Thread by @csavage

On the latest episode of #Brandwagon, I talked to @sparktoro founder @randfish about brand affinity.

Rand and I have been friends for years, and his ability to build trust and connect with people is something I’ve always admired.

One of the things Rand is best known for today is his weekly video series Whiteboard Fridays.

At first, it was just a way to save time writing blog posts.

Writing took time, while Rand could record a Whiteboard Friday in one take.

moz.com/blog/category/…

Each video was simple, consisting of just a whiteboard, Rand, and his casual walkthroughs of various topics in content, SEO, and marketing in general.

The more you watched, though, the more you felt a connection—not just to Rand, but to Moz.

By the time Rand left, Whiteboard Fridays drove the most traffic of any post on Moz, had the most signups, and had the best correlation with retention in the product.

At first, though, Whiteboard Fridays were actually the lowest-performing posts on the blog each week.

It took years for the value of Whiteboard Fridays to get recognized, and the idea only succeeded because Rand kept at it.

The story of Whiteboard Fridays is similar to the story of many great brands.

Creating something that people truly connect with just does not happen quickly, because all emotional connections require time to build.

So now, for marketing folks struggling to get their teams onboard with creating this kind of branded content, Rand has a few big pieces of advice:

1. Do something small now and show the value
2. Remind your boss how your competitors are building their brand

For more of Rand’s advice—and to hear why he has beef with Google—check out the latest episode of #Brandwagon below.

wistia.com/series/brandwa…