If people don’t like your company, they’re not going to buy from you.

In a new study by my old employer, Weber Shandwick, 69% of participants aid they frequently or regularly discuss how they fell about a product they bought. 70% said they avoid buying a product if they don’t like the company that makes it. And, no surprise, 88% said that word of mouth is still most  influences their opinion of a company.

More can be found here on the Forbes blog.

My take from the study: marketing (brand) and corporate communications (reputation) need to be one, or at least work a whole lot more closely than these organizations do in most large companies.

How can we move from this…..

To this….?

In today’s competitive world the most effective way to attract customers and talented employees  is to offer something special and different that attracts people to seek you out. You don’t have to be an Apple or a Google. You just need to be a company that knows and cares for its tribes so well that those tribes, be they customers or employees, seek you out.  Your passion for their success attracts their passion for your company.

The old way of pushing messages onto people is akin to herding cows.  It’s a lot of work, costs a lot of money,  you have to continually push, and the ROI stinks.

Here are some examples of why pushing and herding fails.

Most leadership training is failing

In a conversation last week Case Western business professor and author Richard Boyzatis said that most leadership development programs fail. Why?  Most companies require people  to take courses (herding), but they’re just not really into them. Without the attraction and motivation to learn, people don’t learn. You can require training (herding) but it’s unlikely to stick.

Most brands are becoming commodities

A study by marketing strategy firm Copernicus found that people buy on price because they view most product categories as commodities; there’s nothing attracting to them to one brand over another. None of the 51 product and service categories analyzed in the brand trends study are becoming more differentiated over time and 90 percent are declining in differentiation. So if nothing is attracting people to your brand,  marketers resort to the herding strategy of promoting cost savings.

Most employees are job hunting

In a recent workplace study by Monster, human resource managers reported that employee loyalty has decreased slightly this year. Yet 82 percent of the workers surveyed said they have updated their resume in the past six months, and 59% say they’re looking for a job all the time.  Challenge and inspiration trumps salary and status: When asked what they want this year, nearly half (41%) of respondents want to be challenged and inspired by their jobs; a subset also want to make a difference in their jobs (17%)

Creating an attraction strategy

So as you step back and evaluate your marketing, HR, leadership and organizational development strategies, ask “what will attract and inspire people?” A better customer experience? New ways to work that challenge people? Training that is completely out of the usual training box?

For more insights into the power of attraction, check out the book, “The Power of Pull.“  My summary of the book is here.

“There are nine story themes that people like hearing about from companies,” I explained. “If you create content  based on those themes you’ll  be turning your messages into stories.”

I introduced these nine story themes four years ago when I published the book Beyond Buzz. This simple model is used around the world by companies and agencies of all sizes to get unstuck and come up with fresh ways to connect with customers, employees and analysts.   Guy Kawasaki included these themes in his new book “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” writing,

“These story lines from Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz, will help you craft a story that does your cause justice.”

Sean Moffit and Mike Dover also include them in their excellent new book “Wikibrands: Reinventing Your Company in a Customer-Driven Economy,” saying:

“People love to tell stories. When repeated they reinforce a message; when told well they become viral. Lois Kelly suggests nine types of stories in her book Beyond Buzz that get talked about.”

The 9 themes

1. Great aspirations (Patagonia believing a company can grow big and sustain the environment in innovative ways)
2. David vs. Goliath (Southwest Airlines taking on the big, established players)
3. Personal stories (Fred Smith on why he started FedEx, and why investors funded the company after they met the janitor)
4. Contrarian/counterintuitive (BestBuy deciding to fire some of its customers. What? A company doesn’t fire customers?!)
5. Avalanche about to roll (Spotting, forecasting early trends before they’re big and in the mainstream)
6. Anxieties (Does your child have what it takes to get into a good college?)
7. How-to (How to do things related to your service/product to help customers)
8. Glitz and glam (What you can learn from Sara Jessica Parker about investing money)
9. Seasonal/event related (Financial and tax advice leading up to April 15; vacation deals just before he summer)

Download the eBook, check out Guy Kawasaki’s post

Not in the mood for reading books to learn more?  Click here to visit the Foghound resource center, and download a copy of the eBook, “Beyond Buzz: Let’s Talk About Something Interesting.” Or check out Guy Kawasaki’s post, “How to Change the World: The Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing.”

The best example is Nike. While most of us know the company’s 20 year-old “Just Do It” motto, there’s much more to why Nike exists. Simon Sinek, author of the great book “Start with Why” shares this story about Nike founder Phil Knight over on his re:Focus blog:

Looking across the audience, Knight asked those who run to stand up.  And a good percentage of the room stood up.  Then he asked those who run three or more times a week to keep standing; everyone else was asked to sit down.Looking out at the people left standing, Knight said, “we are for you.”

“When you get up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go for a run,” he went on, “even if it’s cold and wet out, you go. And when you get to mile 4, we’re the one standing under the lamp post, out there in the cold and wet with you, cheering you on.  We’re the inner athlete.  We’re the inner champion.”

Without a single mention of their latest technologies or which athletes wear their products, Knight makes a vastly more compelling case for Why we want Nike in our lives. Nike may or may not be better, but we are drawn to them because they have a cause.

Nike doesn’t want to make products for everyone, they want to make products for champions.  Champions are not the ones who always win races, champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder the next time. And even harder the next time. Champion is a state of mind. They are devoted.  They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others.  Champions are not just athletes.  Champions are entrepreneurs, politicians, nurses, soldiers, students and Hall of Famers.  Nike wants to make products for all champions.

Most companies have clever or meaningless tag lines (marketing) and bland, gobbledygook mission/vision statements (corporate communications). Few can express why they exist in a way that inspires.

Imagine what might happen if you could?  And you can.

A simple workshop exercise is to ask people, “If our company were a cause, what would our rallying cry be?”

Be prepared to be amazed at what your own people believe. And if they are stumped? Time for some corporate soul searching. If you don’t know why you exist — other than making money and improving shareholder value — you really can’t lead effectively. Manage, sure. Lead, no.

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As the financial statements say, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

People don’t donate to non-profits because they’ve been around for a long time and done great work in the past.  They donate because the organization is providing value that is especially relevant NOW and in the forseeable future.

Celebrating a milestone may be a wonderful idea for those people who have been with an organization for 25 or 50 years. But no one else cares that much. Make it a small, intimate party and keep the costs down.

We don’t buy from a company because it’s been in business a long time. We buy if they fulfill our current needs better than any other company.  In fact, I believe companies with a longer history –think Sears, GM — have to work harder to stay relevant with their customers.  One reason: it’s hard stop doing what was so successful and innovate. The second: it’s hard to change big, old companies.

And third? Did you know that there are more billionaires under the age of 40 than any time in our history?  They’re innovators, upsetting the old dogs. Stealing your market share and redefining your industry while you celebrate your history.  Spend more money envisioning how you can provide more value to customers in the future, and far, far less on banners and celebrations marking longevity.

The past is good for history books. But not for making and raising money.

Here’s the problem. The customer is getting confused. So many different company Twitter handles, Facebook pages, multiplying blogs.  Customers feel like they’re hearing from five different companies rather than one.  That’s because your five different organizations have only been thinking about their organizational strategy — without thinking about the customer strategy.

You’re not alone. I could name five big companies who this month are sitting down to try to make sense of how they’re engaging with customers. Things have gotten out of hand amid the social media exuberance. Every organization wants a “social media presence.”  And every ambitious marketing and communications professional wants social media accomplishments on their resume.

But what do customers want? If you keep one marketing New Year’s resolution, make sure you lay down an enterprise strategy for how your company/brand will connect with customers based on building a valuable relationship with the customer.

Then establish the processes, workflow, and internal rules of engagement. Keep it clear and succinct, make sure it’s easy to follow, and honor it as you honor the revenue that comes from each customer.

Then everyone can succeed.

There’s been much debate over whether companies should outsource their Twitter accounts to their advertising and public relations agencies.  Discussions have largely focused on whether an outsider speaking on behalf of the company expresses authenticity and transparency.

That’s a good point, but here’s the real issue for companies to think about.  Approximately 80 percent of Twitter is about retweeting and having “conversations” with others.  Just 20 percent is about posting your own tweets. Your agency can probably do a fine job on that 20 percent. But are they trained and steeped in company issues enough to respond to the 80% of questions, complaints, and off-topic musings?  Probably not.

As Twitter goes mainstream now is the time for companies to create an enterprise strategy for Twitter, addressing such issues as:

• Own your name: Make sure your company has its Twitter domain, e.g., Twitter.com/yourname.  If you’re too late, you may have to get involved with name squatters. Here’s a helpful Wall St. Journal piece on the topic.
• What do customers want: Think about what your customers want to be able to do/get from your company on Twitter, and then create Twitter strategies to support those wants. Pay special attention to areas  like customer service, training, product news, areas where people are beginning to expect to be able to get help via Twitter.
• Managed by business functions vs. social media dept.: Rather than have a separate social media function managing Twitter, I highly recommend incorporating Twitter into  business functions.  Doing so makes sure that the  80 % “conversations” are staffed by he people who can provide the most helpful and valuable information, and that they support business objectives.
• Put an enterprise listening platform in place, with specialized keywords and accounts for each business area involved in social media.  Make sure the platform helps your people be responsive, e.g, storing answers to commonly asked questions, featuring flagging capabilities so you rate the urgency of the Tweet and know if someone is addressing it.
• Have escalation guidelines: Develop  guidelines on how emerging trends, positive and negative, will be escalated — what are the criteria, who in the company will be alerted to what within what time frame, and what kind of action should be taken and then noted in the system so others in the company know the issue is being addressed.
• Find the insights: Lastly, create a strategy for mining social media conversations about your company, industry and competitors to uncover insights that the business can act on. I’ve seen clients find ideas for new products, new customers, and new brand building programs.  This is a rich, rich market research opportunity that few companies are fully taking advantage of.

Remember the 80/20 rule

The  number of Tweets or Twitter followers does not help build a  brand or the business — especially if the Tweets are randomly pushing out information, or the company Twitter is  trying to follow as many people as possible. I know this sounds so obvious. But every day I hear about companies who are being advised by agencies to “hire someone (meaning the agency) and pump up their Twitter volume.”

Pushing out that 20 percent is easy to “pump up the volume.”  The real value of Twitter comes from the other 80 percent, where people are getting useful and responsive information from a company that they can trust.

There’s a struggle going on in big companies around the world: what organization should own social media?  The social media pundits say “everyone should own social media.” But it’s not that simple. Here are some of my musings.  Thoughts?

When no one is in charge: land grabs and boom towns gone wrong

We’ve all been in towns and resorts that have been ruined because of land grabs, dominating developers and lack of good zoning rules.  These places are ugly mishmashes of over-development, feeling less like a community and more like a developer boomtown gone horribly wrong.

Six years ago a team led by Dr Walter Carl, now CEO of Chat Threads,   and I  researched the root causes of issues between real estate developers and local citizen, environmental, economic development and neighborhood groups. (“This Land Is My Land…But Could Be Our Land: Developing Influencer Relationships to Accelerate Development Success.”)

The report conclusion was that community groups distrusted and disliked developers because developers didn’t effectively listen to them, didn’t engage with the intent to educate and build understanding, and didn’t accommodate their interests in what was eventually built. The developers said the right things to these groups, but they were largely disingenuous. In the end their developments served just one audience:  potential customers for their properties.

This community development metaphor is relevant to how many large companies are approaching social media.   Lack of zoning guidelines, an influential, dominant organization controlling the best “real estate” to reach prospects, and other less dominant groups having to fight the controllers to get beach access for their audiences. This is the mess that big enterprises are either sorting out – or working to avoid.

Real world community development metaphor:  who is best to be the town planner?

Humana, with one of the most innovative enterprise social media strategies, is using the community development metaphor — the Town Square –  to guide its company-wide social media strategy.

The centralized Humana social media group serves as the town planner, making sure every organization gets prime real estate, follows zoning guidelines, and understands community rules.  Yet the “town planners” also empower people and organizations to develop strategies within these guidelines that best meet the culture and needs of their specific audiences.

Every Humana organization that wants to be part of the “town” social media development can join Human’s social media “Chamber of Commerce,” which meets monthly and live Tweets meeting notes in the spirit of sharing, transparency and open collaboration.  Everyone at Humana who becomes part of the town – with real estate participation in varying social channels – is tasked to share what they’re learning at the Humana “town square,” a knowledge portal by any other name.

Serving multiple audiences through communications

Social media channels are communications channels, serving wide and diverse audiences, all of whom connect to a company in different ways for different reasons – to learn about services, get customer support help, find out where to get local service, talk to other employees in other parts of the world to get advice, recruit new talent, learn more about company activities to inform investment decisions, understand citizenship initiatives.

The list is long. the point is simple: social media serves multiple audiences.  The organization “owning” social media must know how to serve and communicate with multiple audiences.

This group must know how to make these audiences feel heard and communicate with them in a way that is above all genuine and provides value.  In this social world it is the value of the communications content to the audience that builds brand reputation and relationship equity – and feeds the social networks. Channels and networks are like phones: they’re only as valuable as the communications that takes place using the tool.  What is valuable? It’s different for different audiences, and a company needs to acknowledge this and change its content approach to serve today’s audiences.

“What people want from a corporation is content with which to sustain their social networks,” explains Grant McCracken, a research affiliate at C3 at MIT and author of Chief Culture Officer: How To Create a Living, Breathing Corporation. “Consumers will embrace our invention (content/communications) when those inventions provide value. They will embrace our investments when they can distribute them. They will embrace our inventions when they increase their social capital.”

Social media bombs: managing social like an advertising channel, serving just one audience

Many Fortune 500 social media efforts have gone splat because they used social channels like new push advertising channels, rather than using them as conversational channels to build understanding, relationships, trust, and ultimately brand preference.

These failed social media initiatives were like going to a party with a bore who talks only about his job, his children, his accomplishments.  It doesn’t take too long for people to tune him out, run the other way, and warn their friends away.

Staples, TJX, Wal-Mart, for example, launched and closed high-profile social communities that failed for this reason. The conversations were all about the companies and their products, providing little value to the audience.  When companies use social channels like marketing channels,  the programs often sputter, and sometimes even backfire.

A soft drink  brand ran a Facebook avatar promotion in Europe that was a big hit until it was a big miss because people felt spammed. “Oh, it’s another company using social media to advertise at us.” The brand, though trying to provide value through branded entertainment, failed to engage and provide value.

While these marketing-led campaigns were disappointing, the real failure was that these companies were not paying enough attention on how to communicate with multiple audiences in new social ways. It was all about “social advertising.”  Much of the social media control was in the hands of advertising and marcom organizations, which are accountable for just one audience: customers.

Emerging wisdom: social ownership not about politics, but three key competencies

While there is no best practice about what organization should own social media in a large enterprise, there is emerging wisdom that the best organization to own social media is an organization that understands how to:

1. Communicate with multiple, diverse audiences, providing value in the communications.
2. Act as town planners, developing the zoning and infrastructure that benefits every organization in the enterprise community;
3. Practice servant leadership: serving the needs of organizations across the enterprise, focusing more on achieving their social vision and associated outcomes, and less on organizational recognition and status.

Thoughts?