DISQUS

Hey Cameron, Thanks for the mention, truly honored to have been mentioned on the list with so many other wonder authors who invest in their communities on twitter.

Sweet niblets, Chris! How many great realizations can you sneak into one post?

I have to agree, as much as some recent noise is being made about how minimally important the leader is to established organizations, I'm still not convinced. My personal experience starting, running and trying to hand-off companies and observations (spelled "Apple, Nike & Starbucks") tell me otherwise.

And, yup, I'm really excited to see how apps that enable likeminded people to spontaneously congregate will change the dynamic of tribe-building and afford crowdsourced deputization of local tribe sub-leaders.

Storytelling is astonishingly powerful as marketing medium also because it reaches past peoples' knee-jerk reactions to standard interruption marketing and speaks directly to emotion. It draws readers/viewers in and, a well told story, gives them a way to spend a few minutes not being pitched, but being moved, entertained and informed.

Plus, from the standpoint of a "psychology of persuasion" obsessed copywriter, if the story is constructed the right way and shared with the right audience, it allows your readers to step into it and see themselves in the characters...and decide that the character's resolution would work for them, too.

That's where the marketing impact can really hit a home run. If reader has a problem that is similar to the person in the story and the character in the story resolves her problem with the product or service you've been hired to help market, there is a certain amount of transferance that happens. You don't even have to end with some version of "if you have the same issue, try out the same product." It's automatic, subtle, yet very powerful.

Exceptional therapists use this technique all the time with patients and people like Milton Erickson were legendary for their ability to tell a story that changed a patient's state in a single session, but they call it "therapeutic metaphor.

In fact, if you'd like to learn how to construct stories that do this amazingly well, there is a book by David Gordon called, Therapeutic Metaphors, that breaks down the entire process. It was written originally for therapists, but it's also a tremendous tool for marketers who are looking to hone their storytelling abilities and use those stories to create compelling marketing outcomes,

20. Avoid saying stuff about yourself that is easily refuted via social proof and public analytics.

So, if you say you are a social media marketing expert (like that exists) and you're following 2,000 people on twitter, you have 162 followers, the default background and avatar still showing, auto-DM's with spammy links and 6 tweets, you fail the credibility test.

Similarly, if you position yourself as a blogging, traffic or online marketing expert and your blog has an average 0.2 comments per post, an Alexa of 5,000,000 and 7 feedburner subscribers, you fail again.

It's okay to be a public newbie. Just because you're not a known entity doesn't mean you don't have mad skills. Own up to it, be authentic, then crank out mind-blowing, high-value content and let your content prove your worth, rather than your claims.

Great example of the timing benefit of live-tweeting versus traditional media. I wonder if one of the "mainstream" journalist's"responses would be along the lines of "it may take longer, but the time lag builds in the opportunity for better vetting, background, color and contrast."

Guess it also depends on the nature of the story and the value those additional elements would contribute. But, no doubt, the news cycle is changing in a radical way. It's exciting to explore where it's all going to lead.

Eliminate - Identify what matters most and eliminate time and energy allocated to activities, experiences and relationships that don't make me come alive.

Undress - Get more comfortable revealing who I am and what I'm about and trust that'll be enough.

Treasure - Spend more time acknowledging, embracing and thanking those who make each day amazing.

Author of Career Renegade, small biz & online marketer, copywriter, blogger and serial lifestyle entrepreneur

When I came out of law school a really long time ago, I started as an enforcement attorney at the SEC, policing the capital markets. And, what I learned very quickly was that if you raise $100 million dollars and you tell people your investment objective is to spend their money on chipped beef, fancy cars and risky bets that nobody in their right minds would ever place, and they still give you their money...you're pretty much in the clear.

Because the harm is not in the act of taking money, it's in the act of taking money without adequate disclosure. The securities laws are fundamentally about transparency. Same with the FTC regs. Because it's not so much the act regulators are concerned about, it's the hiding.

So, no, I don't see any issue with taking as much money as you like, fully disclosing it, saying your piece, then letting readers weight whether they believe the money biased your content or not.

In fact, now that I think about it, why would I ever give somebody else the right to pass judgment on whether I, as a reader, get to determine the relative value or bias of someone else's content? Who appointed somebody else my guardian, my sensor. Did I elect someone and just forget?!

Last I heard, CNET was making some jack on the back of their massive library of reviews. And, you know what, I still want to read them. A lot of great bands can only afford to tour, because some beer company sponsored their tours. And, damn it, I still love their music...and I'd still love it even they drank their sponsor's beer. Artists have sponsors. Athletes have sponsors. People who create, lead, teach, inspire and inform at the highest levels get paid by others to use and promote their stuff.

And, the reason is, because if you want to ability to do great things or share in the great things created by others, somewhere in the food chain...somebody's gotta pay.

Great content takes effort. Great content changes minds. Great content changes actions, philosophies and lives. It takes a hell of a lot of work to create great content on daily basis, especially if you've got a life and a job beyond that.

So, who are we...who am I...to deny those who'd create such value the opportunity to somehow be compensated for it? Who am I to sit here and judge people like Chris Brogan for working to figure out how to serve his community, do what he loves and put food on the table for his family?

You want to ask questions, go ahead. Ask questions. But, if you want to pass judgment, how about this--come up with a better approach, figure out how to keep people like Chris delivering consistent killer content, while being able to live well in the world and support his family.

Don't just point out the issues. Provide better solutions. Do that and you earn the right to sit at the table.

Also, on the deliverable front, speak in terms not just of "what" you'll deliver, but "how" it will impact a prospective client's biz. Especially if your clients are small biz with a traditionally more brick and mortar focus.

They don't know or care what a lot of the social media "features" are, they just want to know why paying you is going to make them bigger, badder, more competitive and richer. If you can't answer that, it's game over.

Congrats on the new design, looks great, love the energy! Going to have to check out Thesis for my next project.

@ Derek - I'm not so sure. I was just having dinner with a friend who's very high up in a mega-corp and when the convo turned to social media, he literally shut down and said they recently looked at and made a strict policy decision to ban it in all forms and let every employee know "it wouldn't be tolerated."

But, here's the thing...and it's a valid argument...it's not just about a lack of products and services that are good fits for social media. Big companies are perpetually freaked out about the potential legal exposure that could be created by every comment made by every employee who might be seen as speaking on behalf of the company.

They weight that against the potential benefits of cafe conversation and social media almost always comes out on the losing end of the cost benefit analysis.

So, it's not just about the value of social media when it comes to big companies, it's about it's value in light of the potential legal exposure. It'd be nice if companies didn't have to go down that road, but, fact is, especially if you operate in the U.S., you do.

So, it's not just a lack of understanding about value or suitability, but also a broader cost-benefit analysis that's a major barrier to SM adoption in mega-co's.

I think cafe conversations are great for products and services that aren't largely fungible. When you've got something that's cool, new, quirky, edgy, niche or highly-differentiated, word of mouth and cafe conversations work well.

But, what about mass-consumer products? How easy would it be to get serious cafe conversation buzz around Heinz 57 ketchup moving to plastic bottles or Tide getting clothes 1% whiter?

No doubt, cafe convo's are a killer tool for building awareness, buzz and community for a lot of products and services, but, for other well-established mass consumer brands that are poorly differentiated...not so much.

Maybe, the real lesson in this it's time for these brands to introduce new reasons to get people talking about them.

Einstein got it right when he said, insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Times change and if our approach doesn't change with them, we end up dead in the water...in all aspects of life.

@ Danielle - belief in ability to succeed is so critical, it's where most people go wrong, not cultivating what it takes to believe what you want is attainable. Without that, nothing happens.

@ Mojo - thanks for the kind words, it's in all of us, just gotta make letting it out a priority!

Goes along with the emerging co-mingling of marketing techniques from lead niche internet marketers and bloggers.

The buzz word in internet marketing in 2008 has been "free line." As in, move the free line so that you are offering a ton of really high value content for free, cultivating credibility and priming the reciprocity pump, then use that content and shift in mindset as a lead to get readers to buy similar content that takes you much deeper.

It's what Yaro Starak does with his blog and blog-building membership program and similar to what Brian Clark did with Copyblogger and Teaching Sells.

Smart stuff...provided you've got that next level to upsell.

Chris, interesting question!

As if it's not murky enough, let me come at it from a copywriting and persuasion standpoint. One of the most powerful things anyone can do when trying to sell themselves or a client is to position that person as "the wizard," the all-knowing guru or go-to person in whatever field they seek to be known in.

No doubt, knowledge and ability are essential starting points. You need to be able to solve problems, create and innovate in a way that puts you clearly above the crowd, preferably in the top 5%.

Direct exposure to your solutions and ideas goes a long way toward convincing people of your worth. Killer content, in the online world, is a great example.

But that's only step one. Step two is to publicly demonstrate that knowledge in a way that leads people to (a) follow you, and (b) evangelize you.

This gets into the notion of social proof. In the absence of clear, unambiguous proof, people will look to the opinions, experiences and advice of others in deciding whether an individual is someone of influence.

In the online world, all the factors you mentioned above serve as social proof of a person's authority. I would also add...

- For bloggers, comment volume and quality,
- In forums, status, seniority, moderating clout and # of posts
- Any widget/chicklet that demonstrates a large # of followers, like feedcount or twittcount.
- Testimonials, both from likeminded people and from authority figures, influencers and traditional media.
- Ubiquity across all forums and media relevant to an individual's topic area.

Lots more, but you pretty much see where I'm going.

I think one of the big stumbling points is always the difference between "perceived" authority and true authority, though.

It's not terribly difficult to create perceived authority by manipulating social proof in the short run. But, if it's not backed up by clear, regular demonstrations of knowledge and ability, that perceived authority quickly cedes to one-hit-wonderland.

Meaningful authority comes from being able to walk the walk better than 95% of those who try, then coupling that with channels to let people know just how good you are.

Riffing of your number 4, if you participate in any active forums that where the topic of your post would be relevant to an ongoing discussion, modify your sig-file to reference the post directly or just enter your signature manually to include it. But, always be respectful of the forum rules and ethics and, like you mentioned, add value and context, first and foremost, then let digital nature take its course.

Hi Bob,

Quick update for you and your readers.

Just hours after I launched the book cover contest, I shut it down yesterday in order to avoid even the perception of exploitation. You can read the full explanation at:

http://jonathanfields.com/blog/cover-design-and-voting-contest-discontinued-lesson-learned/

A genuine thanks to you and everyone the in design community for bringing to my attention the ethical issues in what had originally been intended as simply a community-building, fun adventure, but clearly went astray.

Have a a great week ahead!

Interesting post, but I wonder if the better classification is educated versus uneducated, instead of passionate versus non-passionate.

Early adopters tend to be mavens, people who are passionate about acquiring and sharing knowledge. That zest for learning drives them to seek out and explore the application of all sorts of products, services and technologies. Their passion isn't just about the content area (tech), it's about the entire process of ferreting, learning and sharing.

So, how do you get those without a similar bent to want to know what you know and use what you use? Step into their shoes and ask the "what's in it for me?" question. Brainstorm ways to show them how it solves a problem, eases a pain and does it bigger, better and faster than anything they currently use.

You can't get people passionate about something by explaining why it's so cool to "you." You've got to explain why it's so cool to "them." Then, make the process of learning about and adopting your product, service or technology so dummy-proof, there's literally no justification NOT to adopt it.

Kapish?

Interesting question - would it work? I think, done right, the answer is yes.

My reason for believing this...Blair Witch Project.

Here's an example of a movie that positioned itself to take advantage of viral communication beautifully and, though it was a mass medium venture, it was the viral nature of the buzz that led it to pull huge numbers. And, that was before social media was around in any meaningful way.

The challenge is to figure out what, as Seth puts it, the "story" is that you want to hit the social media airwaves.

How do you frame it in a way that makes people want to not only talk about it, but rush to see it?

No doubt, keeping your network vibrant is at the heart of growth in nearly any endeavor. I think one of the greatest challenges is segmenting messages, though. I completely agree with the idea, but, in practice, it can be a lot harder to implement. Especially when we're talking about broader messaging/conversation platforms.

Example, if you're on twitter and you'd like to share a link with a bunch of people, it'd be nice to be able to target them directly. But, you pretty much have to share it with all of your followers, unless you want to DM each person, which can become overly burdensome pretty quickly.

Twitter doesn't yet allow you to set up groups, though I've heard some twitter clients do. But, to make segmenting messages work, we've all got to put in the extra effort to somehow segment our networks and relationships up front. Not always an easy task, but in the end, I think it makes for a far more intelligent and useful network.

And, hopefully, the rumors about being able to set up groups in twitter will be true.

Completely agree about disclosure and expectations. I go a step further on the receiving samples side of the equation.

When someone e-mails offering to send me an "evaluation" copy of anything, if I agree to accept it, I always include the line, "please understand that I will do my best to use/read the product, but do not in any way guarantee or imply that it will be reviewed or mentioned in any particular outlet to which I contribute. If you are comfortable with this arrangement, please send the sample to..."

This way, if someone chooses to send me something, they know the deal.

Interesting point about LSI. If google's process involves contrasting the linguistic patterns in your content with those it's already deemed credible, then I guess it makes sense to take long hard look at the basic content structure on the sites in niche with the higher PR and organic listings.

Lot's to think about here, thanks!

Jonathan Fieldss last blog post..Drive-by Book Reviews: The Bounce Back Book and Escape From Corporate America

Had to add a second comment, just remembered an incredible customer service experience...at Costco.

Was online returning a defective kitchen appliance and the person in front of me brought back a cooked piece of meat they'd bought a few days earlier and asked for their money back because it didn't taste good.

The customer service rep happily accommodated them. I was so blown away, I asked the woman if extreme requests like that were unusual and she said they happened all the time and they honored pretty much every one.

Interesting approach.

Maybe if companies explored viewing customer service not as a necessary cost, but an opportunity for both marketing and revenue, they'd change the way they handle it.

Would they entrust sales or marketing to a mechanized phone system? Don't think so.