We’ve been doing an internal project around the halls of FH Digital in Texas. Basically we’ve been sticking a camera in peoples faces and asking them questions. It all has to do with something that we’ll roll out in the near future.
But I digress…
One of the questions we asked was, “Think about your beset friend in the world. What personality traits to do you like most about them?” As you might imagine, we got some typical answers like “good sense of humor” and “good listener.” But our fearless leader, Janice Murphy, surprised me with her response. She said. “Someone who knows about all my crap and loves me anyway.”
And not only do I love that phrase, but it’s a great lesson for brands who happen be looking for their evangelists somewhere out there. Because those are the true fans. Those that know you are a company of humans and that humans are fallible. In other words, they’ve watched you mess up. They know you aren’t perfect. And they love you anyway. Not only are they loyal. They consider to you a friend.
I know that might be a stretch. Because sometimes it’s hard to think about a company as a friend. But I really believe that’s how companies are going to have to start acting.
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Posted in: lessons learned, word of mouth
I admit it, I’m cynical. To a fault sometimes. I have a love/hate relationship with social media. And I’m extremely intolerant of the social media types that spend all day on Twitter telling everyone else how to do their job when they have nothing to back up their musings.
So last week, just for fun, I declared THIS week, social media case study week. I think my actual post was along the lines of “Next week is ‘National Prove It’ week. Everyone posts links to actual case studies they’ve worked on instead of just spewing stuff. You in?” And the more I think about it, the more I’m going to pursue this experiment beginning Tuesday (hey, it’s a holiday week and all). And I challenge EVERYONE. If you’re a Social Media or Word of Mouth practicioner, then post a link on Twitter this week to a case study that you’ve been involved in and use the hashtag #smproveit. If there is no formal write up, then post one on your blog or Posterous account. It’s time so separate the men from the boys…which consequently might help you thin out your “following” on Twitter.
All this to say that I’m tired of the social media philosophers. The only real way to learn the truth and what works and what doesn’t is by DOING. All the philosophers thought that the earth was flat. But one guy didn’t care and guess what? He didn’t fall off the edge. He proved them wrong. Just like you can tell BP how they should be handling everything right now, but you have no idea the internal red tape and lawyers and hoops that have to be jumped through to get something done. It’s SO easy to armchair marketing quarterback. And anyone can do that. But it takes smart people to DO. To ACT. To come out from behind a computer screen, put everything on the line and lead. Writing a blog post isn’t leading. Bullying people on Twitter isn’t leading. No matter if you have 25 followers or 25,000.
Oh, and one other thing. You can’t use yourself as a case study. You have to have a case study for a client.
So go. Use it (#smproveit). And we’ll see how far this little experiment can and will go. Oh, and we just might also have a kick-ass resource as well.
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Posted in: featured, lessons learned, rants, word of mouth
In reading this month’s WIRED
magazine (the print edition, mind you), I found a great nugget buried in an article entitled, “Lost in the Details – How breaking everything down to particles blinds scientists to the big picture” (by Jonah Lehrer). The entire article is a great read, but near the end, Lehrer brings Karl Popper (the scientific philosopher) into the picture with his theory that everything in the world falls into two categories: clocks and clouds.
Basically this means that clocks are orderly and neat and the parts of it interact in a predictable way. But clouds are unpredictable in that they are “highly irregular” and their motions are beyond “even the theoretical possibility of prediction.”
I love this concept. And taking it further and applying it to the digital and word of mouth world that we live in as marketers, I’m adopting this as a philosophy when building solutions for clients. Not one or the other, but finding the right balance of both.
Follow me down this path: The clocks are the tools. The Facebook page. The CRM Twitter account. The Gowalla pin that leads to a payoff. They are the inner-workings that can be put into place and set in motion. Yes, we are all still figuring out how to best use them, but we know the fundamentals of working with these tools.
The clouds? That’s the people. The personal interaction. That’s where emotions and personal experience and memories and word of mouth come into play. That’s where users could see a completely different use for what you’ve created. People are unpredictable. And most of the time they know your product or service better than you do. So sure, they will take your clock parts, but what they do with them isn’t always predictable and doesn’t fit into a flow chart.
So now our job is to find the balance. What percentage is clocks and what percentage is clouds? Because once you find it, you’ll have something big on your hands.
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Posted in: brands, featured, lessons learned, marketing, word of mouth
…is deeper passion.
So I say quit it with the influence thing. It’s a debate that’s been raging on for years now. And you know on which side of the line I stand – I’ll take passion over influence any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Because passion is one of the things that fuels word of mouth. (The other is experience.) Influence is not sustainable. Influence is not long-lasting. Probably because the influencers that marketers are going after these days are having to make it their job to be influential. And people retire from jobs. But they don’t retire from experiences. And they don’t retire from being passionate about something. Passion has sticking power. You don’t have to work at it or maintain it like you do with being influential.
The only thing that can trump a passionate fan of your brand is someone who is MORE passionate. Not more influencial or who has more followers on Twitter. Remember, influence can be fabricated. But passion can’t. Social media influence can be built by almost anyone if they learn how to use the tools and dedicate time to growing and feeding their followers. But there are no tools to create passion. There are no tricks of the trade. There are no magic bullets. You either are passionate about something, or you’re not.
The other thing about passion is that it can’t be measured the same way “influence” can. As David Wilcox sings, “You can’t keep it in a camera. It’s not a trophy on a shelf. It’s not a tale to tell the children. Not a way to prove yourself. It’s much bigger than we are.”
So remember to look for the passionate ones. They might not be the loudest or the most opinionated or even the savviest. But rooted deep down within them is something special – a love for your brand and how it fits into their lives. And that is the acorn you need to grow that oak.
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Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, word of mouth
The one and only Bob Schneider
One of my favorite things in life is to go to a live show, stand in the middle of the room and listen to the voices around me sing every lyric to every song. And from the musicians perspective, I would think that hearing and watching the audience sing – loudly, even – the lyrics that you wrote, that started as just a collection of words floating around in your head – has got to be incredibly rewarding and validating.
So my question to you as a company is, are your customers singing along with you? Do they know you so well that they WANT to learn all the lyrics? Do they know where the key changes are and the origin of your songs? And are they just humming along, tapping their toes? Or are they leaning forward, arms raised, pounding the air and screaming out each and every word?
I know there’s a lot of talk out there about “fans.” But I think we have to go deeper and begin to dissect the anatomy of what a true fan really is. Without a doubt, they are the people that know you. That know your words and ways and what song is coming up next. But the other thing is that everyone has their own favorite song. And that’s why – to continue the metaphor – you need to have that killer set instead of that one-hit-wonder.
So listen to the audience. Are they singing along at the top of their lungs? Can you step back from the mic long enough to listen to them?
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Posted in: brands, featured, marketing, word of mouth
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