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- Word-of-mouth marketing: control is futile
- The best customer service is invisible
- #MonsterLoyalty book tour and other speaking events
- The winners of the Monster Loyalty pre-order giveaway are....
- Monster Loyalty is now available!
- Monster Loyalty Ball Benefiting Equality Texas 5/1
- How to think like a rock star
- What do you have #monsterloyalty for?
- Exclusive online Q&A on customer loyalty when you pre-order #MonsterLoyalty
- Monster Loyalty giveaway contest
- Changing the world, one Gaga at a time
- 70% of people trust online product recommendations from friends
- Maker's Mark listens to customers, reverses course on diluting bourbon
- Want to be part of the Monster Loyalty book tour?
- New news about my upcoming book: Monster Loyalty
- How high will you fly in 2013?
- 8 things I learned at Dell World 2012
- 11 nuggets of wisdom from Apple CEO Tim Cook
- The making of a word of mouth-worthy keynote: WOMMA Summit 2012
- Preview of my keynote at upcoming WOMMA Summit
- My new book: Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics
- 5 types of social media strategies
- How to ride a meme to create word of mouth
- Dell Customer Service Think Tank Recap
- Tune in to the Dell Customer Service Think Tank, Mon 6/25
- 5 surprising things about word of mouth marketing
- Get me a Kony 2012, stat!
- Awkward conversation starters for SXSW
- Playbooks and visual explanations
- People trust people
Even today, marketers are still trying to control the conversation customers have about their brand. Give it up. With social media acting as a word-of-mouth jetstream, its impossible to make sure people are on "brand message" when they talk about you to friends and family. We can only hope to create products and brands that people want to evangelize and then join in the conversation.
I love this cartoon from my friend and "marketoonist" Tom Fishburne. Click here for his post on what happened when the Kentucky Department of Tourism tried to control the message about their brand. Tweet
Hi there!
Heres my speaking schedule including book tour events. If you live in one these cities, I looking forward to seeing you!!
* May 8: Austin - book tour event (private)
* May 10: Orlando - book tour event (private)
* May 21: Chicago - WOMMA WOMM-U Conference. Use my discount code WUSPEAK50 to get $50 off registration.
* Jun 2: Orlando - book tour event (private)
* Jun 12: Milan, Italy - private event
* Jun 20: Salt Lake City - book tour event (public) sponsored by SoulSalt. Get tickets here.
* Jun 27: Las Vegas - Confirmit Conference
* Jul 11: Chicago - book tour event (public), details TBD
* Juy 16: Portland - book tour event (public). Get tickets here.
* Sept 17: Las Vegas: Brand ManageCamp conference
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Thanks to all who participated in the _Monster Loyalty_ pre-order giveaway by purchasing a book before launch. The winners are:
1ST PRIZE: JOEY COLEMAN, CHIEF EXPERIENCE COMPOSER AT DESIGN SYMPHONY
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
* 2 Lady Gaga art prints by rock and roll pop artist Kii Arens, signed and numbered
2ND PRIZE: SHEP HYKEN, _NEW YORK__ TIMES_ AND _WSJ_ BEST SELLING AUTHOR OF _THE AMAZEMENT REVOLUTION: SEVEN CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGIES TO CREATE AN AMAZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE_
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
* 3 Lady Gaga prints designed by Kii Arens (unsigned)
3RD PRIZE: LORI MAGNO, DIGITAS
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
Congratulations everyone!
Now you can learn exactly what it is that Gaga does to build her following, and learn how to apply those lessons to your own goals. On May 2nd, you’ll be able to buy my book _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_ and read the 7 concepts that any customer-focused industry needs to know.
But, if you PRE-ORDER 20 COPIES OR MORE BEFORE APRIL 29TH, you’ll have access to an exclusive, ONE-TIME-ONLY, online conference with me on APRIL 29TH AT 1PM CT where I’ll discuss what I learned while writing this book. Plus, you can ask me any questions you have about customer loyalty or Gaga’s business savvy. I’ll try to get to as many as I can.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
1. Go to your favorite bookseller’s website (some links below).
2. Order 20 COPIES or more of my upcoming book, _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics _before 2 AM CT on April 29th.
3. E-mail your receipt to IWantMonsterLoyalty@gmail.com. We’ll send you an invite to the web conference shortly after that, along with instructions for joining the chat.
4. Clear your calendar for April 29th at 1pm CT for your exclusive early-access web conference with me.
Questions? E-mail IWantMonsterLoyalty@gmail.com.
This contest is especially for all the Lady Gaga fans out there!
There are a million reasons to remain a loyal fan to Mother Monster, and I want to hear yours. Pre-order my upcoming book _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics _(Portfolio, May 2) and send your receipt to MONSTERLOYALTY@GMAIL.COM, along with the reason you’re an unwavering Gaga fanatic, and you could win one of these prizes:
1ST PRIZE:
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
* 2 Lady Gaga art prints by rock and roll pop artist Kii Arens, signed and numbered
2ND PRIZE:
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
* 3 Lady Gaga prints designed by Kii Arens (unsigned)
3RD PRIZE:
* 5 copies of _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_
The contest ends TUESDAY, APRIL 30TH AT MIDNIGHT PST*. The winners will be e-mailed individually and announced on May 2nd on this blog
Good luck and paws up, little monsters! #monsterloyalty
Suggested retailers:
* Amazon
* Barnes & Noble
* Book-A-Million
_* One entry per person._ Tweet
Its Lady Gagas 27th birthday today. Her passionately loyal, worldwide fan base is sending her birthday wishes today but also sharing how she has changed their world for the better, through her music and actions. Her message of kindness, acceptance and tolerance is making a difference. Skeptical? Watch this video from Indonesian Little Monsters.
Happy birthday Mother Monster. Paws up! Tweet
_"so now youre saying no will notice because you ASSUME your customers use [Makers Mark] in mixed drinks instead of neat??? wow not only are you cheapening your product you are insulting your customers...count me out, time to try some other bourbons who still value quality"_After a week of listening to customers negative comments about the change on their social media sites and through email, Makers Mark management changed course. Today Rob and Bill Samuels told fans in a letter on their website and Facebook page:
_We’re humbled by your overwhelming response and passion for Maker’s Mark. While we thought we were doing what’s right, this is your brand – and you told us in large numbers to change our decision._ _You spoke. We listened. And we’re sincerely sorry we let you down._ So effective immediately, we are reversing our decision to lower the ABV of Maker’s Mark, and resuming production at 45% alcohol by volume (90 proof). Just like we’ve made it since the very beginning.Read the entire letter here. Every company makes mistakes. The way Makers Marks handled this situation -- by listening to customers concerns and quickly changing course -- is a model for other companies to follow. With their Ambassadors program, Makers Mark has long been a company that understands loyalty. Today they showed that that loyalty goes both ways. Tweet
Readers of this blog have been hearing about my upcoming book about Lady Gagas loyalty lessons since last fall. A lots has changed in the last few months and I can finally announce some new news.
The book has a new publisher, a new title, a new cover and a new availability date. My initial plan was to self-publish my book on Lady Gagas loyalty lessons for creating a passionate fan base. I soft-launched the book at the WOMMA conference in November. Since we last chatted, I have sold the book to Portfolio, one of the best business book publishers around and home to authors such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Don Tapscott. The new title is _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics_ and it will be available May 2. You can see the new cover below. It is now available for pre-order. More info here. I am super excited for you to read it!
P.S. News about the book tour coming soon.
Last week I was at Dell World 2012, the companys annual customer and partner conference, attended by over 6,200 people from around the world in Austin, Texas. I was given a press pass by Dell and was able to chat with company executives about the latest iniatives in social business and customer experience. I also was a panelist for two panels in the Social Networking Neighborhood on the Expo floor. It was a packed three days and heres what I took away:
* Its surprising that the 28-year old company has never had a user conference until recently.This is only the 2nd time Dell has held this conference, with the first time being last year with a much smaller audience.
* The company knows that social is everyones job and has put many programs in place to get employees engaged. Dell has an impressive program for getting employees trained in social. Liz Bullock, who leads Dells Social Media and Communities (SMaC) University, says over 7,500 employees have been certified in social business courses. One program pairs 150 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the company with mentors who will help them learn how to publish and and engage audiences on social sites.
* Ideastorm, the website where Dell customers can submit ideas to improve the companys products and services, is still going strong. Over 18,323 ideas have been submitted since 2007 and over 522 of them have been implemented. Cy Jervis, a Dell customer and the top contributor to the site, was hired in 2011 to run Ideastorm for Dell.
* Dell has an amazing social media analytics tool to measure the impact of the companys social efforts. This tool measures an internal Social Net Advocacy (SNA) score overall, by product, and other business areas by looking at insights gathered from online conversations, examining sentiment, influence and other factors. The idea is that it can be used by Dell business managers for decision making. I got a demo by Rajiv Narang, Executive Director Marketing Decision Sciences and Social Media Analytics at Dell. It is amazing and I can imagine that if it was sold on the market, other companies would love to buy it.
* Dell has been using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure customer advocacy for the last three years. According to Bobbi Dangerfield, Dells VP of Commercial Sales Operations, the company is now able to show that improvements in NPS score directly tie to revenue growth (which is what Bains research behind NPS is all about). Employees peferformance plans are all linked to achievlng annual customer NPS goals.
* Dell is also using Employee NPS (eNPS), to measure employee advocacy and engagement.The company has built its people stragegy around their eNPS efforts and managers are held accountable for meeting departmental eNPS goals.
* Bill Clinton loves to talk. The President was a keynote speaker. He was almost an hour late and went way over his time limit. But he, as you already know, is a magnificant speaker and talked about how technology has aided his work with this Clinton Global Initiative, among many other topics.
* Camp Freddy rocks. Dell had the band kick off the opening party at the Austin City Limits Moody Theater in downtown Austin. I had no idea who the band was until I saw the likes of these guys take the stage: Dave Navarro (Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray), Fred Durst (Lim Bizkit), Matt Sorum (Guns N Roses) and Billy Morrison (The Cult). Holy crap! Rock all-stars covering the best head-banging rock songs in history. Im not a rock chick (Lady Gaga is more my style : ) but this concert rocked my socks off. Wow.
Dell spared no expense and put on a terrific conference for its customers and partners. Very impressed with the event as well as what the company is doing with social media and customer and employee advocacy. Tweet
Tim Cook has been in the Apple CEO job for 16 months and Businessweek sat down with him for a extensive interview. The article is quite long but worth the read. Heres my Cliff Notes version of the wisdom he imparted:
* "In creating these great products we focus on ENRICHING PEOPLE’S LIVES—a higher cause for the product." * "You know, we want to really enrich people’s lives at the end of the day, not just make money. MAKING MONEY might be a byproduct, but it’s NOT OUR NORTH STAR." * "That’s a part of our base principle, that we will only do a few things. And we’ll only do things where we can make a significant contribution. I don’t mean financially. I mean some SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOCIETY AT LARGE." * "CREATIVITY IS NOT A PROCESS...It’s people who care enough to keep thinking about something until they find the simplest way to do it." * "CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION ARE SOMETHING YOU CAN’T FLOWCHART OUT...A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a VP of innovation or something. You know, put a for-sale sign on the door." * "EVERYBODY IN OUR COMPANY IS RESPONSIBLE TO BE INNOVATIVE, whether they’re doing operational work or product work or customer service work." * "The most important things in life, whether they’re personal or professional, ARE DECIDED ON INTUITION." * "I despise politics. There is no room for it in a company. ...No bureaucracy. We want this FAST-MOVING, AGILE COMPANY where there are no politics, no agendas." * "We want ideas coming from all of our 80,000 people, not five or three. A much smaller number of people have to decide and edit and move forward, but you want IDEAS COMING FROM EVERYWHERE. You want people to explore." * "So I’ll walk around our stores. You can learn a tremendous amount in a store. I get a lot of e-mails and so forth, but it’s a different dimension when you’re in a store and TALKING TO CUSTOMERS FACE TO FACE." * "NOT ALLOWING YOURSELF TO BECOME INSULAR is very important—maybe the most important thing, I think, as a CEO."Tweet
"Give them something to talk about."
Thats one of the lessons from Lady Gaga that I shared in my keynote, based on my upcoming book _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics (formerly Monster Business) (May 2013)_, at the WOMMA Summit earlier this week in Las Vegas. Its also something I tried to apply to my keynote. And that is how this happened:
After I spoke about Gagas strategy of focusing on just 1% of her fans --the diehard superfans -- to engender passionate loyalty, and shared the six lessons of how she engages them, Gaga herself took the stage to perform a few numbers. Ok, it wasnt_ really_ Gaga, but it was the next best thing. It was Derrick Barry, female impersonator extraordinaire. Derrick has been a Top 40 finalist on Americas Got Talent for his Britney Spears impersonation, but he also does an amazing Gaga. I heard later that some people thought, impossibly, that Gaga herself might actualy be there because of the "special entertainment" tease in the session description and because WOMMA President Suzanne Fanning told the audience earlier in the day that "the session will be talked about_ for years._" And other attendees told me that they had no idea that our Gaga was a man, until I introduced him at the end of the performance as "_Mr_. Derrick Barry."
I am a huge fan of RuPauls Drag Race and to have a drag queen/female impersonator of Derricks level be part of one of my keynotes was amazing. Thanks to Brad Fay of the Keller Fay Group for challenging me to make this talk one of the most talked about I have ever done and brainstorming this idea. And thanks to Virginia Miracle and Jim Rudden of Spredfast, who sponsored the talk, and helped make this whole thing happen. Thanks to Suzanne and the WOMMA staff for supporting the idea.
Gaga is one of the best word-of-mouth marketers I have ever seen. She gives her Little Monsters and the rest of us lots to talk about. I have been so inspired by Gagas creativity and risk-taking in all of her endeavors. Examples in my upcoming book of how she has gotten people talking include:
* The meat dress that she wore to 2010 MTV Video Music Wards to draw attention to the repeal of "Dont Ask, Dont Tell,"
* The egg-shaped "vessel" that an alien-looking Gaga emerged from at the 2011 Grammy Awards show to draw attention to her new song and album, _Born This Way_. The performance was meant to symbolize the birth of a new race of people who are free of predujice and judgement.
* Her perfume, Fame, that she insisted had to be different from anything in the market. She pushed Coty, the fragrance manufacturer, to invent a new technology that would allow the perfume to be black in the bottle but spray on clear.
So the lesson here is to look at everything you do in your business, from the product to the marketing to the customer service, and push yourself to make it word of mouth-worthy. Make sure you are giving your best customers lots of reasons to talk about you to others. After all, they are your best sales force.
BONUS: See more pictures of the keynote and Derrick on the WOMMA Facebook page. Tweet
Im a long-time supporter of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). It is the premier community of marketers focused on word of mouth marketing. I was on the very first board back in 2006.I an honored to be doing a keynote for their annual Summit again. Heres a preview of my talk which is based on my upcoming book, _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics (formerly Monster Business). _Hope to see you there!
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I want to tell you about a new project I have been working on.
After coauthoring two books on customer loyalty, I have decided to write another one, this time as a solo effort and from an angle that you wouldn’t expect.
The new book is called _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics_.
Why Lady Gaga? Because she is quite frankly one of the best loyalty marketers I have ever seen.
I first wrote about this topic in February 2010 for this blog with a post entitled “Loyalty Lessons from Lady Gaga.” It was the most retweeted and passed-along post I had ever written in my seven years of blogging. When celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton retweeted it, I realized that I was onto something.
I began adding Gaga as a case study in my keynote speaking and got a terrific response from my audiences. People told me that they did not realize all of things she was doing to engage fans and that learning about her as a person and what she has accomplished helps them think about their own customers in a different way.
I was intrigued by the fact that some of the largest consumer companies in the world, like Coca-Cola, are benchmarking Gagas engagement with fans and are bringing her manager, Troy Carter, to their companies to speak with their about her strategies.
After I became well versed in Gaga’s fan loyalty, BBC Radio in London interviewed me about her marketing abilities when her third album, _Born This Way_ was released in May 2011. It was then that the idea for the book was born as well. I call it _Monster Loyalty_, because I want to detail how to create “Little Monster”-like loyalty (“Little Monsters” is the name that Gaga has given her fans). And I want to encourage readers to create "monster loyalty" of their own.
Ive been working on this book since I left Ants Eye View in September 2011. I am excited to announce that we are doing a limited release of the book at the WOMMA Summit on November 12 where I will be doing a keynote. Full release of the book will be May 2, 2013. It is available for pre-order now. Tweet Tweet
This past Monday in Austin, I moderated a Customer Service Think Tank that was hosted by Dell. Companies such as Intuit, Citrix, Nationwide and Wells Fargo as well as customer experience experts Liz Strauss, Becky Carroll, and Susan Abbott were in attendance. We discussed challenges and best practices in social service, internal issues, mobile, tools and technology, and more. We also talked about trends and the future of service.
Find the graphic recordings, tweets, photos and videos of the event here. . Thanks to Dell for inviting me to be part of the event!
If you want to get the latesting thinking, best practies, and trends in Customer Service, Dell will be livestreaming a Think Tank that will be held in Austin this Monday. I will be moderating an esteemed group of customer service practitioners from various companies, such as Intuit, Citrix, Nationwide and Wells Fargo as well as customer experience experts Liz Strauss and Becky Carroll.
You can follow the event in Twitter at #WinningService, and tune into the live-stream to listen in live.
Agenda:
9:00 -10:00 am (all times in CST): Welcome, introductions, review goals for the day _ _
10:00 - 11:15am: SOCIAL SERVICE. How to integrate social into the service mix, how to scale social service, how to deliver consistent service across social and traditional channels. We will discuss the challenges with social service as well as solutions and best practices.
11:30am - 12:30pm: INTERNAL CHALLENGES. How to bring together customer service, marketing, PR and corporate communications for the good of the customer experience. How organizational culture and values affect customer service. How to get the rest of the business to see service as a sales tool. We will discuss internal service challenges as well as solutions and best practices.
1:30 - 2:45 pm: Break-out topics. We will use this time to break out into small groups to discuss topics that the group is most interested in, unconference-style. Topics could include: MOBILE, METRICS, TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY, etc.
3:00 - 4:00pm: THE FUTURE OF SERVICE: What will customer service look like 3-5 years from now? What are the game-changing trends that will affect how we deliver service? How will we best prepare and capitalize on these changes?
4:00 - 4:30pm– Closing remarks
Hope you can join us!
Social media marketing is still all the rage, but an important new book out from Ed Keller and Bray Fay reminds marketers where and how customers are actually talking about brands,services and companies. From their book, "The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace," heres 5 important things you need to know before putting that integrated marketing plan together:
* 90% OF ALL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT BRANDS HAPPEN OFFLINE. Ed and Brads company Keller Fay has been tracking Americans conversations, a new sample of 700 people every week since 2006, and have found that the majority of brand conversations happen offline: face-to-face (76%) and on the phone (14%). Online conversations only make up 8% of total conversations.
* ONLINE CONVERSATIONS AND OFFLINE CONVERSATIONS ARE NOT THE SAME. Research shows that the people who talk about brands offline are different than the people who talk about brands online, especially in age. Also the types of brands dictate where most conversations happen: Brands that get the most online WOM skew toward those that offer uniqueness, and thus encourage people to express opinions as a way of signaling their own uniqueness and social status. Offline sharing had more to do with expressing emotions like satisfaction and excitement.
* IT DOESNT TAKE HIGH-TECH, INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS TO GET PEOPLE TALKING. Keller Fays TalkTrack research shows that products that consumers use in their everyday lives are the brands that get the most talk-value. Apple might have the coolest products but Coke products are the most ubiquitous.
* TRADITIONAL MARKETING METHODS STILL MATTER.The TalkTrack study finds that about 25% of all consumer conversations about brands involve one consumer telling another about an advertisement that he or she has seen. Another 30% of conversations mention retail displays, coupons, direct mail and public relations. Pretty old school, huh?
* MOST WORD OF MOUTH IS POSITIVE. Keller Groups research shows that overall, only 8% of brand conversations are truly negative, and 66% of brand conversations are truly positive. Another 11% is neutral, and 15% is a mix of positive and negative. Also, positive WOM is more credible than negative WOM. When people hear something positive about a brand, 66% of them assign a high credibility rating to it, rating it 9 or 10 on a scale of 0-10. Only 47% of people give the same credibility rating to negative opinions about brands.
BONUS: To hear more about the findings in the book, check out the video interview Ed Keller did with the Wall Street Journal.
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By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. Theyd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field.
A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether its for one of the worlds largest companies or one a fraction of its size, a playbook quickly becomes a go-to reference for learning, planning and doing.
Ive discovered this by quietly leading a playbook practice for the past year at Ants Eye View, and its been some of the best fun ive ever had. Ive been building a team that works with clients to gather as much data, knowledge and practices about social business inside a company, then we distill all of that data into a visually rich, how-to playbook. Many of the playbooks were producing are stunning in the breadth of their scope and design approach.
Today, too, were announcing that David J. Neff is joining our playbook team as a senior consultant. Hes a well-regarded figure in social media, especially in Austin. He wrote a must-read book for non-profits on preparing for the social age. Combine that with experience in documentary filmmaking and helping non-profits like the American Cancer Society enter the social era, Dave will make a great addition to our burgeoning team.
BONUS: Bill Belichiks playbook from Super Bowl XXV when he was the Giants defensive coordinator.
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