MackCollier.com

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Coke Is the Latest Brand to Totally Misunderstand the True Value of Brand Advocates

Coke’s CMO Joseph Tripodi recently spoke on Facebook and the value of brand advocates at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.  Here’s a quote from Mr. Tripodi:

“When you think of the continuum of a business, you go from local, to multi-country, to international, to global, but the highest order is network and network advantage is about having brand advocates telling stories for us.”

In other words, the scope of Coke’s vision when it comes to placing a value on their fans is that they can be walking billboards for the brand.  

Unbelievable.  And to be fair, almost every brand thinks this same way, Coke is hardly alone in this line of thinking.  The ‘have our customers tell our stories for us’ line is a rallying cry for marketers everywhere to explore the potential of connecting with their brand advocates.

Question:  When is the last time you heard Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga or Coldplay say that they love connecting with their fans because it gives their fans a chance to tell the rock star’s story for them?  Why aren’t the world’s most successful rock stars talking about how awesome it is to use their biggest fans as marketing vehicles?

Because most rock stars have an emotional relationship with their fans, while most brands have a transactional relationship with their customers.

The first thing that pops into most brand’s minds when it comes to their advocates is ‘How can we leverage this connection to result in a sale?’  The first thing that pops into most rock stars’ minds when it comes to their fans is ‘How can I show them that I appreciate them?’  And shockingly, rock stars cultivate fans with ease, fans that ironically go out and promote their favorite rock star and literally do become walking billboards for these artists.  While brands struggle to find customers that are willing to be their fans and promote them to their friends.

Rock stars cultivate an emotional relationship with their fans.  Ones where the rock star typically goes out of their way to communicate to the fan how much they appreciate and even love them.  As a result, this encourages the fan to appreciate the rock star even more, and to go out of their way to promote their favorite rock star to other fans.

So brands, if you truly want to cultivate fans of your brand, stop thinking about ways to leverage those connections into a sale.  Start thinking about ways you can reward and thank your fans for their support.  Treat them not as a new potential marketing channel for your brand, but as the special people that they are.

That’s how you win and cultivate fans for your brand.

PS:  Want more tips for creating fans of your brand?  Check out my new post at Paper.Li’s blog.

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#Blogchat Topic This Sunday – How to Drive Sales With Your Blog

This Sunday’s #Blogchat will discuss how blogging companies can drive more sales from their blog!  This is a big concern for many blogging companies, as they are struggling to get sales or leads or donors or whatever from their blog.  Companies want to see that their blogging efforts are creating value for their business and although there are many ways to do this, cash is still king 😉

So as we are discussing this topic on Sunday, one thing I want us to do is put our customer’s hat on, and think about the things that are keeping us from buying from most blogging companies.  What could a company change about its blog that would make you more interested in buying from them?

Better product information?  Better contact information?  More valuable and relevant content?  Maybe if the blog did a better job of asking for the sale?  Be thinking about some of the areas where most blogging companies could do a better job of earning your business, and we’ll talk about that on Sunday!  BTW for those of you that are looking for advice on how to monetize your blog, this will be the perfect topic for you to pick up some pointers!

Also keep in mind that Club Med is sponsoring #Blogchat all month, and they are giving away a trip for 4 at the end of the month!  In order to be eligible to win the trip, you must follow @ClubMedOfficial on Twitter, plus participate in #Blogchat each week.  That’s it!  Looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday at 8pm Central, 9pm Eastern!

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Alexis Grant Co-Hosts #Blogchat on Sunday Talking Writing Guest Posts For Blogs!

I’m so excited to have Alexis Grant join us this Sunday as #Blogchat co-host!  One of the topics that is constantly suggested by #Blogchat participants is how to get guest posts accepted by other bloggers.  Alexis is perfect to help us with this as one of the many professional hats she wears is that of editor for the site Brazen Careerist!  Alexis reviews the constant stream of guest post submissions that come to her, and she’ll walk us through how we can get our guest post ideas published!

And to get us started, Alexis has already written a prep post for this Sunday, 7 Tips For Placing Guest Posts on High-Traffic Blogs!

As you know when we have co-hosts, we break the main topic down into 2 sub-topics, which we discuss for 30 minutes each.  Here’s our schedule for Sunday with Alexis:

1 – From 8:00pm Central – 8:30 pm, we’ll discuss the elements of a great guest post.  Alexis will show us what should be included in our guest post in order to get it accepted by the blogs we are targeting.

2 – From 8:30pm – 9:00pm, we’ll discuss how to pitch our guest post idea, what we need to focus on, how to present our idea, etc.

That’s it!  To prepare for this Sunday’s #Blogchat, please make sure you are following Alexis on Twitter!

 

Finally, Sunday begins Club Med’s sponsorship of #Blogchat for July!  As I announced earlier this week, Club Med will be sponsoring #Blogchat for the entire month of July.  And the best part for you is that at the end of the month they will be giving away a 7-night stay for 4 at one of their resorts! The winner can choose to take their stay at either Sandpiper Bay in Florida, or Turkoise in the Caribbean.  In order to be eligible to win this trip, you need to do two things:

1 – Follow @ClubMedOfficial on Twitter.

2 – Participate in every #Blogchat in the month of July.

That’s it!  If you do those two things, you’re in the running to win the trip, and the winner will be announced shortly after the July 29th #Blogchat ends!  If you have any questions, please tweet @ClubMedOfficial, and look for them during #Blogchat as they are super nice and helpful!

Hope to see everyone on Sunday at 8pm Central!

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Disagreeing Versus Being Disagreeable Online

A few weeks ago, I found a post on Snarketing 2.0 where Ron focused on a post I wrote, and disagreed with several points I raised.  What I really appreciated about Ron’s post (and comments) was that he focused on the IDEAS he disagreed with, and wasn’t disagreeing with ME. Too often in this space, it seems disagreements stem not because someone disagrees with someone else’s ideas, but rather that they disagree with the person presenting the ideas.

Ike found the post and tweeted the above.  Several people either RTed Ike, or chimed in that the back and forth between Ron and I was a great example of disagreeing in the comments of a blog.  That troubled me a bit, because how Ron and I handled our disagreement in the comments (focused on points vs people) is how EVERYONE should handle disagreements online.

And before anyone thinks I am trying to prop myself up as being the master when it comes to handling disagreements, I have plenty of experience causing and participating in trainwrecks online.

Unfortunately, it seems that too often the disagreements we encounter, at least in the ‘social media circles’ seem to be focused on the people versus the ideas.  And it seems that we have far too much agreeing.  It’s almost like we’ve forgotten how to constructively disagree with each other.  Here’s the basic rules for debate that I try to follow online:

1 – Be respectful to the other person’s opinion and understand that they have a unique perspective that shapes their opinions.

2 – Disgree with the idea, but NOT the person expressing the idea.

3 – When I disagree with someone’s ideas, I try to explain WHY I disagree.  Saying ‘Your idea is wrong’ helps no one.  Learn to say ‘Here’s why I think your idea is wrong..’

4 – Know when to walk away.  I honestly struggle with this one a lot, but when our ideas are challenged, it’s far too easy to dig in and keep charging ahead.  It’s best to know which battles are worth fighting, and when it’s best to wave the ‘agree to disagree’ flag, and move on.

 

But again, I think as a whole, this social media marketing/branding space has far too little disagreement and challenging of ideas.  And the disagreements we do see are often centered on the person versus the ideas.  Folks, we learn via disagreeing.  When someone says ‘I’m not sure I agree with that, Mack, how about this?’, it not only gives me a new perspective to consider, but it challenges me to re-examine my own ideas.  So I benefit from having my ideas challenged, and we all do.  My fear is that a lot of potential disagreements are stifled because the person that disagrees decides not to air their disagreement because its with someone that has a larger following or readership than they do.  I am afraid they believe that the person with the larger following must know what they are talking about, else why would they have more Twitter followers? 😉

Just remember, there’s nothing wrong with disagreeing, just try not to be disagreeable 😉

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#Blogchat Adds a Sponsor Plus Two Special Co-Hosts For July!

I have three BIG announcements for #Blogchat in July!  The first is that Club Med will be the official sponsor for #Blogchat in July!  Club Med offers vacation resorts in several locations around the world!  Club Med is also considered the original all-inclusive resort, and one of the most recognizable brands in the world!

Club Med, Sandpiper Florida

So I know what you’re thinking, ‘So Mack, does this mean Club Med is going to give away a trip to one of its resorts? ;)’

Uh yeah, that’s exactly what it means!  As part of Club Med’s sponsorship of #Blogchat in July, they will give away a 7-night stay at a resort for 4 people!  ONE lucky winner will receive a stay at their choice of two different Club Med resorts:

Sandpiper Bay, Florida – This resort is located in Florida and perfect for families and offers plenty of sports and family-related activities.  It also has the only L’occitane Spa in North America.

Turkoise in the Caribbean –  This resort is for singles and couples and located on the island of Providenciales, in the Caribbean Sea.  It is known for its beautiful beaches and snorkeling.

The winner will be responsible for travel, and can claim the prize for up to one year, or till July 31st, 2013.  In order to be eligible to win the trip, you need to do two things:

1 – Follow Club Med on Twitter

2 – Participate in #Blogchat from 8pm-9pm Central each Sunday in July.

That’s it!  On July 29th shortly after the OPEN MIC #Blogchat ends, we’ll announce the winner!  So please follow @ClubMedOfficial on Twitter and participate in #Blogchat in July, and you’re in the running to win a trip to either Turkoise or Sandpiper Bay!

And now it’s time to cue the cheezy cable informercial guy voice: But wait, there’s MORE!

In July we will have not one but TWO special co-hosts!

The July 1st #Blogchat will kick off Club Med’s sponsorship, but it is also the night we will welcome Alexis Grant as co-host to help us learn how to Get Your Guest Posts Accepted!  This is a topic that y’all have been asking about for a while, and I said I wanted to wait till I found the perfect co-host for us!  Alexis fits the bill, as she is a digital strategist, but also the editor of Brazen Careerist!  Alexis gets pitched constantly from bloggers that want to write guest posts for Brazen Careerist, so she’ll walk us through how to craft the perfect pitch for our guest post submissions, plus how to decide what to write about!

Then on July15th, we welcome back C.C. Chapman as co-host!  Our topic on July 15th will be How to Create Content During Your Family Vacation.  I think this will be a very interesting topic as C.C. does a lot of traveling with his family, and he’ll give us some tips for not only creating content during our vacations, but also how to balance our time between recording our memories, and making those memories!  Of course, C.C. wrote THE book on content creation along with the fantabulous Ann Handley, The Content Rules!

The topics for July 8th and 22nd haven’t been set yet, but I’ll post them on Twitter and #Blogchat’s Facebook page as soon as they are!  I’m so grateful to have Club Med on as sponsor and so excited that Alexis and C.C. can join us PLUS for the topics they’ll be teaching us about!  And very happy that one of you will win a very kickass vacation!

So it looks like we are in for a big July with #Blogchat, and guess what, there’s more big #Blogchat announcements coming soon 😉

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Two Quick Tips For Building Online Engagement Like a Rockstar

One of the great things about writing Think Like a Rockstar is that it’s giving me an even deeper understanding and appreciation of how Rockstars cultivate their fans.  And it’s no coincidence that Rockstars have made excellent use of Social Media to better connect with their fans.  Here’s two quick lessons you can learn from Rockstars if you want to build more engagement around your Social Media Marketing:

1 – Use the tools in the same way that your audience does.  Rockstars like Amanda Palmer do an excellent job of using social media tools to connect with others and share content.  When we see that our favorite Rockstar uses Twitter and Facebook just like we do, it makes it much easier to relate to them, and connect with them.  And for the Rockstar, this can have real benefits…

Amanda Palmer, Kickstarter, Think Like a Rockstar

Understand who your audience is, and how they use/consume/share social content.  Once you understand their behavior, then you can follow their lead, and create the type of content they are looking for, and share/use it in the same ways they are.  Which will make it that much easier for your audience to engage with you.

2 – Don’t be afraid to be real.  Lady Gaga created a bit of a buzz recently because she tweeted a picture of herself without any makeup.  What’s the big deal?  Gaga did this because she knew it would make her fans more comfortable connecting with her, and it would make her seem ‘more real’ to them.  It’s also a sign of letting her guard down for her fans, and that makes it easier for them to trust her.

Lady Gaga, no makeupMost brands have never really understood this, but your biggest fans WANT to go behind the curtain.  They want special access and to see what happens behind the scenes.  It helps them better connect with you.  When Gaga tweets a picture without makeup, she’s saying to her fans ‘See, I have to go through putting makeup on just like you do’.  Again, it’s all about helping fans feel more connected to their favorite Rockstar.  Years ago when he was at Microsoft, Robert Scoble took a videocamera around and interviewed Microsoft employees as they were doing their jobs.  Sure, sometimes their Windows-based PCs crashed, but you know what?  It worked because it helped to humanize Microsoft.  We got to see the real faces of Microsoft’s employees, and in doing so, Microsoft went from being a huge brand that we can’t connect to, to one that has real people working for it, and once we could attach faces and voices to that brand, it was easier to connect with it.

So there’s two quick tips for helping you build engagement around your brand’s (personal or company) social media efforts.  I’ll be sharing many more tips and lessons like this in Think Like a Rockstar.  If you’d like to join the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour, here’s details.

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Three Blogging Questions You Need to Ask (And Answer!) #Blogchat

Thanks to Natalia for suggesting tonight’s #Blogchat topic, how to create a blogging strategy.  Even though we have covered this topic before, its terribly important to have a strategy guiding your blogging efforts, so it deserves another look.  But, I also know that when you say ‘blogging strategy’ that a lot of people’s eyes glaze over.  So I wanted to take a different approach with the topic tonight and focus on Three Blogging Questions you should ask and answer:

1 – Why Are You Blogging?  It all starts here.  Do you want to blog to grow your business?  Or do you want to blog to share your life as a farmer in Kansas?  Whatever your reason, think about what you want to accomplish via blogging.

2 – Who Are You Trying to Reach?  Building on the first question, think about who you are trying to connect with.  Obviously, if you are blogging for your business, then your answer is ‘your customers’, but think about who these people are and why your blog would interest them.  And if you can’t answer this question yet, it’s not the end of the world, just think about it as you move forward with your blogging.

3 – What Will I Blog About?  Think about what you will post about, and how it will be presented.  Will you blog about your day-to-day life?  Will you blog about industry news?  Also note that as you are figuring out what to blog about, this will help you answer the first two questions, as you’ll have to think about who you are trying to reach, when you decide what to blog about.  So all three questions and your answers are really dependent on each other.

So if you can answer those three blogging questions, you’ll be well on your way to crafting a blogging strategy!  And if you need help, please check out #Blogchat tonight on Twitter, starting at 8pm Central!  If you’ve never joined #Blogchat, here’s what it’s all about.

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Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour Update

I’ve started confirming the first few dates for the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour and I wanted to give you a heads-up on where I’ll be!

The first confirmed stop (for now) is Social Brand Forum in October!  I’m super pumped about this as I’ll be keynoting along with my friends Ann Handley and DJ Waldow.  It’s being put on by our friend Nick Westergaard in Coralville, Iowa on October the 17th and 18th.  Not only will I be presenting Think Like a Rockstar, but I’ll also be conducting a LIVE #Blogchat as well!  If all that’s not enough, the first 100 who register will also get a copy of Think Like a Rockstar, plus DJ’s new book, Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing!  This should be a great event and it’s my first time in Iowa, so I’m excited about that as well!

The second confirmed stop will be in Nashville next May, I’ll be speaking to the local AMA chapter.  More details on this event as we get closer to that time.  Also, another event is confirmed for February that I can’t talk about yet.  Trust me, it will be a BIG surprise to all of y’all 😉 You can check here to see all the latest confirmed stops on the book tour.  I’m also talking to a couple of other events and hope to have those confirmed soon as well.

Now if you want your event or company to be a part of the Think Like a Rockstar Book Tour, there’s 3 options available to you (All rates are for speaking in the continental United States only and don’t include travel):

1 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $1,000.00.  This is HALF what I normally charge to present Think Like a Rockstar, and this rate is only valid for the remainder of 2012.  Half this fee will be due 60 days before the event, the balance due when I arrive at the event.  So for example if you wanted me to present on Sept 1st, I’d need $500.00 by July 1st, and the remaining $500.00 would be due when I arrive at the event.

2 – You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar for $500.00 plus pre-ordering 50 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  The $500.00 fee will be due 60 days before the event.  The best part about this option is Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale (April 2013).  Think Like a Rockstar will be paperback, so the price will likely be $14-16 dollars.  Also note that you can always take the books and resell them to recover most of your cost.

3 –  You can book me to present Think Like a Rockstar if you pre-order 100 copies of Think Like a Rockstar through Amazon.  Again, Amazon won’t charge your credit card for the pre-orders until the book goes on sale next year.  And you can always take the books and resell them to recover almost all of your cost!

I am offering such low rates on presenting Think Like a Rockstar because I want to build as much momentum as possible for the book prior to its launch.  The presentation will be 60-75 minutes including 15-30 mins for Q&A.  We can also add this with other services, for example if you’d like to bring me in to present Think Like a Rockstar PLUS do a Live #Blogchat, I can work out an impossibly affordable deal for that.

Also keep in mind that these slots will likely start filling up as we get closer to August when the book is available for pre-order.  Plus I have a couple of big announcements concerning the book before then that should drive additional interest 😉

BTW if you would rather have me present Think Like a Rockstar after the book has come out, we can totally do that as well.  Think Like a Rockstar will go on sale in April of 2013.  The exact pre-order and on-sale dates should firm up as I finish the manuscript, which is 50% done right now!  Just email me if you want to schedule a date in 2013 after the book has gone on sale.

Also, please note if your company or event is within driving distance of where I am, such as Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham and Huntsville, PLEASE contact me as I will give you a very good deal on having me come in and present Think Like a Rockstar.  So if your local chapter of the Social Media Club or AMA, for example, wants to bring me in, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I’m so excited about this book and can’t wait to finish it for y’all.  In fact the biggest reason why the manuscript is only 50% done at this point is because I keep re-writing the chapters I’ve finished cause I think of a way to make them better 😉  I hope you’ll enjoy it and I hope I can see YOU when I present Think Like a Rockstar!

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Social Media Isn’t Free and Neither Am I

Amazingly, this story I’m about to tell happens about once a week, and it’s usually coming from a large brand.

A week or so ago I got an email from the director of corp comm for a decent-sized company.  She had read a post I wrote on responding to negative feedback from customers, and that’s what she needed help with.  She told me that her company had been dealing with a customer stemming from an issue in 2008.  Since that time, they claimed the customer had repeatedly complained about their service, the company claimed it had tried to work with the customer, but the customer continued to post negative comments on its Facebook page, etc.  I was even given a word doc with exchanges between the customer and the chain.

The director of corporate communications then ended her email by asking ‘What should we do now?’

I informed the director of corporate communications that I was a Social Media Strategist that gets paid by corporations such as her’s to help them with issues just like this.  I told her my blog was here to provide her with FREE help via the content I provide, and that if she wanted more extensive help, that she would have to PAY for it, and gave her my rate.

She responded by saying she might be interested in working with me in the future, and asked me if I could give her some examples of my work.  I responded with this:

“I’m confused, XXXX.  An hour ago you were willing to have me advise you on how to handle a customer-service matter that’s been an issue for your company for 4 years, for free, but now that I want to charge you for that help, you want to see examples of my work?  I would assume you had already determined that I was qualified to help you with this matter, else why would you have contacted me to begin with?”

Shockingly, our email exchange ended at this point.  Every consultant that’s worked with companies for any amount of time can probably tell stories just like this one.  If it’s a small business or mom-and-pop outfit asking for free advice, I don’t mind quite as much.  But when it’s a major brand that can afford to pay, it’s inexcusable.

Oh and BTW to the brand that contacted me about a customer service issue it’s been dealing with for the last four years, maybe you would have figured out how to fix this problem by now if you weren’t looking for a FREE solution.

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Why Isn’t LinkedIn Proactively Alerting Members to its Security Breach?

I was on Twitter earlier and saw a few tweets from CK, asking some very common sense questions.  Basically, she wanted to know why LinkedIn wasn’t making its users more aware of what happened with the recent security breach that resulted in millions of passwords from LinkedIn members being stolen, and also what LinkedIn was doing to correct the problem.

She’s exactly right.  This morning, LinkedIn finally verified the security breach via a post on its blog.  But if you go to LinkedIn’s site, there’s no mention of the issue (that I can see).  So far there’s been no communication from LinkedIn to its members (LinkedIn has said it’s emailed the affected users to let them know to change their passwords).

But if LinkedIn can address the situation on its blog, why can’t it email its members to let them know what’s happening?  This is Crisis Management 101: When there’s an issue like this, you communicate as soon as possible to those affected (hint: It’s ALL your members, not those with stolen passwords only), and let them know what has happened, and what steps are being taken to address and correct the situation.

Because if you don’t, you are sending a very bad message to your members.  You are telling us that you only send us emails when it’s important, like when you want us to upgrade to a premium account, or update our profile, or connect our email address book to our account.  But when it comes to our security, well that’s not important enough to warrant a ‘personal’ email.  As a result, we are finding out about this mess via the press, instead of via LinkedIn.  See?  In a crisis situation, we WILL find out the rest of the story, you can either tell us yourself in a proactive manner, or we’ll find out from other sources.

Trust is very hard to win, and incredibly easy to lose.  Because of how LinkedIn has handled this situation, they are communicating to me that the site places its own self-interests above mine (all companies do, but don’t make it so obvious!).  And to be fair, I totally get needing to do an internal investigation and understand exactly what the situation is before you comment publicly.  My point is LinkedIn has ALREADY commented, on its blog.  Guess what…not all of its members read its blog.  If the company can email us with self-promotions, why can’t it email us to alert us to a situation that could affect our membership, and our online security.

There’s no reason why they can’t.  And the fact that they are not speaks volumes.