MackCollier.com

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Three Ways to Create Content That Creates Fans

KatyFireworkOver the past few years there has been a big surge in the use of the term ‘content marketing’.  And really, the idea that your content IS your marketing.  As social media usage has become mainstream, we’ve all become content creators.  The impact this has for marketers is that promotional content is far less effective than it used to be. Brands are competing now with their own customers for the attention of new customers.

The reason being?  Because customers are typically creating more compelling content than brands.  Customers are creating value for each other via the content they create and the content they share.

But this idea of ‘creating value’ gets tossed around a lot, and pretty loosely.  Along with its first-cousin, creating ‘awesome’ content/blog posts, etc.  Today I want to talk about three ways to create content that creates fans.  But I also want you to understand that these approaches create fans because they create a positive change for the reader.  They are making the reader better by giving them a new skill, a new perspective, or simply inspiring them to take action and ownership.  You create fans by moving them to take action.  That action can be to help others, or it can be to help and better themselves.  But it creates a positive change for the reader.  As Kathy says in the foreword to Think Like a Rock Star, “Rock stars aren’t just making better fans, they’re making their fans better.”  Ask yourself how your content will do exactly that when you create it.

Here’s three ways your content can create fans:

1 – By teaching.  This one is probably the easiest to wrap your mind around because the benefit to the reader is so clear.  If you teach the reader how to be better at something, then obviously your content has created value for them.  You’ve given them a new skillset, a new ‘superpower’.

Where this becomes interesting is when you apply it to a blogging business.  Many companies will say ‘well why would I want to teach my customers to do this stuff for themselves, then I am just blogging myself out of business!’  Actually, you’re growing your business.  Teaching your readers not only creates fans, it establishes you as the expert.  I am reading Jay Baer’s new book Youtility right now, and he opens with a great story of how Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad, responded when questioned about how he was killing his business chances by creating videos showing his customers how to solve their own computer problems.  He made this same point, that he was giving his customers a skillset, but that many of them couldn’t solve their problems as effectively as the videos showed, so they ended up contacting Geek Squad to help them.  And even if the customers did learn how to solve their own computer problems as a result of the videos, that still creates positive word of mouth for Geek Squad.  So either way, Geek Squad wins.

2 – By raising awareness.  This one is tricky.  You want to create content that raises awareness of idea, theory or belief that your customers and fans are passionate about.  But at the same time, you want to give them ways that they can get involved to help affect a positive change, even if that simply means spreading the word to others.  Remember that taking ownership is taking power, so if you can give readers an incentive to become involved and take ownership, that gives them the incentive to help spread your message.

An example of this is what Innocent Drinks does with The Big Knit.  This is an annual event the UK company has that’s designed to give its customers a way to help the elderly in the winter months by giving them clothing and sources of heat.  Every year Innocent Drinks asks its customers to knit hoodies and caps that will fit over its bottles, which are then sold and a portion of the proceeds go to provide heat for the elderly in the winter.  The event raises awareness of a problem, and then gives customers a way to participate in helping to solve that problem.  Participants then take ownership in helping to create the solution to the problem.  And that’s empowering, which is one reason why the quirky drink company from the UK has so many fans.

3 – By inspiring others to take action.  This can go along with raising awareness, but the key is that the action you are inspiring readers to take can often be for themselves.  You are inspiring them to become involved in something, to make a different to someone, and that someone could be themselves.

A big reason why Tim Ferriss’ books are so wildly popular is because he is a master at creating a positive change for his readers.  Just a few days ago he had a guest post by one of Tim’s fans telling how she applied his teachings on how to eat, cook and exercise to lose 100 pounds.  This is incredibly powerful because this content isn’t coming from Tim, it’s coming from one of his fans.  She is telling her story (with compelling visual evidence) of how Tim’s teachings created a very positive change in her life, and in the process her story inspires others to take action.  As a bonus, note at the end of the post how Tim is creating a free support group for others that are attempting to reach similar goals as Briana.  That’s another way that Tim creates fans because actions such as this show that he has their best interests in mind.

 

So there are three ways to create content that creates fans.  But remember that the common thread running through these ideas is creating a positive change for the reader.  You are giving them a new skill, or giving them a way to take action, or the inspiration they need to get started.  You are helping them to move forward.  If you can create content that does this, then you will also create fans.

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You Can’t Screw Up Your Marketing If You Give it to Your Fans

TLARQuote

Over the past few months I’ve been sharing with you what I’ve been learning from the process of creating my book Think Like a Rock Star, and then marketing it, etc.  Today I wanted to give you an update on how the book’s doing and also talk about my marketing efforts to this point.

First, here’s the Amazon average sales rank for each month so far this year for TLARS:

January – 713,959

February – 524,232

March – 415,237

April – 68,196 (The book was released on Amazon in paperback on April 1st)

May – 88,169

This is what you expect from the typical business book launch.  Sales peak at launch, then start going down.

But guess what?  The current Amazon average sales rank for June is currently 34,339.  TLARS is currently experiencing its best sales ever, even better than it did at launch back in April.

That’s interesting, but even moreso when you factor in that I’ve done almost no marketing for the book.  I”m not a big-name author and simply couldn’t afford to hire a publicist and a marketing team to promote the book for me.  You won’t see any banner ads for the book, and other than writing a few posts here and tweeting about it and Facebooking about it, I’ve really done no marketing for the book.

So why is it selling?  And better yet, why is it selling more copies?

First, it’s a pretty damn good book.  I think everyone knows that I’m not exactly prone to bragging, but I am incredibly proud of Think Like a Rock Star.

Second, the book has some killer marketing.

Ok so the book is being marketed, but not by me.  Originally, I wanted to create this elaborate plan to market Think Like a Rock Star.  But due to several events/misshaps (the main one being Amazon releasing the book 3 weeks early), a lot of the big marketing push that I was envisioning for the book’s launch fell away.

Then I realized that this was actually a perfect opportunity to apply Think Like a Rock Star’s core message to its own marketing.  The core lesson I teach in Think Like a Rock Star is the value of embracing your fans.  So I decided in March that since I couldn’t do an elaborate marketing push myself for the book, that I was going to let the fans of the book market it, especially via reviews on Amazon.

So what I started doing was engaging with anyone that mentioned the book online, especially positively.  I thanked them profusely, and then started interacting with them.  And part of that interaction was to ask them to please review the book on Amazon.

My thinking was this:  I knew the book was good.  So if more of the book’s fans were talking about the book, that would drive sales.  So the more reviews up on Amazon, the better!

As of today, there are 40 reviews on Amazon for the book, and 35 of them are 5-star.  The remaining reviews are 4-stars.  I am convinced that those reviews are now driving sales of the book.  Sales are going up on Amazon, but the only thing that’s changed is the number of reviews on the site has gone up.

The fans are driving sales of the book.   Seriously, check out the reviews, they are glowingly positive.  In fact two of them are so complimentary of the book that they actually embarrassed me a lil bit.  See if you can figure out which ones they are.

And to clarify, only 14 of the 40 reviews came from people that I knew on January 1st.  18 of the 40 reviews came from people that I didn’t know when I asked them to please review the book.  These were people that I saw either mentioning that they had read the book, or they had reviewed it on another site like GoodReads, and I asked them to review it on Amazon.

Want to hear the amazing part?  When I asked these strangers to please review the book, several of them thanked me for asking them to review it!  Are you kidding?!?  But fans want you to connect with them!  And it’s a lot of fun to do so!

The point of all of this isn’t to brag on the success of my book.  It’s to show you how easy it is to generate new business by simply embracing your existing fans.  All I did was connect with people that were already talking about this book.  That’s it.  If I can do this, surely you can too.

And BTW, if you have read Think Like a Rock Star (thank you!) would you please consider reviewing it on Amazon for me? 😉

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Think Like a Rock Star: How to Create Fans of Your Blog

RockstarsTonight at #Blogchat we’re going to apply the Think Like a Rock Star principles to building your blog’s readership and fans.  In the book, I talk about the four reasons why rock stars have fans instead of customers.  You can apply each of these areas to your own blogging efforts to grow your readership and actually create fans of your blog.  Here’s the four things that rock stars do to create fans:

1 – Rock stars are fans themselves.  This means they are connected to their fans, and understand them, because they occupy the same space.  What this means for you as a blogger is that you need to interact with your readers in their space in order to understand them, and to give them a reason to come read your blog in your space.

One way you can interact with your readers in their space is by commenting on other blogs.  Bruce Sallan is someone that does a great job of this.  Bruce is constantly commenting on his readers’ blogs, and in doing so, he drives interest back to his blog as well as #DadChat on twitter.  When you comment on a reader’s blog, they appreciate that and want to return the favor by commenting on your blog.  The same principle applies by promoting the posts that your readers write, by interacting with them on Twitter, etc.  The point is if you connect with your readers and show them you appreciate them, they will become fans.

2 – Rock stars look to shift control to their fans.  Fans are special people.  They love their favorite brand/rock star/ blogger and want to see them succeed.  If you will reach out to them and give them ways to do so, they will work to this end by promoting you to others, sharing your content, etc.  This can be something as easy as asking your readers what topics they want to see covered, or even selecting them to write guest posts on your blog.

One of the things I do here from time to time is I will highlight someone that leaves a particularly interesting or valuable comment by either calling it out in the post itself, or by mentioning it in the post and asking everyone to read the comments.  The point is to show the readers that they play a role in helping to create the content here.  That shift in ownership is powerful, and it makes readers feel more vested in the blog to see that they have a voice in the content being created there.

3 – Rock stars focus on the Bigger Idea behind their music.  This is probably the most valuable lesson you can learn from a content creation standpoint.  Rock stars don’t sing about themselves (well, not all the time), they typically sing about ideas and values that resonate with their listeners.  This makes their songs more relevant to listeners, and makes it easier to create fans.  Why is Taylor Swift adored by teenage girls worldwide?  Because her songs speak to the lives they are living every single day.  That makes it easier for teenage girls to relate to her songs, and to become her fans.

If you want to apply this to your own blogging efforts, focus on topics that relate to what’s important to your readers.  For example, Patagonia’s The Cleanest Line blog focuses on protecting the environment, sustainability, the outdoors, etc.  Instead of focusing directly on its clothing products, Patagonia chooses instead to focus on the larger issues and ideas that relate to its products.  Because these larger issues and ideas are what’s more important to its customers.

4 – Rock stars embrace their fans.  Rock stars value their fans and literally love them right back.  This creates an incredibly powerful bond and rock stars actually thrive off being close to their fans, and look for ways to embrace them and become closer to them.

A blog that does a wonderful job of embracing its fans is Spin Sucks.  First, Spin Sucks does a great job of engaging with its readers that comment.  Second, the blog finds ways to put the spotlight on its readers.  Often, the most frequent commenters are chosen to write guest posts.  Each Friday, Gini writes a Follow Friday post that highlights someone that readers should follow, who is typically a Spin Sucks reader.  Spin Sucks does a great job of rewarding its readers through engagement and letting them help create the content on the blog.

So tonight at #Blogchat starting at 8pm Central, we will discuss how your blog can cultivate more fans.  Please join tonight on Twitter!

PS: If you haven’t ordered your copy of Think Like a Rock Star, it’s on Amazon and Kindle!

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Hire Me to Present Think Like a Rock Star At Your Event This Fall

Over the past few weeks I’ve been adding dates to my speaking schedule for the Fall, which you can find here.  I am planning on speaking 2-3 times a month for the rest of the year.  As you can see, I have one date already locked down for most of the months.

Obviously, I will be speaking in the fall primarily to promote my new business book, Think Like a Rock Star. Think Like a Rock Star is focused on how your brand can better engage its most passionate customers (its fans), and grow its business from these connections with these fans.  The presentation makes the business case for why rock stars strive to have deep connections with their fans (and the real business value from doing so), and then shows you the exact steps your brand needs to take to create similar connections with your most passionate customers.

I’ll be offering Think Like a Rock Star in four formats:

1 – An hour-long presentation.  This is perfect if you have a conference that has an hour-long format (or even 45 mins), and this can be used as a session or as a keynote presentation.  Additionally, I can do a book-signing for free after the presentation.  You can either buy the books yourself and resell them to attendees, or give them to attendees as part of their registration.  Or I can bring the books myself and sell them so there’s no cost to you.

2 – A half or full-day workshop.  This is for companies that want to get serious about creating a fan-centric brand.  This is an in-depth workshop that will walk you through exactly what needs to happen in order for your brand to create a deeper relationship with your customers.  We’ll go into creating internal and external structures and teams, how to identify who your fans are, how to connect with them, everything.  We’ll also tackle how to create and launch a brand ambassador program for your brand.  Copies of Think Like a Rock Star will be provided for your team (up to 25 copies).

3 – An hour-long webinar.  If you don’t have a conference or event coming up in 2013 but want to have me present Think Like a Rock Star, we can do a webinar instead.  Just make sure you email me to discuss your technical resources as that’s sometimes an issue when doing webinars.

4 – A series of training videos for your company.  In lieu of an on-site workshop, I can create a custom set of training videos for your company showing you exactly how to become a more fan-centric brand.

 

So if any of these options appeal to you, please email me and we can discuss your needs.  Each presentation is customized to your organization’s needs and goals.  I’ve also created this short video talking about the success I’ve had with the Think Like a Rock Star presentation:

Finally, I wanted to close by saying THANK YOU to everyone that has helped support the book Think Like a Rock Star.  I’m constantly hearing from readers about how y’all are applying the book’s principles to your everyday work at your company.  Kelly wrote an amazing post last week about how Paper.li is building a brand ambassador program by following the frameworks provided in Think Like a Rock Star.

If you haven’t bought the book yet, please check out the reviews on Amazon.  And if you have read the book, would you please help me by reviewing it on Amazon?  Honestly, your reviews and positive WOM is what’s fueling the success of this book.  Last week was the best sales week since launch on Amazon for the book, and it came 2 months after the book’s launch.  That success is being fueled by you, I couldn’t afford to hire a publicist or do a lot of online advertising for the book like the big name authors can.  I had to rely on the fans of the book to make it successful, and y’all have done just that.  Thank you!

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Three Ways Your Marketing Needs to Adapt Before it Dies

Microsoft

Over the past 5 years or so, there has been a rush by companies to understand how to use social media tools.  Customers are using these tools, so brands rationalize that they need to learn how to use these tools to better sell to those customers via those tools.  The idea is to take a marketing strategy built around using analog channels, and incorporate digital tools into the mix.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t consider how customers are using these digital tools.  As late as 1990, there were three main channels to reach the majority of your customers:

1 – Television

2 – Radio

3 – Print

Because the majority of your customers were using these three channels for their news, information and entertainment.  Today, any person that has access to the internet and a laptop/tablet/smartphone is a potential content creation and distribution channel.  The marketing dynamic has completely changed in that customers are no longer looking to brands to get their information and marketing about a product, they are looking to each other.

So simply incorporating digital tools into your existing analog marketing strategy isn’t enough.  You have to adapt your strategy to reflect the fact that your customers have a greater ability to create and spread information than your brand does.  Re-read that sentence until it sinks in.

So in short, your marketing needs to adapt to make it more consistent with the content being created by other customers.  Here’s how you can do that:

1 – Make your marketing less about the product and more about how your customers use the product.  Think about why your customers buy your product and what they want to accomplish with it.  What problems are they trying to solve, what are they trying to create?  They are buying your product because it is going to help them do something.  Focus more of your marketing on that something.

2 – Make your marketing more useful.  Why have we seen a huge uptick in companies creating white papers and ebooks in the last few years?  Because this content is useful to potential customers.  It educates them, it helps them solve their problems.  Tying in with the above point, it helps them do something.  Create marketing that empowers your customers, and they will spread your marketing.

3 – Make your marketing more human.  Your marketing will resonate with your customers if it is spoken in a voice they understand: Their own.  That means not taking yourself too seriously, sometimes having a sense of humor, and being willing to admit your mistakes.  A couple of years ago The Red Cross had a huge social media faux pas, but they turned a potentially negative situation into a positive for the organization by responding in a human tone.

The main point to realize is that your customers are now creating far more information and content than your brand ever can.  Which means that most of the ‘marketing’ that’s done about and around your brand is not coming from you.  Your customers are now getting their information about your brand from each other, so you need to understand this, and adapt your marketing to make it consistent with what your customers are now expecting.

I also created this short video presentation talking more about this topic.  Let me know what you think!

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Guest Post: How We Think Like a Rock Star at Paper.li

PaperliRockstars

Note: This is a guest post from Paper.li’s Kelly Hungerford, who heads up Marketing and Communications for the brand.  I asked Kelly to write this post for several reasons, but mainly because she’s been a huge supporter of me and my book Think Like a Rock Star for months now.  Plus, she’s working with Paper.li’s fans to build an advocacy program and I wanted her to talk about what the brand is doing and what they are learning because it is not an easy process.  But building a strong connection with your most passionate customers is definitely a worthwhile goal and I’m so grateful to Kelly for sharing what Paper.li is learning along the way.  Please drop Kelly a comment and let her know what you think!

A few months back, before Think Like a Rock Star was available for sale, I approached Mack for some advice. I wanted to pick his brain on the beginnings of a brand ambassador program for Paper.li.

After two years I felt we were ready to move make a commitment and take the plunge into developing a structure and process to begin formally recognize our core users — our advocates. I wanted a program that would

  • officially recognize our most loyal advocates and say thank you
  • enable them to take part in shaping the service in the future
  • empower them to inspire others

After speaking with speaking Mack I realized I couldn’t answer a fundamental question, which was “what are the key elements that would excite your users in a program?. “  I could only make an assumption.

I had spent the past two years listening, responding and engaging but still didn’t understand enough to formalize a process around my fans. I needed to change my approach. Mack sent me an early copy of TLARS and I began reading and realized that I needed to bend my ear past listening to achieve deeper understanding.

Applying TLARS principals at Paper.li

I spent the next 4 months fine-tuning my listening skills, applying and adapting approaches from TLARS to my work. Four months may sound like a long time, but I purposely took extra time to evaluate our users’ needs for three reasons:

1- Resources: Paper.li is still a small company, with colleagues covering multiple rolls. NOT doing my research will impact my team and create more work for everyone

2- Goodwill:  we feel a large sense of responsibility to get things right when we roll out enhancements or launch new features. Formalizing a program is no different. Their time is valuable and we value their time.

3- No revenue pressure: my aim is to reward our most loyal users, not to increase any revenue. We recognize the benefits of formalizing a relationship for both sides, but there is was no time pressure to roll anything out before it was ready.

 

And these were the changes that were implemented:

1- Increased engagement outside of our owned channels

I noticed that when I engaged with users under the Paper.li name, I naturally put on my “helping hat”. I was always looking after issues, giving advice, solving problems. This is a great way to build trust and keep users loyal, but it is a bit similar to going to grab a beer with a colleague and only talking about work the entire time — it doesn’t lend to interesting conversations.

So I increased the engagement under my own name and out from underneath the Paper.li hood. This may seem like a natural thing to do, but when you work for a company, it doesn’t come naturally. The natural thing is to interact with your community through official channels and campaigns set-up through your company.

One of the first outside events I organized for our community was a #BlogChat sponsorship. Although it was company sponsored, I was there on my own time and under my own name. By reaching out this way, the dynamic changed and so did the information flow. I was able to listen without a customer service or marketing hat on my head, participate with my community to better understand what was important to them.

2- Quit making assumptions

There is nothing wrong with assumptions, but when you are structuring something around your users, for your users, why make any assumptions if you don’t have to?

We have the tools available today to virtually reach and shake hands. We should use them to our advantage to better incorporate our users voices into our organizations and create more experiences for them, with them.

I stopped making assumptions and started sending an email, tweet or post to get the information I needed. It took more time, but it yielded the information I was looking for.

3- Leveraged our support function

Where I didn’t have an answer, I asked. This sounds like a “duh” statement, but I am convinced that 50% of the time we don’t have the answers we require because we simply haven’t asked the right question — or any question.

Both Twitter and our support forum give us the opportunity to engage and inquire, but most users contact us via Twitter for quick responses, so this wasn’t the place to ask 20 questions. I opted for our support desk and we began increasing our conversation with our end users there.

We added a simple question like this “Would you have time for one more question?” and then asked our question.

That extra one minute invested to formulate a question not only resulted in beautiful feedback but ultimately strengthened and built a stronger mutual relationship between our team and our users.

This isn’t something that we implemented just to understand our advocates wishes better, this was a change across the board.  By going the extra mile we have seen our advocate circle organically grow and we are not just responding to requests, we are building relationships. In fact, a lot of our users just drop us a line to say hi during the week now.

 

The results:

After adjusting our listening, analyzing results and putting a few internal processes in place, we were able to structure the first phase of a very humble ambassador program — around user feedback– for our advocates.

Here’s what they asked for along with what we were able to implement to get the program started.

1-  Direct contact with our team: via email, G+, Skype or a special address in our forum, our advocates wanted to be able to tap into at any time. This is great for not only for keeping in touch or answering questions but is essential for getting feedback on features or input on new ideas.

Solution: We set up a private G+ community, gave access to key members of the team via direct email and Skype.

2- Early notification of product releases: our users want to be empowered. They want to show their audience what’s happening before it’s made public. They also want to educate others.

Solution: We hold G+ product, information and best practices hangouts. We invite users to speak and share their impressions with the rest of the group, share best practices and hear what’s new.

3- Badges/recognition: who said the badge is dead? Our core users want to show what they are a part of. They are proud to be associated with the company and would like to show their pride off. Additionally, they wanted to be easily identifiable by other publishers.

Solution: a badge that identifies them as an ambassador/super-user. They will be highlighted in blog posts, cited as distinguished publishers when asked by PR, included in presentations, blog posts and so forth.

4- Testing new product: this take number two a step further. Our users want to be a part of what’s happening and help shape the product for the future.

Solution: shared access on our pre-prod environment. We inform them when new features, improvements or enhancements are ready and let them test. The feedback has been great and they are having a blast and they are helping us resolve issue and define new ways of working and thinking about our product.

5- Receive Swiss chocolate: no kidding! Our fans would like to get their hands on authentic “can’t be found in the supermarket” Swiss chocolate.

Solution: Unfortunately, this part of the program isn’t yet in place. it isn’t easy to ship Swiss chocolate (or food) internationally. We’ll work on this.

Our ambassador program is truly a work in progress. There is no glam, fancy announcements, t-shirts or mugs being handed out. But the anticipation of how this can progress is as exciting as the feedback that we’re receiving from our advocates.

We’ve succeed in pulling back the curtain back and incorporating our most passionate users (formally) into our team as honorary members, giving them a backstage pass and total access to us. We’ve truly begun to Think Like a Rock Star at Paper.li and we’re proud of it!

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How to Create and Market a ‘Cool’ Product with Social Media

Harley

I recently got this email from a reader of Think Like a Rock Star that’s interested learning how to use social media to connect with her fans and market a ‘cool’ product.

“I loved your book and not only found it extremely helpful from an execution perspective of how to put an advocate program together, but your mentality and approach to social media was truly eye opening and has reignited my passion for my business and connecting with my fans.

While your book discussed selling the benefit rather than the product I feel that my customers buy my product for the “cool factor” which is a bit harder to put into words than say it makes a faster breakfast or cleans your clothes better. If I dig a bit deeper I have researched and seen that exclusivity and originality are essential in this area of fashion. If some one did it already fans aren’t afraid to point fingers.”

One of the things that the book also talks about is how to create content that taps into the ‘Bigger Idea’ behind your product.  But if one of the big reasons why someone buys your product is because it’s ‘cool’, then how do you create content around ‘cool’?

Another way to think about having a ‘cool’ product is to have one that, as Kathy Sierra says, ‘inspires The Nod’.  Your product is ‘cool’ to other people that get why it is cool.  Your product says something about them as a person.  Maybe that they’re smarter than the rest, or more selective, or maybe that they’ve been a fan of your brand for a longer period of time.  Harley-Davidson is cool because the brand says something about the owner and their lifestyle that Victory motorcycles do not.

In the Introduction to Think Like a Rock Star I talk about how Jewel connected with her fans to empower them to organize the JewelStock concerts.  Wearing a Jewel ‘Intuition’ t-shirt likely wouldn’t impress anyone, not even hardcore Jewel fans.  But if an EDA sees you wearing a JewelStock tee, it would instantly grab their attention.  Wearing the JewelStock tee communicates to other long-time Jewel fans that you were there in the beginning, and if you were seen wearing it by another long-time Jewel fan, they would likely run up to you ask ‘OMG were you there?’  Within that very small community, it communicates status, that you were part of a rare moment that helped launch Jewel’s career.  But what if that same person passed by a girl that had a JewelStock sticker on her Bug?

They’d share The Nod.  Because they’d both instantly have a bond that most Jewel fans don’t share.

So if you want to create content that taps into the ‘cool’ factor about your product, then you need to figure out what it is about your product that makes it cool?  And you have to remember that the ‘what’ ties back to the person that bought the product, it says something about them.

For example, one of the other examples in the book is how Fiskars connected with scrapbookers to drive sales.  Any pair of scissors can be used in scrapbooking, but an orange-handled pair of Fiskars scissors communicates that you are serious about your scrapbooking.  That you take your projects more seriously and that perfection is important to you.  Owning a pair of that particular brand in that particular color communicates something about you as a scrapbooker.

Now my friend’s email also mentioned looking to appeal to the brand’s fans and that they are interested in exclusivity and originality.  Back to the Fiskars’ example. The orange-handled scissor is a ‘cool’ product to scrapbookers.  But Fiskars has also created The Fiskateers movement that’s just for scrapbookers.  If you want to join this movement, you have to be approved to join by the existing members.  But if you are, you get your own numbered orange-handled scissor that’s only available to Fiskateers!  The orange-handled scissor is already cool to members of the scrapbooking community, but the fact that it’s numbered also communicates that that person is a Fiskateer!  Extra cool points!

So if you want to want to market a ‘cool’ product, focus on two areas:

1 – What makes the product cool and what does it say about the person owning it?  Are they smarter?  Concerned with the environment?  Geekier?  Bolder?  More active?

2 – How will others be able to spot someone else that has your ‘cool’ product?  This goes beyond the product itself, especially if it’s a clothing product.  But if it’s not a clothing product, maybe a t-shirt or a sticker could work.  Or, in the case of Fiskars, maybe its the same product (orange-handled scissors) with a special modification (numbered) that’s only available to a select group of customers (such as your biggest fans).  Maybe this could be a special color of an existing shirt that’s only sold to your fans, or maybe your fans create the modification, and that’s added to the shirt, it becomes a ‘badge’ or ‘marker’ to other members of that community of fans.

And finally, go back to the qualities listed in the first step above.  Think of those attributes (smarter, more active, bolder) as Superpowers.  How is your product going to help your customers be smarter, more active or bolder?  Red Bull gives you the fuel and energy you need to do bold and daring stunts and activities.  Patagonia creates clothes that last longer, that also environmentally-friendly.   Think about what it is that your customers find ‘cool’ about your product, then focus on how you can enable that coolness.

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Fan Organizes Global Movement Celebrating Nutella, So the Brand Sends Her a C&D Letter

NutellaSara Rosso is definitely what you would call a ‘superfan’ for Nutella.  So much so that in 2007, Rosso decided that the chocolate-hazlenut spread deserved its own holiday and created World Nutella Day.  Over the past 6 years, the ‘holiday’ has grown into first a community for fellow Nutella fans, and now a movement celebrating the brand.  The stated goal for creating the holiday was to ” encourage Nutella enthusiasts worldwide to enjoy and get creative with Nutella.”  The event has its own Facebook page with 40K Likes, and a Twitter account with almost 7K followers.  On the event’s website, fans have currently submitted over 700 recipes for Nutella, and the entire platform is obviously driving interest, fandom and sales for the brand.

And Nutella just told Rosso to shut the whole thing down.  Last month, Rosso received a Cease and Desist letter from Ferrero, the parent company of the Nutella brand.

“They asked me to take down the site because they consider it to be an unauthorized use of their intellectual property and trademarks—the Nutella logo and brand,” Rosso explains.

In Think Like a Rock Star, I devote an entire chapter to helping brands understand who their fans are, and what motivates them.  No doubt, Ferrero looks at World Nutella Day, and likely sees little more than customers using its logo and likeness in an unauthorized manner.  The company feels it needs to step in and protect its brand, and to be fair it has every right to do so.

But in acting this way, Ferrero is also communicating that it does not understand its own fans, and why they are driving this effort.  A fan sees itself as the owner of a brand, in many ways the parent of that brand.  As such, they want to see the brand grow and succeed.  So they act in what they perceive to be the brand’s best interests.

Ferrero would likely counter that even so, the fan’s best interests for the brand might not be the same as what the brand wants for itself.  This is why Ferrero should be working with its fans.  Fans are special customers, they want a relationship with their favorite brand.  Fans want the brand to step in and give them more instruction on how they can better serve and help that brand.

One of the case studies from the music industry I talk about in Think Like a Rock Star is the fan-run site TheDonnasMedia.com, which was created by fans of The Donnas.  The site contains hundreds of thousands of hours of live concert footage from the band’s performances, and even custom made liner notes and photos so fans can literally create their own CDs of The Donnas’ concerts.  The band found out about this site years ago, and instead of shutting it down, they contacted the fans running the site, and began working with them to make the site better.  They understood that the point of the site from the fans’ perspective was to create new fans for The Donnas, so instead of sending a C&D letter to the site’s owners, the band instead began promoting the site to its fans!  And for their part, the fans self-police the site, and won’t allow any material to be uploaded to the site that’s been commercially released by the band (remember what I said about fans acting in what they perceive to be the brand or in this case band’s best interests?).

If Ferrero would reach out to its fans that have organized World Nutella Day, they would no doubt find that Ms Rosso and her team would bend over backwards to accommodate any request from the brand, and would be thrilled that Nutella was reaching out to them.  There is an obvious opportunity here for Nutella to work with Rosso and these fans, and create a huge platform for the brand’s fans that could create a significantly positive financial impact on the brand.

But instead, the brand is attempting to shut down the entire movement, and that has, shockingly, led to Nutella now receiving criticism from its own fans on its Facebook page:

“Today, i decided to remove Nutella and other Ferrero products from my grocery list because of the legal actions taken against the http://www.nutelladay.com/. Do whatever you want, but without my money.”

“Bad move Ferrero. Bad, bad move. I won’t be buying your delicious nut butter anymore. It’s a good thing there are plenty of alternatives!”

“We love Nutella, BUT after hearing how you treat your fans, we’ll be switching to an alternative brand.”

“I will never use your product again! You lost more than 1 fan today.”

Rosso has said she will be shutting down the site and all accounts associated with World Nutella Day on Friday.  Now there’s still a chance Nutella could step in and say that they want to work with the fans, but the time to do that was before they issued a C&D letter, which is why they are now dealing with backlash from their own fans.

We will be discussing how brands should handle fan-run efforts like this tomorrow during #rockstarchat on Twitter at 1pm Central.  But for now, here’s how a brand should respond when it discovers that a fan is running an effort that involves its brand.

1 – Contact the fan(s) first before pursuing legal action.  Even if what the fans are doing is clearly against what you feel are the brand’s best interests, it still helps to contact the fans and communicate that to them directly.  Normally, the fans will be thrilled to hear from you, and happy to incorporate any changes you request.

2 – Work with the fans to figure out how they can continue to have a relationship with your brand that benefits them, as well as you.  Let’s assume that your fans are running a site that, for whatever reason, your brand decides needs to be shut down.  Instead of simply sending lawyers out to the fans, contact the fans and carefully communicate to them why their effort is such a disconnect with what your brand is trying to accomplish, and communicate to them that you want to see if they can work with your brand in a different capacity.  For example, by attempting to shut down World Nutella Day, Nutella has now alienated an army of literally thousands of fans.  If the brand had reached out to these fans and figured out a way that they could keep working together, the fans would have loved it, and the effort would have become an even bigger platform to help the brand.  Instead, it’s now become a PR headache for Nutella.

3 – See if there is an opportunity to bring the fan’s initiative under the brand’s umbrella.  Instead of shutting down the effort, why not see if the fans would like to help you run it if your brand takes it over?  I honestly suspect this is what will happen with World Nutella Day.  There is enormous potential in this community, Nutella could easily morph this group into its own brand ambassador program, etc.

4 – Buy Think Like a Rock Star.  It shows you exactly how to create a better relationship with such fans, and helps you understand them and how they are trying to help you brand.

 

If all else fails, you may need to pursue legal action against the fans running such initiatives, but it’s usually a good idea to first contact your fans, and voice your concerns to them.  Typically, your fans will go out of their way to work with your brand because remember they are your fans.

If you are a fan of Nutella, what do you think about this story?  Should Nutella be shutting down World Nutella Day, or is it a movement that can only help the brand?  What do you think?

PS: Thanks to Lauri Rottmayer for the tip about this story.

 

Afterthought:  If Nutella wanted to start today building a new fan community that was 40K strong like the one Rosso has already built (for free), what would be the costs and how much time would it take?  I’m thinking about half a million, and remember Rosso has been doing this for 6 years.  Whatever the cost, that’s the minimum amount Nutella would be throwing away by not trying to embrace this effort and bring it under the brand’s umbrella.

 

UPDATE: Nutella just posted on its Facebook page the following “Positive direct contact between Ferrero and Sara Rosso, owner of the non-official Nutella fan page World Nutella Day, has brought an end to the case.  Ferrero would like to express to Sara Rosso its sincere gratitude for her passion for Nutella, gratitude which is extended to all fans of the World Nutella Day.  The case arose from a routine brand defense procedure that was activated as a result of some misuse of the Nutella brand on the fan page.  Ferrero is pleased to announce that today, after contacting Sara Rosso and finding together the appropriate solutions, it immediately stopped the previous action.  Ferrero considers itself fortunate to have such devoted and loyal fans of its Nutella spread, like Sara Rosso.”

 

Kudos to Nutella for doing the right thing!

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How to Be An Amazing Public Speaker, Especially If You Are An Introvert

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I didn’t realize how bright the lights would be.  I was sitting on stage, in a room of 500 or so people, but when I looked out at the crowd, all I saw were those blinding white lights.  It was 2008, and I was the moderator of a packed session in a ballroom at South By Southwest.  I was about to make my public speaking debut at a social media event.  Actually at the Super Bowl of social media events.

And I was 120 seconds away from almost having a panic attack.

I began the session by introducing the 3 panelists.  I got through the first introduction fine, but when I went to introduce the second panelist, I looked at the wrong set of notes, and lost my place.  And this is when time literally slowed down for me.  I scanned feverishly for the second panelist’s bio for what felt like 5 years.

I suddenly became incredibly aware of the fact that I wasn’t saying anything.  Then I realized that since I wasn’t saying anything that the audience had to know that something was very wrong.

I was 120 seconds into my public speaking debut at a social media event, and I am suddenly considering getting up and walking (who am I kidding, RUNNING) out of that ballroom.

Fast forward 5 years.  Earlier this month I spoke in Nashville, presenting Think Like a Rock Star to a crowd of about 150 people.  No panel this time, just me.  When I finished, a few dozen people came up and one gentleman told me ‘That was one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen’.  Then another attendee told me ‘I’ve been coming to these events for 8 years, that was easily one of the Top 5 presentations I’ve seen here.’

What changed in the course of 5 years?  You have to admit, going from almost running off the stage at SXSW to having multiple attendees telling you that your presentation is one of the best they have ever seen is a pretty big transformation.  Here’s a few of the things I have learned over the last five years and I think these tips will be especially helpful to you if you are also an introvert that wants to become a better public speaker:

Put the spotlight on your ideas, not yourself.

A couple of years ago I was talking to John Moore about speaking.  Like me, John is an introvert, but he’s also an incredibly good public speaker.  He told me that ‘some people speak to put the spotlight on themselves, others speak to put the spotlight on their ideas’.  This speaks to the heart of why I think many introverts hate public speaking, because we hate the idea of being in the spotlight.  But when we think of speaking as being a way to make our ideas the star and give them the spotlight, then I think speaking becomes more interesting.  Or at least less stressful!

By transferring the focus to your ideas, as an introvert we also transfer the spotlight.  We don’t talk about ourselves, we talk about our ideas, and in doing so, that means we can brag on our ideas in a way we would never feel comfortable doing if we were talking about ourselves!  The goal then becomes helping the audience realize and understand why they should embrace and value this idea in the same way that I do.

Your idea is a gift to the audience.

Think about how you use social media.  If you’re like me, you spend a good deal of time sharing links to articles you have read and enjoyed.  Why do we do this?  Because we love finding and sharing valuable content with others.  It makes us feel good to pass along an article or blog post that we know will help someone else.

Your presentations are the same way.  There’s a core idea that embodies your presentation that’s going to help your audience.  One of the thrills I get from presenting Think Like a Rock Star is that every time I do, there’s that moment.  The moment when I make eye contact with an audience member and their eyes suddenly get big, they smile and immediately start quickly making notes.  The ‘A-Ha!’ moment!  That moment when you can almost see a light bulb go off over their heads that they suddenly ‘get’ why your idea is so powerful and valuable to them.

I *love* that, because at that moment I know I just gave them a gift.  The gift of knowledge.  And they will then go take that gift and it will help them improve their business, organization, fund-raising, whatever.  I know at that moment that I helped them, and that’s an amazing feeling.

If your ideas are interesting, then YOU are interesting!

Four years ago I began giving the presentation that would later become Think Like a Rock Star, which would later become the book of the same name.  As soon as I began giving that presentation I noticed something:  I became a ‘better’ speaker.  Before then, audiences were generally pleased with my speaking, I got my fair share of compliments afterward from attendees, and had decent turnouts for my sessions.

In 2009 at Social South, I presented What Rock Stars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media.  I honestly wasn’t sure how the audience would react to it as the topic was a bit different from anything else I had ever talked about.  As I started the presentation, the room was completely full, people were standing up and lining the outer wall, and there were a few dozen people sitting on the floor at the back of the room!  Afterwards, the attendees just gushed about the presentation, and said it was amazing.

The next year, I spoke at an event tailored to the apartment industry and presented Think Like a Rock Star for the first time.  It was a two-day event and I sat in session after session of topics finely tuned to the apartment industry, with case studies about that industry.  I was getting VERY worried because my topic was so different.  On the second day before my session I sat in on another social media speaker.  He was brilliant, and gave an incredible talk on email marketing.  And 20 people showed up.  I was officially getting worried, and afraid that no one would show up to my session, which was next.

Instead, my session was delayed getting started because we had to bring in dozens of extra chairs to accommodate everyone that wanted to attend.  I’ll never forget the image of the event organizer literally sprinting in and out of the ballroom with extra chairs!  And the audience loved the presentation, and afterward I again heard glowing reviews.

Later that afternoon I was walking down one of the halls and a woman literally stopped me and said ‘I saw your Think Like a Rock Star presentation this morning.  THAT should have been the keynote!’

‘Really?’

‘Absolutely.  I would have paid the entire conference fee just to see it!’

Now here’s the thing:  I *knew* that I hadn’t suddenly become an amazing speaker overnight.  The only thing that had changed was the content I was talking about.  But then I realized that the way I was presenting Think Like a Rock Star was different.  I realized that when I talked about Think Like a Rock Star, I put the spotlight on my ideas!  And those ideas resonated with the audience, so the presentation resonated with them as well.

Which means in their mind, I suddenly became an excellent speaker.

People love stories.   

Businesses love case studies, but people love stories.  I had always tried to incorporate case studies into my presentations before Think Like a Rock Star, because nothing makes your point better than showing the audience how a similar business implemented the ideas you are promoting, and saw success from their efforts.

But with Think Like a Rock Star, instead I told the stories of how rock stars connected with and embraced their fans.  I walked the audience through how and why rock stars sought a close relationship with their fans, and what led them to that point.  The case studies became stories, which made the presentation more interesting.  Note too that this is another way to take the focus (along with the stress of the spotlight) off you as the introverted speaker, and place the spotlight on your ideas.

 

So what happened at SXSW in 2008?

At the opening I mentioned how my public speaking career got off to such a rocky start five years ago.  Despite horribly botching the introductions , I didn’t run off the stage.  I somehow collected myself, found my place in my notes, and finished the introductions.  From that point the rest of the session went very smoothly. But I still felt horrible about screwing up the opening.

Afterward, I immediately apologized to the first panelist I saw.

“I’m so sorry for screwing up the introductions, I feel terrible about it!”

He looked at me as if I had just accused him of being the wrong gender. “What are you talking about?”

“You mean you didn’t notice my pregnant pause before I introduced you?”

“Nope.”

Lesson learned.  99% of your mistakes when speaking will go completely unnoticed by the audience.  Or your fellow panelists.  The audience doesn’t realize when you lose your train of thought or forget what comes next.  For an introvert, this might be the most reassuring speaking lesson of all!

So if you are an introvert, please don’t dismiss the idea of speaking publicly.  It truly is an amazing experience and if you focus on how you can put the spotlight on your ideas instead of yourself, I think you’l find that the process itself becomes much more enjoyable.  If you need more technical tips, I’ve also written The Introvert’s Guide to Speaking.  By following the advice in that post and this one, I’ve gone from being terrified of public speaking, to actually LOVING speaking to an audience.  It’s also led me to being one of the more in-demand speakers on social media and fan engagement.

And speaking of being in-demand, this is probably a good time to announce that I will be keynoting The Social Media Tourism Symposium in Huntsville on November 6th.  I’m really looking forward to this event and I will also be doing a book signing for Think Like a Rock Star and will be in town for the entire event.

If you would like to discuss having me speak at your event and do a book signing, please email me to check availability.  I’d love to help you make your event more successful!  If you know someone that needs a speaker for their event, please pass this along to them!

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Think Like a Rock Star is Now Available in Europe and the UK!

Collier_cvr_altI just received word from my European Marketing Manager that Think Like a Rock Star is now on sale in Europe and the UK!  You can buy the book on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions.  I’ve been really pleased with the sales so far, and totally forgot that the book had a staggered release!

If you haven’t purchased Think Like a Rock Star yet, please check the early reviews on Amazon, they have been absolutely stellar, I could not be more proud of the reaction the book is getting!

Also, I have created three other resources besides the book to help you better connect with your fans:

1 – The Think Like a Rock Star newsletter.  Each week we discuss tips and ideas for how you can better connect with your fans.  It’s completely free and you can sign up here.

2 – #RockstarChat on Twitter every Wednesday at 1pm Central.  This is for brand marketers and really anyone that wants to learn how to better connect with their fans and build engagement around their social media and marketing efforts.

3 – Think Like a Rock Star Community on Google Plus – This is also a place where we can bounce ideas off each other about how to connect with our fans and create more engaging content.  This community just launched this week and already we are having some great discussions!

 

And if you have already read Think Like a Rock Star could you please write a review for Amazon and GoodReads?  Thank you so much!