MackCollier.com

by

#DellCap 2011 Review: The Future is Now

Michael Dell speaks with #DellCAP attendees as Michelle Brigman and Sarah Kimmel look on

This week I got to spend some time in Round Rock, Texas, working with Dell on its #DellCAP reunion project.  This is an extension of the first #DellCAP that was held last June, that I was also lucky enough to help Dell with.  As with last year’s event, Dell brought in 15 customers (including 13 from last year’s #DellCAP event) to spend the day getting feedback from them, and letting them know how the company had acted on the feedback it received from them last June.

The event itself, especially the people involved (customers as well as Dell employees), was amazing.  And I knew I wanted to do a recap post on my experience as soon as I got home and got my bearings.  But I’m torn on how to do this, because I want all of you to appreciate just how inspired I have been not only by Dell, but by their customers as well.

So I wanted to start by telling you two stories.  The first happened during last year’s #DellCAP event, which was structured a bit differently than this one.  Last June, Dell invited a total of 30 customers to #DellCAP, and split them into 2 groups of 15 customers each.  But the catch was that the 1st group of 15 customers were all selected because they had issues and complaints about Dell’s products and services.  The 2nd group was selected because they were considered to be fans and advocates of Dell.  So Dell wanted to hear from both its fans and ‘detractors’.

Which I thought was incredibly brave, but one instance drove that point home for me.  Last year, I was hired by Dell to moderate both days of the #DellCAP event.  On the 1st day we were going to spend the day with Dell’s ‘detractors’.  As you might imagine, the idea of inviting a group of ‘upset’ customers to your world headquarters can be a bit un-nerving.  Right before the 1st day’s events were to start, I was going over my notes and the agenda for the day when one of the Dell employees that was facilitating the event hurriedly ran up to me with a last-minute clarification to the agenda.  As they quickly explained the changes to me, I caught something in their eyes that I wasn’t expecting.

I saw fear.

I looked around the room and saw looks of nervousness and anxiety on the faces of the other Dell employees.  One of them was literally wringing their hands.  That’s when it hit me that Dell really did NOT know what to expect from this event.  But that made me truly respect them for having it.  Let’s be honest, the idea of flying 15 customers that have had negative experiences with your company to your headquarters to spend the day with them would scare the hell out of most companies.  And looking around that room, it seemed that some of that fear and anxiety was on display, but the company was willing to do it anyway, because Dell knew how important it was to connect with its customers.

The second story I wanted to share with you happened at this year’s event.  Near the end of the day, Michelle Brigman asked the attendees what their advice would be for the next steps of this program.  Each person shared their ideas, but Connie Bensen told Michelle that Dell literally needed to find a way to ‘help us to help you’.  As the microphone passed around the room, several of the attendees echoed Connie’s point, that they wanted Dell to give them the tools to help them tell others about the company.  Here were Dell advocates begging Dell to empower them to speak on their behalf to other customers.

And while I wouldn’t call myself a Dell advocate strictly on the basis of loving their products, I am definitely an advocate of the people working at Dell.  I think most people know who Lionel and Richard are, and for good reason.  Both are truly corporate social media pioneers.  But Dell’s team of social media wizards is so much deeper, Michelle, Carly, Sarah, Chris B, Bill, Jason, Cory, Laura and Susan are just a few of the gems we met and have come to know.

I believe in these people, and over the past year, I have come to care for them as well.  And as a result, I believe in and care for Dell.  I want to see the company succeed just as badly as anyone else, because I want to see the people behind the company succeed.  Because I believe when a company makes a real effort to listen to, and empower its customers, that that #smartitude deserves to be rewarded.  I left #DellCAP knowing that every Dell employee that participated in #DellCAP truly listened to and truly cared for the people they connected with.

Which leaves Dell in an interesting position.  I think this year’s #DellCAP reunion showed the company that it has a very loyal group of advocates that want to see it succeed.  That, as Connie said, want Dell to ‘help us help you’.  The challenge now for Dell is to find a way to not only unite, empower and embrace their external advocates, but to also share internally what they have learned from the DellCAP program.  We discussed the issue of scaling the interactions we experienced between company and customer during DellCAP.  I mentioned that I think one way to address this is to scale the interest in expanding the program from the company side.  I’ve got a lot more thoughts on how Dell and companies in general can embrace and mobilize its evangelists, and I’ll write more about that next week.

BTW I can’t close without acknowledging the #DellCAP participants from this year.  Y’all are so amazing to take 3 days out of your lives to come to Round Rock and share your wisdom and experiences with Dell.  I was truly blown away at the sheer intelligence of the ideas and suggestions that the group proposed, and its value to Dell is huge.  Here are the #DellCAP attendees from this year: Sarah, Haley, Allen, Robyn, Connie, Claire, Dave, Ed, Erika, Paul, Shane, Shawn, Susan, Brandon and last but not least, Mr. Travis Bailey.  It was a joy to spend time with each of you, and I consider you all to be good friends.  I hope we don’t have to go another year before we see each other again!

UPDATE: Chris Yates and his team from Huddle Productions were kind enough to record the LIVE #Blogchat that Dell sponsored as part of #DellCAP earlier this week.  While there, he shot this short video where Lionel explains a little about what the #DellCAP program is.

by

Think Like a Rockstar: Create something amazing for the people that love you

So I was on Twitter late Friday night, and I saw this tweet from @AmandaPalmer.  It got my interest, so I did some checking.  I found dozens of tweets from Amanda’s fans either gushing about her and thanking her for letting them attend the secret show, or those that were angry that they missed it.

From Amanda’s blog, here’s how the secret show was set up:

p.s. for those of you who were waiting on more info about the SECRET-BOSTON-AREA-SHOW next saturday, we put together a little contest. if you wanna come, we’re picking about 50 lucky people who’re gonna join in on our crazy little loft party in arlington, and it’s your LAST CHANCE TO ENTER. get in on this shizzle NOW:

* head over to my profile on GetGlue. you can find it right here:http://getglue.com/recording_artists/amanda_palmer
– don’t have a GetGlue profile, yet? it takes about 20 seconds and you can do so athttp://getglue.com/signup (they also have an app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Android – you can sign up on those, too)
* “Check-in” and tell us your favorite AFP-related concert memory, starting with something along the lines of I really want to see Amanda on tour this summer http://bit.ly/AFPtour or My favorite AFP-concert memory was…
– feel free to get creative about how you say that you wanna come, just make sure to include a link to the tour page
– if you haven’t ever seen me or the dolls or evelyn evelyn live, post a link to your favorite live YouTube or Vimeo clip and tell us why you’re excited to (hopefully) come
– bonus points for cross-posting to Twitter and Facebook, and for clicking “Favorite” on AFP (and other AFP-related stuff like The Dolls, Evelyn Evelyn, 8in8, etc)

and that’s it. any questions? post HERE and sean’ll get back to you, asap. we’ll be going through and contacting winners throughout tonight and tomorrow, getting e-mail addresses so that we can get your name for the guestlist, and know where to tell you the location of the show.

 

So Amanda created a free show for her biggest fans, with the requirement for getting in being that her biggest fans would have to share why they loved Amanda.  Which is something they were already doing anyway.  The lucky fans that got to attend were then treated to an amazing show, and they now love Amanda even more.  The fans that didn’t make the show are now extremely jealous of the ones that did, but still love Amanda for going out of her way to connect with her fans.

Attention big companies: You usually make this ‘marketing’ stuff a lot harder than it has to be.

I will once again go back to that wonderful quote from Steve Knox:

Think about what Amanda did here.  She didn’t use social media as a channel to generate sales, or connect with new customers.  She used social media to embrace her biggest fans, and give them a reason to love her even more.  Totally flies in the face of what most companies try to do, which is generate sales from new customers.  Instead, Amanda said she was going to create something totally amazing that customers want, but she not only wasn’t going to charge for it, she was going to give it to her existing customers.

This is why we don’t call these people ‘Amanda’s customers’, we call them ‘Amanda’s fans‘.  The next time Amanda has a paying gig, her fans that attended this show will be even more likely to pay to attend (because they love Amanda even more now) and they will be more likely to encourage their friends to come with them (because they want their friends to love Amanda like they do).  Amanda has created a way to embrace her biggest fans, and to let them do her ‘marketing’ for her.

Why is it that companies can’t get this?

To be fair, some companies are trying.  Ford recently had an event where they flew in influential bloggers to spend a day with them.  The focus was on Ford and its products, but there was also live entertainment and interesting speakers such as Malcolm Gladwell.  That’s definitely not the same as Amanda’s secret show, I think the focus with Forward with Ford was ‘how can we show you what we are doing and get you to like us more?’ while the focus with Amanda’s show was ‘how can I show you how much I love you?’

Which is a big reason why I think rockstars have fans, and companies have customers.  Because most companies view the relationship with their customers as being transactional, while most rockstars view the relationship with their fans as being emotional.

Companies, if you want to be successful, follow Amanda’s approach: Find a way to connect with your biggest advocates, and delight them.  Don’t worry about selling anything to them, create something amazing for them, and then watch as they take the initiative and promote you and maybe even gush about you to their friends and networks.  The end result is that you’ll get those sales you wanted to begin with, but the added bonus will be that you’ll also create a way to excite and delight your biggest advocates in the process.

Again, y’all make this ‘marketing’ stuff a lot harder than it has to be.

by

Where Empire Avenue Succeeds (and Fails) As a Community Site

A little over a week ago I finally caved and joined the Empire Avenue bandwagon.  The site is similar to a stock market, in that the idea is that you ‘invest’ in others by buying and selling shares in them.  As is always the case, I am trying to look at each of the Shiny Objects that the social media fishbowl goes gaga over through the lens of ‘is there any real reason for most businesses to be here?’

In short, there’s not a lot of real business value to be had for the average company on EA.  It’s a game and distraction, no more, no less.  Sure, it’s possible to get some networking value there, but then again you can still get networking value on Identica if you want to bad enough.

But if you accept that EA is little more than a game and competition, it can be fun.  And it was for me.  After a day or so of wondering what in the hell I was supposed to be doing, I noticed that my EA ‘score’ was going up.  People were ‘investing’ in me constantly!  Soon I was at 20 points.  Then 30, then 35, 40, and 50!  I was gaining 5 or so points a day, and I saw that my ‘net wealth’ was up to a few hundred thousand Eaves (the EA ‘currency’).

Then on Saturday, something happened.  My EA score barely moved all day.  Few investments came in.  I shrugged it off, hey it’s just a bad day.  Then Sunday, the same thing.  What the hell was going on?!?  I wasn’t doing anything different (that I could tell), and yet suddenly it was as if someone turned off the faucet.  My score stopped going up, and no one wanted to invest in me anymore, it seemed.

Then yesterday, another flat day.  And that’s when it happened: I realized that Empire Avenue sucked.  Funny how when my score was going up several points every day (even though I never was sure why it was happening), I thought EA was awesome.  Then when my score flatlined, the site sucked and I needed to stop wasting my time on such a silly game.

There’s a really important lesson here if you want to emulate EA and create a competition-based community site.  You need to teach me how to win.  Throughout the last week, I was pretty much on my own in trying to figure out how to ‘win’ at EA, or even figuring out what ‘winning’ looked like.  I got little to no advice from the site, even through searching.  The best advice I got was from a few long-time EA members like @AdrielHampton.

But the bottom line is that my EA score started to suck, and I didn’t know why, so I assume then that Empire Avenue sucks!  (Because I am an irrational human being, remember? ;))

Here’s what should have happened:

1 – Empire Avenue should have made it painfully obvious to me on signup how to ‘win’ and what the object of the game was.

2 – EA should have helped me understand how specific activities are tied to my quest to ‘winning’ the game.  I was able to add my Twitter and YouTube and Facebook accounts to my EA account, but I’m not sure what impact it made.  My Facebook and YouTube scores are still stuck at 1, but I don’t know how to change that.  I should know, and EA should tell me.

3 – When my score started to plateau over the last few days, that should have triggered a way for EA to explain to me what I need to do to get my daily gain back up where it was.  I have no idea why my daily gains started flatlining, but EA should make sure that I do know.

4 – Interaction with other EA members should be a BIG part of ‘winning’.  Or maybe it is and EA never told me about it.

 

The bottom line is that for me, EA is a semi-fun distraction that I am losing interest in because I feel like I still haven’t crossed the Suck Threshold.  If you’ve tried out Empire Avenue, what do you think?  What am I doing wrong?