One of the classic questions in business is just that.

"What business are you in?"

And the classic example is when railroad companies failed to recognize that they were in the "transportation" business and not in the "railroad" business.

Frame it in the terms of why your customers are buying from you.

So, while I love the concept of Community Driven Marketing, that is not what my clients buy.

What they buy is "a very cost-effective way to find new customers, keep existing customers, and deliver measurable sales results that make the investment more than worth it."

And, what business are you in?

Every single interaction with a customer, no matter how small, is a marketing opportunity.

Whether it is your business card or the “waiting to install” screen, you have a chance to be remarkable.

To give your network a reason to talk about you.

Kudos to Costco and AT&T for this ad in Costco Connection (perhaps the best retailer magazine I’ve seen…it’s the only one I read, that’s for sure)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While chatting with Connie Bensen of Techrigy a few weeks back, we discussed the phenomenon of meeting people online as "social network friends."

Then we shared some stories of how fantastic it is to meet people face to face after a long period of time and feeling like "you already know them."

I've had enough good experiences along these lines (see the Venkatesh story-when I first 'met' him and then in person) that I'll accept friend/link requests from pretty much anyone.

Then, my discussion with Connie took a turn to the, shall we say, less than positive experiences or, as she put it so well:

"I liked you better virtually."

She'd had a set of expectations built up and they weren't met because, in her mind, the person didn't really represent him/herself in an authentic way...and that led to disappointment.

Not the best way to build relationships.

Call it the Age of True Accountability (as I did--I love blogging, since you can quote yourself :-) ] or "Are You Too Good Looking Online?" as Rohit did, the fact is that if you (or your company or your product or your organization) misrepresents itself, you will be outed.

For restaurants it's Yelp, for books Amazon, or any type of reputation management system (a la Rapleaf)

And that's going to hurt a lot more than the initial pain of just saying "this is who I am" or "what we are about" and accepting the fact that some people won't like it.

If someone becomes a Raving Fan and then find out that she did so under what she considers to be false pretenses, you've got a Raving Critic.

Not worth it.

My wife prefers that I not post any pictures of our kids online. So, when I got back from my sister’s wedding a few months ago, I had the tough job of telling her, “I didn’t post any pictures of the kids from the wedding, but 12 people already have.”

That’s the age we live in now.

You don’t control your own privacy anymore.

And that can be scary.

Very scary.

I was inspired to write this post because of something I read on Mitch Joel’s blog a few months ago, When You're Online Even When You're Not Online. His fictitious story is one that is going to happen to all of us sooner or later.

The fact is…you can’t hide anymore. It’s one of my survival strategies for the Attention Economy, in fact.

And, if you aren’t paranoid enough thinking about what your friends/network “innocuously” are sharing about you, here are 25 things that Google knows about you.

As Sun CEO, Scott McNealy reportedly once said, “Privacy is dead, deal with it,” so you as a Global MicroBrand, and as a would-be world-class marketer have a choice.

You can bury your head in the sand and wish that the world was different.

Or, you can accept and embrace it.

What this means, of course, is that you need to be prepared to defend your actions, live and act consciously, and recognize that some people will not like what they find out about you or your company.

But, others will.

Others will admire the way you live your life and the way your company drives towards its noble mission.

You got it, your Raving Fans.

Stick with them, cultivate and cherish them. Then, when those moments of Accountability come (assuming you’ve been open and honest and earned the trust all along), you’ll have an army of supporters standing by your side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell 5 friends about this blog.

Ok, that’s not quite my style, but headlines still matter, don’t they?

Seriously, I hope you find value in this blog.

And I hope you find it Remarkable enough that you feel that your Global MicroBrand will increase in value if you share it with your friends.

And now, for a bit of Community Driven Marketing…

So….

1. If you are self-identified as a Raving Fan of this blog.
   
2. And you feel that through the delivery of solid, valuable content that we’ve ‘cultivated’ a relationship.
   
3. Perhaps I can “activate” tell 5 of your friends that they should subscribe by email or RSS for a week (free) trial! [You can copy and paste that last part :-)]

 

Of course, you recognize, Identify, Cultivate, and Activate as the 3 stages of the Community Driven Marketing engine building process!

Thank you for your endorsement.

I have been harsh in the past on people who seemingly invite their friends at random to a Facebook fan page or group.

That’s because it is usually done without much context or one of the key elements of community building within the Community Driven Marketing framework, namely:

“as a fan, what can you expect to get out of it?”

So, with that, it’s time to see if I can practice what I preach.

I’ve set up a Never Stop Marketing Facebook Fan Page and you are welcome/invited to join.

If you decide to join, what you will get out of it is:

1. Updates about innovative ways I’m discovering to use Fan Pages for marketing purposes/benefit
2. The opportunity to be a part of cutting-edge Facebook Fan Page marketing tests (would rather test it out with you than have you test it out on your customers/clients, right?)
3. The chance to connect with other, like-minded individuals who share a passion for marketing and discovering how to thrive in a billion-channel, socially networked, attention economy where permission is the key asset (obligatory consultant buzzword quota is now met).

It’s very much a perpetual beta approach and would love to have you join me in the voyage.

Never Stop Marketing

Promote Your Page Too

If you are looking for a better understanding of what my work around Community Driven Marketing is all about, you have another option now.

Thanks to the beautiful voice of Kathryn Schwab at Voice Over Gurl, the Guy Kawasaki-endorsed whitepaper (still available as a blog series or a PDF) is now available as a podcast.

Saw this on Jackie's Church of the Customer Blog a while back.

Very entertaining.

So, were you born or made?

 

When, I wrote a recommendation for Halelly on LinkedIn the other day as part of my weekly habit, I was doing it really as a gesture of gratitude and admiration for her work. Nothing more.

I usually think that people don't read the recommendations of others or that, maybe, somewhere down the road, someone would see it.

But, I didn't expect an email via LinkedIn 10 minutes later from Ytzik, asking to be introduced to Halelly.

Turns out, in his LinkedIn newsfeed he saw "Jeremy Epstein recommends Halelly."

So, he clicked on it, saw that she had something to potentially offer him (and vice versa) and reached out.

Lesson: Promote your friends and your network in genuine ways and the other members of your network potentially benefit. One other way to "be the connector."

 

 

Hallely sent me a note the other day.

"101 recommendations on LinkedIn? That's crazy! Tell me, what's your secret?"

My answer.

"No secret. Write recommendations for other people. They will write them for you."

It's a habit . I write one genuine recommendation for a friend or colleague per week.

Over time, it adds up.