PLATFORM: GET NOTICED IN A NOISY WORLD

Tomi Ladeji

SCOM 460
Dr. Allison
May 2, 2016

Introduction
In todays world, there is always something is to be sold. When there is a product, service
or cause to be sold, there has to be an efficient way to get the public to notice it so that your
product, service or cause can reach your audience effectively. Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy
World, a New York Times bestseller, by Michael Hyatt, he discusses how to build your brand
using social media to increase your impact and get the attention of your audience. Hyatt explains
that to achieve success in what ever field you are in, you should build a platform, or a good
audience, you need to learn how to connect with your current audience and potential followers.
In Hyatts book, Platform, he breaks up the process of building a platform into five different
steps, start with the wow, prepare to launch, build your home base, expand your reach, and
engage your tribe. If you are trying to get noticed in this busy world where there is a lot of
competition, using this five step process that Hyatt explains in his book can help you reach your
target.

Part One: Start With Wow

In the introduction of Hyatts book Platform, he discusses the two major parts of success
in building a platform to get noticed: a compelling product (the what) and a significant platform
(the who) ( Hyatt p.3) To obtain an audience in the first place, the first major step Hyatt
suggests that you should is create a compelling product. A quote in Hyatts book by David
Ogilvy says, Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster (3). This quote explains the
importance of having a valuable product or resource. Hyatt includes three understandings of how
to create a compelling product. The first is to create products you would personally use because

it shows that you have so much faith in your product and that you truly love it. The second is to
create products that solve problems in unexpected ways because it can make your product stand
out from other competitors. The last insight that Hyatt shares is to create products that exceed
your customers expectations because your audience will see that it is better than the other
similar products out there with its features (5).
When you have a product that stands out from its competitors and is compelling it means
that is must have a wow factor about it. It has something that makes people want to talk about it
and share the news and experience with others. To create an experience that will wow your
audience should include elements such as surprise, anticipation, resonance, transcendence,
clarity, presence, universality, evangelism, longevity, and privilege (10). All of these elements
together can bring the wow factor into creating and displaying your product, service or cause.
When you have an element that brings a sense of shock and surprise to your product it can make
your product stand out from the crowd and exceed market expectations. A unique product
experience can assist in exceeding the customers current expectations and really help your
product stand out. Although you may have created a compelling product, there are still some
challenges that may come up while creating wow experiences. They can range from just simply
running out of time, not having enough resources or sufficient experience to running into the
biggest obstacle of all, fear (18).
To make the wow factor happen, you must never settle for less than great. You must
make sure that you connect with the original vision and listen to your heart, as well as remind
yourself what is at stake and to speak up. A great name is also a way to capture your audience
and also gain followers. It can help you connect with potential prospects that may be interested
in your product or service. The name should at least have a title that makes a promise, create

intrigue, identify a need, or simply state the content (24). Packaging your product has a great
impact on how your product reaches you potential customers. I must be able to draw your
customer in while staying true to the brand.
Part Two: Prepare to Launch
When you have created your compelling product and have added the wow factor and
unique experience into it you should be prepared to launch your product. To get ready to present
your product to your audience you should make sure that you always accept responsibility for
your product. You should be passionate about your product and know more about it than anyone
else. While you are preparing to launch whether its a new business, product, or service, you
should always consider your mental attitude and mindset. You should think bigger by writing
down your dream and imagine the possibilities of what can happen when you build a successful
platform (37). Goals and can help prepare you to launch your platform in a measurable way.
Defining your platform goals will force you to clarify what you want, provide a filter for other
opportunities, help you overcome your resistance and help motivate you to take action. Most
importantly setting measurable goals will enable you tosee and celebrateyour progress
(40).
To successfully sell your product and brand, you should always be prepared to present
your idea. You should present your idea in a quick and informative way by using an elevator
pitch. An elevator pitch is, a short summary of your product offering, including your target
market (the people most likely to become your customers) and your value proposition (what you
have to offer those customers) (41). It is important to grab that attention of your potential
customers fast and get them to know and understand what you are offering them.

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To launch your compelling product, you should always be prepared and have a set of

personal branding tools. There are many tools that you would need to launch your platform but
there are some very basic ones that you may over look. Having a professional and reputable email address is very important for your brand to be taken seriously. Going along with having a
professional e-mail address, including an
e-mail signature is crucial to creating another branding impression (46). Another opportunity to
create a powerful branding impression is to have business cards that communicate your brand
with information such as, your logo, your name, your contact information, and your social media
contact information (46). One of the most useful branding tools your brand can have is a website.
Your website may be one of the first impressions that a potential customer may have with your
brand. As Hyatt states in the book, It will shape their opinion of you (47). It is important that
your website or blog can communicate what your brand is about and the personality of it by
having a central theme. When your website has a general theme you can use that and incorporate
that into your social media accounts which are crucial to reaching and gaining followers. As a
brand you want your fans and followers to have a consistent brad experience so that they can
recognize your brand no matter what social media platform they are on (47).
As stated earlier, you should always accept personal responsibility for your brand.
However, you will also need a team to help you get to your final destination. You should have
administrative help, management, agents to represent you, a content creation team, and a team of
publishers. Endorsements can help push your product to your audience and help you reach
potential followers. Using celebrity endorsements and user reviews are ways you can reach your
target. Another element that can help you build your personal platform is to have good photos of
yourself because people it can help people connect with you. To get nice headshots that will

attract fans and followers you should hire a professional photographer, wear something
appropriate, take several photos, crop the photo tightly and primarily pick one main photo (57).
To prepare for the launch of your platform developing an online media kit can help the
people who want to help you get the word out about you or your product get more information.
Your online media kit should include a headline, simple navigation, contact information, product
information, promotion information, interviewer resources, fan resources, and media reactions,
such as your best product and customer reviews (59-66). This can all help you prepare to launch
your platform.
Part Three: Build Your Home Base
When it comes to social media having a home base is important to have for your
platform. It is somewhere that you control and where your fans can gather and find more
information about your brand or product (70). It is important to spread the word about your
product by using to use social media and your online followers. The most cost effective way to
get the word out about your product is by talking about it online. One way to get the discussion
going is by starting a blog. You should use the unifying theme that is already on your website
and business cards and then you can go one and start creating content yourself. On your blog,
your followers and fans want to hear personally from you and have an open and authentic
dialogue with you. Your blog should contain interesting and informative content that will draw
your readers in. The blog post topics could range from commenting on something in the news to
describing a historical event, to even just answering your readers questions (86-87). What you
post is all up to you but it is important to get your content out there in a timely manner, but you
should make sure that you dont post too often or make your posts too long (99). Your content
can include video interviews that can inform and capture the attention of your audience. It is also

important to make sure that you understand copyright laws and to protect your intellectual
property.
A successful blog has an informative, but personal about page that is conversational and
tells the reader about the blog (103). A landing page is also important to your website and can
help your reader navigate your website easier.
Part Four: Expand Your Reach
To have a successful platform you must use a new way to market and reach your target
audience. You must be generous and provide a way for your followers to communicate with your
tribe, or community (129). With this new way of marketing you can generate more traffic to your
blog by increasing how much you post, write shorter posts, and become more engaged in
comments with your followers. You should also write content that is worth sharing, get on a
posting schedule, optimize your posts for SEO, utilize social media, engage in conversation with
other blogs and bloggers, get your own domain name, and make it easy to subscribe to your blog
(136). Once you start building your online presence you should connect with other bloggers and
write guests posts for their blogs. Another strategy that can help promote your brand and
platform is to give your followers free things by building a mailing list, generating customer
reviews, and providing product samples for them. You can offer free sample to your potential
customers to give them a sample of your product or service (148). You can also offer other
bloggers or reviewers free products in exchange for an honest review on their blog. Offering
specials and discounts from purchases from your main website can also help gain and retain
customers (149).
Twitter is a great social media platform to gain followers and expand your platform.
Twitter can help you network, become a better writer, and help you stay connected with people

you care about as well as current topics. It can also drive traffic to your blog or website and can
help build your personal brand. Twitter is a great tool to make your online presence known. If
you have many followers it can should that you are an expert in something or have personal
authority (169). The more followers you have can lead to more sales of your product. To get
more followers you should make your twitter personal by having an interesting bio, showing a
photo of yourself, sharing valuable content, and replaying to others publicly (170-171). When
you gain followers it is important to make sure you keep them. Similar to twitter, Facebook is
also a great way to promote your brand or product. Having a Facebook fan page can help your
family, friends, and fans stay connected with you (181).
Part Five: Engage Your Tribe
In the last section of Hyatts book Platform, he shares about how to connect with your
tribe, or people who share similar passions. Blog comments can help your tribe connect with you
and others that share the same interests. To gain more comments you should end your posts with
a question, make it easy for your readers to comment, and participate in the conversation (194).
Although you want to engage in conversation with your tribe you do not need to respond to
every comment. You should at least be present and add value to the conversation (196). To keep
you comments and conversations civil a comments policy and be implemented to establish the
rules of engagement on your blog (199). Online trolls may present themselves in you comments
section but there is no need to feed in them (212).
When you are successfully building your platform and getting noticed, it is crucial that
you monitor your brand. People are talking about you or your product and you should make sure
you know what that conversation is about. You can sign up for Google Alerts, use twitter search,
and engage in the conversation to monitor your brand online (205). You may also need to defend

your brand at times by building an online presence, monitoring conversations, responding

quickly to criticism and admitting your mistakes (208). This can make sure that your followers
can trust you. Once you have built your platform you can now monetize your blog. You can use
your blog to sell advertising, promote affiliates, and sell products (215).

Conclusion
In conclusion I think Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt, gave a
very good and thorough break down of how to make your self or your product stand out in
todays hyper-noisy world. Hyatt shares his own experiences and explains the process of building
a platform to get your product, service or brand noticed online. Having a great unique product
can set the foundation to your platform. An online presence or blog can help you gain an
audience and engage with them in several ways. The book laid down the structure and each
section built on the other and really helped me understand what Hyatt was saying in each section.

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Bibliography

Hyatt, M. S. (2012). Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.