Perhaps the greatest hurdle in advertising is visibility—especially online. The internet is huge. Big to the point even attempting to put it into an understandable measurement is an exercise in brain melting. And in that sea of noise, there is a lot of difficulties in making oneself known to the public.

It’s not like being around Clearwater and advertising a shop. You can’t walk up to people you know as they pass by and tell them about a new restaurant. Not when it comes to the internet. Attempts like that in digital spaces seem like spam, even when it’s coming from a friend. Places like Nature’s Food Patch, Kara Lynn’s Kitchen on Cleveland Street, Manos Bakery Cafe, etc. are all good real world restaurants, but because they are not huge brands with large social media followings, they are in practically the same wheelhouse as any small person or group trying to advertise on the internet.

And, so, that begs the question of what to do. If you are a physical place trying to advertise online, what do you do? Similarly, if you run an online-only business, what can you try? How can someone rise above the masses?

Now, magic bullets do not exist, but you can do the usual: make content which people want to consume, follow along with what’s trending, go for shock or scandal, or just have good quality products (a rarer thing online than one would hope). And these are all legitimate tactics, but beyond that, beyond the standard approaches or the sleazy options, other methods of advertising oneself exist. And though it might take a few articles to cover them all, I will endeavor to discuss some of the other methods of getting eyeballs in front of your stuff.

Because if we have a shortage of something on the internet, its attention.

And like money, you’ll need it to survive as a company or organization. So, the first advertising method I want to cover may sound like a strange one: but images. I don’t care if you sell tiny pieces of computer technology, you still need to spread images. To my eternal chagrin, with the speed and half-concentrated way we interact with our technology, images are way more likely to catch the eye. Reading, and I consider this a positive trait, requires one to pay attention to absorb the experience. Movies or other media require concentration, sure, but it’s more mandatory with books and articles. And people, sadly, often don’t have time to stop and read too many words. But an image will stick with them. An image will hold if it is striking. Be it funny, or sad, or visually pleasing, if it plucks a chord, it will hold in people’s minds.

So, that’s what you do first. Find something connected to what you make and sell and commit it to the visual arts. And, once you’ve completed my first assignment, we can move to the next part of this. The logical forward step from still images: the moving picture.

So, until then.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Discipline. I don’t think many know what the word means. I think it’s ill-defined or misunderstood.

If the number of people who swear they will lose weight, write that novel, run a marathon, etc., is any indication, then people either don’t know the meaning, have it wrong, or are unwilling to accept and apply it.

Let me be clear here, the phrase: “You can do anything you set your mind to,” is basically talking about discipline. Because the result of just sticking to something is perhaps one of the most powerful things in this universe. People respect the dogged attack to one defined goal.

And I understand how complex life is, how much people must make allowances for things. How family, or friends, or significant others are more important than hitting the gym every single day—at least to most people. But, regardless, let’s go back to what discipline means.

The definition readily available online speaks about a pattern or rule set ingrained, often by punishment. And while I do not think punishments are necessary, the rest of the definition is sound.

Discipline is doing something regardless of how you feel, or what your whims are. Getting that gym visit in regardless of everything. Sticking to pattern even if every molecule screams against you.

Hard to do? Yes. But the other option is things staying the same. And you can decide if that’s worthwhile. Chasing a goal takes focusing on the goal every single day, sacrificing some of the things you like: I’d recommend cutting television time as an easy sacrifice.

Let me illustrate here the sheer power of the “doing something every single day” model. Let’s take Starbucks. The Starbucks on Cleveland Street. Open every day, isn’t it? Marketing relentlessly, right? And it flourishes. They make so much money. As a brand people trust, yes, but also because they are there—they show up. They put in the effort. If Starbucks closed for even a little while, then others would take customers. They’d lose some footing. Momentum.

Never underestimate momentum, in the literal, or—in this case—figurative sense. Momentum is energy that makes stopping or slowing less possible. Sure, momentum can be hard to build up at first. But do something every day and you will find the difficulty lessening. Your willpower skyrockets, and your habits are strong enough to make people around you respect what you need to do.

Now, clearly, marketing this idea is beneficial. And though I may sound like an infomercial or some self-help book or motivational speech, what I am saying is not easy or something even most people will do—but still deserves marketing to as many as possible. I am not promising glory. I am simply saying people have the capacity for incredible personal change. Your business, life, or general health (barring obvious outliers and exceptions) can improve, if one is willing to put in the day to day to endless day of effort toward a goal.  

It does take heart. But, if you desire something, it’s kind of the only way.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Despite words being simply the vocal sounds we make to express ideas, they themselves over time have come to hold those same ideas intrinsically. Becoming linked in a way that would not be easy to understand to a life form without language. And, though, I wish I could say all words are equal, that is not the case.

Some words hurt. Some words offend. Some raise up people. Others squash people down. But some words, some words are so special—so ingrained—that they have power.

Deep power. The ability to spur thought in the single instant of the reading/hearing of it. Some of these words can, and do, get tossed around in common parlance, and yet when invoked with the right intonation they have the same oomph as any fantasy spell shouted with a wand.

You can think of a few of these on your own, I’m sure.

“Love.”

“Hate.”

“Fire.”

“Truth.”

Context is everything. But these words, in the right moment, at the right volume: are immensely powerful. And today, I am talking about the one which any fan of Braveheart knows:

“FREEDOM!” 

What a contentious word. The republicans and the democrats and the libertarians and the communists all argue about it, and what it means. From person to person, of all stripes, from the librarians at Clearwater Public Library to those who purchase guns at our ranges, from servicemen and servicewomen who fight for us, and to the criminals behind bars: the word has a unique, personal meaning.

Freedom from things. Freedom to do things. At a bar, you can drink. At a hookah lounge, you can hookah. At a library, you are free from loud noises. At a shelter, you are free from the storm. Anarchy is absolute freedom, but so is a void.

But the sweet spots between those deep extremes, those we chase. We desire them above all things. Humans, even beyond our biological needs, grasp for new freedoms. Freedom from suffering and all things we despise.

And marketing knows this. Marketing is the art of knowing what people want and trying to supply it. And though, like I said, freedom is a thing unique to all people in its meaning, that does not mean advertisers and marketing executives do not try to bottle the essence of it into products.

“Freedom from” is the most common. “Freedom for” is the other. Labor-saving and timesaving devices are the hallmark of our modern age and what we want out of our consumer goods. And then, as it became a necessary supplement, we also wanted, and still want, freedom from the crushing boredom that results in not enough things left to do.

Freedom is the most powerful force for changing the world. And for defining human endeavor and creation. So, in all you do, if you sell, or market, or just seek to understand the whims of the people—even when it seems counterintuitive—remember the core desire of freedom. Know that though some may see the camera as a warden, others see it as a protector. When people feel they are in a box, they want a ladder out. And when people feel like they need to hide, they want somewhere safe to go.

And remember, perhaps most of all, how powerful a single word can be regardless of whoever wields it.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

And now: our conclusion. I’ve spent a long time typing/talking about the importance and relevance and idealness of the political correctness situation. I’ve endorsed and argued.

But, now, for those still opposed and wanting me to address the elephant in the room: may I present the very real problem of the political correctness movement. A problem which, while I don’t think dismisses the system by its existence, does—in fact—exist.

And it’s when people use it as a weapon.

Now, let me clarify what I mean with a little preamble. We all have at least one aspect of language we use which is not politically correct, but for most of us, that is simply because we do not know. We live our routine lives, and for whatever reason haven’t come across the knowledge that the particular word we spoke is “problematic”.

Even within the political correctness mindset, this should not be a big issue. Bringing it to someone’s attention in a calm, informative manner without hostility should be enough to dissuade. I’ve told people basically “oh, don’t use that word, use this one if you want to refer to that nationality,” and they thanked me for it. They did not know what word to use. They did not mean to offend.

However, not everyone does this. And here’s the problem: sometimes us political correctness supporters go overboard. Use the ideals as a weapon against others. Political correctness gets its bad reputation, its bad P.R., from someone blowing up and publicly attacking.

When someone gets triggered and attacks, they trigger others right back. And it goes wide. Because of the world we live in, with permanent records of everything and live streaming of events, arguments between a few spread to many. Look at political arguments for premium examples. Even small business disputes over this sort of thing can end up on Clearwater’s news. And sometimes even on major country-wide channels.

And for this to die down as a problem, we need to adopt the calm, collected correcting method I outlined. Because being civil is the whole point. Angrily shouting will not make someone more inclined to monitor their language.

Going forward, and for the future of this movement, the main thing we need to keep in mind is that we are still trying to teach the world. Not rule it.

We are not fighting a war here, is what I am saying. We are trying to inform people that old ideas might be wrong and that language can be wrong, and that racism and sexism and homophobia et cetera is wrong.

It’s supposed to be a peaceful movement. A Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi style endeavor.

We cannot just ban words and then not offer a reason or an alternative word to use. That is banning communication. And if you look at history, making a group silent does not result in friendly discourse. Sometimes, we do need to refer to people with specific words for clarity of speech—and as long as we use kind, non-offensive ones, we are fine.

We need to teach, to inform, to promote empathy. To show, through peacefulness and kindness, why these words are not to be spoken, instead of putting muzzles on people.

If we could do that, if we could educate and not enforce, then the P.R. for this movement would not have the same stigma as it does now, and we could move into the future with confidence.

And maybe, even, finally, make a future where humanity is at least, at least, a little more kind to itself and all of its people.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

This is a tentative article. Because I am going to skirt along the lines of seriously loaded historical issues here. But this is not, at the end of the day, a discussion specifically about the nature of racism. That is a discussion that needs to continue to happen on the world’s stage, and I encourage people talking about it, but that is not the purpose here with this article.

No. the purpose here is to talk about political correctness as it existed in the past.

Because, well, before, words were harsher. Perhaps not viewed as such by the people who said them: but to our modern ears, some of the terms are brutal and derogatory to the point I am unwilling to write them on this digital piece of paper even for the sake of example.

You know which words I mean anyway. It seems that every culture at one point or another had a word tied to it which nowadays is enough to get you fired from a job. Words so venomous they sicken.

Back then, as near as I can tell, these words were not as charged on their own merits, nor detrimental to the speaker. If what media we have from that era are anything to go on, then back in “ye olden times” you could refer to African American individuals, a member of the Jewish faith, a homosexual individual, et cetera, with words now so hateful and not many would bat an eye. You could saunter along the old streets of Downtown Clearwater and shout complaints about groups of people with little recourse (assuming you were a white male landowner.)

But then, something changed. I know not if it was gradual, or realized in chunks, but with the hindsight of the history of culture and wars and interactions, we looked back on such days and shuddered. Or, at least, some people did.

As we grew to stop treating people as the “other” (a growth to which we are still trying to acclimate), we began to shun the words shouted at people beaten and abused. For rightful reasons.

As a white male American, I feel what is colloquially referred to as “white guilt” for the actions of my past genetic predecessors. And with the internet connecting us, a big gathering of people with similar guilt all came to the conclusion we mustn’t use even the language of the past’s hate—or anything which might connect to it.

And from there, it cemented as a P.R. thing. Even though certain people bemoan the necessity of the “neutering” of language for the sake of avoiding offending, it is not without precedence.

There is a reason we don’t, unless for the immediate disregarding of someone’s argument, tend to quote Hitler. And political correctness is similar in intent.

And while detailing the history of hateful language could, and should, be a large-scale documentary on a major television channel, it is the time of the present that we get to the interesting growing pains of the political correctness “movement.”

But that is the next two articles to come.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com