Successful Blog

Deeper Shade of Viral: How 1 Brand Hero Delivered an Irresistible Experience

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A True Story of How to Win a Life-Long Advocate

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Now, more than ever, growing brands search for connections that mean something to their customers and the people who help their business thrive. The good ones reach to their employees to put human values inside their value proposition.

That isn’t a new thing.

And the brands that long for their messages to “go viral” might check out this story. It happened over 25 years ago, yet it’s so powerful, memorable, and moving that I think of it and repeat it every time I see the FedEx logo. I still choose FedEx over the others, because of this one event. I still forgive their occasional mistake as an accident. That’s a lifetime customer relationship and since I’m still telling the story, in my book I’d call that hugely viral.

In the last century, when Federal Express was at its peak performance. I was working at home right after my son was born. The work in my hands was on a drop-dead deadline that day. I called FedEx for a pickup because I was not going to be able to deliver the package myself.

We were in a suburban disaster – a fast-rising flood. Hours after the rain, we watched from our second-floor balcony as the water from the Des Plaines River in the parking rose above the door handles of our only car. My husband, my infant son, and I were waiting to hear when we’d be evacuated and for how long?
Then the phone rang. It was the FedEx man. He was on a high spot across the street. “Ma’am, I have a delivery. Do you need this package today?”
“I’m sorry. Yes, I do and I have one going I out too,” I explained the uncertainty, the deadline, and the evacuation.
“No problem,” he said. Then he confirmed the entrance he should use. The door was on a slope above the water line still.
I hustled to ready what I had to send. Then I went on the balcony, just in time to see a young man holding package over his head, walking through water that was up to his chest. Amazing! The neighbors on their decks were as transfixed with the image as I was.
We met at the door. We did the business of trading packages. Then he went back out. As he stood on the stoop, he thrust the new package up over his head and before he set off through the flood again. He surveyed my neighbors with a huge grin and shouted,

“We not only deliver. We pick up!”

He Delivered More Than a Package

That day that FedEx man delivered more than a package to the people who saw him. He delivered hope and trust to folks silently wondering when they would be evacuated, how long it would last, and what would be waiting when we got back.

He was a hero to people who were in distress. He saw what he saw – opportunity not a problem. He knew what he knew – he could use his power to refuse or do something outstanding, heroic, and incredibly cool. And with a huge and generous grin, he walked through four feet of water to make things work better than they were supposed to work.

He was living the values of company. Their tagline at the time was “Relax, it’s FedEx.”

If that same experience happened today, all of us watching the FedEx man in the water would have taken pictures and video with our smart phones. In seconds, we would have uploaded the pictures and video with the caption “We not only deliver. We pick up!” to YouTube, Flickr, Twitpic, and Twitter. Within seconds, thousands of people would be sharing his quote with the picture or the video.

What the FedEx man did was irresistible and shareable by definition. He made everything easy. He made me feel good about being part of it. And he left me with a story that I’m proud to pass on. It’s an unforgettable feeling when a guy is willing to trek through half a block of river water for you. You can bet I became a fiercely loyal FedEx customer.

FedEx built their brand on a company community of employees who were the value in their value proposition. It’s hard to compete with a community like that. The true stories about FedEx hero employees made them the company we trusted, relied on, and got to know as our friends. We didn’t think about other options until the heroes started to look the same as “the guys” who delivered packages from the lower priced brand.

And because my experience with the FedEx man actually happened, I’m still sharing it 25 years later.
Will you even remember the Old Spice Man in 5 years? Human relationships are a deeper, more lasting shade of viral.

Whether you’re a brand of 1 or 1,000,000, the deeply loyal relationship you make with your customers can outlast any single offer, product, or incident.

What is your brand doing to build a winning community?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help building that winning community? Work with Liz!!

What I Learned from an Irresistible Billionaire Entrepreneur

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Listening and Learning

When a good heart thoughtfully shares experience, listening comes easily. I know because last week I had the privilege of hearing Clay Mathile tell the story of his life as an entrepreneur. It was a quiet, late morning conversation that included my friends and colleagues, Barry Moltz and Anita Campbell. We were in a small meeting room at Aileron — the $130 million campus that Clay built to pass his success on to others.

“Entrepreneurs can solve almost all the problems we have in this country, in this world,” said Mathile in an interview with CNN Money.

The Iams Vision and Focus

What Clay talked about while we were with him was the vision and the focus that built the Iams Corporation. His vision was clearly stated in a story.

Clay was born in the poorest times of American history, in one of Ohio’s poorest cities. From the time he was 6 he wanted to own his own company. He wanted that company to be the best at what it did and to provide jobs. In 1970, when Clay was considering a job for Iams, the little known pet food brand was having difficulties. While thinking about the opportunity, a thirty-something Clay visited a relative at nearby farm shared some time and left a bag of the dog food for the man’s farm dog. (Anyone who’s seen a farm dog knows that’s a dog luxury!) A few weeks later when the Iams decision was pending, Clay returned to the farm to have another conversation. The dog that ran out of the house was so remarkably changed that Clay didn’t recognize him! This dog had a beautiful, bright eyes and high energy!

Clay’s thought was “This is what people want for the pets they love!” His decision was made. The change in that dog became the vision that turned around a company. Mathile joined Iams in 1970, helped turn it around and took complete ownership of it in 1982. In August of 1999, Clay sold Iams to Proctor and Gamble for $2.3 billion.

The rest of the Iams story includes years of learning.

“It took me 5 years to realize that I was selling a dog food that dogs wouldn’t eat in a package that consumers wouldn’t buy,” Clay said in humility of someone who loves learning. “Then it took me another 5 years to fix the problem.”

But throughout our extended conversation, the themes of learning, vision, and focus were inside every answer to every question.

  • We stayed focused on our mission to be the most recognized provider of dog and cat nutrition.
  • We realized that dogs and cats were our customers and that our employees needed to be people who loved dogs and cats as much as the people who buy our products.
  • We trained every person and had dieticians in every region.
  • Pictures of dogs and cats were everywhere throughout the company — on desks, on walls.

It was clear that everyone shared the same vision … of delivering great pet nutrition to make a difference.

Aileron

Now, Clay has put his money to investing in other people — entrepreneurs who are building their own businesses. The beautiful campus, Aileron, and fabulous team who run it have the vision and the focus to be the ultimate individualized professional management resource for small business owners. I’m paraphrasing how Clay Mathile said it, but his words so reminded me of my dad that I can’t help but think I got the meaning …

There is no higher philanthropy than being an entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs create jobs for other people.

The wisdom of one man changed me in one short meeting. I’m grateful for the contribution I was able to make to the Course for Presidents at Aileron.org in June.

I look forward to going back soon.

Clay Mathile is irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Checklist: Opportunity Is Knowing Your Position on the Playing Field

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Every commander knows that on the field of battle we want to be on the higher ground. Every brand manager, every business owner should really be thinking the same. In order to grow a brand and business, we have to know our position before we can advance.

Opportunity Is Knowing Your Position on the Playing Field

Position is relational. It’s part property — what we own. If we own more and manage more we become more visible, more audible, more amplified.

Position is part expertise — what we know and can do well. Keep learning. We’re constantly offered opportunities to learn new strategies, skills, and techniques. It’s also good to teach. Teaching builds position and visible expertise.

Position is part perception, packaging and communication — what others see. If we live the values we want to be, then people see, perceive, and know us as those values. Do you live and talk a clear message? Do you hear and encourage other people to pass on that message about you?

Position is part the networks and relationships — how we interact with the industry. Do you have a brand and a business that attracts others to you?

Use this checklist to build yourself a view of your current position.

where you stand Are you standing on solid ground? Is your foundation connected and stable?

  • as a player in the industry Who’s next to you? Who do you need to meet? Who’s irrelevant to where you’re going?
  • as a citizen in your customer, partner, vendor networks What sort of people value you? Who needs to know more about you?

where you’re seen Are you visible in the places that you need to be to meet the people you want to meet?

  • on the blogs, sites, webinars, and spaces online What does your web presence say about you? Do you only hang with people who do what you do? Do you only talk to people who buy what you sell?
  • at the stores, events, meetings, and campaigns offline Do you go out to meet people in person? Are you as social offline as you are online? Is your offline presence projecting the same image of you? Do you show up before and hang around after you speak?
  • in the books, mail, email, and videos sent out about you Do you have a presence in print and video? Should you? Do you need a newsletter?

where you’re heard What’s being said? Who is listening? Who is talking about you?

  • when you speak, talk, visit clients. Do you initiate contact with new people in the networks you want to reach?
  • when people talk about you. Do you know what people say about you?

where you’re investing How do you invest your expertise and time?

  • when you offer your energy, advice, help, or service Do you share your expertise with the right people at the right times? Who wants to be you? Do you keep your promises, answer questions, and offer your best consistently?
  • when you claim your success Who knows what you know how to do? Who should?
  • when you grow How often do you connect outside of the network of people who do what you do?

Think through where your brand and your business is right now. Find a question that stopped you, that made you think longer than the rest. Work that first. Once you’ve worked most of them through, you can plan a campaign that truly leverages your position, plays to your skills, and advances your position toward higher ground.

Position is all opportunity. Knowing where we stand lets us see the possibilities of where we can go.

Which question offers the most opportunity for you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Building a Career: Combining a Personal Blog and a Company Job

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When we are talking about building your own career, there is nothing more personal to you than your own blog.  When you are working for a company, there are many different kinds of situations which may cause you to leave or to stay temporarily.  But as you are building your career in the “real world”, you can start picking up your working knowledge and build them into useful information around your own blog in the “virtual world”.

Start building a career around your own blog today!

4 Do’s and 4 Don’ts in your blog while working on your job

Do’s

  1. Ponder about what you have learned today.  Start taking down notes, and build useful information that people will love to read about.
  2. Be an expert in your own topic.  This is your time when you can show off what you have learned.  Even though you may make mistakes at your own job, this is the time when you can learn from your mistakes and blog them.
  3. Start building your community and help people to build theirs by contributing your efforts.  Help others when you are approached if it doesn’t take you much in your time and money.  Be real and treat this like a hobby.
  4. It’s good to leverage on useful software and other people’s services.  You have a job, so start investing time and money in yourself to build a good portfolio!

Don’ts

  1. Don’t be influenced too much by all the hype about making money online. It can cause you to have information-overload syndrome  Good to listen, but just carry on building your blog.
  2. Don’t be fake.  If you are just not that kind of person, don’t do it!  If you are not the kind who will want to excel in your job, you probably won’t create a great blog anyway.  Very soon, your blog may just fade away.
  3. Don’t expect immediate results.  Blogging is just for building personal brand awareness.  If people like what you are blogging about, you will get your audience for sure.  It may take a while for the traffic to be aware of you.  Hence, start blogging if you have the patience to build it one post at a time.

Linking social media back to your blog

There are tons of networking opportunities in the social media through the exposure of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Social media brings the world even closer now that we are able to communicate and do business together in two different worlds of ours.

As you are communicating more and more in the social media, people will tend to find your blog if they have connected with you socially via an exchange of messages.  The blog can offer assurance to visitors about your worth in that industry you are in.  

Today, there are a lot of attractive blogging themes that we can leverage on, both free and paid versions.  All we need to do, is to populate our social media profile in our own blog accordingly, and to start blogging!

What may happen when you continue to do this?

  1. You may be able to make some money out of it through the huge audience that you may have created.  There are more and more people who seem to be able to work full time on their blogs just because of what they have shared.
  2. Or, you have actually done yourself a very big favor in your career path because this may lead you into a job opportunity or even a business opportunity!
  3. Or if you have gotten far enough in your blog and your industry, there are tons of businesses out there who are looking for bloggers who are either influential in their blogs, or are experienced in the social media.

Is this for real?

Seriously speaking, it is not easy.  The whole journey can be really tough and unexpected.  As for myself, I am actually perform a full time job e-marketing while I am blogging about what I have learned from my job experience.  In fact, I got my job because I used my blog as my resume!

My job is helping me to learn a lot more about the Internet, making my exposure even far greater than I have thought I would achieve on my own.  And with that experience, I actually “document” them down in a meaningful way in my blogs, and allowing my visitors to enjoy what I have learned so far.

Even if I am not going to be able to make a full time job out of blogging, I still get to know more and more fantastic people (such as Liz Strauss here!) through my online journey.  I really thank God for that.

The whole blogging experience is really a fruitful one for me, and I will continue and do even more than what I am doing today!

My question to all of you: What career values or opportunities have your blog brought you today?  Do share with us, I will love to hear about it  too!

This post was written by Charles. He has been an Internet reviewer since June 2007.  He pours his passion for Internet marketing and Internet branding into his Twitter account actively at @charleslau.

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Why You Should Be Involved In Twitter While Having Your Own Blog?

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Blogging is fun! I started blogging casually since 2001, moving into my own domain name in 2004, and then decided to blog professionally on my own blog since June 2007.  For some reason or what, I checked out the traffic behavior of my blog.  I have come to realize that the traffic’s up and down has very much to do with the activity that I am doing inside and outside my blog.  The reason is very simple:  I started off without any traffic, hence I need to bring in the traffic!

Many ways to bring in the traffic

While you are blogging, you have unknowingly attracted crowd from the search engines.  You may have also attracted people to link to your attractive articles.  Or, you could have linked to an attractive blog post from a stranger, which caused a trackback link from that stranger’s blog.  Technically speaking, your blog posts are helping themselves to bring in the traffic. However, blogging alone is not enough.  You need to do more things to reach out to the untapped market out there waiting for you.  There are two ways you can do it.

  1. You can spend money to bring in the traffic.
  2. You can spend time to bring in the traffic.

By the way, I’m sorry to tell you that you have no choice but to choose “spend time to bring in the traffic” because I am going to talk about Twitter very soon. 🙂

Using social media to bring in the traffic.  It’s free! But it takes effort.

So far as I know of, the only way to reach out to the untapped market with a single cent is to participate in social media.  Because that’s the only way we can put in our information almost freely.  The social media website owners are more than happy to welcome you to introduce your sites to the visitors.  This is social media’s way of sustaining their businesses.

By the way, blogging is also a form of social media where people can comment on your blog and maybe providing links to their website.

Participating in the social media is all about building your own community who follows your thought leadership.  There are so many different social media websites out there of all kinds.  Well, it will be perfect if you can spend enough time to participate in all of them!  However, all of us  have less than 24 hours a day.  Hence, choosing one or two major social media is sufficient enough!  Or else, you may not be able to build a strong community supporting your thoughts. And I will strongly recommend you to participate in twitter as your first choice of building your strong community.

Why Twitter, and not other social media?

With more and more bigger players jumping into this large whale of tweets, Twitter is definitely a social media not to be taken lightly with.

Twitter has also matured over time.  I can still remember making my first few tweets and there is nobody listening to me.  I virtually have no local friends who can follow me on twitter.  I started to look out for the big names like Robert Scoble on Twitter.  I can still remember I can even chat with him back then.  Now, it’s so hard with so many people trying to talk to him on Twitter.  Back then, retweet was eventually invented by someone who just want to share a tweet he has seen.  It came in various forms such as “RT @charleslau the message”, “The message (via @charleslau)”, “Retweet the message (from @charleslau” and many more.  In fact, it is becoming more or less standardized now to be just “RT @charleslau the message”.

twitter-logoBecause Twitter is based on a very simple 140 characters, it turned out that there are a lot of growth to expand in Twitter because it provides a lot of API to leverage on to expand into different types of third party webwares.  As such, if you can establish your strong followers in time, you will soon be able to leverage on the future expansion that Twitter potentially has with many smart Social Media entrepreneurs out there! So far as I know, Twitter can be used show pictures, sound and links to your followers.  Some others even use Twitter to monitor certain things such as their health status, sleeping patterns, and even track what a plant wants to twitter about! With all the various tools establishing and more to come, your only goal today is to build a strong community around a certain topic which relates back to your blog!

How is Twitter linked to your blog?

While you may still be establishing your blog presence to the world, twitter is a good place to be more personal and to build your community with.  It’s like asking your interested visitors to subscribe to your blog posts, or even to subscribe to your newsletter via email.  Twitter is yet another form of establishment that you will want to work it out as you will learn and grow with this community.  Chances of them visiting your website is very high because they like you through your tweets!  Let’s see how you can start off by connecting yourself in Twitter…

Connecting yourself in Twitter

Twitter is indeed a whole new world out there where you are basically trying to woo more people into your own blog.  However, the methodology must be set properly.  First of all, you must not have the mentality of “What’s in it for me” in the twitter environment.  In twitter, it can be like micro-blogging where you get comments about your tweets.  It can also be like a chat room where you get to socialize with strangers (and of course your good old friends included). Let’s see some bad examples here:

  1. If you try to tweet the same message consistently over time, I can tell you safely that I will be the first one to unfollow you!  I am in Twitter to enjoy myself, while you are out there to hard sell me something!
  2. If you are caught tweeting affiliated links consistently as well, I will surely unfollow you!  It is so irritating to see affiliated links so many times.  Yes, I know you want to make money online… Can you just be more personal and talk to me with no money attached?
  3. Can you not be so robot?  There are some twitter accounts which are basically bots.  They do nothing but to churn out contents after contents.  If these contents are verified properly, I probably won’t mind to follow you so that I can retweet the benefits to my followers!  But if you are basically controlled by keywords, I will surely unfollow you!  That’s because keyword filtering is not always accurate.  I will rather follow people who are more human, and are willing to tweet quality stuff!

Now let’s see some good examples:

  1. If your twitter account is very clear about your topics, I will follow you because it’s part of my passion and beneficial to my followers.  You basically tweet really good stuff that it will not be good for me if I miss them!
  2. If you are really friendly to me, I would love to talk to you.  For that duration of chat, you can be really shocked that people may want to follow both of you just to listen to the conversation that they are interested in.
  3. Retweeted messages are very powerful.  They basically help me to transfer my friends’ tweets to my followers without much effort on my part other than just reading.  And because of the attraction in this tweet, it will just get retweeted a couple of times.  This will increase your followers pretty significantly.
  4. Tell your followers that you have just blogged a new post! We’ll love it!  Look! A chance to connect your blog to twitter.
  5. Do up your own Twitter wallpaper.  It really helps in your brand building for your overall business and eventually for your blog.

Conclusion

I wish to clarify that social media is definitely not going to be helpful to you if you are consistently looking out to make quick money out of it.  Social media is here to have fun!  It’s only with the more hardcore fans, they are more willing to spend some money to get a better deal!  Treat twitter as a brand awareness exercise for yourself.  Do everything that you can to get connected with the media with no strings attached.  Very soon, everybody will connect your blog and your twitter account as one brand! In other words, Think of what you can do to the social media, instead of what social media can do for you!

How has Twitter added to your blog?

This post was written by Charles. He has been an Internet reviewer since June 2007.  He pours his passion for Internet marketing and Internet branding into his Twitter account actively at @charleslau,

How to Build a Yellow Ferrari Product YOU Resume / Brochure

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Make New Rules — Don’t Be the List

Somewhere along the line, you probably learned rules about writing resumes pr asking for sponsorship. You probably learned about starting with your objectives and your history. What I’m about to tell you is going to break rules … make new ones instead.

The old resume was all about you, anyway. In today’s world, the new rules are all about them. Think about the person or people you are writing to or for. They’re the only ones who count.

It’s easy to think of a resume as a list — three suits: two blue, one gray — of what we’ve done. We tend to think of a resume off as one more painful requirement of job acquisition. We tend to think of a request for sponsorship as a list of what we want. That thinking sets us up for major missed opportunities. With a few tweaks, your resume or your request can be a dynamic tool in your business or career strategy.

You may need the list, but you don’t have to be the list.

Make your resume or your request more like a marketing brochure.

Most people will do what we want if we can prove it’s to their benefit.
That’s your quest.

A Yellow Ferrari Product YOU Resume or Brochure

Imagine that you’re a product — a yellow Ferrari.
Build a spec sheet quantifying your performance stats — those THEY care about.
Ask a helpful — not hypeful — marketing person to help you write copy about your soft skills — the skills THEY care about.
You’re well on your way to serious attention.

Include your product history — tell only what THEY will care about — on page 2.

Use Time and Technology to Show Not Tell

In the age of computers, we should be sending out fewer resumes and requests, not more. Ten well-investigated contacts beat out 100 attempts to knock on the wrong doors. Computers make it easier to seek, find, and learn about the people you want to do business with — be they clients, sponsors, or employers. Use the technology show them, not tell them!

  • Make a generic Yellow Ferrari Product You Brochure.
  • Set aside time daily to identify 1 or 2 client, sponsor, employer candidates whose goals match your goals.
  • Research each candidate to understand how your goals and their goals align.
  • Use that information to personalize the sample document for each specific candidate.

When we research a company before we approach them, it changes the way we write. It changes our pitch, our volume, our tone and word choice. We see how our personal skill set might add value in their context rather than talking in a manner that’s shooting blind.

A Sample Outstanding Product You Branding Brochure

Turn a resume into a Yellow Ferrari Product YOU brochure.
PAGE 1: Why not start with …

This document prepared for [Company XYZ] by [Person ABC] a web strategist who can offer tested experience to [goal MNO]

Career Accomplishments — Delivers results.
This is a short bulleted list of quantitative results, such as sales numbers, profit numbers, great hires, Google results.
Always numbers first.

Core Competencies — Tends the Intangibles.
This is sections of qualitative skills, such as team skills, management skills, publishing skills, interdepartmental skills.
Key ideas highly organized.

PAGE 2: With your skill set laid on page 1, you can list your chronology simply with far less detail on page 2. Depending on your industry, you might offer it as a short narrative summary in place of or above the breakout chronology — the way some restaurant menus do. [Be careful. More traditional industries won’t find that inspiring or cute.]

Use It as a Promotional Tool

Change the way you look at your resume and you’ll soon find a world of uses for it. Use it as you do your business card. I’ve sent mine to a business friend with a note saying, “Let me know if my voice might help you in the meetings with the publishers you told me about.” Design Page 1 into your blog’s About Page to let your readers know more about you, your brand, and your business.

Most importantly look over what you feature to focus on what has contributed most to your success. Know that just the act of doing so will make talking about what you do more fluent in the future.

What would you expect in a Yellow Ferrari Product You Resume / Brochure?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related articles
Building a Personal Brand YOU
Brand YOU — Capitalize on Your Strengths
Personal Branding: Strengths Assessment Tool
Brand YOU –What’s the BIG IDEA?

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