So I Have a Pretty Big Announcement to Make…

…I’m writing a book!  Actually I’m writing the only book I’ve ever wanted to write, Think Like a Rockstar!  Rockstars have passionate fans that absolutely love them, so why can’t brands as well?  The short answer is they CAN, and Think Like a Rockstar will show companies and organizations how they can cultivate advocates for their brands and the business value in doing so!

Here’s some of the main areas that will be addressed by Think Like a Rockstar:

• Who are your brand’s fans, and why you need to connect with them instead of simply trying to ‘acquire’ new customers.  I’ll walk you through how to not only recognize your fans, but how to connect with them and even how to convert ‘ranters’ into ‘ravers’ (If your company has been struggling with how to respond to ‘negative’ feedback online, this is for you!).  I’ll also profile individual brand advocates so you can learn what makes these customers so very special.
• I’ll walk you through exactly what Rockstars do to connect with and cultivate their fans.  And a lot of what they do is completely confusing and counter-intuitive to most marketers.  They do crazy things like give away their product to the people that are most willing to buy it, and instead of trying to blast marketing messages to millions, they go out of their way to connect with only a dozen or two customers at a time.  But their methods work, and you’ll learn why.  Also, if your company is one of the many struggling to build engagement around your social media marketing efforts, Think Like a Rockstar will teach you how to solve this common marketing problem.
• An overview to becoming a Fan-Centric company.  Yep, after this you’ll have no more excuses!  This will show you what needs to happen both internally and externally in order to create a framework where you are directly connected to your brand’s fans, and they to you.
• And oh yes, there will be case studies, lots and lots of case studies!  I’ll look at dozens of examples of how both Rockstars and brands are embracing and empowering their biggest fans.  I’ll walk you through exactly what they did, explain why it worked, and show you how you can apply those lessons to YOUR marketing efforts!

I’ll be sharing more in the coming days/weeks/months about Think Like a Rockstar leading up to its publication (I’ll be sharing with you those dates as soon as they are nailed down).  Think Like a Rockstar will be published by McGraw-Hill and I could not be happier to be working with them.  Plus my editor, Casey Ebro, immediately ‘got’ why the idea behind Think Like a Rockstar was so big, and has been so enthusiastic about this project.  That’s critical, if you are thinking about writing a book, the importance of having a passionate editor that believes in the potential of your idea cannot be understated.

For the last four years, people have been asking me ‘So, when are YOU going to write a book?’  I haven’t written a book because I didn’t want to write a book, I wanted to write THIS book.  Seriously, this is the only book I’ve ever wanted to write, ‘writing a book’ is not on my bucket list but I wanted to write this book because I believe in the concept that strongly.

This wouldn’t be happening without the help and advice of many people, but I wanted to mention a few friends that really helped me turn this project into reality.  They are Beth Harte, Lisa Petrilli, Lou Imbriano, Ann Handley and Amy Africa.  And an additional thanks to Lisa for introducing me to my agent, Linda Langton, who was an immense catalyst in helping this project see the light of day.  I’ll have a future post on the value of getting an agent versus going it alone when trying to get a book deal (and I tried both!).

Thanks to everyone that’s been so supportive of my being able to write Think Like a Rockstar.  Now if you don’t see me blogging as much here for the next 4-5 months, hopefully you’ll understand why 😉