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The Tourism Power List for September

Welcome to The Tourism Power List for September! This is my list of the Power accounts on Twitter for the tourism industry. The Power List will be updated once a month.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Tourism Power List! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

There’s two main reasons why I decided to do The Power List:

1 – I wanted to help give exposure to people who are doing a good job of using Twitter in a corporate environment. It’s damn hard to build a following and even any semblance of traction on social media for an account while also doing your core job functions. I wanted to build out The Power List as a platform to help give more exposure to others, and make it just a little easier for them to build a following and engagement around their content.

2 – I wanted to highlight the best use of Twitter, and use that as a way to show others how to improve their own use of Twitter. The Power List will become a way to showcase the best of the best, and also show all of us how to learn from the best of the best and improve our own efforts.

 

If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:

1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.

2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.

 

Here’s where you can find all the candidates for The Tourism Power List. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.

The Power List will rank the Top 10 Power users on Twitter. That number may expand past a Top 10 as the candidate pool becomes larger.  In fact I hope it does.

How is the Power List ranked?  How do I get to be #1?

I’ve been working with corporate teams to help them leverage Twitter as a communications tool for about 15 years now. So a lot of the Power List rankings is simply based on my experience working with people in a corporate setting and understanding what works and what doesn’t.

In short, there are two main consideration buckets I have when I rank the Power List:

1 – Posting frequency. I need to see enough content on your Twitter feed to see that you are making an effort to use Twitter to communicate with others. You don’t have to tweet every day, but if your last tweet is from December of 2022, you won’t be on the Power List.

2 – Original content. What I mean by that is I want to see content that’s written in your own unique voice. I get that working in a corporate environment comes with certain ‘challenges’ in regards to the tone and voice of your content. But that doesn’t mean that you should simply use your Twitter feed to repost your company’s press releases. Go behind the scenes, give us a sense of what your daily work day is like. One of the thoughts I should have when reading your Twitter feed is ‘Wow, that looks like a cool job, I wouldn’t mind working there!’

 

Before I get to the first Power List for the Tourism/Hospitality sector, I wanted to share some general takeaways on what I learned from spending a LOT of time the past few weeks looking at Twitter profiles in the space.

1 – This is the Power List I was most looking forward to. I have such fondness for the tourism space, I love how passionate the people in this space are for the work they do. I also have always loved how travel allows us all to create lifetime memories. Travel and experiences is the ONE thing you actually CAN spend money on, that buys you happiness. As proven by science.

2 – The list of candidates for The Tourism Power List is easily the strongest of any industry I’ve looked at so far. As a result, you’re going to see higher scores for this group, and deservedly so. This group is outstanding.

3 – With a few noticeable exceptions, this group is just as active on Twitter as it is on LinkedIn. I’ve spoken at many tourism and Governor’s conferences over the years, and I did see a few of my tourism contacts were no longer active on Twitter. But many of them still are.

 

The Tourism Power List for September:

1 – Kathryn Shea Duncan, Sr Director of Social Media, Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 94. So Kathryn started her current position via promotion last month. To say that she has hit the ground running is an understatement. I think she’s left more tweets in the last week than I have this year. And what’s amazing is, it’s all good content! Kathryn has an insane mix of content that she shares: Podcast episodes, articles, videos, images, her own personal accounts of events. All related to the Lake Charles area of Louisiana. She does an amazing job of leveraging Twitter as a channel to promote the Lake Charles area.  Which is exactly what she should be doing. Just an amazing job, Kathryn. Her score of 94 gives her the highest score of any Power List member, and I’m grading her too low if anything. Kathryn has shared an insane amount of content over the last week or so, I will be curious to see if she can keep up this pace.  If she can continue to share content at her current rate and continue share GOOD content at her current rate, her score will soon top 95, and may even flirt with 100.

2 – Leisha Elliott, Executive Director, Marion Co, WV CVB, Power List Score – 93. Leisha’s account is amazing. I honestly had to go back and forth between ranking Leisha first or second. Her volume of content isn’t as off the charts as Kathryn’s is, but Leisha has been tweeting every day or two consistently for the entire year. And it’s wonderful content, she makes you want to visit Marion County, WV immediately. A job very well, done, Leisha!

3 – Jim Hagen, Sec of Tourism for South Dakota, Power List Score – 91. Jim has another solid Twitter account.  Excellent frequency, excellent diversity of content, all positioned to make you want to visit South Dakota. And Jim, I love the updates on the Crazy Horse Memorial! I would like to see a few more updates with your own personal take or advice on the news and information you are sharing about the Mount Rushmore state. But that’s a minor quibble.

4 – Kyle Edmiston, President/CEO of Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 89. Kyle’s account sees a noticeable drop in frequency versus the Top 3 spots.  But Kyle still tweets on a very regular basis. However, Kyle does one thing with his tweets that I really don’t see anyone else on this list doing as well:  He is sharing his own personal opinions on the tourism content he is sharing AND he is sharing content about his team at the Lake Charles CVB, which I love. And he’s Kathryn’s boss, so that speaks to her performance as Director of SM for the Lake Charles CVB as well! Nice job Kyle!

5 – Diana Plazas,CSMO Caribbean & Latin America at Marriott International, Power List Score – 83. The frequency for Diana is lower than the Top 4, but she still consistently posts content on Twitter. It’s a bit different because Diana is posting content associated with Marriott, it’s properties and events and destinations that the hotel partners with. I enjoy Diana’s content, I do think she will need to post a bit more often to stay competitive with this group.  That’s not really a knock on her, it’s more a compliment to how well this group is doing.

6 – Kim Sabow, President and CEO, Arizona Lodging and Tourism Assoc, Power List Score – 81. So I struggled a bit with where to rank Kim’s profile. Her content is focused on what’s happening in the state of Arizona, but mostly at the governmental level. She has some very unique content in that she covers events that she’s participating in as an attendee and speaker, as well as interviews and interactions she and her assoc has with key politicians in her state. Her Twitter feed is a bit heavy on PR content at times, but it’s unique enough to stand out, even from this group.

7 – Adriana Cruz, Executive Director, Texas Economic Development & Tourism, Office of Gov Greg Abbott, Power List Score – 80. Adriana has another profile that I struggled a bit with how to rank it. She has solid frequency and decent content that is almost completely focused on economic development news in Texas, as well as coverage of what Texas Gov Greg Abbott is up to. I would like to see a little more content devoted to actual tourism in Texas.

8 – Becky Nave, Director of Destination Development at Virginia Tourism Corp, Power List Score – 74. A big drop in frequency in the last 3 spots. If Becky could up her content output and make that content be focused on travel in the Bristol, VA area and surrounding, it would greatly help her score.

9 – Robin Bloom, Director of Content, Philadelphia CVB, Power List Score – 73.   Robin has decent content, I would just like to see a lot more.  She has posted a bit more over the last month, so hopefully this is the start of a positive trend.

10 – Edie Emery, Sr Director of Publicity, Nashville CVB, Power List Score – 71. Edie shares good content, just not very often. If she could post at least weekly about events happening in and around Nashville, her score would likely jump 10 points or more.

 

So there’s the first Tourism Power List, and I must say, it’s a damn fine group.  Next week I’ll debut the Restaurant Power List, but so far, my tourism and travel pros are in a class by themselves.

Please follow the people that made this list, you can click on their name and it will take you to their Twitter profile so you can follow them. If you would like to nominate yourself or a peer for inclusion in The Toursm Power List, please follow me on Twitter, and make sure you have your position and the company you work for clearly listed in your Twitter profile. That’s it! All candidates for the Power List are on this list.

Would you like to sponsor The Power List for Retail? Here’s information on available options as well as prices.

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Unlock Sales Growth Through Social Sharing: The Retail Marketing Playbook

social sharing retail

Driving recommendations and organic social sharing has become imperative for forward-thinking retail marketers. Over 14% of retail sales were online in 2022, representing over one trillion in total sales. That’s a massive market that’s only growing every year. Your retail company can greatly accelerate its growth by giving your more passionate customers the tools they need to share content about your brand quickly and easily.

This article will explore 6 proven tactics to facilitate digital and social sharing that accelerates awareness, consideration, and sales.

Conduct Social Listening Research

It’s vital that you understand the online conversations happening around and about your retail brand. Here’s a few important considerations:

  • Monitoring social conversations for motivators like unique products, quality, brand affinity and customer service. Both positive and negative brand mentions should be escalated to the appropriate team and given a response ASAP. Don’t simply react to negative comments and ignore positive ones. Just as negative comments need a quick response, so do positive comments from customers. The quicker your brand can respond appropriately to a positive account, the more likely that customer is to create MORE positive content around and about your brand.
  • Tracking patterns in sharing by geography, demographics and other factors. Look for trends that indicate customer behavior. Once you’ve identified behavior patterns, it will become even easier to respond quickly and appropriately to customer feedback.
  • Identifying brand advocates and influencers driving significant word-of-mouth. These are your MVP customers. They are the customers who are consistently driving positive word of mouth, and you want to create and build a relationship with them. We’ll talk more about how to do this throughout this article.

These insights inform a targeted approach to activating consumers.

Incentivize Customers with Loyalty Program Perks

Loyalty programs present a prime mechanism to directly motivate social sharing and recommendations. Here’s some mechanisms to keep in mind:

  • Award points or discounts for shares, UGC, tags, and reviews. Prioritize which behavior is most beneficial to your brand and structure your customer incentives to encourage that outcome.
  • Develop tiered rewards based on volume and authenticity of advocacy. Structure rewards so the best rewards are given to customers for engaging in the behavior that’s most beneficial to your brand.
  • Recognize top brand ambassadors and evangelists through VIP badges and perks. I’ve talked before about rewarding the behavior you want to encourage. Identify your best advocates and loyalty participants, and put the spotlight on them. Think of it as modeling to your other customers what the ideal behavior is that you want them to engage in.
  • Promote social sharing pathways and benefits clearly across program touchpoints. Focus on encouraging social sharing via the channels that are most beneficial to your brand.

Leveraging loyalty initiatives turns customers into promoters and salespeople for your brand.

Launch User-Generated Content Campaigns

User-generated visuals like product photos or videos, store experience captures, and creative use cases provide customers the opportunity to sell your brand directly. Prompt UGC creation through:

  • Branded hashtags – Encourage customers to tag posts with your campaign hashtag. This helps with monitoring and attribution to track ROI.
  • Integration in on-site experiences – Provide signs, props and tools to make sharing in-store fun. Place prompts in high traffic areas and around products that are driving organic excitement and attention.
  • Contests – Build UGC volume through prize incentives tied to creative challenges. Lean on your existing loyalty program for implementation and ideas.
  • Spotlights – Repurpose compelling user content across your social channels when permissions allow. Use the most effective UGC to not only drive awareness but to also serve as an example for other customers of the type of UGC you would like to see them create as well.

UGC activates customers while expanding your original content library.

Simplify Social Sharing

The easier you make sharing, the more it will be embraced. Best practices include:

  • Add social sharing buttons prominently on product pages, blog articles, in-store and across all platforms. Make sure that sharing buttons are attached to the content that you want to see shared. Low-hanging fruit should always be taken advantage of.
  • Give customers examples of content they could create, such as example tweets or posts. This helps simplify the content creation process for customers.
  • Develop shortlinks, custom URLs and QR codes to make links highly shareable and trackable. This gives you a better sense of what content from which customers is generating more or less traction.

Seamless social functionality entices more participation.

Partner With Micro-Influencers

Work with real customers with engaged niche followings rather than celebrities. Micro influencers have smaller followings, but typically are far more engaged with their networks. Ideal alliances:

  • Offer free product and insider access in return for organic promotion to their networks. Never overlook the value of special access. True fans of your brand will see the value in getting special access that the average customer does not have. For example, bring customers on-site to engage directly with key executives involved in product marketing, design and rollout. Fans will see this access as a true perk, and view it as compensation.
  • Develop exclusive collaborations and products with unique codes for them to share. Whenever possible, always make sure every piece of content that every influencer you work with creates has tracking attached to it. Unique codes are perfect to attribute shares and traction to a specific influencer.
  • Seek advocates who genuinely know and love your brand over one-off sponsors. Multi-touch relationships amplify impact. If an influencer already loves your brand, they will likely already be working to help you build your brand via their content creation. On the other hand, if an influencer has no affinity toward your brand, then that influencer will be working to build their personal brand, not your company’s brand.

When followers view an influencer as a peer, their advocacy drives action. Micro-influencers have a smaller following, but that allows them to have tighter connections with that smaller following. They reach fewer people, but they can more easily have an impact on each individual person as a result.

Analyze and Continuously Optimize Social Sharing Among Your Retail Customers

A data-driven approach ensures social activation delivers measurable impact. Track:

  • Share of voice vs competitors on digital and social channels. Compare and contrast your results versus those of other companies in your space. Identify what’s working for the competition, then determine WHY it’s working, and decide if you can apply the same or similar principles to improve your own efforts.
  • Web referral traffic, account creation and sales derived from shares. It’s vital to know which channels and which customers/influencers are driving shares and ultimately sales. Address laggards as well as your best performers. Identify what’s working and attempt to replicate those results across all channels and shares.
  • UGC content engagement rates and user sentiment. Track content creation volume as well as engagement rates and response rate. Track the types of engagement and prioritize the types of response that are most desired.
  • If sharing incentives lead to a boost in participation rates among customers. Track which incentives lead to changes in behavior that are beneficial to your bramd.

Continuous optimization and creativity sustains momentum as tactics mature.

Activate Advocates Authentically

Channel the influence of delighted customers and brand advocates through innovation and ingenuity. A comprehensive plan to encourage social sharing will lead to customers driving online word of mouth, and sales. Prioritizing one high-potential tactic builds foundation for a scalable sharing ecosystem.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Gen Z Loves AI, Top 5 Industries For Digital Ads, Research on Social Media ROI

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope you are ready for a productive week.  Saturday is the first day of Fall! Fall is my favorite time of the year, I love it! Here’s a few business/marketing stories that caught my eye over the last week.

 

Not surprisingly, youngsters are more likely to use AI tools, and become proficient using them. A recent survey by SalesForce found that 49% of respondents have used generative AI tools, with 70% of Gen Z using them. The article also notes that 68% of Baby Boomers and Gen X have not used AI tools.  Apparently anyone born prior to 1981 is automatically ‘old’ now.

 

Five industries will see above average growth in digital ad spending in 2023. They are, in order; Travel, Retail, Healthcare, Automotive, Entertainment. I suppose all those make sense in one way or another, maybe automotive is the hardest to rationalize.  But the others I can see. Speaking of travel, the first Tourism Power List will debut this week, more on that at the end of the post.

 

Sprout Social has released its latest report on the state of social media marketing. From the takeaways that Sprout Social has shared, it seems like many marketers are still struggling to accurately measure the business impact of social media, which is amazing to say in 2023. It was interesting that the study found that 81% of respondents can already see that AI is making a positive impact on their work, but that makes sense from a content creation perspective.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of the Monday Marketing Minute. So tomorrow, I have a new post up on retail marketing, and on Wednesday, I will publish the debut edition of the Tourism Power List. I’m so pumped for that as the tourism space is probably my favorite to work in.  If you want to get a sneak peek at the Tourism Power List candidates, here they are.

I hope you have a wonderful week, enjoy the Fall weather!

 

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The Retail Power List for September

Welcome to The Retail Power List for September! This is my list of the Power accounts on Twitter for the retail industry. The Power List will be updated once a month.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Power List for Retail! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

There’s two main reasons why I decided to do The Power List:

1 – I wanted to help give exposure to people who are doing a good job of using Twitter in a corporate environment. It’s damn hard to build a following and even any semblance of traction on social media for an account while also doing your core job functions. I wanted to build out The Power List as a platform to help give more exposure to others, and make it just a little easier for them to build a following and engagement around their content.

2 – I wanted to highlight the best use of Twitter, and use that as a way to show others how to improve their own use of Twitter. The Power List will become a way to showcase the best of the best, and also show all of us how to learn from the best of the best and improve our own efforts.

 

If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:

1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.

2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.

 

Here’s where you can find all the candidates for the Power List for Retail. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.

The Power List will rank the Top 10 Power users on Twitter. That number may expand past a Top 10 as the candidate pool becomes larger.  In fact I hope it does.

How is the Power List ranked?  How do I get to be #1?

I’ve been working with corporate teams to help them leverage Twitter as a communications tool for about 15 years now. So a lot of the Power List rankings is simply based on my experience working with people in a corporate setting and understanding what works and what doesn’t.

In short, there are two main consideration buckets I have when I rank the Power List:

1 – Posting frequency. I need to see enough content on your Twitter feed to see that you are making an effort to use Twitter to communicate with others. You don’t have to tweet every day, but if your last tweet is from December of 2022, you won’t be on the Power List.

2 – Original content. What I mean by that is I want to see content that’s written in your own unique voice. I get that working in a corporate environment comes with certain ‘challenges’ in regards to the tone and voice of your content. But that doesn’t mean that you should simply use your Twitter feed to repost your company’s press releases. Go behind the scenes, give us a sense of what your daily work day is like. One of the thoughts I should have when reading your Twitter feed is ‘Wow, that looks like a cool job, I wouldn’t mind working there!’

 

Before I get to the first Power List for the Retail sector, I wanted to share some general takeaways on what I learned from spending a LOT of time the past few weeks looking at Twitter profiles in the space.

1 – As with the Power List for Technology, I noticed a LOT of retail pros have left Twitter over the last few years. One of the rules I had for inclusion in the Power List is that you must have left at least one tweet in the year 2023. That rule zapped a LOT of candidates. I lost count on how many retail accounts I saw with a last tweet in December of 2022.

2 – Pros in the retail industry love LinkedIn. I saw so many candidates that weren’t on Twitter, but were on LinkedIn.

3 – Much smaller candidate pool for the Retail Power List than Technology.  I’ve already started working on the Power List for Tourism for next week, and its much easier to find candidates for it as well. Finding candidates for the Retail list was simply brutal at times. Please nominate yourself or a peer if you work in corporate retail!

 

The Retail Power List for September:

1 – Lou Dubois, Senior Director, Content and Creative – The Home Depot, Power List Score – 92. Lou is #1 with the highest score so far on any Power List. Lou is very active, and his profile has a good mix of personal and professional content. Well done indeed.

2 – William White, CMO at WalMart, Power List Score – 85. Purely looking at posting frequency, William probably has the best profile I’ve seen so far on any Power List. He’s averaging a new tweet every 5-7 days like clockwork. The only slight downside I saw is his content is 100% corporate and focused on WalMart. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think if he wove in a few ‘behind the scenes’ types videos of what a ‘Day in the Life’ of a WalMart CMO or employee is like, I think that content would really help round out his profile. Nonetheless, he has a really good profile.

3 – Hal Lawton, CEO of Tractor Supply, Power List Score – 83. Hal has a pretty solid profile. Decent frequency, a lot of reposts and pointing toward content others have created that tell the Tractor Supply story.

4 – Emmalee Smith, Social Media Manager at Kroger, Power List Score – 79. So I struggled a bit with where to rank Emmalee’s profile. She’s fairly active, but her content is far more personal than focused on Kroger. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. She does have some interesting thoughts on working in corporate social media that I think a lot of people in the space can relate to.

5 – Sumit Singh, CEO of Chewy.com, Power List Score – 75. So from this point forward, all profiles left on this edition of the Retail Power List will have some serious frequency issues to address. Sumit’s last tweet is May 4th, and up till that point he was doing a pretty good job with his profile. Hopefully he will return to the same frequency he had earlier this year, and his score will rise considerably if he does.

6 – E. Blake Jackson, Global Communications, WalMart, Power List Score – 74. I struggled a bit with where to rank Blake’s profile on this list. His frequency is not bad, especially for this list. Almost all of his content is personal, there’s very little about his employer. I think if he upped his frequency about 20% and had that additional content be focused on WalMart and some behind-the-scenes info, that his profile would really take off.

7 – Keith Daily, Group VP Corporate Affairs, Kroger, Power List Score – 73. Keith is sharing decent content, just not much of it.  Only a few tweets so far in 2023. I checked and he’s far more active sharing content on LinkedIn, I think if he could post some of that content as well on Twitter, it would help build his following there as well.

8 – Dan Bartlett, EVP of Corporate Affairs, WalMart, Power List Score – 72. Very little content from Dan, it is updating us on what’s happening at WalMart, which is nice. But I would like to see more.

9 – Keegan Shoutz, PR, Best Buy, Power List Score – 71. Very little content so far in 2023. I hope that changes.

10 – Tony Lemma, Regional VP, The Home Depot, Power List Score – 70. Same thing, very little content in 2023.

 

One final note: Notice that 3 of the members of The Power List are from WalMart. I looked at almost every major website for a company in the retail industry over the last couple of weeks. WalMart was the only one I found that clearly listed the social media accounts for each member of its executive team.

So that’s the first Power List for Retail! Please follow the people that made this list, you can click on their name and it will take you to their Twitter profile so you can follow them. If you would like to nominate yourself or a peer for inclusion in The Power List for Retail, please follow me on Twitter, and make sure you have your position and the company you work for clearly listed in your Twitter profile. That’s it! All candidates for the Power List are on this list.

Would you like to sponsor The Power List for Retail? Here’s information on available options as well as prices.

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Igniting Organic Advocacy: The Tech Brand Growth Accelerator

online reviews technology industryYour best salesforce is your happy customers. I’ve build a business on this reality, I wrote a best-selling book on the process. No one does a better job of marketing your technology brand and driving revenue that leads to real bottom-line growth than you most passionate customers.

This article explores six proven strategies technology leaders can leverage to encourage online reviews, referrals, and vibrant community engagement across the user lifecycle.

Conduct Comprehensive Sentiment Research

A granular understanding of current user perceptions, frustrations and delights is crucial. Approaches may involve:

  • Journey mapping key touchpoints and interactions to reveal pain points and moments of value. This should apply to standard customer journey mapping to track the purchase process, but also include loyalty mapping. You need to identify potential pain points and bottlenecks in both journeys, at the same time.
  • Conduct surveys and interviews to gather direct feedback from users. Surveys are vital, given that feedback collected is accurately assessed and improvements applied as a result. Surveys of customers as well as members of your loyalty or brand ambassador programs should be done as these are different customers and both groups can provide valuable feedback.
  • Social listening across forums and platforms to analyze patterns in sentiment. Don’t focus simply on social media channels. Today’s technology consumer is frequenting message boards and forums to do product research. Make sure you monitor all online chatter around and about your brand, regardless of where it happens.
  • Review analysis to uncover systemic issues affecting satisfaction as well as product strengths to highlight. Look for trends across all feedback collected, regardless of the source. Examining all feedback will reveal consistent positive and negative traits and brand associations. These can be addressed in the case of problems, and amplified if they are positive.

Armed with rich insights, you can develop targeted advocacy initiatives addressing user needs and amplifying customer advocacy.

Incentivize Authentic Reviews

Reviews directly from users provide credible organic advocacy that fuels growth. But review generation requires motive. Consider:

  • Follow up on support tickets or onboarding by asking for a review and direct link for ease. Make a special attempt to solicit reviews from any user that communicates a positive experience or association with your tech brand.
  • Offer perks like free months of service for leaving detailed positive reviews. However, these can also be used as a reward for an existing online review. For instance, if you identify a blog post that promotes your brand or product, reach out to the blogger and say thank you, and offer them a perk such as a discount or swag as a reward. Remember that rewarding existing behavior is more powerful in creating advocacy than incentivizing new behavior.
  • Develop reviewer leaderboards and recognition for top advocates. One of the keys I always stress to clients is ‘reward the behavior that you want to encourage’. If you want more online reviews for your technology brand, then look for ways to reward customers for engaging in that behavior. Leaderboards are a great way to spotlight your best advocates, and it makes them feel like the rock stars that they are.
  • Highlight customer feedback on your site, and also highlight how that feedback was implemented at your company. This is incredibly powerful as it communicates to customers that you take their feedback seriously, and you act on it. This encourages customers to leave MORE feedback once they see that you take their feedback seriously enough to act on it.

It’s a marketing reality: We trust our fellow customers more than we trust brands. Do all you can to encourage your happy customers to sing your praises, and spotlight them when they do.

Launch a Referral/Affiliate Program

Referrals are a great way to attract new customers and reward your current advocates for behavior they are already engaging in. Formalize advocacy through:

  • Create referral landing pages that highlight the value proposition and call to action. This helps increase referral conversions, which helps both your brand and your customers who are driving referrals.
  • Tiered rewards for referrers based on conversion rates, from discounts to premium services. These can also be integrated with your customer loyalty program to amplify the perks that members receive from participating.
  • Promotion of the program through email, in-product, social media, and community channels. If your tech brand has a community forum, highlight your referral program there, as forum participants are a great pool to draw from for your referral program.
  • Streamlined sharing tools such as custom referral links and social share buttons. Give your customers the tools they need to more easily drive referrals, and track their progress doing so.
  • Leader boards spotlighting top member advocates and referrers. Reward the behavior you want to encourage. Spotlighting top referrers encourages them to increase referrals and the recognition they receive prompts others to engage in the same behavior.

Leverage affiliates to expand reach beyond your owned channels.

Encourage User-Generated Content

User content like tutorials, use cases, and product demonstrations serve as compelling proof of value. Encourage UGC by:

  • Identifying key customer success stories to request content development support around. Work with your customer support team to identify tickets that could serve as the basis for a positive case study.
  • Making it simple for users to contribute content through built-in creation and submission tools. Have your content marketing team work with users to take their submissions and craft compelling stories that highlight the user and their positive experience with your tech brand.
  • Promoting contributed content across your social channels when approved. Make sure that your promotion content is spoken in the voice of your customer as often as possible.
  • Spotlighting user content creators through badges, rewards, and campaigns. It’s a broken record, but reward the behavior you want to encourage.

UGC reaches buyers with authentic peer perspectives that resonates with customers in a world where we trust ourselves more than we do brands.

Build Vibrant User Community Interaction

One of the best ways to accelerate customer advocacy is to create ways for your happy customers to engage directly with each other. Ways to foster community include:

  • Hosting active user forums for knowledge sharing and feature discussions. User forums and message boards are vital to success for tech companies, they serve as a way for user to do product research, to self-diagnose problems, and simply connect with others who share a common interest.
  • Facilitating user groups organized by interest, experience level, geography or use cases. As you begin to build an online community, you can further segment that group to better connect users with their peers. An additional perk of this approach is that more experienced users can become candidates for moderator duties in your community. This can make the task of community management easier for your brand, but it also makes the community more likely to participate if ‘one of their own’ is involved in overseeing the direction of the forum.
  • Supporting meetups, events, and virtual community hangouts enabling users to connect. In-person meetups among your happy customers are wonderful ways to build advocacy. For example, here’s a recap of a customer meetup event I helped coordinate for Dell.
  • Engaging power users with early access privileges or advisory council roles. This is another perk that can be tied into your loyalty program. Early access is a great way to provide a low-cost perk to customers that drives appreciation, engagement and positive reviews, all at a low cost.

Relationships between users amplifies loyalty, retention, and advocacy for your brand.

Track and Optimize Initiatives

A data-driven approach ensures advocacy efforts deliver measurable impact. Key metrics span:

  • Review volume, ratings, product sentiment and category benchmarking. Determine what are the common traits associated with reviews, such as sites used, content of the reviews, what prompted a review, etc. By analyzing reviews you can determine trends and how to encourage more positive online reviews.
  • Referral traffic and account creation driven by links. Custom links should be given to all referral participants so the number of referrals they create can easily be tracked by them, and your brand. Each participant in your referral program should have their own unique link.
  • UGC contribution growth and user engagement rates. Track your most frequent contributors and reward their behavior to encourage more submissions. Collect feedback on what UGC is driving engagement, and share that feedback with contributors so they can improve their own UGC efforts.
  • Renewal, retention, and frequency metrics within advocate groups. Identify potential bottlenecks to review and content creation. Study your most successful contributors, and find ways to distill their success down into easily shared bits that can help other contributors improve their own efforts.

Continual optimization and injection of creativity sustains momentum over time.

Turn Customers into Confident Advocates

With user trust in brands declining, transparently earned advocacy provides a competitive edge. By championing customers first, technology leaders can build communities and spur authentic referrals that fuel sustainable growth. Remember, technology users trust fellow users more than your brand when it comes to product communications. Accept this fact and lean into UGC and online reviews from your users.

What’s your biggest obstacle to unlocking advocates? Identifying friction points? Incentivizing reviews? Enabling UGC contribution? Prioritize progress on one front then build from there.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Meta’s AI Play, CMOs Don’t Trust Their Data, CS to ‘Older’ Americans

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope everyone is ready for another productive week! I think today will be the last hot day of the year for us, temps are supposed to be in the high 80s. After today, temps will be in the low 80 or high 70s for the rest of the week and next. Fall is almost here! It’s honestly my favorite time of the year! I hope the weather and everyone else is wonderful where you are, here’s 3 stories that caught my eye:

 

So Meta is working on a new AI engine to try to catch OpenAI. According to this article, Meta’s first foray into AI, Llama2, was trained on 70 billion parameters. Sources in Meta say the new engine will be ‘several times’ larger, but that might not be enough, as the latest version of ChatGPT is said to be trained on well over a trillion parameters. Meta, Google and others will all be rushing to get new AI systems out over the next 6-18 months. As crazy as 2023 was for AI development, 2024 could be even moreso.

 

CMOs aren’t trusting the data they have to work with. In fact, a third of CMOs don’t trust their data OR their analysts, according to new research by AgilityPR. And I think this is a problem that will be made worse by AI, at least in the short term. After AI systems become more mature and robust in data management, they can become a much better asset to CMOs in this regard.

 

Ok I gotta be honest: The main reason why I included this next story was because it irked me that the article considers anyone over 45 to be an ‘older’ adult. Seriously???  Look we are getting old fast enough, I don’t need to hear that once you hit 45 it’s time to start sizing up rocking chairs for the front porch! Besides, have you tried to call into customer service lately? I don’t want to deal with the 45-60 minute or more wait times on a phone. I’d rather do the same thing in chat and wait for a ‘ding’ to tell me they are ready.  *shakes fist at clouds*

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of the Monday Marketing Minute! On Wednesday, look for the unveiling of the Power List for the RETAIL industry! Last week we debuted the Power List for the Technology industry, and have received a lot of nice feedback from those chosen, and I can see they are getting some nice exposure from being on the Power List, which is great to see. So see you Weds for that, and a new post up tomorrow! Have a great week!

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The Tech Power List for September

Welcome to The Tech Power List for September! This is my list of the Power accounts on Twitter for the technology industry. The Power List will be updated once a month.

There’s two main reasons why I decided to do The Power List:

1 – I wanted to help give exposure to people who are doing a good job of using Twitter in a corporate environment. It’s damn hard to build a following and even any semblance of traction on social media for an account while also doing your core job functions. I wanted to build out The Power List as a platform to help give more exposure to others, and make it just a little easier for them to build a following and engagement around their content.

2 – I wanted to highlight the best use of Twitter, and use that as a way to show others how to improve their own use of Twitter. The Power List will become a way to showcase the best of the best, and also show all of us how to learn from the best of the best and improve our own efforts.

 

If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:

1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.

2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.

 

Here’s where you can find all the candidates for the Power List for Technology. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.

The Power List will rank the Top 10 Power users on Twitter. That number may expand past a Top 10 as the candidate pool becomes larger.  In fact I hope it does.

How is the Power List ranked?  How do I get to be #1?

I’ve been working with corporate teams to help them leverage Twitter as a communications tool for about 15 years now. So a lot of the Power List rankings is simply based on my experience working with people in a corporate setting and understanding what works and what doesn’t.

In short, there are two main consideration buckets I have when I rank the Power List:

1 – Posting frequency. I need to see enough content on your Twitter feed to see that you are making an effort to use Twitter to communicate with others. You don’t have to tweet every day, but if your last tweet is from December of 2022, you won’t be on the Power List.

2 – Original content. What I mean by that is I want to see content that’s written in your own unique voice. I get that working in a corporate environment comes with certain ‘challenges’ in regards to the tone and voice of your content. But that doesn’t mean that you should simply use your Twitter feed to repost your company’s press releases. Go behind the scenes, give us a sense of what your daily work day is like. One of the thoughts I should have when reading your Twitter feed is ‘Wow, that looks like a cool job, I wouldn’t mind working there!’

 

Before I get to the reveal of the first Power List for Technology, I wanted to offer a few takeaways from assembling the list and reviewing a LOT of Twitter profiles over the last few weeks:

1 – Twitter has lost a lot of people from the Technology industry. Like I said, I’ve worked with clients in this space for around 15 years. So when I decided to do a Power List for the space, I already had numerous people in mind to put in my consideration pool. I was more than a little disappointed to see that many of them had stopped using their Twitter accounts. Several had posted info on how to follow them on another social site and made it clear they were done on Twitter.

2 – This group struggled with activity levels. Most of the people I considered averaged maybe a tweet a week, some had only tweeted a handful of times this year. I had to reject a lot of people based on their simply not posting enough to warrant inclusion. If you are going 2-3 months between tweets, that’s probably not going to be enough activity to warrant inclusion on the Power List.  I will say this, I can’t remember excluding anyone from the Power List based on actual content, but I can remember several specifically not making it due to infrequent posting.

3 – I purposely did NOT include huge accounts. For instance, Elon Musk and Michael Dell will not be included in the Power List. Nothing against either of them, I’ve actually sat next to Michael Dell at the same table in Dell HQ and really like him. But he and Elon really don’t need the exposure of being on the Power List. I’d rather see the people that work under him at Dell get that exposure, and I bet he would as well.

I’ve graded the Top 10 on a scale of 1-100.  This is mainly to give everyone a greater sense of how I ranked everyone, and to give a sense of the gap between them. I will say this:  I intentionally graded this first list a bit harsher, if I come out and give the #1 spot in the first Power List a 100, then I’m basically saying that’s the best account that will ever be on this list.  Which probably isn’t the case, as the Power List becomes more popular, more people will nominate themselves and their peers, and there will be a bigger pool of qualified candidates. So the rankings for these first few versions of the Power List could see a lot of upward movement over time.

Before we get to the list, please follow these accounts! Click on their name and it will take you to Twitter so you can follow them.  Well read the list first, then follow them!

So without further adieu…

The Power List for Technology for September:

1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 90. Pat just has a really nice profile. With most of the candidates I reviewed for the Power List, there were at least one or two glaring weaknesses. Pat’s account is solid, and very well-rounded.  Good frequency of posts, his content is focused on company news and info, but he also frequently tweets inspirational Bible verses, and as a fellow Christian, I appreciated that.

2 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 86. Another solid profile.  Greg’s content is a bit more heavy on company news and info, but his company happens to be one of the most popular brands on the planet, so that’s a bit easier to forgive. Good frequency, I would love to see a sprinkling of behind the scenes content from his work at Apple, I think that would take his profile to the next level.

3 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 84. I almost bumped Sushail up to the #2 spot. A very active profile, it’s also really focused on his work and space.  Since he’s in web3, that content is actually pretty interesting to me (I am very vaguely familiar with Livepeer so that helped as well), but I would like to see a sprinkling of personal content, even if it’s work-related.  But just a sprinkle, I actually think his geeky content is pretty cool.

4 – Sergio Raguso, Regulation Manager @ Siemens, Power List Score – 80. Sergio has the most active Twitter profile on the Power List, frequency is not a problem. The content is almost completely focused on Siemens. I would like to see a little more variety, even if it’s Sergio sharing his thoughts on his work and industry, something to break up the steady stream of content about his employer.  He’s nailed the frequency, I think he just needs to tweak the content mix a bit.

5 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 77. Once you start reading Lauren’s tweets, you will notice one thing loud and clear: She just started a new job, and she’s thrilled about it! Her excitement is infectious and it comes across in her tweets. I want to see where her ranking is in next month’s list. If she continues tweeting with that same energy, I suspect she will be even higher.

6 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 76. I love Jennifer’s content, I just wish there were more of it.  A good mix of work and personal content, it’s just that she posts a bit infrequently. But that is easily corrected, if she posts even 2-3 times a week, I suspect her score would have jumped about 10 points.

7 – Meagen Eisenberg, CMO @ Lacework, Power List Score – 74. So Meagen’s account really made me think on where to rank her. On the one hand, she does an amazing job with frequency, she’s posting content constantly. However, almost all of her tweets are reposts. I would like to see some original thoughts and content from Meagen, it would really help her score.

8 – Maria Poveromo, SVP and Chief Communications Officer @ Cisco, Power List Score – 72. This analysis will be easy:  I love Maria’s content, I just want to see more of it. That’s it. I love the mix, mostly on her company, but even then she made it interesting like highlighting incoming interns.  Good stuff, I want more.

9 – Alisa Maclin, VP of Customer Experience and Engagement @ Kyndryl, Power List Score – 71. Same as with Maria, I enjoyed the content, just need to see more of it.  Oh and Alisa, more tweets about the stories you shared on LinkedIn, that’s great content.

10 – Lara Shackelford, Head of Global Product & Industry Marketing @ Intel, Power List Score – 70. Broken record, I like the content, just want to see more of it.  A lot more.

 

Ta-da! That’s the first Power List for Technology! First, please make sure you are following each of these wonderful people, you can click on their name and follow them from there. All the candidates for the Power List are on this Twitter list.  If you aren’t on the list and want to nominate yourself or a peer, follow me on Twitter and then tweet me and let me know so I can add you to the list of candidates!

A reminder to those that are in the Top 10: Don’t take your score too seriously. I intentionally graded on a bit of a downward curve. Over the next few months as there’s a bigger pool of candidates, scores will gradually go upward.

Congrats to everyone who made the first Power List, I’m looking forward to seeing where you are next month!

 

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Guests are Hungry for Better Digital Customer Experiences in Restaurants

digital customer experiences

Modern diners expect restaurants to meet their needs seamlessly across both online and on-site touchpoints. However, effectively integrating emerging digital channels into customer service presents challenges for restaurant operators. Nevertheless, today’s diners expect superior digital customer experiences from all businesses, and restaurants are no different.

This article explores multiple proven strategies and best practices restaurant executives should adopt to deliver responsive, personalized customer service by unifying online and on-premise digital capabilities.

Conduct Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of the process that a customer goes through in purchasing a product. This site gives a great example of what a typical customer journey could look like.

A key benefit of customer journey mapping is it helps identify pain points and bottlenecks for the customer in the purchase process. Here’s some areas to focus on:

  • Map key journeys like ordering, reservations, in-restaurant experiences and loyalty. Identify friction points from the customer perspective. This will help identify areas for improvement. Also, compare journey results across different locations of a franchise, to help identify how one location may be performing better or worse than another site.
  • Conduct shadowing research and interviews to uncover unmet needs and grievances across channels. Collecting feedback directly from customers helps you identify areas in the purchase process that should be addressed and corrected.
  • Audit service metrics across online and on-site channels – wait times, resolution speed/quality, CSAT, NPS, and sentiment. All of these stats will be signals to help reveal customer satisfaction as well as pain points. Both are vitally important in your continuing quest to deliver exceptional digital customer experiences.
  • Analyze contact topics and types to identify knowledge gaps to address through self-service content. Review common questions and complaints, and when possible, give customers the ability to self-diagnose common issues. FAQs and chatbots can help with this.

These insights should inform an integration optimization roadmap tailored to your guests’ needs.

Expand Digital Reservation and Ordering Options

A majority (56%) of diners now want to be able to place an order through your restaurant’s app.  Additionally, 64% of diners would prefer to place an order digitally on-site. Today’s diners want and even demand digital and online ordering options. Here’s how you can meet the demand for digital customer experiences:

  • Enable reservations, waitlisting and table management via website or app. This gives customers an added level of convenience and helps your restaurant set itself apart from competitors that don’t offer similar benefits.
  • Optimize online and mobile ordering for delivery, takeout and curbside pickup. During covid in 2020, all retail businesses were forced to invest in contactless and curbside pickup. Customers now expect the ability to order online of via your app, and pickup their order on site, without contact. This is another key service that customers expect, and not offering contactless and curbside pickup could easily cost you business.
  • Integrate loyalty features like saved payment methods and customized orders. This is another benefit that is expected at this point.
  • Offer status tracking and real-time support for issues through apps or text. Status tracking is very important, try to focus on showing customers every step of the preparation process for their order so they can see exactly where the order is in the process. This helps alleviate trust issues and improves satisfaction and customer loyalty.
  • Provide bots or chat support to aid reservations and orders. This is another expected feature, also give customers an option to speak with someone live if further assistance is needed.

Robust digital ordering and booking capabilities keep guests engaged and satisfied.

Implement Customer-Facing Tech In-Restaurant

Over 60% of diners now prefer to order digitally, on-site. Deploy on-site tech to match online convenience:

  • Provide kiosks for quick ordering and payments to skip lines. This also helps frequent customers who know exactly what they want and feel they can complete the transaction quicker themselves than dealing with restaurant employees.
  • Your restaurant’s app should provide guests with the ability to summon wait staff and pay for their meal.
  • Digital signage with dynamic wait times, promotions and feedback collection. Displaying wait times helps manage expectations as soon as the diner arrives at your restaurant.
  • Tabletop tablets for entertainment, ordering items, requesting service. Offering entertainment options can keep diners engaged while their meals are being prepared.

When utilized correctly, on-site digital tech can speed up the ordering and payment process, while providing an additional layer of support for the customer.

Implement Social Media Customer Service

Leverage your restaurant’s social media accounts as a way for diners to provide feedback and create word of mouth via shared content:

  • Promote Twitter/Facebook profiles for guests to directly make inquiries.
  • Make sure social media accounts are staffed with managers who have customer service training to handle complaints and suggestions.
  • When complaints are left via social channels, make sure to respond promptly. This guide can help you address all customer complaints via social media.
  • Share positive reviews on social to boost visibility. Also show positive reviews in your restaurant as a way to model the type of behavior you want guests to engage in.

Social channels provide convenient service in guests’ preferred channel.

Unify Brand Identity and Experience

Every customer has multiple touchpoints across multiple channels as they complete a purchase. It’s vital to ensure consistent digital customer experiences throughout the process. Here’s some tips to keep in mind:

  • Audit language, tone, terminology, and policies across digital and physical touchpoints. This is especially important when reconciling tone on social channels versus on-site support. Increasingly, support issues are beginning via social media channels, before being handed off to your main support team. A disconnect in tone can lead to a negative experience for the customer.
  • Create knowledge base resources, brand standards and training for both digital and human agents. Most importantly, all members of the support team, regardless of whether they work predominantly in online or offline, should be working from the same training and material. The overall level of customer support should be consistent across channels and online/offline.
  • Monitor across channels to rapidly identify and address gaps or misalignment. Consider earlier how we discussed the customer journey map for purchases. You can do the same thing for the customer support journey. Map out the entire process to help identify gaps, inconsistencies and pain points.

Consistent messaging and experiences build trust and increase customer loyalty.

Track Analytics to Optimize Digital Customer Experiences

It’s vital to aggressive track the analytics associated with your digital support:

  • Unified CSAT, NPS and sentiment scoring across digital and on-site interactions. These are key signals that help identify customer satisfaction as well as pain points.
  • Identify channel service speed and quality gaps. Look for disconnects and any stages where the process slows for the customer. Map to areas where complaints arise to get greater insights into needed corrections.
  • Monitor digital channel adoption and usage metrics. This helps illustrate what features and conveniences the customer is looking for.
  • Correlate integration initiatives to revenue, visit frequency and loyalty lift.

Data visibility helps maximize integration benefits and can bring into focus which areas of the purchase process need priority.

Continuously Optimize Cross-Channel Experiences

An iterative approach is key as consumer behaviors evolve:

  • Survey guests directly on friction points and integration desires. Proactively suggest improvements and collect feedback on desired implementation.
  • Pilot new initiatives and channel combinations, measuring business impact and satisfaction. When possible, pilot initiatives should run through your loyalty program where it will be viewed as a perk by program members.
  • Optimize underperforming aspects based on data insights. Map the customer journey and overlap feedback along with analytics to help identify pain points and bottlenecks in the process.
  • Keep pace with digital and hospitality innovations reshaping guest expectations. Proactively survey guests about desired changes, they will often suggest improvements that they have noted and enjoyed from competing restaurants.

Ongoing optimization ensures integrated digital customer experiences exceed growing expectations

With the strategies explored in this guide, restaurants can effectively unify online and on-premise customer service capabilities into seamless guest experiences that drive loyalty. What’s your biggest priority for integrating digital capabilities? Reservations/ordering? In-restaurant tech? Mobile staff enablement? With focus, the impact on guest satisfaction can be immense.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Threads Usage is Down, So is ChatGPT, AI Hype vs Employment Reality

Happy Monday, y’all! In the US, today is Labor Day, so I hope you are having a restful day. This will be the 2nd of three posts I am writing today, but it’s mostly my fault for not getting more accomplished last Saturday. Here’s some business stories that have caught my eye over the last few days:

 

Threads usage continues to crater, and I am heartbroken over it.  I’ve never signed up for Threads, and I’m not planning on doing so. Now there’s new data out that says usage is actually down a staggering 79% on the Android app since its peak in early July. I’ve also read that Facebook has now started promoting individual Threads on Instagram in an attempt to siphon off traffic. As you read all three stories in this post, you will see a common theme:  Hype fueling speculation on usage and outcomes that evaporates once reality sets in.

 

ChatGPT is also seeing a solid decline in usage of 29% since May. This isn’t quite as significant in my mind as the Threads plunge for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a much lower drop and it’s over 3 months versus Threads seeing a 79% drop on just one device over the last month alone.  Second, there was a flood of hype about ChatGPT earlier this year, but once people started using ChatGPT, they found it actually takes some work to get decent results from the AI tool. And let’s be honest; A lot of people don’t like to put in work to get results, so they are bailing on ChatGPT until someone comes out with an easier AI tool for them to use, or a better How To article on prompt engineering.

 

Our third story also deals with hype vs reality. This time, we are looking at the massive speculation earlier this year that AI was going to steal all our jobs.  So far, we aren’t seeing anything to support this fear.  Kelly points us to research on Forbes that shows that only 9% of companies have reduced staff because of AI.  Now to be fair, that percentage could and likely will increase a bit in the coming years as AI technology matures and companies become more familiar with its capabilities. But as for now, we are still dealing with a disconnect between hype and reality when it comes to actual employment numbers.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute.  Now, on Wednesday, the first ever Twitter Power List for the Technology industry will debut. The Power List will include the 10 people in technology that you should be following, the Power List. If you work in the technology industry and want to be considered for the Power List, first follow me on Twitter. Make sure your profile includes the position you hold and the technology company you work for.  If you qualify for the Power List for Technology, I will add you to this Twitter list of candidates. See you back here on Weds for the reveal!

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There is Another in the Fire…

There is another in the fire

In January of this year, I made a commitment to myself to read the Bible every day. I continue to do so daily, and it’s an absolutely wonderful experience for me! On Saturdays, I like to share what I am learning from reading the Bible. I hope you will enjoy these posts, you can read all my posts on the Bible here.

If you want to read more of my thoughts on business, marketing and web3, fear not, those posts will return on Monday!

When I began reading the Bible, one of the things I was curious to learn was how Jesus was handled in the Old Testament. My (very limited) understanding of the Bible was that the New Testament was the story of Jesus, but that the Old Testament was something different. I understood that there were a couple of very vague and veiled references to the coming Messiah, but otherwise there was little or no mention of the coming of Jesus that would dominate the New Testament.

It turns out, I was incredibly wrong. Numerous prophets told of the coming of Jesus, many in explicit detail. There’s one in particular that I wanted to discuss today. Not so much his prophecies about Jesus, but rather a very literal foreshadowing that Jesus was coming, and that He was in fact the Son of God.

One of the most interesting elements of the Bible is how God will repeatedly let His faithful followers fall into a position of distress, then from that position of trouble, He will elevate them to greatness. Two examples that immediately come to mind are Joseph and Daniel. Both become slaves, but God gives both the ability to interpret dreams and visions. Joseph is able to use the wisdom that God grants him to go from jail to being elevated to the most powerful person in all of Egypt, allowing him to save his families’ lives in the process.

Likewise, Daniel was given the ability by God to interpret dreams and tell the future. In fact, his prophecies were so uncannily accurate that Biblical skeptics have tried to say that he wasn’t born around 700 BC, but in fact was a contemporary of Jesus, with that being the only explanation they can offer for how Daniel could so accurately foretell the future.

According to the Bible, shortly after Babylon attacked and sacked Jerusalem for the first time, many Israelites in the city were captured and taken into exile. Among those captured were four young men; Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Book of Daniel in the Bible is written by Daniel. Chapters 7-12 detail Daniel’s prophecies and visions, while chapters 1-6 tell the story of Daniel and his 3 young friends as they are taken into exile in Babylon. Today I want to talk about an event that happened to them while in Babylon.

As I mentioned earlier, God finds a way to protect His people, even when they are in bondage. Daniel and his three friends were taken as slaves to Babylon, but they were then sent to the royal palace to be servants to the rulers.

Chapter 3 details one of the most famous stories of the Bible. King Nebuchadnezzar creates a golden statue and commands all the people of Babylon to fall down and worship the statue.  A herald states that if anyone refuses to worship the statue, that they will be thrown into a pit of fire and burned alive.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse, saying they do not worship idols, they worship the one true God. The king again demands that they worship his idol, and reminds them that they will be thrown into the fire if they refuse. The young men flatly refuse, telling the king that God will deliver them from the fire, and will deliver them from him.

Furious, the king immediately has the three young men bound and instructs his servants to increase the heat of the furnace sevenfold. The heat was so unbearable that as the three young men were thrown into the furnace, the Babylonians who carried them were consumed by the heat and killed.

The furnace was immediately closed after the three young men were tossed inside:

21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22 Therefore, because the king’s command was [c]urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his [d]counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”

They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”

25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the[e] Son of God.”

 

“and the form of the fourth was like the Son of God“.

The astounded king called to the three men to come to him, they did so. He examined them and noted that not a single hair on their bodies had been singed and there was no smell of smoke or fire on their clothes. It was as if they had never entered the fire.

Amazed, the king immediately made a new decree that blessed was the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and that any people, nation or language that speaks amiss of their God shall be reduced to ashes. He added “because there is no other God who can deliver like this.” All three young men were immediately promoted by the king.

The book of Daniel was written in the 6th century BC. Over 500 years before the birth of Christ. Note that the language of the book is intentional. Daniel could have easily said that God sent an angel to protect Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, and the core teaching would have been just as profound. With the lesson being that when you show true faith in God and His word, God will protect you.

But note that Daniel clarified that King Nebuchadnezzar specifically said that the fourth person in the fire looked like ‘the Son of God’. I think we can assume that the king had never seen the Son of God, so such knowledge would have to have come from God.  It would have been divine wisdom given to the king to again communicate to God’s people that the Messiah is coming. Not just in the form of prophecy, but here is a person saying he has SEEN what appears to be the Son of God.

Roughly six hundred years before His birth.

Here is The Bible Project’s video account of the book of Daniel. The book is fascinating if you are interested in end times prophecy, and along with Revelation, contains many symbols and visions of what is to come in the end times. It’s very interesting.