By guest author Karen Gunton.
manifesto.
a public declaration of intentions, opinions, principles, objectives, or motives
Are you looking for a way to spread your brand message in a genuine, authentic way? I highly recommend writing and sharing a manifesto for your biz.
Here’s why:
A manifesto…
- allows you to publicly declare what it is you believe in, your mission in life, your view point on an issue, or how you wish to help people
- will appeal to people who believe what you believe or want the same things that you do – you will automatically attract your right people
- is something that will resonate very strongly with people – causing them to print, post, share, pin, tweet, and send – authentically helping you to spread the word to more of your right people
- lets people know that you ‘get’ them, invites them to join you in your mission, makes you relatable to them – it is a very powerful way of communicating a big message!
- will help you stay true to your cause – ensuring that future plans, activities, and strategies fit with your vision for your business (and when you make it public you are held accountable)
- is a flexible way to share your spark with the world – it can be pretty, powerful, inspiring, motivating, uplifting, serious, humourous, written, graphic, a story, a poem, a manuscript, an image, a video… you name it. Your manifesto does not have to be any certain thing, it can be 100% you! It should be 100% you.
The key things to keep in mind are:
- your message – What is it that you want to say? What would be authentic and genuine and fueled by passion?
- your audience – What do they care about? What would help, inspire, motivate, energize, and/or resonate with them?
- your business – What does this have to do with your business and brand? How will it become authentic marketing for your business?
Remember, not only is this a powerful way of sharing your own message with the world, but the idea is to connect with other people who care about the same things you do, your right people.
And the benefit is that those people will want to share it, allowing you to connect with even more right people. So you want this to be highly shareable, something that will resonate, and absolutely genuine.
To get started:
Pick your topic – You can write a more general manifesto about your business passion and purpose, or pick a more specific topic to address, and then ask yourself… What do I stand for? What do I believe in? What is the change I want to make in the world? And then just start writing. Write like you talk!
Another idea for creating the content for your manifesto is to get your customers and fans to help you write it – ask them about their thoughts on a topic and then create a manifesto out of the best of the responses – the ones that really resonate and mesh with your passion & purpose.
Once you have your content, put it together as a poster, an eBook, a video… really any medium that suits you and your biz. Then of course the key is sharing it with your fans. Make it easy for them to post, pin, tweet, email, save, print, etc. – if it resonates with them they will want to keep it for themselves and share it with others.
Most importantly have fun with it! This should be a genuine reflection of the passion you have for your business, the work you do, and the customers you serve.
Need some manifesto inspiration? Pop over to my manifesto pinboard.
karen gunton is the blogger/teacher creative designer behind buildalittlebiz.com. her passions are helping women in biz get unstuck and brainstorming awesome ideas for little businesses. she is the author of the new guide “find your spark” which helps business owners hone in on their passion and purpose, and then share it authentically with the world.