Marketing – Desmond's Blog

The three elements that made Oki Social successful

Published February 15, 2023

Find a Group of People

Before you can build a successful business, you need to identify your target audience. And not just any audience, but a group of people who are your biggest fans – your “superfans.” These are the people who are so passionate about your brand that they have made it a part of their identity and daily life. They will not only buy your product or service, but they will also talk about you online and offline, recommend you to their friends and family, and participate in a community of like-minded enthusiasts.

One of the best ways to identify your superfans is to focus on a niche market. Find a group of people with a common interest, need, or problem that your business can solve. Kevin Kelly, a technology writer and founder of Wired magazine, calls this group your “1000 true fans.” Pat Flynn, an entrepreneur and author, calls them your “superfans.” Whatever you call them, these are the people who will be your most loyal customers and your best marketing tool. They will talk about you and your products in your vocabulary, online and offline.

Oki Social has a strong focus on building a strong community. We don’t brag about our designs and products. Instead, we focus on bringing people together around the business by hosting events and creating opportunities for local artists on Okinawa. As a result, we have built a group of superfans who love to support local businesses speically artists in their community.

Lock on to a phrase

Once you’ve identified your superfans, it’s time to lock on to a word or phrase encapsulating your business. This could be a problem you solve, a benefit you provide, or a unique selling proposition that sets you apart from the competition. For example, if your business is about helping people quit smoking, you might focus on the phrase “quit smoking” until it becomes synonymous with your brand.

The idea is to keep repeating your keyword or phrase until it becomes ingrained in people’s minds. This is how brands like Kleenex and Band-Aid have become so ubiquitous – they have become the go-to word for a specific product or service.

Oki Social delivers a unique value, and I have been repeating that since the beginning – Okinawa Focused Arts & Gifts. I am happy to see that within our fan base when they think Okinawa art, they think Oki Social. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. The key for business owners is to show up. You don’t have to make a big impact each time, but you gonna show up. The more frequently you appear and repeat what you do in every appearance, the more likely you will be remembered. YouTubers understand that their focus should be publishing consistently instead of aiming for that million-view video. You can’t engineer a hit video. It is must easier you show up consistently so one of your videos may become the next million-views video.

Set the Right Price

Finally, you need to set the right price for your product or service. This is where you need to consider what you make, who it’s for, and how desperately those people want to solve the problem you offer to solve for them. If you’ve identified your superfans correctly, they should be willing to pay a premium for your product or service.

On the other hand, if you set the price too high, you risk alienating your target audience. If your target audience is between 20 and 35, for example, you need to be careful. A fifteen-year gap could be the distance betweent two generations.

The 1%+1% rule of social media marketing

Published May 1, 2021

Say you have 200 followers on social media. Will the social media platform (Facebook, Instagram, etc) deliver your update to all 200 followers, meaning all 200 followers will see everyone one of your posts on their timeline? Not really.

The truth is no one knows the truth about how many of your followers will your update on social media. If you are an admin of a Facebook page, you get a number on how many people your post has reached. But that doesn’t mean these people see and understand the message in your post. Instagram does a better job with the heart button. When you receive a heart from someone, that means that someone on the receiving end stops looking at your post and then decides to take a small action, which sends a signal that he or she sees your post.

So what should we expect from social media? When you post something on social media and hope people who see your post take action, what is the outcome you should expect?

I use the 1% + 1% rule.

The first 1% is the percentage of your followers who will see, on just receive, but they will see and understand what action you want them to take.

The other 1% is out of the first 1% – the followers who understand your intention, the percentage of people who will take the action you desire.

If you have 10,000 followers on Facebook, for example. You publish a post about your latest product, and you want your followers to click the link in the post to transact with you. 1% of your followers will see and understand what you want them to do, that is 1% of 10,000 = 100. And then 1% of the 1%, which is 1% of 100, would eventually choose to transact with you.

As you already know, the actual result depends on other aspects, but that is how I set the expectation for my social media campaigns.

“That is not enough,” you may say.

Well, it depends. If you have 1 million followers and apply the 1%+1% rule, that is 100 people that will transact with you. If each one pays you $1,000 every time to post something for them to buy, for most creators, that is probably more than enough.

“What if I only have 1,000 fans, or 100 fans, or even less?”

The 1%+1% rule still applies, but you can change it. I will talk about how in another post.

What is art and when does art becomes a business

Published April 10, 2021

Art is communication, just like talking or making a movie. Art is a way for an artist to send a message to the audience. When people say “I don’t understand the art”. That is the same as not getting the joke, though the joke is there.

Art becomes a business when the artist or someone who works with the artist deliberately produces the art in scale. That is step one. Once the art has been produced in scale, then the artist sells the art. After the art is sold, the profit is reinvested to create more new art or increase productivity. Once this cycle is formed and for as long as it continues, making art becomes a business.