MackCollier.com

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Getting more blog comments vs cultivating more blog conversations

One of the big concerns for so many bloggers is getting more comments on their blog.  There have been a gazillion posts written on how to get more comments, I have written a few myself.  But I think an important distinction we need to make is that getting more comments does not necessarily equal getting more CONVERSATIONS on your blog. And at the end of the day, I think when most bloggers say ‘I want more comments on my blog!’ what they REALLY mean is ‘I want more conversations on my blog!’

So if we really want more conversations, then that requires a slightly different approach than simply trying to get more comments.  And it was this distinction that we discussed last night during #Blogchat.  You can view the transcript here.

In chatting with all the other smarties during #Blogchat last night, I think we agreed upon a few key ways to cultivate more conversations (not just comments) on your blog:

1 – Ask your readers what they think.  I remember @JudyMartin8 specifically made this point.  It’s a great way to encourage your readers to get their point of view out in the open, and that increases the chance that others can agree or disagree with their points.

2 – Push commenters to go beyond just saying ‘Great post!’.  We all get these comments, and I definitely appreciate them.  But as far as cultivating conversations, these really don’t help us much.  When you get these type of comments, ask the commenter to share WHAT they liked about the post.  This way you get an interaction started with them, that could lead to a conversation.  Both @profkrg and @kamkansas made this point.

3 – Help connect commenters that make complimentary or opposing points.  This is a great way to cultivate conversations that I don’t think enough bloggers focus on.  If one blogger makes a point, then another follows up with a comment that either builds on their point or offers a differing point of view, try to connect the two.  Leave a comment like ‘Hey Sarah, I think Pete was making a similar point in his comment’, or ‘Jim I like where you are going with this, but what would you say to someone like Kathy, that thinks the opposite?’

 

At the end of the day, I think we as bloggers need to take ownership and proactively cultivate the conversations that we want to see happen.  I think we need to go beyond simply trying to get more comments, because as I said last night, if you get 10 comments that all say ‘Great post!’, that is NOT a conversation, that’s 10 comments.

What else could we be doing to cultivate conversations in the comments section of our posts?  What works for you on your blog?

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Lady Gaga gives fans chance to get sneak peek at the cover to Marry the Night

Last night I was involved in a fabulous #SocialChat on Twitter and at one point we were discussing how companies could learn how to better embrace their advocates by watching how rockstars engage with their fans.  We were discussing how brand advocates WANT to take ownership in their favorite brands, but so few brands actually reach out and give them that chance.

I mentioned how Lady Gaga and Harley Davidson both embrace and love their fans.  I took a second to check Gaga’s twitter page, and as luck would have it, I saw this tweet:

Love it.  This tweet is going in my next version of the Think Like a Rockstar deck.  Here’s why I love this tweet:

1 – Gaga gave her fans ownership.  She reached out to them and empowered them to have something positive happen, if they acted.

2 – She communicated WHAT they needed to do in order to see the cover early.  Gaga’s fans would want to see the cover to her new single before it’s released.  Gaga knows this, so instead of just giving it to them, she makes them earn it.  Robbin had a great post about this point, and how movements need to be structured so that those involved have some skin in the game.

3 – She communicates to her fans that what THEY want is ABOVE what her LABEL wants.  Love that.  She’s telling her fans that ‘If it comes down to me choosing between what my label wants, and what you want, then you win.’

And her fans came through, and got to see the cover:

What is your brand doing to embrace and reward its biggest fans?

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Is Twitter making us lazy bloggers?

I’ve been closely examining this blog over the last few weeks in several areas.  One of the areas I’ve been looking at is interaction.  Most posts here get several comments, some even a few dozen or more.  So it’s been easy for me to assume that this blog has a very active and engaged community.

But it doesn’t.  I started really looking at the people that were commenting and interacting, and noticed something: They weren’t regular blog readers, for the most part.  They were people that follow me on Twitter.  Another hint was that whenever I write my posts ahead of time, I will schedule them to publish the following morning at 8am.  At 9am, I will tweet out a link to the new post for the first time.  I almost never get the first comments on my new post UNTIL the link gets tweeted on Twitter.

Another thing that I’ve realized is that I’ve been cultivating my Twitter network at the expense of my blogging network.  Up until a year or so ago, I used to comment on other blogs on an almost daily basis.  I stopped doing that, because I rationalized to myself that I could get more ‘accomplished’ by tweeting out a link to a post I liked, instead of commenting on it.  My thinking was that pointing my 25K+ followers to a post would be more appreciated by the blogger than me commenting on their post.

And maybe it would be, but by not commenting on other blog posts, I’m also decreasing the number of comments I get here.  See the dilemma?

So moving forward, I am going to start investing more time in cultivating a community around this blog, instead of just trying to get my Twitter network to come here.  One thing I did over the weekend was de-activate the LiveFyre commenting system.  I loved the customer service they gave me, it was exceptional, but at the end of the day, I didn’t like that LiveFyre doesn’t support Comment Luv, and it doesn’t let you click on the commenter’s name and go straight to their blog.  These are two very powerful community-building tools that I prefer to use, and will be from now on.

I’m wondering, have the rest of you noticed this as well?  Are you also cultivating your Twitter network at the expense of your blogging community?  It’s so easy to simply point your network from Twitter here, but if Twitter goes away, does your blog readership leave with it?

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Let’s Connect at Blog World Expo Plus a Live #Blogchat Update!

Blog World Expo is only 20 days away!  Can you believe it’s almost here?  I am knee-deep in getting prepped for my first trip to Blog World, and I wanted to touch base with y’all on a couple of key areas:

First, we have nailed down all the details on the LIVE #Blogchat!  It will happen on November the 5th, a Saturday, at 3:30pm.  Live #Blogchat will be located in Room 150A.  Deb told me this is one of the rooms right next to where they’ll have the keynotes.  She said it can hold between 100-150 people.  We aren’t going to have any type of registration for the Live #Blogchat, seating will be first-come, first-served.  Should also be the largest Live #Blogchat we’ve done so far, so come early!

Now, as for the topic….we asked y’all to pick from one of 5 possible Live #Blogchat topics over at the Blog World Expo blog.  The most popular topic was How do you create a strategy for your blog?  So that will be our topic BUT, the 2nd most popular topic was How do you use other social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Plus) to grow your blog?  Deb and I decided that it made perfect sense to discuss how to create a strategy for your blog, but that in the course of that discussion, we could also devote some time to discussing how to use other social sites to grow your blog!  So the best of both worlds!

So here’s the LIVE #Blogchat at Blog World Expo skinny:

When: November 5th (Saturday) at 3:30 pm

Where: Room 150-A, Los Angeles Convention Center

Topic: How do you create a strategy for your blog?

Registration: NOPE! Attendance is first-come, first-served!

I cannot wait to see y’all at the Live #Blogchat!  I’m so glad we’ll finally have one on the West Coast as I know a lot of #Blogchat regulars like Bruce and Marcy have been asking about when we would!

Now, the second reason for this post is to let you know how we can connect at Blog World Expo.  Since Blog World is so ginormous there are a TON of people that I want to meet, so for most of Thursday and especially Saturday, I will be at the Convention Center, meeting and mingling with all of y’all.  I won’t be attending many sessions, because I want to have as much time to catch up with old friends, and meet new ones!  So if we haven’t already connected and you want to, please email me and let’s try to get together!

Besides catching up with old and new friends at Blog World, I am going to actually be doing some business there as well.  To this end, I want to connect with you at Blog World IF:

1 – Your company or event is interested in having a Live #Blogchat in 2012.  I would be happy to meet with you and give you more information about how a Live #Blogchat works, show you video from previous Live #Blogchats, go over prices and sponsorship packages, whatever you want.

2 – Your company or event is interested in having me speak or provide on-site social media marketing training.  Same as above, I’ll be happy to give you more information on how this could be structured, fees involved, etc.

3 – Your company has a brand ambassador/advocate program you’d like to talk to me about.  I am always looking for new case studies to profile here and in my presentations of companies that are doing innovative things to embrace and empower their advocates and fans.  If your company has something you’d like to share with me, please email me.  Bonus points if you have already documented a case study you can point me to 😉

So if you’d like to have a Live #Blogchat at your company or event, or you’d like to work with me, or you’d like to tell me about your company/organization’s brand advocate outreach efforts, please email me so we can talk about setting up a time to meet.  I am going to try to keep Friday the 6th more or less free so I can have on-site meetings with as many companies as possible.  If Friday doesn’t work for you, let me know and we’ll see about finding a time that fits in both our schedules.

That’s it!  I can’t wait to see all of y’all in LA in just THREE weeks!  Please leave a comment if you’ll be attending so we can start connecting now 😉

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Book Review: The Hidden Power of Your Customers

UPDATE: Congrats to Mary Cavanaugh for winning the signed copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers!  Thanks to everyone for the great comments and discussions!

As those of you that have read MackCollier.com for any amount of time know, I rarely do book reviews here.  But I wanted to let you know about the first book from one of my oldest blogging friends, Becky Carroll.  Becky has been blogging for the last 5 years on the power of embracing your customers.  She’s also been consulting companies of all sizes on how to do this, and does it every day in her role as Community Manager for Verizon.

So I was thrilled when she sent me a copy of her first book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers.  This is the book Becky was meant to write.  So often I see that someone has written a book that doesn’t really seem to speak to their core expertise, but not so with The Hidden Power of Your Customers!

Becky explains that the 4 keys to unlocking the power of your customers are based on R.O.C.K.:

R = Relevant marketing.  Creating marketing that customers want, and that resonates with them.

O = Orchestrated customer experience.  Creating a customer experience that’s viewed through the eyes of the customer, not the company.

C = Customer-Focused Culture.  It is in the company’s DNA to delight and excite their customers.

K = Killer customer service.  Be consistent, and focus on getting the ‘little things’ right every single day.

 

What I love about The Hidden Power of Your Customers, is that it gives you solid business strategy and advice, then tells you how to EXECUTE that advice.  Too many marketing/social media books will give you ‘common sense’ business platitudes that might make for a good RT, but they actually tell you HOW to do what they are suggesting.  Becky does.  For example, the book is organized into 4 sections, each one covering one of the letters in her R.O.C.K. formula.  I was particularly interested in the C, or Customer-Focused Culture.  Now a TON of marketing books have talked about the value of having a customer-focused culture, but few tell you how to actually GET there.

Becky talks about having customer-centered values, and how to track and MEASURE metrics that are associated with your goal of creating a customer-focused culture.  She walks you through the type of employees you should be hiring to help you develop a customer-focused culture.  She gives you an actual plan for creating a customer-focused culture, rather than saying you need to do so, then sending you on your merry way without any direction on how to get there.

And Becky does something else that I love: She uses case studies to illustrate the points she is trying to make.  People LOVE case studies!  And I have found from my work and presentations that people can understand the concepts you are trying to relate much easier if you can tell them a story of how a real company has done what you are suggesting they do.  It really helps the ideas resonate, and Becky has dozens of case studies sprinkled all throughout this book.

So I love this book, and I think you will as well.  If you want to buy a copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers, then head on over to Amazon.  BUT, since Becky rocks so much, she has given me a SIGNED copy to giveaway here on my blog!

So if you want to win a signed copy of The Hidden Power of Your Customers, simply leave a comment telling us about an amazing experience you have had with a company or organization.  One that you think did a great job of focusing on you as a customer and truly made you feel appreciated, and made you want to tell others about your amazing experience.  And it doesn’t have to be a one-time event, it could be about your favorite business or organization that you love because they consistently give you amazing service and truly appreciate you and you can tell they appreciate all of their customers.

That’s all I need, and I’ll pick one winner to receive the signed book by next Saturday, the 22nd!  And you can live anywhere in the world, I’ll mail it to you where ever you are, all you need to do is share your story with us!  Good luck, and thanks again to Becky for writing such an amazing book!

 

Pic via Flickr user MelonieG

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What happens when you lose your love of blogging?

Last night’s #Blogchat topic was getting inspired again if you’ve lost your love of blogging.  It was a fabulous discussion once again, and here’s the transcript if you missed it.  I wouldn’t say that I no longer love blogging, but over the last few weeks, I am loving it a lot less, and it seems more like ‘work’ than FUN for me.

One of the things I continue to struggle with is how often to post here.  I want to create as much amazing and valuable content for y’all as possible.  But I also know if I only blog when I have something amazing to say, y’all may not hear from me for a few months 😉  So then it becomes a trade-off between posting more often with slightly less valuable posts, versus posting slightly more valuable posts, but less often.  Sometimes I just want to stop blogging and only blog when I have something that truly think is worth sharing.  If that means I only blog once a month, so be it.  But at the same time, this blog isn’t my personal soapbox, it is a business development tool.  So I can’t afford to only post once a month, I need to use this tool to create and increase visibility for myself.

So how do you find the optimal number of posts for your blog?  I would like to shoot for a consistent 2-3 posts a week here.  I’ve talked to other bloggers recently and they are going through the same ‘I don’t want to blog more for the traffic, I want to blog less for my readers’ struggle.  Sure, I know if I write 5 new posts a week, that traffic will skyrocket, and overall post quality will also likely fall.  Is that tradeoff worth it?  I don’t think so.

Another option is to allow guest posts.  Honestly, I don’t like using guest posts, and don’t like reading blogs that allow a lot of guest posts.  A few months ago one of my favorite bloggers turned their blog into a group blog, and I rarely read the blog anymore.  Because the reason why I was reading it (that blogger) never posts there anymore.  So while I may rarely use guest posts in the future, I want to be driving the majority of the content here.

So how did you set your posting schedule?  How did you find a method that works for you?  Think it’s time for me to shake things up here, what’s worked for you?

Pic via Flickr user ptrktn

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What Ragu just taught us about how big brands should use Social Media and connect with influencers

I am loathe to blog about a topic when it seems that everyone in the ‘Social Media Bubble’ has already covered it, but the recent spat between Ragu and Social Media-savvy dads just keeps pulling me back in.

First, above is a list of the tweets that @RaguTweets sent out to ‘influential’ dads on Twitter pointing them toward this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXoFKt-5j6o

As you can see, that video is pretty condescending to dads.  So when you purposely target dads that you deem to be influential and social media savvy with a video that talks down to them, guess what happens?  Thaaaaaaat’s right!  Those dads turn to social media to call your brand out as being clueless idiots.

Did we REALLY not see this coming?

As C.C. said on his blog: “When my first interaction with a brand is an @ spam on Twitter … and when I engage and yet see nothing to welcome me … that is a turn-off. Follow that up with a video that insults me and my friends? Yeah, not exactly the welcoming committee I would have expected.”

What made this situation worse (as it usually does in the case of a ‘social media firestorm’) is that Ragu took a half day or more to respond to the dads they had spammed with the above tweets.  As I keep saying, most social media firestorms aren’t caused by the brand’s/org’s initial action that triggers the discussion, it’s by how the brand/org REACTS (or doesn’t), to that firestorm.  Here’s a couple of examples:

1 – Motrin Moms.  The discussion started I believe on a Saturday on Twitter, and Motrin never responded.  By Sunday, the anger had reached a fever pitch on Twitter because the brand wasn’t addressing the complaints over one of their ads.  So someone figured out who their agency was, and contacted them to ask for a response to the outcry on Twitter about the Motrin ads, to which the agency rep gave the now infamous response of ‘What’s Twitter?’  Motrin’s mistake was that they weren’t monitoring online conversations about their brand, and when you drop a new ad on Friday and go home for the weekend, you run the risk that said ad might generate some discussion that you want to be aware of, over the weekend.

2 – The Red Cross and #gettinslizzard.  The Red Cross did the exact opposite in handling a ‘rogue tweet’ from an employee that was accidentally sent from The Red Cross account instead of the employee’s account where she MEANT to tell her friend that she had the beer they were going to be drinking that night.  So it looked like The Red Cross was tweeting that they were #gettinslizzard.  There was an immediate reaction to this tweet, but to The Red Cross’ credit, they quickly jumped all over this, and within an hour had deleted the tweet, and explained the situation.  This totally changed the reaction to the event, and turned detractors into evangelists, and The Red Cross actually ended up seeing a nice bump in blood donations as a result.

 So in closing, I think there are two key lessons that brands need to take away from this whole episode with Ragu:

1 – If you are going to use social media sites and tools to promote yourself, you have to be prepared to respond to customer feedback via those same sites and tools.  Again, what Ragu did was effectively spam these dads with links to videos that talked down to them.  That’s a recipe for backlash from those same dads that anyone can see coming a mile off.  But when Ragu didn’t respond to criticism via Twitter till the next day, their slow response time became part of the frustration for the dads, and only made a bad situation worse.  As Gini says, you can’t commit to using tools your customers are using to be social, as sales channels only.  Your customers have an expectation that if you are going to use social media, that you will be….social.

2 – Understand that reaching out to influencers is a double-edged sword.  The great thing about influencers is that they have reach and the ability to connect with large networks.  The bad thing about influencers is that they usually have little to no affinity for your brand.  When Ragu targeted influential dads and then spammed them with a condescending message, they were setting themselves up to get slammed.  And then they haven’t helped matters with their response in MediaPost which basically reads as ‘sure, we got some things wrong, but so did the dads as well’.  The very thing that attracted Ragu to reach out to these influencers (large network, they are influential) is the very thing that sparked this brouhaha because of a poorly-conceived strategy and message.

This is also why I think that brands need to invest more time in connecting with their advocates and fans.  Look at what Dell (Disc: I’ve worked with Dell on this project) has done with #DellCAP.  They have a Customer Advisory Panel in place made up of Dell brand advocates.  These are special customers that Dell can bounce ideas off of, and get direction from.  If Ragu had a similar group in place, they could have reached out to them and gotten feedback on this idea.  My guess is Ragu’s advocates would have seen what would happen, and advised the brand to try a different approach.

In closing, I wanted to share an ‘old’ video from Gary Vee recapping how he handled a potential social media firestorm that affected his business.  As you watch this, pay close attention to how Gary explains that he responded to the criticism via the exact same channels and tools where that criticism was occuring.

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How to ace your first presentation at a Social Media conference

Exactly four weeks from today I will be on a plane bound (eventually) for Los Angeles, and Blog World Expo.  I’ve already started getting ready for this trip, and we’ll be doing a Live #Blogchat there on Saturday the 5th.  As I’ve been prepping for this trip, I realized that for some of you, this might be the first social media event you’ve ever spoken at.  Don’t fret, the first Social Media conference I ever spoke at was South By Southwest in 2008, and I survived!  So I wanted to write this post to give you some pointers (along with lessons learned) to help you ace your first presentation at a social media conference.

1 – Get started early.  If you’re reading this and thinking “Hey that’s right, I guess I do need to get started on my deck for Blog World!”, then we’ve hit our first Red Flag.  There is no substitute for prep time.  If I am creating a brand new deck for a presentation, I start working on it 6-8 weeks before the event, 4 weeks if it’s a session I have already delivered before.

2 – Devote half your time to creating the deck, half your time to rehearsing your delivery and always give yourself at LEAST two weeks for each.  That sounds like a ton of time, but it isn’t.  And when I am working on my delivery, I spend the first week delivering the presentation from  a script.  I make an outline of the presentation, and make sure to know the main points I want to hit on.  That’s in the first week of rehearsing, for the second week, I lose the script.  After a week of rehearsing, you’ll have a general understanding of what you want to talk about, but you won’t have the exact words memorized.  Which is ok, because when you lose the script, it will force you to talk about WHAT you know, versus simply reciting.  You don’t want to give a speech, you want to share your knowledge.  Spend the second week talking through the deck with no script, and you’ll be ready!

3 – As far as actual deck creation, I start out by making myself an outline.  It helps to do this to give yourself a sense of direction.  Write down the main points you want to hit, and it always helps if you can work this into the start of your presentation.  Within the first few minutes of the presentation, I like to tell the audience what we’ll be covering, so they know how the presentation will flow.

4 – Start connecting with and getting a feel for your audience BEFORE the event starts.  If you will be presenting at Blog World for the first time (or even if this is old hat to you), you should be following the #BWELA hashtag on Twitter.  That’s where you will find Blog World attendees discussing the event, and you can talk to them about their expectations.  And it is especially beneficial to follow this hashtag AFTER the event starts!  I always do this because I can get feedback from attendees on both the sessions, and the speakers.  It gives you an idea of what speakers are doing right and wrong, so you can adjust and improve your session!

5 – Figure out where exactly your session will be beforehand.  When I arrive at the convention center for Blog World, one of the first things I will do is go find the area where we’ll have the Live #Blogchat.  You should do the same thing figure out what room your session will be in, so you can become familiar with it.  You’ll want to know how big it is, what the setup is, will you be presenting from a stage, a podium, or can you move around?  Being familiar with the space where you will be presenting will make you  more comfortable, and that will make your session go more smoothly.

6 – When you delivering your presentation, remember two things.  The first is talk slowly.  Nothing screams ‘I am nervous!!!’ more than talking too fast.  Plus, it makes it harder for your audience to understand you and your points.  The second is that the audience does NOT know what you are about to say.  So if you flub up and make a mistake, there is a 99% chance they will have no idea that you did.  Just relax, collect yourself, and move on.

7 – THANK everyone for coming!  Seriously, it is a gift to have people listen to you speak, especially at an event like Blog World Expo, which has several tracks going at once.  And keep in touch with them after the event, that will only help generate positive word of mouth for the NEXT time you speak!

But in closing, prepare, prepare, prepare.  If you have a solid and engaging delivery, your presentation will go SO much better and be much better received by your audience.

PS: If you want a great post on attending a social media event, check out Lisa Petrilli’s introvert’s guide to attending conferences.

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#Blogchat This Sunday: How Sports Teams Can Connect With Fans Via Blogging With Lou Imbriano!

This Sunday at #Blogchat we’ll be joined by Lou Imbriano, who will talk to us about how sports teams can use blogging to connect with their fans!  Many of you know Lou, as he’s been a regular participant in #Blogchat for well over a year now.  Besides being the CEO of Trinity One, Lou is the former Chief Marketing Officer for the New England Patriots!  Additionally, he’s just published the book Winning The Customer, which he’ll be giving away a couple of copies before and after #Blogchat on Sunday!

Speaking of Winning the Customer, I wanted to share with you part of what Lou wrote in his acknowledgments section: “I have to give a big shout out to Twitter.  It’s the reason Elizabeth and I met, and it also led me to Mack Collier and #blogchat, which gave me the notion and the tools to write a blog.  That blog is what made me think I could actually write a book.”

How great is that?  That means every one of you that participate in #Blogchat have helped Lou in seeing Winning the Customer come to light!  Which is another reason why I’m so excited to have Lou join us!

Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

8:00pm Central – 8:30pm:  How can sports teams use blogs to connect with fans?  Should they start a blog based on the franchise as a whole, or one area?  If the Patriots said today that they wanted to get into blogging, how would we make that happen?

8:30pm Central – 9:00pm: Who should be blogging for the franchise?  The owner?  The players?  If the players, how much freedom do you give them?

That’s it, and although we do want to focus on blogging, if you’d like to talk to Lou about how sports teams and franchises can use other social media tools to better connect with fans, feel free!  And please in preparation for #Blogchat this Sunday, please do follow Lou on Twitter!

See you Sunday at 8pm Central!

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Sponsor the Love: Rethinking How Brands Can Connect With Their Fans

Last week I got to attend the 2011 FIRE Sessions hosted by Brains on Fire in Greenville.  I recapped the morning and afternoon sessions (Including a LIVE #Blogchat) over on the Brains on Fire blog.

The event itself was delightful and inspiring just like it was last year.  But for me, the highlight of my 3-day stay in Greenville came the morning after the FIRE Sessions, when I went visit the Brains of Fire headquarters.  There I had a chance to sit down and chat with Greg Cordell and John Moore.  Both conversations were absolutely fascinating, and today I wanted to share with you some of the smartitude that I heard from Greg.

We were discussing how companies can connect with their advocates, when our chat turned to the idea of sponsorships.  Greg said something that completely grabbed my attention:

“The greatest thing you can sponsor are the people that love you.”

Greg explained that the idea was to find what your customers love about your brand, and think about ways to sponsor events that tie into the qualities of your brand that attract your customers, or the way in which they use your product(s).  Here’s a couple of examples:

1 – If your customers love the elegance and simplicity of your product, create events and touchpoints that are elegant and simple.

2 – Figure out what your customers love about your brand and product, and create events that give them a reason to connect with each other and share that common love.  Greg explained that with Fiskars, they found that customers were using their scissors in their scrapbooking projects, and they also discovered that scrapbookers are very passionate about their projects.  So it was a natural to create events that bring scrapbookers together and let them connect over a common love: scrapbooking.

 

What’s important is to not only create an event that ties into the reasons why customers love your product and brand, but to also connect them to other people that share that love.  Greg clarified that companies should “sponsor the things that connect people to people, when you connect people to people through the things that they care more about.”  When you put people in contact with other people that share their same love and interests, it energizes and excites them.  And if your brand can facilitate that meeting and event, your customers will love your brand even more for doing so.

Isn’t that just so smart it makes your head hurt, in a good way?  When you relate this back to how Rockstars connect with their fans, this is really all a concert is.  It’s an event that brings fans together over a shared interest and lets them connect with each other.

What concert can you create for your brand’s fans?