When I announced that I was leaving Intel, everyone’s reaction was one of surprise. Their first question was, “Why?” Indeed, why? I have been a part of the Intel family for eight years. Over the last five years I have had the privilege to be a part of an amazing team that transformed Intel into a truly social business. We painted the blank canvas, we designed and implemented global social strategies, we built extraordinary communities, and we ran innovative social programs. Intel has a special place in my heart; it led and will continue to lead in this space.

Naturally, the surprised “Why?” was followed by a curious “So what is this new opportunity? It has to be pretty darn cool!” Yes, it sure is.

As I look back at the rise of the Internet and the evolution of marketing, I cannot help but think how far we have come. From the mass media era, to the digital media era, to the rise of the digital citizen and social business. Brands have realized the value of listening and building global communities. They have worked hard on activating their presence on social networks and attracting their customers on a larger scale. But now that they have built large global communities and they continue to work hard on engaging these communities in daily conversations through a perpetual cycle of content creation and optimization, they also cannot help but wonder “what now?” Recently I have caught myself asking that question continuously as well.

Enter the Age of Advocacy. The era of collecting fans is over. Companies need to get smarter about activating their fans and current communities around the common interest, the common cause. As marketers, we need to start building movements, not campaigns!

Every brand has 3-10% of the most loyal, most vocal advocates who are excited to spread the love of your brand far and wide. These advocates can be your customers, your vendors, your friends, industry influencers, and (here is a shocker!) your employees. All they crave in return is to have a more meaningful relationship with your brand beyond daily Facebook posts or regular tweets. And that is exactly what the BRANDERATI platform enables.

At BRANDERATI we put the power of influencers and brand advocates on the side of our clients. We enable brands to create advocate/influencer networks from their existing social communities, and provide the foundation for a complete program, from recruiting, through engagement, to learnings and optimization. Our platform gives brands the ability to invite selected individuals into a branded VIP community, create multiple member segments within that community, serve and target your content, give members the ability to create their own custom content and share across all social networks, evaluate the impact in real-time, and develop actionable social insights. Our turnkey strategic and creative services help ensure the best experience for you and your advocates.

I am excited to be a part of BRANDERATI and this movement because I firmly believe that, in the Age of Advocacy, those that cannot identify, engage, direct and reward an army of advocates will be at a clear disadvantage to the leaders in their space.

I invite you to reach out and connect with us. Let’s talk advocacy and influencer marketing! We would love to help you elevate your brand from Like to Love to Loyalty.

Originally posted at Branderati.com

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In 8 years of existence, Facebook has fundamentally changed the way we connect and communicate online. It is the world’s largest social network and probably one of the most addictive.

We cannot imagine our lives without Facebook—it created a sweet addiction of 24/7 conversations and information flow that we apparently all craved. We check Facebook before we go to bed and first thing in the morning when we wake up. It allows us to show the world our own unique identities. It offers us an opportunity to tell our stories, stories that can be heard at scale. It allows us to build global communities and rally around causes we are passionate about. Our News Feeds have become our personalized digital newspapers. And instead of picking up a phone, we log into Facebook to see what our friends are up to, check out pictures they recently posted, look at product recommendations (or complaints) they shared, or see what music they are currently listening to.

For the first time in history brands are building global communities on Facebook on a scale never heard of before. Coke, Starbucks, Red Bull and many others are getting more visibility and engagement within their Facebook communities than they were ever able to harness on their other forums. Intel’s community around the world, for example, exceeds 23 million fans spanning over 50 countries, and it is such a privilege to touch so many people every day.

In my book “Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg” I reveal the simple five-part formula the upstart Facebook CEO used to change the world-and how any business leader can apply it to his/her own company: Passion, Purpose, People, Product, Partnerships. Though the book focuses on business secrets of success in general, today I would like to explore how marketers can use just some of the same principles in building of their own strategies and approaches and offer my tips on the ways they can do so.

Unleash your passion.

No matter what you do, you have to be passionate about your customers. Only when you have your customers’ interests in mind you will be successful in inspiring loyalty. Customer-centric mentality will also spark some of your best ideas.

Some of the best things you can do to show your customers you care is to:

• reach out to them often within your social communities and to ask them what types of conversations/content they would like to see you bring up/post. On our Intel Facebook page we love to ask our customers open-ended questions and run in-newsfeed polls to make sure as our community grows we stay truly connected to them and know what their passion points are.
• co-create with your customers. San Francisco-based apparel company ModCloth not only allows its customers to vote on the items their stores should carry, but it has taken the concept of co-creation to a new level by creating an entire collection of user-generated designs.
• respond creatively and in real-time. This holiday season REI, for example, created custom video responses to consumer’s inquiries on Twitter regarding the best holiday gifts. I myself was a recipient of such a video and was not only pleasantly surprised, but have to say developed quite an affinity for the brand as a result of that.

Lead with purpose.

Whatever you do, you have to be clear about your purpose. We live in the economy of attention deficit and consistent influx of new shiny tools. As a marketer, if you don’t know your purpose, your reason for being, your core objectives, it’ll be easy to get lost in a sea of tasks and strategies that may not be fully relevant. To stand out from noise, you have to be focused, disciplined and have clear idea why you are doing all the things you are doing.

Take a look at your strategy and ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your vision? What are your objectives? What are your priorities?
• Do you have listening/monitoring tools in place? Do you have formal listening approach? And if yes, what are the conversations that are happening around your brand and how do you want to influence them?
• Who is your target audience and where are they engaging?
• Who are your customer advocates who are mostly engaged with your brand?
• Are your internal social media practitioners aware of your brand story and your brand voice?
• Do you know what your digital presence looks like across the web?
• How well does your current digital presence represent your brand? If not well, what are the steps to create the unified and meaningful brand presence for your company? What will it take to maintain those communities?
• Based on the basic native network insights, which channels drive the most traffic and engagement? Which are the least successful?
• Is your strategy scalable globally? Are you taking into consideration the needs of local markets as you craft your company-wide approach?

Take risks.

In a lot of ways we are all still new to this digital landscape and to the mentality of a two-way marketing rather than one-way broadcasting. In some ways it might still feel strange to let go of the control of your brand and fully engage without fear. But I promise you that the risk of not engaging is greater that the risk of participating.

So I urge you to take risks in whatever you are doing. There are no written rules and if you are truly passionate about your customers – let go of the fear. Some of the most amazing conversations around your brand might come from you jumping in and trying new things. I’ve seen this time and again. Of course, I have also seen some mistakes being made (and made some myself), but that was only a very small percentage. When we first launched Intel’s global communities, we didn’t know the best ways to engage our advocates. So we just started experimenting. We tried engaging our communities in multiple ways. We posted pictures taken inside the Intel’s campus, we talked about Olympics and Valentin’s Day, we asked for stories, we said thank you when we reached key milestones, we bragged about our special products, we offered challenges, we crowd-sourced  photography. We tried everything our small team could think of to see what content will resonate and what will spark more conversations. And we got better at it as we grew our communities and tracked our progress along the way. We learned and we grew with our customers. And that is the most beautiful thing.

So take risks, try things out, and watch your customers inspire you and vice versa.

Don’t just market products, inspire movements.

As marketers we often times tend to focus on acquiring new customers and generating broad awareness of our company and our product. But my philosophy is that if you engage your most passionate customers and your employees – those who are already familiar with your brand and love it – and you do so in meaningful and inclusive ways, you will be able to create a movement, not a campaign.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will influence the adoption by the majority of the society. Imagine what this does for brands. Imagine if you give a platform to your 10 percent of passionate customers to co-create, engage, and spread word-of-mouth. Imagine if they know that you not only listen and participate, but give them the power to co-define your brand and thank them for amplifying your messages.

So instead of chasing the numbers of fans and followers, focus on the quality of your content and relevance of your message.

Partner with the right people.

The right people are those people who share your passion, live your values, and strive for the same purpose. Those are the people who will see the changes coming when you miss them and help you look in the right direction. These are people who not only have the right skills, but the right attitude as well.

As a marketer, when you build your teams or choose the vendors to partner with, partner with those who have the same passion for your customer as you are, who value authenticity, and those who are not afraid to take risks if they believe in something. Build the team with complementary skills: those who are passionate about human interactions (community managers), those who are passionate about data (analytics), some who know traditional media and some who know social media (because the two married together are much stronger at reach and amplification), and some who might not have any of those skills but have innate curiosity and unlimited desire to learn. Then empower them to create, guide them when necessary, and watch amazing things happen.

Originally appeared on Mari Smith Blog

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Well-written, company specific content can be a great way to build brand-awareness and search engine ranking for your company website. One of the best ways to incorporate content into your website is with a business blog.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that every report out there states that ‘blogging is dead’. After all, everyone loves glamorous success stories about new platforms generating leads, increasing sales and driving traffic. It’s fresh, visual and more attractive.

But rather than jumping the bandwagon ask yourself “what is right for my business?” The answer will depend very much on your industry, customer base, and business model. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, but glamor is not always the right answer. And I can assure you, blogging isn’t dead.

Hubspot report found that 57% of companies using blogs stated that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog. While some businesses are moving away from traditional blogging to some extent, many remain committed to the format.

But what if your company blog is boring, dull and uninspired? If no one’s reading it, it’s not living up to its potential.

It can be difficult to create engaging content for a business blog. You have to find topics that are interesting to your customers and present them in a way that’s helpful, entertaining and relevant.

It can be helpful to plan your content ahead of time and use a calendar to schedule posts and plan your content for the following month. You can also vary your content between written articles, video and images. But above all, whatever you post on your business blog needs to be high quality, interesting and relevant to your customers and clients.

Here are 50 inspirational  ideas to help you come up with great content for your business blog.

1. Debunk a myth or misconception about your company or industry.
2. Write a profile of a customer who has used your product in a new or innovative way.
3. Profile a current news item in your industry and explain how it affects your customers.
4. Create a how-to tutorial, either as a written post or a video tutorial.
5. Write a “5 Things You Didn’t Know …” column – maybe “5 Things You Didn’t Know about our CEO” or “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Our Latest Product.” If you have a long product line or like to profile employees, you could even make this a regular feature.
6. Ask a local business related to your industry for an interview and put it up as a video on your blog.
7. Outline new product ideas or concepts and ask for feedback from customers and readers.
8. If you have a lot of good content on your blog already, you could provide link round-ups – links to several posts on related topics grouped under one heading.
9. If you’ve attended an industry event, write a blog post outlining five important takeaways from the event.
10. Write a layman’s overview of recent research or a scientific breakthrough in your industry.
11. Answer questions from customers on the blog.
12. Write about an event you’ve attended in your local community.
13. Comment on news articles from your local paper or radio station.
14. Create a round-up of nice and/or amusing things people have said on your Twitter or Facebook page.
15. Compile a list of other sources of information about your industry or a certain product – free ebooks, informative articles or useful videos. The great thing about creating a useful article that links out to other websites is that those website owners will often link to your blog in return and give you increased exposure.
16. Share your customer’s success stories via case studies and testimonials.
17. Create a list of inspirational quotes from founders of your industry, thought leaders or people whose worldviews are in sync with your company’s message.
18. Do the ‘list’ posts. For example, list of latest statistics around a particular topic.
19. Help your customers protect their investment by showing them how to keep your product working properly for longer.
20. Tell a funny story about something that happened in the office.
21. Write an article about what your industry or products used to look like “back in the good old days”. Honor your heritage.
22. Create a gift guide for an upcoming holiday.
23. Discuss the differences between your local market and markets abroad. Make this really fun and interesting by adding lots of cultural references.
24. Show customers some great social media sites or Smartphone apps unique to your industry.
25. Hold a caption competition – post a strange or amusing picture of someone with one of your products, or of something happening around the office, and ask your customers to make up a caption to accompany it. The best caption at the end of the day wins a prize.
26. Create product descriptions as though famous people wrote them. E.g.: “Vacuum cleaner catalogue written by William Shakespeare” or “SEO Tips from Madonna.”
27. Express your opinion on a controversial topic, or disagree with a commonly held belief. This can be a risky move, but is great for generating buzz and discussion on your blog.
28. Review a book with a subject matter related to your niche.
29. Highlight a couple of local businesses that compliment your own products or services. For example, a wedding planner could highlight her favorite local florist.
30. Create a summary of your favorite comments from a recent article.
31. Share an excerpt from one of your whitepapers or e-books. Be sure to add a link to download the rest!
32. Get other experts in your niche to each offer a tip, and create a post with a roundup of all the tips.
33. Create a list of industry trends your customer should watch out for.
34. Compare two different products or services from your company.
35. Post a series of pictures from a recent event, whether it’s a trade show, in-store event or an industry conference.
36. Create a slideshow of customer photographs of your product, such as different women wearing one designer dress.
37. Run a poll on a topic and write a post about the results.
38. Create a virtual office tour, where customers can see inside your office spaces, warehouses or other facilities.
39. Give a sneak peek of an upcoming product launch.
40. Write a humorous top ten list about your product or company.
41. Revisit old industry pioneers, products or trends for years gone by in a “where are they now?” roundup.
42. Tell customers all the different benefits of signing up to your newsletter – and then give them a giant sign-up link!
43. Write about changes you’re making to improve your products or services.
44. If you sponsor sports teams or charity events, talk about that and don’t forget to include lots of pictures.
45. Create clever infographics about your industry or products.
46. Pull some interesting facts from your analytics or other market research and write a post demonstrating some facts about your customers – such as how many were local, how many spend more than $200 when they visit, how many own cars, etc.
47. Create a list of interesting events and seminars in your community.
48. Create a time-lapse video of your product coming together, a day in your office or store, or something else related to your business. Customers love an inside look!
49. Go through your old catalogues, correspondence and other publications and turn all that useful information into blog posts.
50. Thank your customers and clients for their business with a personal video.

There’s no reason for your business blog to be boring. You can find inspiration everywhere you look – in your own products and services, in your office, from your suppliers, customers and clients.

Originally published in Quartz, Atlantic publication

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