Companies which reach a certain size and manage to get to the top of their respective arena usually have only one way to go and that is mostly down. Unless…
What needs to be done in order to sustain the creative edge and keep a well-fed company hungry is to create such a sense of excitement at being different and a genuine intellectual curiosity that the end result is a company which is not afraid to challenge itself and try to find ways to do things not just better but also differently.
Google is just such a company. Despite its size and online dominance Google has managed to create a genuine sense of unrest in all its employees and a desire to challenge the zeitgeist. This has often resulted in projects which are surprising and, in retrospect, leave everyone wondering just why they had not thought about them, themselves, before Google did.
Google’s latest foray is no exception. Think Quarterly is a quarterly online magazine published by none other than, you guessed it, Google. Full of insights and the kind of quality writing which only top media companies could ever hope to bring to market it is also both a means of communication and advertising for the search giant.
Any company the size of Google has a full time job explaining itself to all its diverse customers. As Google says in the brilliantly web programmed site, the company communicates with partners, potential partners and end-users in many different ways some of which involve the use of traditional media and some of which employ digital.
Think Quarterly is a brilliant piece of intelligent analysis and great writing, presented in an eminently usable form to create a thinking space for those who do things as fast as possible. The magazine comes from Google’s UK and Ireland offices (and has a .co.uk domain name) and is now a new and shining channel through which Google battles for branding, hearts and minds and communication with its audience. It doesn’t also hurt that in the process the company gathers invaluable first-hand experience of media publishing and quality content creation. Experience which it may well use in improvements to its search algorithm or the development of media-only web products.
What’s cool for Google however can also be good for you. I know you may not have a multi-billion dollar global online business empire and even an online magazine like Google’s may be a bit of a stretch in terms of finances but there are still ways to create your own magazine and give your business one more means of communicating with its customers and potential customers. What’s more, today, it can be done effectively, professionally and with next to no cost.
How?
Read on.
The basics of course are a software program capable of producing a magazine (even Word will do it if you are careful in how you use it). You next need content which actually delivers real value to the reader. Think, if you had the time to sit down with each one of your customers and had a few cups of coffee and a day to talk, what would you say?
I am willing to bet that this approach will generate more content than your magazine could comfortably contain.
You then need to get it printed. Here the web provides a brilliant solution which costs nothing at all and could even generate you some cash depending on how you use it. Point your browser at Magcloud and use their online facility to professionally print your magazine.
You can choose to make it available for a nominal fee or you could simply absorb the cost and have your customers download it straight from your website and you could even order a few hundred copies and send them to those customers who interest you the most.
The point is that you can, now, do the same stuff Google does. The web has made everything cheaper, faster and more accessible. By removing the practical barriers from your path it is now really down to you to have the vision, drive and intensity which Google so successfully generates.
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