Right now, content is your connection

Face-to-face interactions are extremely limited these days. We’ve all felt the longing pang for in-person collaboration or lunch with a trusted colleague. For frontliners, they’ve adopted personal distance, protective gear, or video chat to do their jobs – adding an awkward barrier to relationship building and service.

How can we better connect with colleagues, customers, employees, and partners? It’s time to sharpen your online communications. Content is the new connection, but it’s critical for it to be engaging and purposeful. While we may have extra time on our hands, we don’t want to waste it sifting through meaningless messaging.

Establish regular updates, but not too much since you might be deemed “spammy.” Share changes in your organization that address the shifting landscape. If you’ve got a beneficial product or service, promote it and trumpet the why and how. If you’ve got practical tips or advice, post it! You may help someone. Have a burning desire to stand up for your beliefs? Let your network know what your values are. Be thoughtful, strategic, and consistent, and consider Bounce your guide.

Thanks for checking with us! Stay well and we hope you enjoy what we’ve prepared here for you.

With love,

Ada Rosales

Founder & Chief Strategist
Bounce Marketing & Consulting

p.s. Please share this with anyone you think will enjoy it. Thank you!

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The Great Problem Solver: Content

Photo by Donna Kraus
Content can be such a good salve – honestly, it should be bottled and sold on every pharmacy shelf. It’s good that there are companies like Bounce who basically do this (wink, hint, nudge!)

Yet while content is not a cure-all for all of the ills your organization faces, it sure is a good solution for many of them, or at the very least can perform as a compass in a changing environment. What are some pain points that content can help solve when building or running an organization? Read on for some examples.

+ Read More (3 minutes)

Everyone is remote and morale/comradery is down. Developing regular communications (and keep in mind, these don’t always have to be written emails, they can be short videos or even a phone call) can help build team spirit when water cooler conversations no longer exist. Find ways to engage with your team and employees regularly, even if you don’t have a concrete update. A little communication goes a long way – but remaining silent can propel teams into a deeper sense of uncertainty and loosen the connecting ties you previously had.
We don’t have that personal touch anymore. With the prevalence of social distancing, masks, shields, and general people avoidance, it’s difficult to connect in a human way. Add remote interaction to the mix and it’s even less personal. You can’t see a smile behind PPE, and you can’t read body language on a video chat. A handshake is now completely verboten. Those visual social cues, and even tactile moments, are gone. What do we have left? Our words. Our image. Our voice. Connecting is all about robust communication channels, warm and engaging content, and proactively anticipating needs and questions.
How the heck do I network without in-person events? For people in business development, sales, or speaking, this is a very tough one. It’s hard to build a pipeline of prospective customers for your business, for instance, when those in-person conversations that happen at conferences are no longer an option. A successful way around this is hosting small, informational, online events on unique topics, alongside the publication of related content. This involves developing a communications strategy – and finding out those niche, or even obvious, interests of your desired audience – and promoting your knowledge on the subject. And, publishing videos on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, is now the expected way to show your stuff to the world. That means you have plenty of channels at your disposal to explore and establish reach.
Mixing compassion with results. Despite the pandemic, we still have a bottom line. We still have to make profits, or at least break even, but we also have to be flexible and understanding with those who work for us or utilize our offerings. This means adopting an empathetic communication style. Before you communicate, consider your audience and all of the variables they may be facing. They may not have the fortune or luck you have. Their life may be much more challenging. So be thoughtful with your content, and always be willing to listen as well. This style of communication can really bridge your customer gaps, and keep your employees believing in the what and why of your business.

Remember, content is your connection, so use it wisely. If done well, it can help build relationships and correct a lot of issues - because communication is at the root of solving issues and developing your network.
BTW, we'd love to hear how you're doing.
Send us a note at: ideas@bouncemarketingconsulting.com to say hello.

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Everywhere you turn these days, you hear about authenticity. They say you’ve got to be real in order to connect with today’s social media savvy audiences and consumers. But it’s not necessarily true. Brian Clark, the founder of CopyBlogger, delivers a clear and thoughtful article around the idea of authenticity.
Check out the latest edition of It's In(side) Queens from the Queens Economic Development Corporation-Tourism Council for another incredible lineup of Queens based happenings and events in music, film, dance, art, history,...sheesh! It just keeps going. Just like Queens!
You shouldn’t dive into paid advertising or content marketing without knowing exactly who your buyers are. Knowing and understanding who buys, or will buy your products is imperative to help you maximize your advertising return-on-investment and content effectiveness. Check out this post from Shopify for a fairly comprehensive and very useful how to.
LinkNYC is a first-of-its-kind communications network that is replacing New York City pay phones with state-of-the-art kiosks called Links. Link Local is a program that provides free advertisements for small businesses, community groups, and local events. Best of all, LinkNYC generates its own revenue through advertising, sponsorships and partnerships, ensuring that it comes at no cost to users or taxpayers and is well maintained. Sounds like a win-win!
Everything you know about positioning is wrong. Positioning is the act of giving customers a map of the current landscape and then instructing them where they fit and why one solution is better than the others around them. The problem that positioning was designed to solve hasn’t gone away — it’s gotten exponentially worse. Learn more from April Dunford in her insightful post.
Bonus yummy link! I scream, you scream….ok, you know the rest! The entire world loves ice cream. And like most culinary sensations, Queens has the most delicious batches. Here are some of the borough’s best scoops, as served up by the Queens Chamber of Commerce. Just be sure to check in before you head out to a location near you. (Darn Covid!)

(Small) Businesses We Love

Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, Division of Workforce Development

Our client, the Division of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY continues to do what it does best; preparing adults for the ever-changing world of work. Check out their deep portfolio of relevant and top quality non-credit training programs in professions that are in high demand. The Division, like all of CUNY’s Adult and Continuing Education units across New York City, is playing an instrumental role in ensuring working adults have access to opportunities that do not require a traditional degree. As our city and region slowly reemerge, consider the Division of Workforce Development at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY as your partner to position you for career success.

About Create

Right now, content is your connection

Right now, content is your connection

The Great Problem Solver: Content

Things Worth Sharing

(Small) Businesses We Love

Bounce at Work