Influential Marketing Blog

The Accountant And The Builder

This is a story about whether social media actually works to sell your business to new customers. As a “digitally-savvy” customer, I was confronted recently with the personal challenge of finding a service provider to work with in two entirely different industries. The first was an accountant, and the second was a builder for a home improvement project. How did I go about finding the right providers to work with?

The first place I started was search – but for local providers it didn’t turn out to be that useful because there were too many results and no way to really compare them. Instead, I found myself using a combination of polling and browsing my social network for suggestions, and resorted to the decidedly traditional method of finding phone numbers and calling these businesses directly.

The most interesting discovery of this process, though, was that the real value of social media was not in the initial phase of my search, but in the decision making process once I had alternatives for who to actually work with. Here are a few lessons from the businesses I ended up working with in terms of how they used social media as a part of their pitching process to seal the deal:

1. Organize your portfolio. It is easy to forget the power of many social media tools to be supporting your business in something other than a promotional way. What if you used a photographic tool like Flickr to organize private galleries where you could access samples of your previous work from anywhere? When I met with the builder I chose, this sort of virtual portfolio was a key tool in how he described his business and past work to me using an online gallery form of social media what was not publicly available - but easy for him to access.   
2. Share your philosophy (and differentiators). One of the things that attracted me to the accountant that I eventually chose was their approach to educating their clients. They believe in conducting webinars, sharing presentations and generally taking an open approach to teaching customers and potential customers about bookkeeping and accounting. Their philosophy is that educating their clients helps their bottom line. To me, this indicated that they had a real expertise and that they were connected through the community to a network where they would share it with me instead of just billing me extra hours to do it themselves.
3. Encourage your promoters. If you do good work, chances are you have some strong customers who can serve as promoters for your business. One of the key behaviours that many are using social media for is to broadcast a question to their network so they can gather recommendations for providers to work with. I ucovered the builders of my project in this way by asking for recommendations through Facebook - word of mouth, enabled by social media. You may already ask your best customers to recommend you to their friends and family - but extending this into social media to have them recommend your page on Facebook or incentivize them to share their experience of working with you on their social network can lead to more referral activity in the virtual world – where many of the first questions or requests for referral happen anywayl.
4. Work your own network. You are likely already connected to more people than you realize through your own personal network. Do you use LinkedIn? This was an important tool for me as I came to a short list of accountants to call in my area, based on "once-removed" relationships with people I am just now getting to know better and a simple search for the keyword phrase “CPA.” Make sure that your profile has the right keywords so your 2nd and 3rd level connections can see what you do and the services you offer – and a friend of a friend on LinkedIn might just become a customer.

In my case, both of the service providers I chose had novel ways of using social media to build awareness, increase their findability, demonstrate their philosophy and helped them to close the deal with me. I did speak personally with both of them and request samples of their work – so this real life evaluation component did not “go virtual” … but social media still served an essential role for both of them in landing a digitally savvy new client – and it can for you too.

This post is republished from my original article on the Amex Open Forum website. It is part of "Small Business Friday" on this blog, where I share ideas and marketing techniques specifically to help small businesses stand out.

To read more articles like this, visit the "Small Business Friday" category on this blog.

What The Royal Wedding Can Teach You About Insignificance

If you believe most global media, in less than 24 hours we will all witness one of the landmark historical moments of the past century: the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. The importance of this wedding goes far beyond engaging those with an extended case of royal fever, though. Photographers are angling for the perfect career-making shot. Fashion designers are enjoying the spotlight as they get interviewed about the glamour of the event. Everyone, it seems, wants their own piece of the global hysteria around the wedding.

Over at the Harvard Business Review website, writer Rosabeth Moss Kanter made a convincing argument for the business value of the wedding and "Why CEOs Should Watch The Royal Wedding." One interesting effect of this attention on so many levels is that it has demonstrated a value in the little things which so often go unnoticed. For a brief moment, while the Royal Wedding captures the attention of the world ... the insignificant will take center stage. Who designed Prince Wiliam's cufflinks? What will the royal horses be fed? How long is the red carpet?

Each of these alone are completely trivial questions but in the context of a frenzy of excitement, they add dimension to an event that everyone can be part of. You may not camp out for days outside Westminster Abbey to secure a good vantage point for the wedding, but you can surely enjoy a bit of the trivia and perhaps even share it with your social network.

The Royal Wedding is reminding us that insignificance can be a form of social currency. When you know the secret of Prince William's cufflinks (whatever it may be), you are likely to share it wth others. And this effect is not just confined to the Royal Wedding either. The thing about insignificance and trivialities is that we often cannot help sharing them with others.

The brands who do a good job of sharing these types of stories (from the meaningful to the insignificant) are the ones who can more effectively arm their most passionate customers and believers with intesting ideas and content to share.

In other words, insignificance matters.

How Donald Trump Can Save America (Without Running For President)

This is not a piece about politics, it is about marketing. Earlier this year, Google announced that they would launch a new product that was widely reviewed by those in the know about the consumer electronics industry as a brilliant money loser. The product, called the Nexus One, was anticipated to be the ultimate contradiction in the closed and monopolistic world of mobile phones and carriers in the US ... sold unlocked and open for any network.

It failed in part because the price point was more than any normal consumer was willing to pay in a country where most phone purchases are subsidized. Still, the Nexus One served an important role for Google, it showed other phone manufacturers what an Android phone could and should do. Today, there are many more phones available with the Android platform, in part because the Nexus One and its predecessor (the Google G1) inspired that innovation.

What does any of this have to do with Donald Trump? I believe he is using the same strategy as Google to inspire innovation and action in the world of politics. Disagreement and the inability for politicians to work across parties is causing a deadlock over just about every issue in Washington. It takes a crisis for any decision to get made. Added to that, the definition of a politician seems to have become anyone who is afraid to have an opinion about anything. Into this world, Donald Trump is the ultimate opinionated non-politician. For example, here are a few choice quotes from a recent piece about his bid for President published in this weekend's Washington Post:

• “I would go in and take the oil. I would take the oil and stop this baby stuff.” Otherwise, he would not go into Libya at all. As for the Libyans, “I’d give them plenty so they can live very happily,” he says.
• He longs for the times when empires acted like empires. “In the old days,” he told [Candy] Crowley, “when you have a war and you win, that nation’s yours. This country is a laughingstock throughout the world.”
• He believes that, despite the amount of U.S. debt held by the Chinese, the United States has a stronger hand. “They have some of our debt. Big deal,” he says. “It’s a very small number relative to the world, okay?”
• If the Chinese did not respond to his overtures, he says, he then would impose a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese products coming into the United States. “As soon as they believe it’s going to happen, they will behave so nicely because it would destroy their economy,” he says.

You may admire his no-nonsense approach, or you might consider him a media-savvy opportunist - but he has proven himself a skilled negotiator and direct businessman unaccustomed to the usual politician double talk. The Washington Post article referenced above even notes that other politicians should "take him seriously." Which leads to the big question ... will he win President, or even run?

I think not, because it is simply not a profitable business decision for him to run. But will his threat and voice in the media force politians to emerge from deadlock and actually work together to accomplish something? Let's all hope so.

Why Your Customers Will Never Be Your “Friends” Online

Is everyone telling you that your small business should have more "friends" online? Of course you already know that your customers have virtual friends as part of their social networks and they can "friend" someone on Facebook. On Twitter, they choose to "follow" another user and the old Facebook Page model used to allow you to become a "fan" of an individual or organization as well. For all of these terms, "friend" is the one that most small businesses single mindedly latch on to when thinking about a goal to focus on while using social media. Being successful in social media has come to be equated with having more friends for your brand online.

The problem with this logic is that people don't naturally become friends with brands.

Relationships with organizations are tough to describe as "friendship." People do, however, become friends with other people - and often those people work for brands. The relationship with your brand, however, is more accurately described with the other two terms popular in social media ... followers and fans. So when it comes to thinking about how you can get more customers engaged with your brand through social media - forget about friendship and focus on increasing your fans and followers.

Creating More Followers

Followers is a broad term that could mean anyone from your potential customers to your current customers. They are "following" you because they are interested in what you do or have a need that they are looking for you to help them with. They are not fans yet, because they may not believe in your brand - but to this group, you have become relevant for some reason and your challenge is to keep that interest alive.

This is the category of individual that social media can help you tremendously to grow because it is typically based on a real need. Followers typically drive UTILITY because the more of them you have, the more useful you want to be for them to keep them loyal and engaged in the long term. 

The best way to create more followers is through offering useful and engaging tools and content through social media. If you sell desks, help them to plan their home offices with information or interactive tools like room planners. If you are a legal firm, educate them about key legal considerations in specific areas and use tools like Twitter to aggregate and share useful information. Followers come when you give something of value to them, and they stay if you continue to offer that value.

Creating More Fans

Fans are at the next and deeper level. These are a subset of your customers who truly believe in your brand and want more opportunities to engage with it. They are the VIPs, the ones who will tell others about your products and services. They are the referrers that drive word of mouth for your business. 

When it comes to social media, this is the group that you should try to focus the most attention on because they are your most vocal advocates and typically most profitable relationships. Fans help you acquire more fans, and this can also be an escalation path for followers to become fans over time.

The information you share with followers will also be of interest to fans - the biggest difference is that fans should be treated like your best customers. In an ideal case, they actually WILL BE your best customers so this should come as second nature. Try to share special offers and exclusive invitations with them. Give them content or materials that are not available elsewhere. Ask them questions and respect and converse with them about their responses. Think of this group as your "inner circle" and treat them like it.

This post is republished from my original article on the Amex Open Forum website. It is part of "Small Business Friday" on this blog, where I share ideas and marketing techniques specifically to help small businesses stand out.

To read more articles like this, visit the "Small Business Friday" category on this blog.

The Importance Of Being Useful

Until our modern day, humanity had never made useless tools. When archaeologists found "tools" while unearthing history, they would find hammers or arrowheads - tools that were clearly designed to solve some sort of problem. Useful tools. When historians look back at the exploding universe of social media tools that we are building today, they will clearly uncover considerably less usefulness. Being useful has become a forgotten virtue.

Without it, new platforms pop up every day to try and capitalize on some sort of micro-issue ... all adding to the sense of overload that many of us are now feeling when it comes to how social media fits into our lives. In the business world, this has translated into an overload of advice and confusing array of options. Running a marketing campaign for any product or service is much more complex because media channels themselves have become more complex.

So how do we solve this problem? Getting better and more useful advice has to be part of the solution, which is why I am so excited by the Corporate Social Media Summit, an event coming up in June in New York run by a company called "Useful Social Media." I have partnered with them to participate in their events before, and unlike many other "guru-centric" social media conferences, their events feature real corporate marketers from brands like Coke, Best Buy, HP, Marriott, Southwest and sharing real case studies on how they are using social media.

It is a useful format in a world that is plagued by a rise of uselessness - and I am pleased to share that they invited me back to once again moderate a panel on the first day of the event. As many previous attendees have shared, it is an event worth attending. To make the deal slightly sweeter, the organizers have kindly offered a discount code for readers of this blog and Ogilvy clients - just use "ROHIT10" for 10% off registration.

Hope to see you there!

Image Credit: Joshua Porter (Follow Joshua on Twitter @bokardo)

What David Ogilvy Can Teach You About Good Manners

There are some things in business that no one really teaches you. It is the "instinctive" part of being a professional, and it mostly refers to little things. A powerful reminder of how important those little things are comes from the founder of the brand I work for, David Ogilvy, who said:

"I always use my clients' products. This is not toadyism but elementary good manners."

We all have a filter when it comes to biased reviews or people who we feel are simply being paid to flack for some product. The point most of us forget is that knowledge and proximity can easily translate into affinity. In other words, we often buy the brands we work with - not because we have to, but because we want to.

Of course, there are always examples like the loyal Coke drinker who is required to drink Pepsi because of where he works ... but for every example of forced allegiance, there are dozens of others where the affinity is real and authentic. It should not be a foreign concept that people believe the best product on the market is the one they work for and the one that they know the most about.

The flip side of this is that negativity comes from personal experience as well. For example there are several brands that I had such a sour experience with while pitching for their business that I will never be a customer of their products or services. The point of all this is simple: your employees and the organizations your brand works with are potential advocates, or potential detractors.

So the next time you consider bringing on a new vendor or hiring a new employee - remember that how you treat them makes a difference.  The little things (like good manners) still matter ... as they always have.

A Promising Future For Branded Entertainment

If there is one sign of hope for the marketing industry as a whole, it is that no one really wants boring, one-way, shout-oriented interruptive marketing to survive. Social media is a natural ally in this fight, given its focus on fostering conversations and creating content, but what about the role of marketing as entertainment? It isn't necessarily the first word anyone might choose to describe effective marketing, but this week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas it was the featured topic in a panel I moderated at an event focused on the intersection of broadcast, marketing, social media and entertainment.

What Is Branded Entertainment?

The focus on the panel was on branded entertainment through online video - though on several occasions it was raised that this content can increasingly find its way onto other platforms as well such as broadcast TV or mobile. There were three core models of branded entertainment being used by brands today that panelists shared:

1. Product Placement - The most simplistic form, some would argue that this barely qualifies to be called branded entertainment ... yet it is increasingly popular for brands to use as a way of inserting their brand or products into existing content.
2. Brand Sponsorship/Integration - This category had the most varying descriptions, incorporating everything from a brand simply adding a "sponsored by" slate to a video to inserting a pre-roll or post-roll ad.
3. Branded Content Creation - The "purest" form of branded entertainment, this area was clearly the focus of the panel. Included in this category were examples like Royal Carribean's recent Ocean Views campaign, as well as Lexus' popular LStudio online video channel that spawned the popular series Web Therapy with Lisa Kudrow which was recently picked up by Showtime as a pilot.

What Will The Future Of Branded Entertainment Look Like?

Ultimately, the premise behind branded entertainment is that great content will provide an entertainment value and there is a role of marketing to play in trying to create or support more of that type of content. The ongoing challenge will be one of setting the boundaries between what is reasonable underwriting or brand sponsorship of a message, and what is over the top. This is the real question at the heart of the growth of branded entertainment - and one that several filmmakers have recently tackled - including The Joneses (a film about a fictional family planted in the surburbs to create demand for new products by flaunting them to neighbors) and Morgan Spurlock's new documentary - "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" or as it is "officially" meant to be called "POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."

Despite these cautionary notes, however, the powerful premise of branded entertainment is that brands need to get better at telling a story instead of merely hawking product benefits or service descriptions. People engage with entertainment, and they tend to share it if they like it. In a world where consumers have more ways to ignore and filter out brand messages than ever before, engagement is the new and necessary metric because it means more than empty measures of reach or frequency.

Branded entertainment today is still a strategy for marketers and organizations who are ahead of the curve. It won't be long, however, before the followers and later adopters in the mainstream start to join the party.  After all, no one wants to miss out on a good show.

The Influential Marketing Book List - April 2011

Who has time to read books? We all should, but it's tough to know what is worth reading. As a fellow author, I have a unique point of view on what I look for in great books. On the first Sunday of every month, the Influential Marketing Book List will spotlight and review several new books relevant for marketers, entrepreneurs and those interested in business with ideas worth learning and sharing. 

1. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change The World

Author: Jane McGonigal | Book Website

Reality Is Broken focuses on what could easily be one of the most important ideas of the decade - but most people haven't realized it yet. When the average businessperson hears talk of gaming, they think of teenage boys locked in basements firing virtual guns at one another. Gaming is much more than that. The basic premise of this book is that game mechanics are an intrinsic motivator for behaviour change simply because of how humans are wired. All people love games.

Sharing examples from her work at the Institute of the Future, McGonigal lays out not only a vision for how games can shape behaviour through new models of motivation, she also explores the important soceital questions of when gaming can become addictive and isolating. Ultimately, the vision presented in this book goes beyond academics to present a captivating case for how games really can change the world ... and why we should all be considering a more "gameful" existence.

Bottom Line: A brilliantly presented case for how gaming can change the world from a visionary mind.

2. World Wide Mind: The Coming Integration Of Humanity, Machines And The Internet

Author: Michael Chorost | Book Website

What if the link between man and machine continues to evolve deeper until we reach a point where technology enables us to connect more deeply to one another?  Some could argue that perhaps we have already reached that point thanks to social networks - but in this wonderfully written philosophical memoir, Michael Chorost argues that our future will likely include far more technology of the mind.

Thanks to his own story of having cochlear implants to counter deafness, the author is connected to the idea that we all may have technology implanted to help us live better or overcome physical limitations. The best thing about this book, though, are the thought provoking questions that this raises around the nature of technology and where we might draw the line between machine and humanity. Chorost's voice is a remarkably personal one and you get the sense that he has struggled deeply with many of the questions he now brings into this book.  These are not questions with easy answers, but the experience of even thinking about them will be sure to open you up to new ideas - and that alone makes this book worth it.

The Bottom Line: A thought provoking "philosophical memoir" on how technology could better help us understand one another.

3. How To Market To People Not Like You: "Know It Or Blow It" Rules For Reaching Diverse Customers

Author: Kelly McDonald | Book Website

Your customer is not like you. No matter how many times you might hear that piece of wisdom, it is still remarkably easy for most marketers to forget. In this necessary book, advertising exec Kelly McDonald shares plenty of insider tips on how to reach diverse audiences such as rural consumers, Asian Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Military, and many more through case studies of real organizations doing it well (and those making big mistakes you can learn from).

Reaching diverse niche audiences is an unfortunately rare topic for marketing books, and as a result this book really stands out. Far from being purely theoretical, it is easy to tell that the lessons McDonald shares are based on real experience.  If you are looking for a competitive edge that your competitors are not thinking about, this book can help you get it.  At the very least, it will help you think about how to reach many different audiences who are sadly used to being marginalized or ignored.  As a member of one of them (Asian American), trust me when I tell you we will be grateful if you can be one of the brands who actually pays attention to us.

The Bottom Line: A (sadly) rare look at how to reach diverse audiences, why it matters and what to do first.

4. Built To Sell: Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You

Author: John Warrillow | Book Website

You can't take it with you. This well known proverb often comes as something of a surprise to many business owners when it comes time to think about selling their business. According to John Warrillow, building a thriving business is not enough, you need to think about creating one that can survive without you.  During my first experience interacting with John, he was interviewing me about the role of personality in building an organization that could succeed without its owner or founder.

This is a profound question in the business world of today, and one that every business owner must be ready to answer. In this highly readable book - Warrillow tells the story of one character, Alex Stapleton - the owner of a small regional marketing agency. The book reads more like a novel than a traditional business book, but its clear that Warrillow (a serial entrepreneur who has started and exited 4 companies himself) has a sharp eye for how businesses really run. Pairing his "parable" with an "Implementation Guide" - this book is an ideal read for any small business owner considering starting or exiting their own company and looking for an action guide on how to do it.

The Bottom Line: A highly readable guide for any business owner considering selling or exiting their business and needing a roadmap to do it.

5. Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System To Drive Breakthrough Creativity

Author: Josh Linkner | Book Website

If you work in an organization that could be described as "creatively bankrupt" - this book will help you jumpstart the process.  Written by CEO of ePrize - this book presents a five step process to encourage creativity distilled from the author's efforts to interview 200 business leaders, billionaires, entrepeneurs. His 5 step process ... Ask - Prepare - Discover - Ignite - Launch, features several thought starters and basic tools on how to use each one in a business setting.

Throughout the book, you will likely find useful snippets of wisdom that could immediately be applied to many different situations.  There are tips and tricks for creative brainstorming, guidelines such as the "Eight Commandments of Ideation" and plenty more tactics to try in each phase.  While some of the examples and advice may seem a bit basic for those who work in highly creative roles or organizations already - Disciplined Dreaming remains a good reminder that adding a structure to creativity can greatly increase its impact.

The Bottom Line: A good reminder of the importance of creativity and plenty of useful tools and ideas to help make it happen.

Review Philosophy (Why These Reviews Matter):

All the books that are reviewed in this series are worth your time. That's why you won't find any negative book reviews on this blog. As a Author myself, I have hundreds of book on my shelf and have researched hundreds more. I dozens of invitations to preview books and search online as well as looking at pitches to choose the 5 best books for marketing and busines readers every month to share here on this blog. Read my other book reviews at http://www.rohitbhargava.com/book-reviews/. 

Disclaimer: I have personally purchased many of the books reviewed in this blog, however many others are provided by publishers or an author for review purposes. In each case, the reviews of every book represent my honest and unbiased opinion about the book and are not paid or compensated for in any way apart from recieving a review copy or advance galley copy of a book at no cost. I have also used affiliate links for Amazon throughout this post.

To recommend a book to be featured in the Influential Marketing Book List, send an email pitch to influentialmarketing@gmail.com.

South Africa & The Age Of The Leaderless Revolution

I used to sit in the front seat of a taxi. When I lived in Sydney, it was a cultural rite of passage ... a learned behaviour that revealed an acquired understanding about the Australian culture. As I headed towards the southern hemisphere earlier this week and landed in South Africa, the impulse struck me again to choose the front seat, and I did.

Amidst an ordinary chat with my driver about the unusually overcast weather in "Jozi" - our conversation turned to the remarkably recognizable face of Nelson Mandela still iconized on billboards along the highway headed into downtown Johannesburg. At 93, he is still very much the heart of this young nation that many look to for inspiration. As we talked of his impact, my driver asked:

"If a man held prisoner for more than 27 years could forgive the men who held him captive - what right do I have to remain angry or seek vengeance against those who may have hurt me?"

He was sharing something that anyone who has been inspired by a real leader might feel. Mandela was the face of a revolution because he offered hope for a world most people wanted to live in. Much longer ago in India, Gandhi offered similar hope and was the emblem of how a peaceful revolution could overthrow a colonial invader. In Tibet, it was the Dalai Lama. The Czech Republic had Václav Havel. Much longer ago the Americans had George Washington, and the list could easily go on and on. 

Throughout human history, it has become an obvious fact that revolutions are fueled by extraordinary leaders. At least, it was obvious until now. In both Egypt and Tunisia, the revolutions in those countries have often been described as "leaderless."

It is not just political revolutions happening without leaders either. As large groups of people self organize around ideas and self identify with ideals, revolutions of thought from the profound to the every day are taking place without the guidance of one person. There is no President of Wikipedia.

All of which leads to a big question: in an age where leaders are becoming optional, are ideas alone enough to unite us? My driver may have supported a revolution, but it is Mandela who inspires him each day. People inspire people - and in a leaderless revolution what can replace human inspiration?

This was the first big thought that struck me as I landed in South Africa. The second was that I should really sit in the front seat of a taxi more often.