The Cult of Personality (Part 1)

Word-of-mouth advertising has always been a marketer’s most powerful tool. It is the original form of viral marketing, offering all the key elements required to win a new customer:

• Attention
• Need fulfillment
• Trust
• Trial and testimonial
• Credibility
• Memorability
• Honesty (in other words, the absence of a company or salesperson’s motivations)

Now that social media has become a staple of our culture, word-of-mouth advertising has been catapulted from a nebulous ideal to an essential element for success. Whereas once it represented a one-to-one interaction, today's consumers are armed with a virtual megaphone to reach far-flung groups of friends, family and colleagues instantaneously via major social networking sites. A mention of your brand on the Web is broadcast in real time, delivered to countless phones and inboxes, forwarded, marked, tagged and cataloged on permanent record. Information, misinformation and opinion can make or break your brand at the speed of light. Sounds scary, right? It can be. But you can also choose to use these platforms to your advantage and become part of the dialog rather than social media roadkill.

Traditional marketing and PR are not equipped to survive in the social media jungle.

The practice of public relations has been transformed from representing brands and generating “buzz” through third-party media organizations to a meaningful, direct and ongoing relationship with the public. Ironically, traditional marketing has never faced the challenges inherent in interacting with the public directly. It thrives on comfortably interfacing on its own delicately crafted terms –pristine, airbrushed ads, cinematically perfect commercials, scripted speeches and thoroughly edited press releases. Even traditional PR – whose primary function is theoretically to garner attention through a non-biased press – is regarded as a joke. In our media-savvy times, people are hip to the fact that much of the press is bought and sold. Editors and producers are hungry for stories to balance out the “hard news” which, if left alone, would either bore or depress everyone to tears. The passing along of favors between PR agents and the press leads to the perpetual spinning of cotton-candy puff pieces under the guise of reporting the news. There’s a lot of back scratching going on, and the result is a hands-off, sterile approach to the public that is devoid of integrity. What’s amazing is that traditional marketing companies still think that these news outlets hold the same kind of reverence they did in Paul Harvey’s time. And the media wonders where their credibility went, along with their advertising dollars, as they fight to stay alive and relevant.

PR done right: It’s about people.

People do not follow companies. People follow people. Until this is understood and represents a fundamental principle that drives all of your PR efforts, credibility through social media cannot be attained. People do not follow companies. People follow people. Effective word-of-mouth engagement is, by nature, anti-corporate. The public has no affection for the face of corporate America. No one wants to see standard form-letter responses and press releases on Facebook, Twitter and the like. Yes, you should plan your PR goals and resources with as much care and attention to detail as any other part of your business. A qualified Internet marketing advisor can help you develop a strategy that is business-oriented and aligns with your marketing plan. However, once you have those clearly defined goals in place, you must stop being corporate and start representing your brand on a personal level. Social media is all based on interaction between people, a requirement for the ever-so-valuable word-of-mouth advertisement to exist and spread. The company that takes the lazy or safe road will fabricate a personality that shows the world the face they want the public to see, but this artifice will be found out quickly. No one will invite them back to the conversation. In fact, they will be banned from the conversation. The effect is similar to an uninvited party guest. The only difference in this case is that the uninvited guest is a programmed corporate mascot who has no familiar personality, tells bad jokes and is oblivious to the fact that the brand it represents is a joke.

Be real, flaws and all.

If you’re representing your brand in a personal manner, then be prepared to be honest through and through. The very idea of this is enough to scare a traditional marketing firm to death because there’s no control, and in the absence of control flaws will emerge. Consider the potential PR disaster that could result from this comment:

“XYZ company didn’t get my order right and they suck.”

What to do? A good Internet marketing firm advises the honest approach. People are willing to understand and forgive those that have maintained an honest face to their public. The Internet marketing superstar responds, “We absolutely messed up, and we’re so sorry. Sometimes things get ahead of us, and we make mistakes. Let us make it up to you; we want our customers to be happy and satisfied.” Granted it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, but you can turn negative feedback into renewed customer loyalty if you have laid a foundation of being yourself. Take for instance what Flickr wrote to its community when it messed up: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2005/07/21/sometimes-we-suck/ This is where Main Street businesses, who value and cultivate relationships with their community as a whole and each customer individually, can ultimately triumph over corporations, who rely on form letters and canned responses that hold no value in the public eye.

Have a reputation for giving.

Being a friend and building a relationship demand more involvement than merely being present. You must participate and give. Share your time, your action and your help. Answer questions. Lend a hand. Be funny. Reveal your passions. Offer a smile and a pat on the back. If you are a dentist, offer free tips and answers to questions about regular dental care. If you make custom stained-glass windows, then take pictures of your art and share them with people. If you’re a real estate agent, offer advice on beautifying your landscaping to add value to your home. Earning a friend online is no different than earning a friend face-to-face.Your most meaningful personal relationships tend to be with people that are unique, interesting, consistent, funny, helpful, honest and witty. To successfully use social media as a PR tool, you must identify these same qualities in your company or your people and engage with the public in ways that demonstrate these strengths. Earning a friend online is no different than earning a friend face-to-face. Also, be consistent with your participation. You, your people and your Internet marketing agency need to be there every day – accessible and responsive – without fail. If you can’t be a friend to the public, then they won’t be your friend in any online relationship. They will not know you, you will not earn their trust, and you will be banished to the world of paid advertising on the sidelines of the conversation.

Develop your personality.

As with all relationships, people will get to know you better as time goes on. Your public persona will grow and mature. Familiarity will develop among everyone connected to you. Inside jokes will form. Achievements will be celebrated. Memories – good and bad – will be carried in the circles of people you interact with in your community. As your public comes to know more about you, your levels of meaningful interaction will increase. As time goes on, more of your personality will shine through as you relate to people who share similar interests and situations. Don’t force your personality into something it isn’t. Let things happen naturally.Your audience will continue to grow as well. You will interact with more people and at different levels of interest and engagement. A core fan base will begin to form. As your audience grows, you will have different types of interaction with your public based on how long they’ve known you and the level of engagement they have with your brand. This is an important step in the development of your voice. Don’t force your personality into something it isn’t. Let things happen naturally. Meet regularly to discuss what’s happening and how things are evolving. If you have multiple people or departments interacting with the public, then everyone must be organized and allowed to be themselves at the same time.

Get started now!

Websites do not magically generate traffic. Brands do not develop a following because they exist or because they simply fulfill a need. You must invest in relationships outside of your site for your public to begin interacting with your site, its content and then your direct offerings. Once you’ve proven that you can build relationships in other places, your followers will begin to want to hear from you directly and join in the conversations taking place on your site. However, even when they become regular subscribers, your relationship-building efforts should not stop there. Manage the conversation on your site as you do within your social media circles. Your commitment to interacting with the public who are engaging with your site must grow to match your commitment to building your site’s content and reputation (read more on the Web Marketing Universe). What does all this hard work and earnest effort yield? Genuine and memorable relationships – both with individuals and with the community at large. A word of caution: Rarely in the beginning will your efforts result in direct sales. However, you will build a solid, long-term foundation in awareness, trust and loyalty for your brand. When someone asks your subscribers if they “know a guy,” they’ll have an answer, a brand, a name they trust, a site address and a link to forward. In time, you will have a great reputation within your community. Competitors will be playing catch-up and struggling to compete against a trusted name – a difficult and expensive endeavor.

Shift your investment.

If this seems daunting – it is. However, much of the traditional advertising budgets of old are being cut and redirected to more productive ends. Consider realigning your marketing dollars to channels where the people are. Social media is a long-term investment.As with all Internet marketing and development, social media is a long-term investment. Success requires hard work, patience and commitment – all things that traditional corporate thinking with its penchant for straightforward, quick fixes doesn’t allow. However, that’s also why stodgy corporate diehards will be relegated to the antiquated methods of carpet-bombing, interruption-based advertising as the penalty for not allowing real people to engage real future customers. Using technology is important, but not at the sacrifice of the personal touch. This is where a good Internet marketing agency shines. Its goal is to help you evolve the ways in which your brand is represented to the public. In addition, a good Internet marketing plan allows for quality interaction at many different levels. A national brand, regional chain or the local bakery must differ in their approaches. Again, social media is never a one-size-fits-all solution. If you are going to take control of your fate with the public, you cannot cut corners, or you will be found out and exposed. No matter the level of business planning behind the scenes, stick to your fundamental principles: be real, be consistent and give generously. If you start today, years from now you’ll be glad you did. The decisions consumers make today are based on relationships forged years ago. Remember, real relationships create fans. Fans are more than loyal customers; they are people that do your marketing for you. In part two of this series, The Cult of Personality, we’ll be sitting down with Eliza Metz of Lime & Violet to learn how a simple idea grew into a yarn empire.

---

10 Things You Pay for From Traditional Marketing Agencies

In today’s business world, it’s no longer the big fish that eats the small fish; it’s the fast fish that eats the slow fish.

In the same way the information revolution has changed how customers and market share are won, it has also reshaped the old systems that once governed how companies operate and how people work. The future of business is more flexible, faster, leaner and smarter.

This is not just about adopting a telecommuting policy or forgoing the purchase of that expensive copier. It’s about changing how business is done, both in philosophy and in execution.

The penalty of clinging to old business practices is losing clients that no longer can justify bills with unneeded overhead baked into them. As leaner and smarter companies emerge, the old juggernauts who are slow to change are quickly dying.

Marketing agencies

At the top of the scale of corporate bloat are marketing and advertising agencies. While not all industries can shed their physical offices and adopt a virtual model, the dominance of digital marketing coupled with the very nature of marketing’s day-to-day business operations afford these agencies a clear-cut path to modern efficiency.

However, in reality, few have changed. The majority of marketing firms hang on to these old systems of operations, passing on the burden of their expenses to their clients.

The traditional marketing firm still maintains an expensive posture to attract its clients.Why? Most find changing their methods of operations to be just as hard as adapting to today’s Web culture and the new rules of doing business. Too much has changed too quickly. In clinging to old methods – even those of its own self-promotion – the traditional marketing firm still maintains an expensive posture to attract its clients with their lavish offices and costly travel. These companies force work into physical locations, perpetuating the punching of clocks and shuffling of paper, while carrying years of old business operations in the form of debt, all of which must ultimately be paid for by the client.

There’s a reason why marketing companies are dying left and right, beyond becoming irrelevant in the digital age. Today's clients no longer accept invoices inflated by bloated operations, particularly when virtual companies can do more at a fraction of the cost.

The rise of the virtual company

It took time for companies like Amazon, Netflix and Apple to revolutionize and overtake industries that were once based in bricks and mortar. Replacing the physical form was a challenge in reconditioning the mind of the consumer and in reshaping traditional systems, such as fulfillment, customer service and exception handling.

2010 will see the emergence of the virtual company in full force.These initial obstacles were quickly overcome as consumers realized the advantage of lower prices by way of lower overhead, mutually beneficial partnerships and geographical barriers being torn down and giving way to an expanded market. Today, that same virtual model that started strong in the retail sector is being adopted throughout all applicable industries. As a result, virtual companies are growing at record pace.

2010 will see the emergence of the virtual company in full force. The convergence of technology, communication, new service-based companies and systems that meet the demands of companies that no longer carry the burden of bloated operations will allow more companies to work smarter, faster and from anywhere.

As virtual companies continue to refine their systems and clients continue to realize the value in receiving better service for less money, the virtual company will gain strength and overtake the outmoded traditional business models. This not only improves efficiencies but tears down geographical barriers to markets and talent.

As we enter the age of the virtual company, let’s review ten things you pay for from traditional marketing agencies:

1. Facilities

Office space is typically the largest expense on the books for marketing agencies. These obligations range from rented space in a shared office park to owning (and owing for) real estate, freestanding buildings and parking facilities.

Virtual marketing companies shed this expense because the nature of the business simply doesn’t require it anymore. Marketing is digital, and print is dying. All the infrastructure that was once housed in a physical location is now replaced by a range of new digital services. Communication is conducted through e-mail, mobile devices, video conferencing and client dashboards rather than on-site meetings and client lunches, the costs of which are ultimately passed back to the client.

The marketplace demands geographic barriers be removed to hire, collaborate and partner with the best talent in the industry. The virtual company’s employees work remotely within a virtual space that accomplishes anything that a physical location provides and more. They are mobile and available at a moment’s notice to meet with clients. Even remote offices, meeting spaces and presentation rooms can be rented by the day or hour, as needed, so as not to waste money on a fixed building that sits there to house all the bloated systems and conventions the traditional marketing company clings to.

2. On-site employees and physical work systems

For many office-based companies, the days of having people gathered in a building to work is gone. For these businesses, the act of keeping people around was just another form of time card punching, rooted in old systems founded on the demand for people to be present and available to coworkers and customers from 9 to 5.

Happy employees do better work, particularly the ones responsible for great creative work.Virtual companies don’t operate according to fixed 9-to-5 schedules. Instead, their systems and employees are faster, more flexible, working within tighter deadlines and using new, more robust project management conventions.

Telecommuting is more prevalent today than ever, for reasons that go beyond avoiding the cost of expensive office space. Happy employees are ones that are not trapped in cubicles, hustling through traffic, burning 30-40 hours and hundreds of dollars a month in commuting to a fixed place to do work that can be done anywhere. The fact is, happy employees do better work, particularly the ones responsible for great creative work.

Moreover, work systems based on having everyone in a centralized office all day are terribly inefficient. To see this, you have to look beyond hard costs and expenditures and consider the man hours wasted on meetings, scheduling, water cooler talk, Web surfing – the list goes on and on.

Replacing the physical office environment are proven virtual office management and collaboration systems like Basecamp, video conferencing, cloud computing and mobile Internet connectivity. Most importantly, the philosophy behind the work is based on maximizing project development efficiencies rather than filling up a 40-hour work week simply for the sake of adhering to convention.

3. Utilities

From security systems, electricity, heating and A/C to cleaning and facility repairs, the auxiliary costs of maintaining a facility can be extraordinary. This is an expense that virtual companies leave behind and don’t pass on to their clients.

4. Landline phone systems

In an age where business is a 24-hour, anywhere and everywhere proposition, corporate phone systems are an enormous waste. Everyone has a cell phone, and most working professionals carry smartphones. For many, the superfluous office phone collects dust, and voicemail systems are rarely used. In a time when most households are shedding the costs of landlines in favor of more flexible and leaner mobile options, many businesses still lag behind.

Agencies that continue to operate from a physical facility must pay to maintain and upgrade expensive landline systems, adding yet more extraneous dollars per hour to their clients’ bills.

5. Office furnishings

Expensive offices, conference room tables, desks, chairs, bathrooms, kitchens, interior decoration and even trophy cases displaying purchased accolades are omitted from the overhead costs of all virtual companies.

6. Computing infrastructure and LANs

So many companies still keep gobs of file and printer servers along with data backup systems, server redundancies, uninterrupted power supplies, routers, switches, cabling, internal e-mail systems – the list goes on.

For virtual companies, the idea of a LAN (local area network) has been replaced by cloud computing, with Web-based service providers, project management, collaboration systems, and applications. These systems are accessible from anywhere in the world, offer true collaboration with anyone and are always backed up and protected.

What’s more, project management in the virtual space allows for new and innovative work habits that promote speed, efficiency and flexibility in ways old companies employing old work systems simply cannot keep pace with.

7. Paper

So many of the slow, dying companies we see today still live in an office with paper circulating all the time. Believe it or not, nowhere is this more true than at your local marketing agency. Also included in this paper-filled world are printers, copiers, fax machines, shredders and a never-ending variety of supplies, all in support of paper trails that lead from the office to the client and back again before ending in nicely climate-controlled filing cabinets.

Virtual companies exist in a paperless world, and the best work circles around those that stay in a paper-driven office. The benefits of going (and staying) completely digital are immense. Digital documents are searchable, sharable, versioned, more secure and viewable on nearly any device. The more files that are kept, used and cataloged in digital format, the more efficiencies will increase overall.

8. Support staff and personnel

When agencies pay for an office, furnishings, phone systems, computing infrastructure and everything in between, they also require additional personnel, time and resources to support those systems, including office managers, receptionists, IT staff, cleaning crews, landscapers and security, to name a few. Thus, these already excessive expenses are further exacerbated and passed on to the client.

9. Restricted geographical barriers

If there’s one thing the Internet has brought to the economy, it’s the expanded marketplace. The business systems of virtual companies are not only set up to take on clients without most of the additional expenses suffered by traditional companies but to hire the best talent available anywhere.

Truth is, many marketing agencies are restricted to their local markets. While these firms would in theory jump on a plane to take on a client nearly anywhere, most find in practice that only local clients are cost-effective given the traditional systems still employed.

10. Debt

The result of all of this expense in a world that is quickly shifting to leaner and smarter operations is that this much of the excess is carried forward in debt that comes at a premium paid to a bank in interest. That ongoing obligation is passed to clients along with the cost of all other inefficiencies.

Virtual companies that start fresh, using smart, lean and flexible systems of operation don’t carry years of bad investments in outmoded, expensive systems on their backs. In fact, as traditional marketing agencies continue to lose clients and market share to these more adept modern firms, the additional debt taken on to stay alive will eventually lead to the extinction of the slow, bloated traditional marketing company as we know it.

photos: Flickr: Christ0ff, chrisdlugosz

---