When someone’s mind is made up and they have a negative experience with you in any form, that experience can spread like wild fire. Today’s post from Marketing Prof’s “Get to the Point” is a perfect example. This post is spreading like wildfire across the internet as I write this. There is enough business out there for all of us. You never have to force anyone to do business with you or listen to what you have to say. Focus on the people who are dying to hear from you and have them spread that to other like minded people! The reward will be never ending!

Best Nicole

How’s This for Passing the Buck?

One year ago, Lynda Partner wrote—but did not publish—a blog post that eviscerated a software company for taking liberties with her email address, and then treating her complaint with stunning indifference. “Why publish it now, you ask? This week I got more spam from this same company,” she says. “It made me so angry that I dug up this post and I hope it gets wide distribution.”

It all began with an email, purportedly from the company’s CEO, that invited Partner to become an “ambassador” for the company, a role filled by “its biggest fans, best users, and closest friends.” There was only one problem: she had never heard of this CEO and couldn’t figure out why he had her email address.

“It took me a while,” she says, “but it turns out that when I opened a Web-hosting account recently, the hosting provider offered a free download of [the CEO's] software. I did not download it. So how did they get my email address?”

Partner wrote a brief note saying she never opted in to the company’s campaigns, and requesting confirmation that her email address had been removed from its list. The person who replied continued to insist she had downloaded the software and that the only way to stop receiving messages from his company was to cancel her account.

The result? Partner’s scalding post now travels the Internet.

The Po!nt: Use common sense. Pushy tactics like these are nothing more than self-destructive.

That excerpt taken from Seth Godin’s post is the key to success. The success of building a social media campaign means speaking to the right people you aim to target—to ensure that you get the results you expect and, better yet, exceed those results.

If the community you feel you are building is not spreading the word the way you expected, it is time to go back and figure out who actually is spreading the word.

Best Nicole

Who spreads your word?

In order for an idea to spread, someone has to do the spreading.

In the dark ages (ten years ago), the only way to spread your idea on a large scale was to do it yourself. Lots and lots of ads.

Today, marketers get all sweaty thinking about how this happens magically, virally, for free. If it were only that easy.

What’s interesting to me is that different products and ideas are spread by different groups of people. There isn’t just one professional association of idea spreaders, with everyone else being passive.

If your authentic little Welsh restaurant gets hot, it’s going to be because the chowhounds, the folks who love to talk about the next great place, are buzzing about it. On the other hand, if your blog gets a lot of traffic, it might just be because a few of the digerati are going on about it, spreading the idea.

This is obvious, of course.

But what you are you doing about it? Have you figured out which portion of your user base are the talkers? Is it possible to focus your development efforts on actually making something that they like? Or, are you confusing the people who talk about your competition or about other industries with the people you need to reach? Might not be the same tribe…

The #1 cause of an idea that’s not spreading or a business that’s not growing is that they don’t have a committed group of people spreading the word about them. If you treat everyone the same, you’re not increasing the odds that some people will step up on your behalf.

This is the first question to ask someone who is frustrated at the rate their idea is spreading. “Who are you hoping will talk about you?” If you don’t know, it’s unlikely to happen all by itself. On the other hand, if a marketer is smart about finding, courting and delighting the group most likely to spread the idea, it’s time well spent.

Dewey defeats Truman

Headlines matter now more than they ever did.

Headlines provoke and introduce. They cajole and they position.

No headline, no communication.

This spreadsheet you just sent me… what does it say? What does it mean? It has no headline. Trashed.

That person you met at a conference: What’s his headline? Are you actually going to spend ten minutes with him before you determine whether or not he’s interesting enough to talk with? Of course not. No headline, no communication.

You can have sub-headlines
The great direct mail copywriter Joe Sugarman taught me this. Every ad had a headline, and so did every paragraph. If the paragraph didn’t warrant a headline, it didn’t go in the ad.

This might be a shame
I’m not saying that headline-world is the place we want to or should live in. I’m merely saying that we do live there, and if you want to communicate (your resume, your trustworthiness, your graciousness) you need to be sure your headline is compelling, accurate and a viable foundation to the message you’re ultimately trying to send. (That last one is very important. Just because it gets you newsstand sales doesn’t mean it’s a headline you want to live with.)

Headlines don’t always look like headlines, of course. That outfit you wore to work today is quite a headline, bub. Headlines may not look like they belong in a newspaper, but they always work that way. Now or never.

Best Nicole