3 years ago I landed in SFO international airport with 2 suitcases, a smile on my face, and nowhere to live. My smile turned into more of a grimace as I discovered that San Francisco is one of the most expensive and competitive rental markets in the US today. Many listings go up at breakfast and are rented by lunch. Throngs of people crowd into open houses. Some search for months before finding a place.

So, how can you stand out amongst the sea of eager renters in a tough renters market?

I think the simple answer is branding.

In a competitive market, you need to make a name for yourself. You need to be easily remembered. Just like beverage companies or car companies work to show their distinct personality, so too, the renter in a competitive market needs to make sure they captivate their audience. Here are 3 strategies to make your application shine.

• Create a Rental Package. This is a series of documents that you can present to a landlord upon seeing an apartment. This package should include information pertinent to renting an apartment: employment information such as offer letters and pay stubs, and credit reports. Neatly binding your rental package in a folder or plastic sleeve gives the impression that you are organized and proactive.
• Use your picture. Providing a picture of yourself is a great way to ensure landlords remember who you are. A photo also shows personality, and attaching a face to a rental application helps the landlord feel like they know you.
• Tell your story. Giving some personal information about yourself apart from what you report on the rental application is also effective in establishing a connection with the landlord. Telling them a bit about your background, your career, personality, and hobbies will increase your likeability. Remember, the landlord is giving you their house to live in. They need feel sure you are a trustworthy person.

Happily, I can now say that I am not living out of my suitcases anymore. I got my dream apartment in San Francisco, and hopefully, with a little bit of branding technique, you can too.

When I first arrived to San Francisco, I was very fortunate to work at a tech startup in the heart of the city. It was unlike any job I had ever had. There was more work than there was time in a day. There were no corner offices or cubicles. Suits and ties were swapped for skinny jeans and headphones, and there were 4 beers on tap in the office kitchen.

Startups are world-renowned for their radically different approach to business. They are lean, numbers-obsessed, and agile, turning around new products on a monthly or even weekly basis. Startups embrace risk in search of innovation, and have the luxury of being small enough to spend most of their time building and designing. While working in a startup I got to experience these and more unique attributes of startup life that I would argue are applicable to more than just building apps and coding webpages. Here are three top life lessons learned from a few months at a startup:

1. Measure everything. Metrics are at the heart of everything a startup does. If you can’t get the numbers behind it, you don’t know what you’ve accomplished. In a similar way, its helpful to use metrics to measure success in your everyday life. The more you make your goals measurable, the easier it will be to accomplish them. Recently, a friend convinced me to sign up for my first ever race. I had to run 10 kilometers across 1,000 feet of elevation gain– something I wouldn’t have dreamed of before. The only way I motivated myself to train was by using an app that tracked my mileage, pace, and elevation gain. Using metrics, I was able to tell how much progress I had made and was finally able to cross the finish line that day without collapsing in a heap on the lawn.

2. Fail fast and try again. A huge principle of startup culture is iteration. When I first started this job, I hadn’t even heard of the word before, let alone understood the concept behind it. Iteration means building something incrementally, testing it out, and then making changes until you arrive at a full-fledged product. If its a hit, great, if not, move on to something else. Similarly, in life, its okay to fail at something. Every time we fail is another opportunity to correct and succeed. Like the old adage goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

3. Execution is everything. The design team would constantly tell us “Ideas are worthless”, meaning that you can have all the brilliant ideas you want, but until they become reality, they are nothing. This might be the hardest life lesson for me personally. As a marketer, I thrive on my good ideas, but until I can turn them into something tangible, they might as well have never existed. Learning that the execution phase is just as important as the ideation phase will be instrumental in getting yourself to the next level in any project you take on.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a few simple things that are easy to start doing in your career and everyday life to start reaching your goals, innovating more often, and ultimately getting things done.

I like to begin my day early. There is something comforting about getting to work before everyone else. You feel in control, well prepared, and unique. Wake up a few minutes too late, however, and you rush downstairs to find yourself lost in stream of people. The atmosphere is competitive and confusing, and its quite an unpleasant experience, especially if you haven’t had your morning cup of coffee.

Breaking into a new field can be like that. There are so many professionals all around you, writing blog posts, making twitter comments, giving speeches at conferences. It´s easy to feel lost, and ill-prepared, not knowing where you fit in or where you are going.

That is where Erin Kissane’s latest book, The Elements of Content Strategy, comes to the rescue. Her guidebook is a great introduction to content strategy for the web. Simple and explanatory, with chapters on basic principles, the craft of content strategy, and tools and techniques for the trade, The Elements of Content Strategy lends a wise and gentle hand to the lost and scared novice, pointing out the way to go.

My favorite thing about the book is the vivid and enlightening examples Erin gives comparing the online world to the real world. One such example paints a fruitless search for an item in a hardware store. The customer goes to the store looking for an upholstery hammer, only to be bombarded with mission statements, misguided directions, marketing scams, and finally denied access to the very section the hammer is located.

“Please return to the front of the store and try your search again!”

It’s a funny example, but how many times has the same thing happened to us when looking for something online? And, more importantly to business, how many of us have returned to the site to search again or simply clicked on a more user-friendly competitor’s page?

It is examples like this and others that help the reader understand that the web is not some fantastical other-dimensional world of codes and numbers, but rather a real place, where the careful creation, execution, and maintenance of content really makes a difference first for the user, and then for the company.

As 2013 gets off to a start and people everywhere are making New Year’s resolutions, it is a great time to think about our organizations’ plans and goals for marketing in the coming year. Based on what I’ve seen in 2012, I’ve come up with three simple New Year’s resolutions for marketing teams in all kinds of organizations.

1. Go mobile. As more and more people use their mobile device as their primary tool for information seeking, online shopping, social media, and surfing the web, it is increasingly important for companies to make their marketing websites accessible on mobile. User experience is becoming increasingly important, and if a client has trouble using your website, they may turn to a competitor who has a more user-friendly responsive site.

2. Be resourceful. For the past 20 years I have driven by a building that I’ve always wondered about. It is located right on Presidio Parkway, a main artery that leads to the heart of San Francisco. Thousands of cars drive on it in and out of the city everyday. The white stucco walls never had any signage until a week ago when a simple banner appeared: the Presidio YMCA. It was genius. Not only was my lingering curiosity satisfied, now every single person driving in and out of the city knew that the YMCA is there. And I would bet that the Presidio YMCA will see a huge spike in registrations because of that signage. Good marketing doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate; sometimes your best campaigns come from the resources you already have.

3. Stay in touch. In an age when happenings are reported on twitter before it even breaks the news wire, we need to be connected to current events. Through facebook, twitter, and news apps, our customers are more connected than ever, and as organizations, we need to be too. Lately, Rue La La, an online shopping company showed its solidarity to the Sandy Hook community by sending an email linking to a donation site for the families of the victims. This simple reaction to current events not only showed their support but also was widely acclaimed by its patrons on social media. Staying in the know shows that we as organizations care about what is going on, and connect us to our users in unique and meaningful ways.

2012 was a great year, and with thoughtful planning and intuitive insights, 2013 can be an even more creative, fun, and innovative year for marketing teams everywhere. Cheers!

While I don´t usually pay much attention to the game, I love the Superbowl for its commercials, and I´m not the only one. The Superbowl is advertising´s biggest event of the year, with millions of American viewers tuning in with high expectations for entertainment and advertising innovation. Every brand tries to grab its 30 seconds of the spotlight and make the best impression. A great superbowl commercial can boost a company´s popularity immensely, and a bad one turns out to be a waste of 3.5 million bucks.

I´m rating the commercials as usual based on tone, strategy, persuasive appeals, and message, but this year I´m adding a new element: social media. It seems to me that nearly every advertisement made these days should encourage the public to add to the conversation, and I´m interested to see which of these top American brands can churn out a great ad that appreciates social media.

1. Coca Cola

I know its a common pick, but Coca Cola produced two beautiful and funny ads doing the best job involving the online community–so much so that their server overloaded during the game! The twitter hastag #gamedaypolar bears got a lot of RT, and the Coca Cola website, facebook page, and twitter page offered more cute and cuddly polar bear content, with the bears reacting in real time to the game´s happenings.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CueNjgmG8UM”%5D

2. Honda

Honda advertised for its CRV with celebrity spokesperson Matthew Broderick doing a recreation of Ferris Bueller´s Day, playing himself and once again faking an illness to have a little fun driving in his CRV. The ad cleverly pays homage to the movie, recreating scenes that viewers were encouraged to spot and report back. For its Acura NSX, Honda showed a very funny commercial with celebrity, Jerry Seinfeld, trying to be the first owner of the new car. It´s twitter hastag #JerryNSX got a lot of mentions on twitter, and the ads twist ending makes it very memorable. “Leno….”

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOL22euixuA”%5D

3. Huluplus

Even though this ad didn´t have any social media integration in its tv spot, I just love it. Hulu did some great branding, with funny guy Will Arnett touring the “Huluboratory”, an underground complex where engineers deviously scheme to make the perfect cocktail of TV content to hypnotise the American brain all “with a sprig of mint”. They also did a nice job incorporating quotes from some popular TV shows like South Park. Very entertaining and memorable.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=radsOm7_e58″%5D

4. The Voice

Also lacking in a social media call, but so clever and fantastic I´ve gotta write about it. In the style of Mortal Kombat, the Voice´s 5 celebrity judges fight a kung fu battle, or “Vocal Kombat”, to find an amazing talent. They kick and fly their way across a hotel to find the source of a beautiful voice they hear singing from a shower. Cristina Aguilera breaks down the door of a hotel room to find none other than our favorite Golden Girl, 90-year-old Betty White in a bathrobe, who reacts to the break-in the with the cheeky confidence that only Betty White can muster.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvzIfrsViWg”%5D

5. Toyota

Between its “Reinvention” and “Connections” spots, Connections was my personal favorite. It was well-written, sentimental, diverse, and American. With millions of Toyota drivers in the US, every one of us has a story to tell. I got so excited, anticipating a social media call, but the brand instead drives traffic to its website, and sweepstakes promotion. When I later followed up to read CamryEffect on twitter, I was disappointed to find its tweets blocked from the public view. Maybe they can work out the kinks for Superbowl 47.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N406PJKJ_rM”%5D

Well, that´s my take on it, but what about you? Do you think there was enough social media integration in the ads? Which was your favorite? Comment below to give your feedback.

I just finished reading Clout by Colleen Jones, and I am amazed. In 11 jam-packed chapters, Colleen explains the landscape of web content in our world today, underlines the principles of persuasion and rhetoric that should guide our content decisions, and later gives practical strategies that anyone can apply to their web strategy. But this comprehensive guide to content is not all theory; Colleen provides countless case studies and examples that bring her arguments to life. And, she has a great sense of humor.

While I don´t want to give the entire book away so you can go read it for yourself, I will share some things I learned about creating websites, advertising campaigns, and social media profiles that will influence people and get results.

1. Content is what people want. Colleen shares that in a study of how people read on the web, results showed that people read more deeply on websites that on other content. I was first perplexed by this idea, but then realized that the difference between reading online and reading offline is motivation. Most people go to the internet to find out about something, be it health advice, or what shoes are in style this season. In the light of this information, it is incredibly important that organizations carefully manage and edit their content online!

2. To get people to act, they must be motivated and feel able to make a change. I was most interested in how we can encourage ability online. Colleen explains that instructional videos are key to helping an online customer feel able to use a product, and thus, more motivated to buy it. A great example of this is the Dropbox website video which definitely converted me to the product. While reading this book I was thinking about buying a digital SLR camera, which I had NO idea how to use. I went onto the Canon website to get more information, but I was really discourage to find they had no promo video I could watch to familiarize myself with this new camera.

3. Using web forums. Colleen defines a forum as a place on the web where you can put your content. The most common forum is an organization’s website, but facebook, twitter, youtube, and wikipedia are also common forums. One interesting point that Colleen makes is that instead of worrying about covering all of the forums possible, know which forums your audience is most present on, and focus on those.

4. Identify with your audience through content. Its a bit counter intuitive, but Colleen makes a strong argument for enabling user generated content on your site in order to identify with your audience. If you think about it, people writing on your site probably will have the same needs and desires as other people visiting your website. With their comments and reviews on your site, your users may be able to convince a consumer to act without the organization having to do one thing!

5. The last issue that Colleen addresses that is really important in today´s hyper-communicative online community is how to deal with mistakes. All it takes is one tweet, fb status, or youtube video to change the reputation of a company, and with devastating results. Colleen relates the tale of one airline provider whose stocks plummeted overnight because of a youtube complaint video that went viral. Colleen advises having an action plan before disaster strikes, and following up quickly and directly with your consumers. Transparency and communication are the keys to surviving the storm.

In all, a wonderful book that can be read by all. Colleen Jones is a great mind in Content Science and I know that her ideas communicated in Clout will influence my decisions when confronted with how to influence and persuade through web content.

 The Story…

At UC Santa Barbara, I was a part of a campus club called Real Life. We were a tight-knit community that held lots of events throughout the year, the most spectacular event of them being Battle of the Ages, a month long competition for glory and honor between all four classes.

In 2006, my class made Battle of the Ages (BOTA) history when we became the first freshman class to ever win the competition. At the award ceremonies that June, we started a chant, or rather, a prophecy for our class, “All Four Years”.

Fast forward 4 years. It is our senior year, BOTA time. We had won 3 years in a row and we needed a win this 4th year. We hadn´t worked 3 years for nothing. We we graduating seniors, and we had to go out with a bang.

BOTA consists of various challenges that the classes participate in. One is a week long game, another Sport´s Day, and the last, a video project. Our class had always been least competitive in the video project, so we primarily relied on our performance in the other events to boost our score.

But my senior year, we were up against some serious contenders, and we needed to make sure we won the video competition to assure all four years of victory. Tension was running high, people were stressed with schoolwork, and fresh out of ideas.

The Job…

One of my friends dutifully took on the video project because she knew it had to be done. She was overwhelmed with the work, and I offered to help her. As we sat down to brainstorm, it became clear that we wanted different things. She wanted to do a serious, sentimental piece as a way to say goodbye to Real Life and thank them for such a amazing four years. I thought otherwise.

I knew that Real Life wanted to have fun. While it is true that we are often sentimental, when it came to the BOTA videos, it was all about entertainment and F-U-N. I was afraid that with a completely serious video, we wouldn´t be able to win in that category.

It was a hard conversation to have. She was the leader here, the video was her baby. Who was I to walk in and tell her how to run the show? I told her that the message was a great one, but could be more entertaining if we put a celebratory tone behind it, instead of a somber one.

The Idea…

Impromptu dance scenes had become big in mainstream entertainment. In movies like Napoleon Dynamite, Slumdog Millionaire, and 500 Days of Summer, audiences were surprised, perplexed, but mostly lovestruck with these dance scenes, as evidenced by the countless youtube covers. Inspired by this new movement in entertainment, we decided to incorporate an impromtu dance sequence at the end of our video. We knew it would come as a surprise that would thrill the audience and still be able to reflect our sentiments.

Today I am happy to say we won the video competition. The judges loved the video for its group-centered focus and sentimental message, and the audience jumped to their feet to sing and dance along with our final dance scene. It was a total success, and we were crowned the winners of BOTA. All four years had become a reality.

What I Learned…

What I learned from this experience is that, when creating a campaign, it is important for the integrity of the brand to accurately communicate it´s own message but never at the expense of the audience’s needs and desires. Another thing I learned is that compromise is vitally important to the success of the campaign when working in a team. Lastly, I experienced that paying attention to trending topics can provide inspired ideas that the audience will relate to and respond to.

And now for your viewing pleasure, the winning 2010 BOTA senior class video:

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FEFovwQu8″%5D

Photo credit: Real Life facebook group