. All the growth, and your best chance to get hired is from companies you’ve probably never heard of.

• Learn to sell.Everyone has sold something, some time, even if it’s just selling your mom on the need for a nap when you were three years old. A lot of people have decided that they don’t want to sell, can’t sell, won’t sell, but those same people need to understand that they’re probably not going to get a job doing anything but selling.Small businesses always need people who can sell, because selling pays for itself. It’s not an expense, it’s a profit center.

• Learn to write. Writing is a form of selling, one step removed. There’s more writing in business today than ever before, and if you can become a persuasive copywriter, you’re practically a salesperson, and even better, your work scales.

• Learn to produce extraordinary video and multimedia. This is just like writing, but for people who don’t like to read. Even better, be sure to mix this skill with significant tech skills. Yes, you can learn to code. The fact that you don’t feel like it is one reason it’s a scarce skill.

All of which take time and guts but no money.

Once you demonstrate that you contribute far more than you cost, now it’s merely a matter of figuring out a payment schedule. This is probably far more uncertainty and personal branding than most job seekers are comfortable with. Which is precisely why it works.

Source: How to get a job with a small company

Tip #3 – Decide on the area of marketing you wish to get into to know what technical skills you need to learn

Generally, there are three general areas of marketing;

Public Relations

The focus here is to “build the brand” and “manage reputation.” Some common professions in this area are;

• publicist
• journalism – traditional and new media
• search engine optimization (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM)
• social analytics (how all the “social stuff” ties back to the bottom line)

Advertising

The general focus of this role is to sell or maintain a built brand. Today this is heavily digitally focused. Some common roles you’ll find are;

• Media buys – traditional and digital
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Google Adwords and other forms of Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
• Direct sales – business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C)

Analytics

The focus of analytics is to either crunch numbers, and/or make sense of them to facilitate business decision making. If you go this route, don’t be shy of numbers and befriend MS Excel.

You’ll find that this role overlaps with both, PR and advertising. If you’re going to get into SEM, SEO, ORM, SM-Analytics, Analysis, ROI-measurement, etc., you’re going to be analytics focused.

Tip #4 – Decide what role you’re going to play

When it comes to marketing, you’ll probably find yourself gravitating toward one of four roles.

Technical Individual Contributor

This is basically a “one man army.” If you’re proficient with a particular business tool or technical skill, you’ll probably have a lot of job opportunities with big companies. Not so much is small or medium sized businesses.

Business Individual Contributor

To succeed here, you have to be a very very strong business person. Understanding organizational ecosystems and business strategy. It helps if you’re a people person.

Your job here is to understand business within the context of a “bottom line.” You need to be able to analyze numbers and metrics, create dashboards, and/or be in charge of rolling out specific tools across several business sites, despite resistance from the technical individual contributors.

Technical Team Leader

This role requires your ability to leave your “one-man army” mentality and the deep rooted habit of just doing all the technical stuff yourself and simply manage the “one-man army” types. However, it requires that you know the tools like the “one-man army” folks, otherwise they won’t take you seriously.

Business Team Leader

In addition to people skills, this role requires leadership skills. For this role, you need to be able to motivate, inspire confidence, and be inherently selfless. It’s also important for you to be able to charm senior personnel.

In addition to strong people leadership skills, this sort of role requires a strong analytical mind as well. I’ve been told that this combination is hard to find, thus, it’s probably why they’re paid handsomely for it.

Tip #5 – To strongly position yourself, play to your strengths

In any career, personal development is key. What ever skills you learn, keep sharpening your saw. Work toward being in the top 10% of your industry.

This video covers two major essentials to get a handle on the new Timeline layout.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Timeline Cover Photo

This is a huge piece of real estate. It measures 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.  This is your opportunity to make a good first impression and capture the attention of your visitors. Make sure your cover art is eye-candy and not pixelated. Leave a strong first impression!

Default Landing Pages Are Gone

Most tabs (apps) that pages had are now outdated. Visitors that are coming for the first time or returning will only see this the main page with your cover photo and wall. If you want people to click your apps, you’ll have to get a little creative. Facebook allows for the customization of the tab images. This is your opportunity to take advantage of this feature within Facebook to potentially drive traffic to where ever you want.

I never understood what made Instagram so cool. iPhone users would tell me that you can make your photos look professional; hearing this, I’d brush it off.

In my humble understanding of photography, it’s your ability to capture light to compose an image in a principled manner that not only tells a story, but also pulls at you emotionally, and at times be aesthetically pleasing.

Adding a filter to make your photo look vintage is not making it professional. To make great photos, you have to take great photos – and occasionally leverage tools like Photoshop.

Once Instagram came to Android, after exploring it, I immediately realized where its strengths lay.

1 – Easy Social Integration and Sharing Ability

The moment you’ve loaded up Instagram on your phone, it asks you to hook up your digital presence to it; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Foursquare. Anytime you have a photo ready to share, you can syndicate it out to those platforms immediately.

In addition to the ability to syndicate, Instagram has a community within itself. It operates much like Twitter, except the focus is on photo sharing. You can follow people and people can follow you. Like Facebook, you can “like” pictures and share comments on them too.

I don’t know of any system that does that as well as Instagram.

2 – Uniform Simplicity

The way the user interface  is designed is very intuitive. You don’t need a manual to figure out how to use the app. Each and every picture has a square shape that allows for easy organization and display.

Your ability to choose filters is straight forward. If you want to get a little more sophisticated, you can edit your photo in a separate app and easily bring it into Instagram to “square it” and share with your followers.

3 – Strong, Deliberate Positioning.

Instagram isn’t targeted toward the professional photographer. You have Flickr for that. Instagram is for those who want to feel like they’re professional photographers for fun.

When I was in the sixth grade, I took a trip out to Disney World Orlando. I remember running out of money for food because I spent most of it on disposable cameras. It was a lesson in money management, but I also learned early on that I had an active interest in taking and sharing photos.

Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instragram, took disposable camera photography and made it digital. It’s geared toward the person who wants to simply have fun with style.

Let’s Connect on Instagram

I just started using Instagram and I’m lovin’ it! I’d love to connect with you.  If you’re using Instagram, look me up.

Search for either “khanb1″ or “belal khan” – you’ll see my smiling head with the “Leechon Orange” background.  I’m looking forward to seeing your Instagrams!

My intention with this article is to simply point out the three deadly email marketing practices that I’ve seen from countless people and organizations. Conducting business this way can lead to negative perception of the organization and the brand you’re trying to establish.

No one want’s that.

Follow your nation’s SPAM laws.

An email address is a permission asset, I never gave permission. I don’t ever recall opting into your organization’s email database. Worst of all, I don’t even see an option to unsubscribe.

If you’re a professional organization, you better be following your nation’s laws when it comes to unsolicited marketing.

According to Canada’s anti-spam legislation:

Marketers may only send email to individuals who opt in to receiving them. It is mandatory for senders to enable recipients to opt out of receiving messages. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) may levy fines of up to $1 million for an individual or $10 million for a business that contravenes the Act.

Source: Wikipedia, FISA (Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act)

According to United States anti-spam legislation:

There are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, as these messages are classified as “relationship” messages under CAN-SPAM.

If a user opts out, a sender has ten days to cease sending and can only use that email address for compliance purposes. The legislation also prohibits the sale or other transfer of an e-mail address after an opt-out request. The law also requires that the unsubscribe mechanism must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after the transmission of the original message.

Source: Wikipedia, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

If you wish to be professional, don’t be a typical mass mailer.

When you mass email using CC or BCC from an organizational email address, that just demonstrates a lack of professionalism. This is the laziest form of relationship building. It tells me that you see me as part of large undifferentiated group of people.

This is absolutely annoying.

Utilize email marketing systems such as Aweber, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or a host of several others.

If you want quality contacts, be strategic in acquiring them.

Deploy an awareness campaign.
Hold offline and online events. Setup landing pages. Share videos and utilize other channels of communication where I’d be compelled to be a part of what you’re doing or providing.

Engage with me.
Once you’ve got my contact and have my permission to send me emails, you should begin with a message that welcomes me to your list and sets expectations of what to expect. Use this opportunity and the following one or two messages to build some rapport.

Lead me to learn more and get involved.
After we’ve gotten to know each other a little bit, funnel me into lists or communication channels where I can learn more and get involved. This is the time to show me what you’re offering.

When I’ve gotten a taste of what you’ve got to offer, go for the close.
Whether it’s to buy something or to give to your case, this is when you should be sending me messages with a transactional intent. Not before.

I’ll be making a video.

Audio is very effective and important in the portrayal of ideas. However, I want to refrain from using audio with actual musical instruments. I’m not sure what I should use that is still effective.

Your videos/trailers have given me direction, but I was wondering if you can give me some advice?

The objective and purpose of sound in video is like the objective of a carpet in a room.

Ask an interior decorator and they’ll probably tell you that the carpet is suppose to add warmth, pull you in and at the same time bring forth a specific emotion. The carpet enhances the room and increases the overall impact and impression it has on you many folds.

There is of course the potential to choose the wrong carpet for a room and at times putting a carpet in a room where there shouldn’t be one.

In this post I’ll be briefly outlining how and when one should be using different types of sound elements in video in order to achieve the maximum effect.

Take the following video for inspiration. This is the opening sequence for the film “There Will be Blood” starring Daniel Day-Lewis:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Notice how the visuals carry all the weight of what’s been communicated. No music, no dialog. This is pure cinematic storytelling.

My Background

I’ve been regularly producing videos since 2003. The first professional client service I offered with Leechon was video for the purposes of organizational marketing. In the 8+ years that I’ve been doing this professionally, here’s what I can suggest regarding achieving the maximum emotional impact for your video.

Focus on Visuals

Video is a visual medium. Make sure you do more showing than telling. You know you’ve got a solid video if what you’re trying to communicate gets communicated if you turn off the sound.

Apply Sound Elements According to the Five Priority Levels

A few years back my wife and I got a private tour of the sound and editing studios over at Warner Brothers as well as ToddAO, a sound production company. I made this video sharing some of the things I had learned and experienced from that trip.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A professional sound designer will tell you that there are five levels of sound. When applying sound elements to your video, do it in the following priority.

Dialog

This includes everything from voice over, to dialog, to interview audio. This is the core of your audible content. You can tell the professionalism of a video just by how clearly the voice is heard.

Foley

This is what you would consider “everyday sounds.” This includes sounds of everything from foot steps, to the typing on a keyboard, to friction of clothing, to a car’s engine, and so on.

Well done foley is like well done editing. You don’t notice it. It’s suppose to go unnoticed and be seamless to the video viewer.

Sound Effects

These are your non-everyday sounds. Everything from booms of a fist hitting an opponent in a fight scene, to the bangs a title flashing across the screen.

Environment

Consider this the creation of ambiance and atmosphere of a video. Imagine a scene where the subject is sitting on a park bench. What sounds you choose for the environment will set the stage for the scene.

Imagine this scene first with sounds of cars honking and air planes flying over.

Now imagine it with just the sounds of birds chirping and a stream flowing.

“Music”

I put quotation marks because, being an observant Muslim, I follow the understanding that in Islam, sounds sourced from musical instruments are not permissible. However, non-instrumental sounds deployed in rhythm are fine.

Me being someone who isn’t a sound designer, I don’t have too many options in this area.

For the $0-budget video, I’ve usually applied beatbox or acapella rhythms to reach my goal. However, if there is some money in the video budget, I highly recommend hiring a sound designer to help with this. Just give them the guideline of not using instruments and you should be good to go.

Secrets of Video Production – Affordable Online Training

I’ve put together an online course that covers the four phases of video: development, production, post production, and marketing in detail. There’s over 7 hours of instructional content there for you to benefit from.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The fee is $97 for lifetime access. What you get for it is complete breakthroughs and tutorials. I’ve basically taken my knowledge of video production and put it there for you to learn and implement.

• regarding finances, whether you see Invisible Children as an advocacy group or humanitarian organization
• regarding their mission, whether you’re for or against military intervention

Advocacy Media had released a statement saying, “Despite Media Backlash, Invisible Children’s Popularity Remains High – 92% of Overall Mentions Are Positive.”

Regardless of how you feel about the Kony 2012 campaign or Invisible Children, there’s no denying that there was deliberate strategic brilliance in the deployment of the campaign which we can all learn from.

In this post, I’ll be first sharing my thoughts on the video and then adding my own comments on what professionals have said regarding the campaign.

The Video: At it’s core, the short half-hour documentary is brilliant story telling.

My wife, a PR professional, told me that when you write, make it so that an 8th grader can read and understand it. What Jason Russell did was take a complicated issue and simplify it such a manner that his four year old son could understand it through the power of story.

Jason Russell took the basics of direct response advertising and applied it to advocacy. The formula is simple:

1 – Grab attention and built rapport

Working in sales, the first thing a good trainer will teach you is how to grab attention and then build rapport. We connect with those whom we have things in common with. Every human being has something in common with one another. The key is to tie that commonality to what you’re leading into.

Russell builds that rapport by first reminding us of how we’re connected with each other. He then moves to introducing the first few characters in the story; himself, and his baby son, who is adorable. At this point, the story teller’s humanity is on the screen, rapport is built and we are willing to see where this goes.

2 – Introduce the problem

After rapport is built, the next step is to introduce the problem. Russell next introduces the Ugandan boy, whom we connect with emotionally because of the loss of his brother and then we’re introduced to the villian, Joseph Kony. This is where the conflict is introduced. It’s at this point our hero, Jason Russell makes a promise to help this boy. The stage is set and we’re moving forward in this journey.

3 – Follow up with a solution

In a sales situtation, once you’ve got your prospect confirming, “yes, this is a problem!” you follow up with, “here’s the solution…the magic bullet to makes your monster of a problem go away!”

4 – Conclude with a clear call to action

Russell tells us how we’re the solution to “Stop Kony” and concludes with specific calls to action on what exactly we can do to “Stop Kony.”

Effective marketers are great storytellers, therefore learn the art of storytelling.

Recently TED released an inspiring 20 minute video of Andrew Stanton, head of Pixar and Disney Animation, talking about the clues to a great story.

The strongest gem I extracted from this video is:

The children’s television host Mr. Rogers always carried in his wallet a quote from a social worker that said, “Frankly there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you know their story.” And the way I like to interpret that is probably the greatest story commandment, “Make me care.” Please, emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically… make me care.

Also from the talk…

A good opening is a promise that this story will lead somewhere that’s worth your time. And that’s what all good stories should do, they should give you a promise. You can do it in an infinite amount of ways. Sometimes it’s as simple as “once upon a time.”

The next time you want to pull someone toward an action, a cause, or even an idea, consider putting some thought into the story you will tell first.

The video is only one part of Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign.

I believe Seth Godin is correct in his opinion where he says,

I have no doubt that the success of the video (seen by more people than any single TV show this week) will lead many organizations astray in the naive belief that they can emulate this one. If a non-profit board decides to spend precious resources on a video hoping it will change the world in three days, I think they’re misguided.

Source: Seth Godin – Learning from four viral events

The truth is, Kony 2012 video is only a small part of the deliberate campaign Invisible Children has in place.

What’s impressive about KONY 2012 is the craft of all the pieces of their campaign: the film making, the graphic design, the web sites, the Facebook page, Twitter hashtags, you name it.

Source: Forbes – 12 Lessons from KONY 2012 from Social Media Power Users

I recommend you read the full two-page article from Forbes. It’s a great read.

Ever since I started producing commercials and trailers for AlMaghrib Institute, to this date I regularly get requests to produce video from various organizations.

Knowing that the videos I had produced were only the tip of the iceberg of AlMaghrib Institute’s marketing machine, my response to these individuals has always been: Getting exposure or traffic is the easy part. What are you going to do with all the new eyeballs? Once you get them into the door or on your website, how are you going guide them to an experience that will keep them coming back?

I’ve found from the responses that most don’t have a clue what to do with the new eye balls. A marketing campaign has many gears that are moving together as a machine, driving the organization to fulfill a very specific mission. Credit for the brilliance belongs to the one who designs that intellectual machine.

In the past I shared the story of my brief adventures in retail marketing in the post titled: 3 Tips on Thriving as a Bazaar Vendor. The principles applied in retail marketing aren’t that different than online marketing.

• Be different – in this case, I’d add, “Be specific about that which makes you stand out from others in your space.” Invisible children is clear about this on their website and in the video.

• Have a Relevant and Memorable “Fly Catcher” to Reel People In – The Kony 2012 video does just that. The objective of the video is to raise awareness and drive action: share the video and go to their website.

• Create Path and Process to Follow From Entry to Sale – Their website, their storefront so to speak is designed to capture your information and then direct you to the next appropriate action which is to contact a culture/policy maker, purchase an action kit, and get involved in the campaign.

It took a decade of preparation to achieve overnight success.

There’s a Chinese proverb that says, “Dig the well before you are thirsty.” Beth Kanter, author of “The Networked Nonprofit” in a blog post stated,

One thing that is important to point out is that they built their network before they needed it with years of offline organizing with young people.

Source: KONY, Networked Nonprofits, and Transparency

The staff at Invisible Children did a lot of leg work connecting and informing people close to a decade before this video came out. When the video was being prepped for release, I’m sure the first thing they did was tap into the network they had already built to jump start this campaign.

I believe this is similar to what Charlie Hoehn, Tim Ferris’s marketing assistant for “The 4-Hour Body,” did before they launched the book.

The sheer volume of 5-star Amazon reviews for 4HB caused confusion and outrage. A lot of people just couldn’t imagine how we were able to get more than 140 reviews (over one hundred 5-stars) in the first 24 hours without paying for them. The reality is not as sexy as you’d think.

Tim had sent out more than 1,000 advance copies of the book. He gave copies to friends, companies where he’d been a guest speaker, and people who’d helped or had volunteered to help with the book. At 5:00am Eastern on December 14^th (the day of the launch), we emailed all of those people with the word “Urgent” in the subject line, and asked them if they could spare 30 seconds to write an Amazon review within the next 24 hours, whether they enjoyed the book or not (we never asked anyone to leave a 5-star review). Plain, simple, and it got the job done.

Although this generated a fair amount of backlash from skeptics, it was an immense boon for us to have a solid foundation of 200 positive reviews in the first week.* Having a solid Amazon rating gives the book an enormous amount of social proof that can last for years, and (although immeasurable from our end) boosts the conversion rate on the sales page substantially.

Source: 12 Lessons Learned While Marketing “The 4-Hour Body”

In the “millennial” generation, it’s important to start your marketing and outreach from day one. When you’re ready to launch a time-specific campaign, who’s got your back?

I’m like, “What coney video?” I’m thinking Coney Island.

She answers, “Remember the two-hour special they had for 24 before season seven, where Dubaku from Sengala is kidnapping kids to make them into child soldiers and Jack Bauer is caught in the middle of it?”

“Yea, I remember that.” I tell her.

She responds, “Well, it’s a documentary about that, except this time it’s Uganda and it’s for real. Go on online and search k-o-n-y-2012.”

I started up my Xbox and watched the full video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Being a marketing professional, I could totally appreciate the marketing and creative brilliance behind this video.

Immediately I wanted to get involved and was ready to purchase an action kit, but then I started seeing critics online talking about how this whole thing is a hoax. Some were calling it the new Nigerian prince scam, except this time it was in Uganda.

I decided to turn to those I trust and here’s what I found out.

The Truth About Invisible Children and Kony 2012

First is Kevin Sites, an embedded war journalist who worked for CNN and Yahoo!

If there’s anyone that knows about foreign wars, it’s this man. Sites did “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone” with Yahoo, where he visited and reported on all of the world’s conflict zones in one year.

Here’s what Sites had to say on his Facebook:

No disrespect to Invisible Children–but Joseph Kony hasn’t been in Uganda for at least six years. His group is splintered and nothing more than ragtag bandits. It’s great to have a rallying point for a cause, but let’s be honest and help people because we do have responsibility to each other–not to warm our hands in the flames of outrage fanned by the twitter feeds of dozens of ill-informed celebrities happy to expand their brand to include Coca Cola, Nike and Compassion.

Source

We have to stop adding to our collection of colored bracelets and think that’s the answer to every problem from AIDS and cancer to global conflict. Solidarity is great, so’s real caring and concern, but that takes removing our loving gaze from our own navels and seeing a little bit more of the world–even if it’s just online. But we also need to be skeptical–while awareness for an issue is good, awareness of something that isn’t completely true is still ignorance. Be informed, but also skeptical.

Source

Sites also shared a link to an article on BoingBoing: African voices respond to hyper-popular Kony 2012 viral campaign – The overall sentiment of the article seems to say that the video overs implied the problem and also misrepresented the African people and how they’re not all helpless.

Although I can understand the sentiment, I’d like to say that the African people aren’t the intended audience for the video, therefor the way Jason Russell and Invisible Childred approached it was smart in my humble opinion. I wasn’t convinced that this isn’t something we shouldn’t support.

Then I saw this video about Invisible Children finances from a former volunteer and supporter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Okay, so just over one third of the money they raise goes to helping the Central African people. I understand that’s not a lot compared to other NGOs. However, they spend close 40% of the money they raised toward awareness and media.

If you take a look at Invisible Children’s response to critics page you’ll see they’ve stated,

Invisible Children’s mission is to stop LRA violence and support the war-affected communities in East and Central Africa. These are the three ways we achieve this mission; each is essential:

1. Make the world aware of the LRA. This includes making documentary films and touring them around the world so that they are seen for free by millions of people.
2. Channel energy from viewers of IC films into large-scale advocacy campaigns to stop the LRA and protect civilians.
3. Operate programs on the ground in LRA-affected areas that provide protection, rehabilitation and development assistance.

Most of their active focus is on awareness and advocacy. Essentially, they’re operating like a marketing company, which is why I believe they’ve been so successful.

That 40% of their budget that they’ve spent on awareness has brought to light an issue that wasn’t even in the mind of people before this campaign. More awareness means that the national potential to give is greater. No other news organization or NGO has been able to bring to attention an issue like Invisible Children has.

In my opinion, they’ve spent close to 80% of their money toward the overall cause which not only benefits the work of Invisible Children, but all NGOs in that space.

However, what really got me thinking were comments from Dawud Walid, Executive Director of CAIR Michigan.

I am disturbed by “Stop Kony 2012” because the main push of the project is not amplifying the voices of those who want true socio-political change in the region but is pushing for military intervention into the region. This seems counterintuitive for a humanitarian organization.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni began using child soldiers prior to Kony’s insurgency. Museveni, himself, should be tried for crimes against humanity, not to mention his brutal crackdowns against Ugandans, who have peacefully protested against his regime…

Hence, we have the issue of a humanitarian organization calling for military intervention in coordination with a brutal dictator, who should be tried as a criminal in order to catch another criminal.

Source: ‘Stop Kony 2012?: Flawed Framing Leads to Flawed Results

Is it inappropriate for a humanitarian organization to call for military action?

Perhaps.

Here’s what Invisible Children said regarding the capture of Joseph Kony,

Back in 2008 I wanted this war to end, like we all did, peacefully, through peace talks. But Kony was not interested in that; he kept killing. And we still don’t want war. We don’t want him killed and we don’t want bombs dropped. We want him alive and captured and brought to justice.

Is Invisible Children a humanitarian organization?

Is there a legal classification of a “humanitarian organization?” If there is, then is Invisible Children classified as that?

Personally, I don’t see Invisible Children as a humanitarian organization. I see them as a marketing and advocacy organization that has humanitarian efforts happening on the side.

Their mission is to drive awareness and through that bring Kony to justice. I don’t see that happening without military intervention.

What You Should Do

Share and Support Kony 2012 if you support bringing international criminals to justice

This includes not just Joseph Kony, but also Yoweri Museveni (if what Dawud Walid mentioned is true), Bashar al-Assad, Kim Jong-un, and others.

I find it interesting how people are saying things along the lines of “It be great if someone will make a video for [enter oppressed region of the world].”

People, The tools are within your grasp! YOU can do it. This man focused on telling a story, showcasing a bad guy and good guy, showcasing the humanity of the victim and closing with a clear call to action.

Don’t wait for someone else to do it. YOU go and do it.

Support Islamic Relief if you want to help the African people with Humanitarian Aid

Islamic Relief is a 4-star charity and is offering humanitarian aid in several African countries. Over 90% of the money they raise goes toward helping the people directly.

Currently they’re operating nine different African nations.

Note: The map is not upside down. There is no up or down in outer-space. This is how majority of the world viewed the earth before European colonialism.

Click here or the picture for more info on where Islamic Relief operates and what they do.

Up Next: Marketing Insights and Lessons from the Kony 2012 Campaign

There are many lessons to learn. I’ll be sharing with you what industry professionals have said as well as what lessons I’ve extracted from it.

I was just wondering if you have any tips/advices/personal experiences or any useful links when it comes to building communication skills.

Drowning in a Wave Pool

When I was in 6th grade, I went to Disney World with my school’s science club (yes, I was a geek). There I had my first experience with a wave pool. I didn’t know how to swim at the time. After a few jumps, the waves sucked me into the deep end and I panicked.

I started to scream “Heeelp!” but my friend that was with me, with each wave instead of “help” heard me say, “Heeeelblubulblub…! Heeeelblubulblub…!” So he responds with – Haaallelujaaah! Haaallelujaaah!

Communication fail. How did I not drown?

I grabbed onto my friend and yelled “help!” and dragged him under with me. He got the message. He swam back up to call the life guard for help.

I learned a very important lesson that day: Clear and succinct communication can be the difference between life and death.

Poor Communication Leads to Dehumanization

In the Arabic language, the word for “human” is “in-saan” and it’s rooted in the word “ins” (alif-noon-seen), which means:

to be or become sociable, companionable, conversable, inclined to company or conversation
(Source: Project Root List)

We as human beings by our very nature are compelled to seek company and communicate with others. It’s no surprise that those who don’t learn to communicate well can potentially lose their humanity in the sight of others.

Just look at the state of the perception of Muslims in “first world” nations. Since Muslims don’t have a strong voice in the area of mass communication, it’s easy to dehumanize the Muslim.

Knowing Where to Focus is the Challenge of Personal Communication Development

As an individual, where does one focus their efforts to better develop their ability to communicate? Here I defer to the advice of Marcus Buckingham and Seth Godin.

Buckingham’s Advice: Maximize Your Strengths

Understand that personal development is ongoing. The focus should be to capitalize on and maximize your strengths.

A “strong” individual is someone who has consistent, near perfect performance in an activity, repeatedly, successfully, and happily.

According to Buckingham,

TALENT + FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE + SKILLS + EXPERIENCE = STRENGTH
Source: “Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham”

Tip 1 - Understanding your talents is the path of least resistance.

Talents are the things that we are drawn to and have regular anticipation for. It’s the activities that in and of itself give us satisfaction and while engaged in it, we lose track of time. We’re neurologically wired in favor of it resulting in increased learning speed.

Tip 2  - Factual knowledge and experience is something you gain through books, classes and engaging in real work.

Get a job. Go out and get a client. Volunteer. Start your own venture. Get a degree or certification. Take your pick.

Tip 3 – Skills are gained through training and repetition.

Its the understanding and learning of a process. For example, video editing is a skill that’s learned through following a process. Anyone can edit video, so long as they keep to a process. Through repetition, it’ll become a skill.

I highly recommend you check out Buckingham’s book “Stand Out.” I bought it specifically for the assessment that gives you a 26 page report on how you can should operate and how you can further develop yourself in areas of leadership, sales, and other areas within the context of your strengths.

Godin’s Advice: Learn the Skills of Selling, Writing, and Multimedia

Tip 4 - Learn to sell.

Selling isn’t about convincing people to buy stuff they don’t want or need. Selling is about building a relationship with people whom you want to help achieve a goal. It’s done through education.

Here’s a video I did a little while back explaining what selling is in terms of building relationships:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I personally, started my career in sales. As a kid I’d sell candy door to door (I was #2 for most candy sales). After high school I did telemarketing. Later I got into door-to-door sales, selling either vacuum cleaners or telecom services. In college I started my own marketing services practice which I’d have to sell to get clients.

In each case, having strong product knowledge was key in making an effective presentation.

In a nonprofit, the most valuable people are those who can bring in funds. These are the people who write proposals to foundations, make phone calls, meeting with people, build relationships, tell the story of the impact they’re having. In a for-profit, these are the people who bring in business.

This bring to question, how do you find the people you want to sell to? Start with your network.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you don’t have a network, build one.

Tip 5 – Learn to write.

Writing is a mode of communication that can be utilized to sell through education. A blog is a powerful form of permission marketing and a great way to start building your network. If you haven’t already done so, start one. If you feel you don’t have the time, use a micro-blog such as Twitter and utilize Facebook too.

Tip 6 – Learn to produce compelling multimedia.

Facebook is the #1 photo sharing site on the internet. Each image tells a story. YouTube has majority of the internet’s video views and the number is growing. Businesses, brands and individuals are telling stories everyday. They’re connecting, socializing, building relationships. You should do.

When producing video, you don’t have to get fancy. You probably have a cell phone. Start with that. Check out what Toby Turner is doning with with “lazy vlog” for inspiration.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The problem is that so many people describe marketing as “selling” or “promoting” or “convincing others to buy stuff.” Unfortunately this is far from the core of what is marketing.

As a gift from me to you, I’ve made an infographic – it seems to be the common trend nowadays – answering once and for all, “What is marketing?”

Simple enough!

Yes, it includes a diverse set of disciplines such as sales, public relations, packaging, branding, statistics, analytics, customer service, distribution and many more.

However, at it’s core, marketing is a communication process geared toward the creation of opportunities that you can seize to help others reach a GOAL, all the while, establishing and maintaining a reputation of being the best in doing just that.