Jun 29
Okay, so maybe you caught my rant last week...or my condensed version the day after.
Now I want to try to present a more formalized version.
I'm torn, actually. Part of me says "is this really that new?" And, truth be told...it's not. It goes right along with things people like Seth Godin, Hugh MacLeod and Christopher Locke have been saying for a while now.
And at the same time...while people---especially agency folk---nod their heads as if to say "Yep...yep...that makes a lot of sense." ...no one is doing anything about it.
In fact, they seem to be going in exactly the WRONG direction. They are blogging...and they're on twitter, and facebook...they're podcasting or publishing webshows...but they are doing it as a business-as-usual promotional tool, as opposed to actually trying to engage their markets in a real and meaningful way.
This shift isn't about putting new tools to use to get your message out to the masses in a new environment. It is about re-thinking EVERYTHING...including the way you use traditional media as a means of engaging in and listening to your customers and prospects.
So, "The Rules" aren't some new methodology for "Social Media Marketing." They are a philosophical cornerstone that should act as the foundation for your ENTIRE corporate communications strategy: marketing, PR, advertising, customer service training, internal memos, SOPs...the works.
In light of that, let me re-intorduce the Rules:
This stands in stark contrast to the way most marketers interact with their market, which usually involves something along the lines of "Hey, I know you're in the middle of something...but BUY OUR STUFF! Okay, thanks for listening...as you were..."
And most of the time, they're really not trying that hard to get THAT right.
Now I'd like to explore The Rules a little more in depth...
1. Act from Passion
This is what's missing from so much of the business out there today...not just the marketing. The business entity as a whole.
If you aren't passionate about what you do...why in the hell are you doing it??? Worse, if your agency isn't passionate about what you're doing...why in the hell are you letting them speak for you???
Sure, we all get in ruts now and then. But if you can't get excited about something in your business, you don't stand a chance of getting anyone else excited about it. Change your product, or your business model, or your target market...change SOMETHING to get that fire back, and you're halfway to winning the battle.
If you're not getting out of bed in the morning eager to do more than "pay the bills," then you have some serious re-evaluating to do.
If you have a passion...pursue it. Pursue it with everything you have in you. That passion will translate well with your audience, and it's infectious. And it will sustain you when things get rough.
It's not the only way to succeed...but it's the only way that's worthwhile.
2. Speak with Authenticity
You can't fake passion...not long-term, anyway. If you get all geeked out about something, it's going to show, day after day after day. It will be evident by the way you speak about it today, and the way you speak about it tomorrow. Because people will be able to see how you spoke about it yesterday.
That's not to say you have to be completely transparent. We're all human, and nobody wants to see every one of our flaws on display any more than we want them to.
But when you try to hide your very humanity, you lose...very publicly...very shamefully. Unfortunately, many companies...especially big ones...try to ignore the fact that they are made up of people. The travesty is that there are often people with a deep and abiding passion for what the company is doing that are never given a voice.
Today, letting those voices be heard can be a huge boon to your company. Not only in the fact that that contagious energy will spread faster than swine flu (that's right...I went there)...but because others will realize that you have watchdogs within your own ranks...people who believe in the integrity of the company and just might not hesitate to call you out.
How many companies have gotten in trouble in recent years because they thought no one was looking?
Want to cause a sensation in the marketplace? Admit you made a mistake BEFORE anyone else calls you out on it.
Speaking with authenticity means embracing the humanity of those who make up your company, your customers and your prospects...and making it easy for them to give voice to that passion.
3. Listen Responsibly.
I've been trying to make the case for publicly engaging with your customers and prospects. A key factor in this is learning to listen responsibly.
Criticism isn't bad. It really isn't.
But some companies (those who don't get #2), rather than hear what people are saying, go immediately on the defensive. Or worse, the offensive. Cease and desist orders. Libel suits. Gag orders.
Shush.
Listen to what people are telling you. And if they have a legitimate grievance...then fix it.
You have an unprecedented opportunity to find people who are offering feedback to you. If you'll be still, listen...then before you act simply ask yourself..."are they right?"
That's a customer you don't have to lose. And the private audience they would have told their story too, instead has a front row seat to your public efforts to fix the problem and do right by your customer.
...or you could simply unleash the hounds. The choice is yours. But your audience has a choice too...
4. Give generously.
This I think is going to be another hard one for business to swallow. Give? Really?
No. Not just give...give generously.
If you have someone willing to shout the virtues of your product or service from the mountaintop...reward them. No strings attached. Simply "We've noticed you, and we want to say things. Here's our latest product." Or better "Here. You're the first to see this. Until now, it's only been a rumor. And it's yours, free."
Give your time. Your attention. Your Gratitude. Your stuff. Why?
Because your customers are connected to lots of people who aren't. Yet.
Your prospects are going to buy based on recommendations from people they trust. The best thing you can do is have a handful of people acting from passion on your behalf, and encourage them to speak with authenticity about you.
Try and control the message, and it is going to come back and bite you. But cultivate real relationships with them and get out of the way...and you have a chance at real, lasting success.
5. Serve Tirelessly
Sadly, this is where most businesses fail on a massive scale. They're in the business of selling stuff, instead of serving others.
All of the other rules actually come out of this one. If you approach them from any other perspective, you're not going to have the stamina to make it in the long run.
All too often, business leaders get caught up in serving the wrong people. CEOs and managers profess to be devoted to serving their customers. Most of the time it is lip service. The rest of the time, the effort is wasted.
It is your front-line staff's job to serve your customers. Your job as manager or officer is to serve your employees.
Take just a minute with that. It's a little counter- intuitive. Your job is to serve the people you are paying, not the people who are paying you.
Businesses operate under the misguided notion that marketing sells the product or service, and the front-line staffers are simply place-holders there to handle the transaction.
The front line, rather than being treated like skilled workers, are more often like commodities. Like "human resources."
The first thing I'd do is destroy your HR department and replace it with an Employee Relations department. Not rename...REPLACE. You can re-label a cancerous tumor an "Accellerated growth area," but it doesn't change its destructive nature.
Your goal should not be to bring your employees in line with the company, your goal should be to structure your comapny so your employees have everything they need to serve your customers.
If you're a public company, I pity you, because your entire company's sole existence is likely dominated by it's fealty to ravenous, parasitic shareholders. A few lucky companies aren't. But most publicly traded companies are more concerned about next quarter's share price than cultivating life-long customers through exceptional service.
I was a hotel manager in such a soul-crushing company, and struggled to take care of my employees in the face of policies and procedures that seemed specifically designed to devour it's front-line staff like a Suburban burns through gasoline.
If you think your company's policies are simply "business practices," then you are dangerously mistaken. Dealing with that job took me to a very dark place that took me years to recover from once I left. And I know I'm not alone...I've got a good friend who stayed for five years after I left...and it only got worse.
Conference calls were all focused on "delivering more shareholder value," and hardly a word was spoken about serving customers. Increasing Revenue Per Available Room, sure. Getting more Heads In Beds, absolutely. But nothing about "how can we improve our guests experience while they're here?" And definitely not "can we do anything to help our employees take better care of the guests?"
If you want to serve your customers, serve the people you hired to take care of them...and get out of their way.
If you don't have employees, then ALL of your efforts should be focused on worshiping your customer. Not in a "customer is always right" fashion.
(That is a stupid adage...your customers are as human as the people who make up your company. )
I mean worshiping your customer in a sense that you don't want to take their money unless you are certain you can deliver an amazing experience. Absolutely certain. I don't care if you're a bed and breakfast, a dentist, an ad agency or two guys in a truck with lawnmowers and weed eaters.
The economy and technology are shifting society. Time isn't money. Attention isn't money. Hell, money isn't even money.
Trust is money. If you have former, the latter will be easy to come by. If you start with trust, each sale will bring more and more sales with it. Unfortunately, the converse isn't true. If you start with money, you will struggle for each and every sale.
That is the nature of the new marketplace. If you want to win, you must win trust. And you can only to that by authentically, generously, passionately, tirelessly serving.
I wonder if you have what it takes...
The Danifesto 1.0 is live ;)
Now I want to try to present a more formalized version.
I'm torn, actually. Part of me says "is this really that new?" And, truth be told...it's not. It goes right along with things people like Seth Godin, Hugh MacLeod and Christopher Locke have been saying for a while now.
And at the same time...while people---especially agency folk---nod their heads as if to say "Yep...yep...that makes a lot of sense." ...no one is doing anything about it.
In fact, they seem to be going in exactly the WRONG direction. They are blogging...and they're on twitter, and facebook...they're podcasting or publishing webshows...but they are doing it as a business-as-usual promotional tool, as opposed to actually trying to engage their markets in a real and meaningful way.
This shift isn't about putting new tools to use to get your message out to the masses in a new environment. It is about re-thinking EVERYTHING...including the way you use traditional media as a means of engaging in and listening to your customers and prospects.
So, "The Rules" aren't some new methodology for "Social Media Marketing." They are a philosophical cornerstone that should act as the foundation for your ENTIRE corporate communications strategy: marketing, PR, advertising, customer service training, internal memos, SOPs...the works.
In light of that, let me re-intorduce the Rules:
1. Act from Passion
2. Speak with Authenticity
3. Listen Responsibly
4. Give Generously
5. Serve Tirelessly.
2. Speak with Authenticity
3. Listen Responsibly
4. Give Generously
5. Serve Tirelessly.
This stands in stark contrast to the way most marketers interact with their market, which usually involves something along the lines of "Hey, I know you're in the middle of something...but BUY OUR STUFF! Okay, thanks for listening...as you were..."
And most of the time, they're really not trying that hard to get THAT right.
Now I'd like to explore The Rules a little more in depth...
1. Act from Passion
This is what's missing from so much of the business out there today...not just the marketing. The business entity as a whole.
If you aren't passionate about what you do...why in the hell are you doing it??? Worse, if your agency isn't passionate about what you're doing...why in the hell are you letting them speak for you???
Sure, we all get in ruts now and then. But if you can't get excited about something in your business, you don't stand a chance of getting anyone else excited about it. Change your product, or your business model, or your target market...change SOMETHING to get that fire back, and you're halfway to winning the battle.
If you're not getting out of bed in the morning eager to do more than "pay the bills," then you have some serious re-evaluating to do.
If you have a passion...pursue it. Pursue it with everything you have in you. That passion will translate well with your audience, and it's infectious. And it will sustain you when things get rough.
It's not the only way to succeed...but it's the only way that's worthwhile.
2. Speak with Authenticity
You can't fake passion...not long-term, anyway. If you get all geeked out about something, it's going to show, day after day after day. It will be evident by the way you speak about it today, and the way you speak about it tomorrow. Because people will be able to see how you spoke about it yesterday.
That's not to say you have to be completely transparent. We're all human, and nobody wants to see every one of our flaws on display any more than we want them to.
But when you try to hide your very humanity, you lose...very publicly...very shamefully. Unfortunately, many companies...especially big ones...try to ignore the fact that they are made up of people. The travesty is that there are often people with a deep and abiding passion for what the company is doing that are never given a voice.
Today, letting those voices be heard can be a huge boon to your company. Not only in the fact that that contagious energy will spread faster than swine flu (that's right...I went there)...but because others will realize that you have watchdogs within your own ranks...people who believe in the integrity of the company and just might not hesitate to call you out.
How many companies have gotten in trouble in recent years because they thought no one was looking?
Want to cause a sensation in the marketplace? Admit you made a mistake BEFORE anyone else calls you out on it.
Speaking with authenticity means embracing the humanity of those who make up your company, your customers and your prospects...and making it easy for them to give voice to that passion.
3. Listen Responsibly.
I've been trying to make the case for publicly engaging with your customers and prospects. A key factor in this is learning to listen responsibly.
Criticism isn't bad. It really isn't.
But some companies (those who don't get #2), rather than hear what people are saying, go immediately on the defensive. Or worse, the offensive. Cease and desist orders. Libel suits. Gag orders.
Shush.
Listen to what people are telling you. And if they have a legitimate grievance...then fix it.
You have an unprecedented opportunity to find people who are offering feedback to you. If you'll be still, listen...then before you act simply ask yourself..."are they right?"
That's a customer you don't have to lose. And the private audience they would have told their story too, instead has a front row seat to your public efforts to fix the problem and do right by your customer.
...or you could simply unleash the hounds. The choice is yours. But your audience has a choice too...
4. Give generously.
This I think is going to be another hard one for business to swallow. Give? Really?
No. Not just give...give generously.
If you have someone willing to shout the virtues of your product or service from the mountaintop...reward them. No strings attached. Simply "We've noticed you, and we want to say things. Here's our latest product." Or better "Here. You're the first to see this. Until now, it's only been a rumor. And it's yours, free."
Give your time. Your attention. Your Gratitude. Your stuff. Why?
Because your customers are connected to lots of people who aren't. Yet.
Your prospects are going to buy based on recommendations from people they trust. The best thing you can do is have a handful of people acting from passion on your behalf, and encourage them to speak with authenticity about you.
Try and control the message, and it is going to come back and bite you. But cultivate real relationships with them and get out of the way...and you have a chance at real, lasting success.
5. Serve Tirelessly
Sadly, this is where most businesses fail on a massive scale. They're in the business of selling stuff, instead of serving others.
All of the other rules actually come out of this one. If you approach them from any other perspective, you're not going to have the stamina to make it in the long run.
All too often, business leaders get caught up in serving the wrong people. CEOs and managers profess to be devoted to serving their customers. Most of the time it is lip service. The rest of the time, the effort is wasted.
It is your front-line staff's job to serve your customers. Your job as manager or officer is to serve your employees.
Take just a minute with that. It's a little counter- intuitive. Your job is to serve the people you are paying, not the people who are paying you.
Businesses operate under the misguided notion that marketing sells the product or service, and the front-line staffers are simply place-holders there to handle the transaction.
The front line, rather than being treated like skilled workers, are more often like commodities. Like "human resources."
The first thing I'd do is destroy your HR department and replace it with an Employee Relations department. Not rename...REPLACE. You can re-label a cancerous tumor an "Accellerated growth area," but it doesn't change its destructive nature.
Your goal should not be to bring your employees in line with the company, your goal should be to structure your comapny so your employees have everything they need to serve your customers.
If you're a public company, I pity you, because your entire company's sole existence is likely dominated by it's fealty to ravenous, parasitic shareholders. A few lucky companies aren't. But most publicly traded companies are more concerned about next quarter's share price than cultivating life-long customers through exceptional service.
I was a hotel manager in such a soul-crushing company, and struggled to take care of my employees in the face of policies and procedures that seemed specifically designed to devour it's front-line staff like a Suburban burns through gasoline.
If you think your company's policies are simply "business practices," then you are dangerously mistaken. Dealing with that job took me to a very dark place that took me years to recover from once I left. And I know I'm not alone...I've got a good friend who stayed for five years after I left...and it only got worse.
Conference calls were all focused on "delivering more shareholder value," and hardly a word was spoken about serving customers. Increasing Revenue Per Available Room, sure. Getting more Heads In Beds, absolutely. But nothing about "how can we improve our guests experience while they're here?" And definitely not "can we do anything to help our employees take better care of the guests?"
If you want to serve your customers, serve the people you hired to take care of them...and get out of their way.
If you don't have employees, then ALL of your efforts should be focused on worshiping your customer. Not in a "customer is always right" fashion.
(That is a stupid adage...your customers are as human as the people who make up your company. )
I mean worshiping your customer in a sense that you don't want to take their money unless you are certain you can deliver an amazing experience. Absolutely certain. I don't care if you're a bed and breakfast, a dentist, an ad agency or two guys in a truck with lawnmowers and weed eaters.
The economy and technology are shifting society. Time isn't money. Attention isn't money. Hell, money isn't even money.
Trust is money. If you have former, the latter will be easy to come by. If you start with trust, each sale will bring more and more sales with it. Unfortunately, the converse isn't true. If you start with money, you will struggle for each and every sale.
That is the nature of the new marketplace. If you want to win, you must win trust. And you can only to that by authentically, generously, passionately, tirelessly serving.
I wonder if you have what it takes...
