Friday’s Fun Finds 4 Business: Google Alerts

Three weeks ago I was posting about mission-driven marketing (Oct. 1) and I recommended a book of the same name by Peter C. Brinckerhoff. The next day, waiting there in my in-box was an email from one Peter C. Brinckerhoff. It seems he had set up a Google Alert for the appearance of his book title & name anywhere on the Net, and when I blogged about him, it triggered the alert and he was notified. He read my blog and—being a good networker—followed-up by sending me a pleasant email. I emailed him back and the interchange led me to even more good books and some information that will help me serve an upcoming client. Since that day, I, too, have instituted this practice (for my company and name), and so far it has yielded interesting results.

Google Alerts are nothing new but I choose them as this Friday’s Fun Find because they warrant a little awareness building for the uninitiated and some attention to highlight their many uses.

Features & Uses
First, Google Alerts are an easy, useful tool to track buzz for your business, brand(s), product or service. Google’s search is broad, covering the Web comprehensively, including articles, blogs, videos, news, and groups. They can be set to issue results as-it-happens, daily or weekly. And not only can they help you assess the content of buzz out there but they can also help you gage the amount of buzz or when it’s heaviest. Second, you can also use them to track a competitor, client, or industry-related trends. Third—and especially of interested to publishers and authors—they can be used to track reviews, publicity, or sales leads for a publication. Other creative uses include harnessing the wisdom of the Web community to improve future publications, product development, talks and presentations. A humble Mr. Brinkerhoff told me he uses it “for times when people dis my work on their blogs—so I learn about things I might have missed.” If the author, editor, brand manager, or publicist is diligent with follow-up, you will not only have learned something new about your work or subject matter, you will also have etablished yet another avenue to build your brand-stakeholder relationship. Peter Brinkerhoff did and I’m the better for it in several ways. Now I’m even more likely to recommend his book—and that’s successful brand-building!

Finally, the great part of Google Alerts is that it’s one less thing you have to remember in course of your busy day. You “set it and forget it,” letting Google do the work for you.

Some Parting Advice:

1. Choose your search terms wisely—avoid generic words;
   
2. Add common misspellings to your search terms;
   
3. Set your alerts to run weekly if you don’t want to get the same listing again and again or if you have more common search terms and wish to avoid results fatigue;


4. Adjust and improve your search terms over time; and


5. Don’t forget to follow-up on real buzz or good leads, lest the whole purpose be lost.

Enjoy!

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means To Me…”

I have a sales director friend who likes to remind her team, “Trust owns the marketplace." That’s a great truism. Mutual trust is important for sustaining any relationship, and the one between a company and its customers—or more specifically a brand and its stakeholders—is no different.

Trust is what will enable your work or business to gain customer attention, to rollout new products or business lines, to build belief before the evidence supports, to have a leg up on your competition, and to overcome breaches in performance. And trust will also grease the wheels to develop that strong relationship of two-way conversation we’ve been discussing in recent posts.

One way to establish trust is to do what you say and to say what you mean. In other words, to deliver. This is perhaps most emphasized method in the business world today. A second way to establish trust—one less emphasized but equally important—is through simple respect. We humans aren’t perfect and at some point we will make mistake; we will fail to deliver and cause an exception to our “rule” of quality and excellence. At times like these, the trust we have built through respecting the customer will buoy and stabilize the relationship, until we can repair our error and get back on course. So we need to think of, plan and work for, talk and listen to our customers with respect.

How To Listen
As I've previously said, talking with your customer and not at your customers requires first listening to them. So how do we listen? With respect. When you engage customers in formal listening through things like surveys and focus groups, or informal listening from order taking to trend and sales analysis, remember: these are not “customers,” they are people. Human beings. Sometimes it helps to imagine that they could be your sister or your aunt, your old college roommate or neighbor down the street. You will actually hear more of the story-beneath-the story if you keep this in the forefront of your mind when in dialog with customers. In other words, listen with respect. In fact, I would urge, be bold: listen with love. Then you will begin to build the kind of trust generates customer loyalty and create customer evangelists.

This seems so simple—kindergarten stuff or what our mothers taught us as children. And frankly, it is. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean mamma wasn’t right. If we wish to have fruitful two-way conversation with our customers and stakeholders it’s essential.

So Tell Me About Yourself...

Earlier this month I was writing about the importance of meeting customers desires not needs (Oct. 2). But how do we learn which is which—a customer need or a customer desire? Well, start by listening.

The first stage of getting to know your customers and the motivations behind their behavior is to engage in effective listening. Effective listening also happens to be a defining factor of any successful two-way conversation—the importance of which we discussed in yesterday’s post. (BTW, when I say “customers” I am using this as shorthand, for the sake of blog-space, to mean your customers, potential customers, and stakeholders—anyone who has vital influence on the success of your business.)

How To Begin
Here’s what NOT to do: begin by spouting off all the "very important, need-to-know" things we have to tell our customers. Just as this is a turn-off in our personal lives, it is also ineffective in business relationships. As I said yesterday, the easiest way to open a conversation with, well, anyone, is to ask a question. I’m sure every self-respecting business person can think of lots questions they’d like their customers to answer. However, it’s best to start with one they can answer. This is a common error in marketing research; all too frequently enthusiastic marketing, product development, or R&D personnel go out to “listen” to their customers and the first thing they do is to ask them about some prototype-idea-strategy-thing-y that doesn’t exist yet and may or may not do this or that. Wrong. Start by asking people about them.

The Questions
These need not be deep, intimate questions either. (At least, not at first.) You can start with simple things: what were the last three purchases they made that made them feel over-the-moon satisfied? How do they typically first hear about new products or events in your industry? Or better yet, if you're really willing to invest the time to get know your cutomers, ask even more basic questions that will begin to reveal who they are in terms of needs, fears, and desires. You want to learn what your customers do, how they spend their time, what they watch or read, and how they play or relax. You want to know how, when, and where they like to shop; what they save money for; and what they are most likely to splurge on. Then, as trust grows, build to asking questions like: What do you usually talk about with your friends? What keeps you up at night? What would you most like to change about your life right now? Some of the most useful information often comes from humble sources: What do your customers currently have on their coffee table? What adorns their refrigerator door? What office ritual is most enjoyable to them? Questions like these result in insights that will fuel your ability to identify and fulfill customer desires better than your competitors. They may seem less-than-relevant but trust me: they are most relevant.

Remember, you are engaged with your customers in a relationship of mutual interdependence and what affects one party will influence to some degree the other. The better you know your dance partner, the easier to not just avoid stepping on toes (needs) but to dance the dance of their dreams (desires).

The next three posts will cover, respectively, how to listen, what to listen for, and how to make sense of what you hear.

Talking With Your Customers Not At Your Customers

If you want to generate brand loyalty and create customer evangelists for your business or nonprofit endeavor, here’s one non-negotiable rule: You have to talk with your customers not at your customers.

Good communication is always a two-way conversation. Hackneyed common sense, right? But why then do companies so often fail at this?

One reason is that we don’t recognize this for what it is: a relationship. Like all relationships, while in existence, there is some level of interdependence for both parties. They need things from each other, they have shared experiences, and they tend to influence each other. Because of this interdependence, anything that changes or impacts one member of the relationship will have some level of impact on the other member. So two-way communication is key to maintaining the long-term health and success of the relationship.

The same holds true for the customer-company relationship. We need our customers and our customers need what we provide. This is an interdepentdent relationship if there ever was one. And just like in our personal relationships, we need to share about what's going on with us and listen for what's going on with them in order to manage change. Neglecting this communication leads to relationship detoriation.

The second reason companies fail to talk with customers and not at customers is that we go into this relationship full of agendas. Ok sure, sometimes we dress our agendas up with nicer names: “our message,” “our vision,” “our strategic solution,” and so on. But they are what they are: agendas of set goals we are trying to bring to fruition in which the other party must play a role. Having an agenda is not bad—business need goals—but they become a problem when they are allow to dictate the conversation to the point where listening fails and the two-way communication ceases. Agendas that lack respect for the unpredictable will not succeed. Relationships that lack respect for the automonmy other party will not last.

How well we communicate is first-and-foremost based on being in a conversation with people. Even if we have something very specific to communicate to our customers or some sort of message that we want or are directed to send, the communication is still needs to be approached as part of an ongoing dialog.

What's the best way to start such a conversation? Ask somebody a question and then listen. More on what to ask, how to listen, and what to listen for as the week continues….

Fun Finds 4 Business: Fact Checking

“There is no such source of error as the pursuit of
absolute truth."

—Samuel Butler, English author 1835-1902, The
Note-books of Samuel Butler, 1912

A lot has been said recently in the media about fact checking—what with the shenanigans being pulled by both sides in this 2008 election year. Many nonprofits, research organizations, action groups, and interested parties spanning the political spectrum have, in part reacting to the “Swift Boat” politics of ’04, taken four years for readiness and now made major marketing and grass-roots drives to reach the mainstream. Suddenly, fact checking is on the radar of Susie Soccer Mom and Joe 6-Pack. But in other industries—like for example publishing—fact checking is hardly the new en vogue. It’s been the centuries-old standard. Some of the most talented editors I know either are or got started as fact checkers. However, not everyone has access to these embodiments of accuracy… or sometimes they’re simply too busy to look over our work. So for our own writing, books and articles, marketing copy and ads, business letters and annual reports, messages, blogs, and any communication where our reputation and brand is on the line (meaning, all)—we need help. The good news is that there are many online resources that make fact checking quicker and easier.

In the art of fact checking, less is not more. A good rule of thumb is to always consult at least two sources, usually three. So for this Friday’s “Fun Finds 4 Business,” I depart from my norm of singling out a favorite resource and instead offering a number:

First, up are those in the political arena, which tend to dominate the online fact checking world. Perhaps the most well known is the widely-used FactCheck.org. Operating for more than decade, FactCheck is a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters” that monitors the full range of political speeches, ads, debates, interviews, and press releases. They accept no funding from business corporations, unions, political parties, lobbiests or individuals, and instead are supported by the Annenberg Foundation, begun by philanthropist Walter Annenberg. The names and bios of all the site’s researches are online and articles posted include bylines. Being the biggest kid on the block, they are also a target and many people have challenged their findings. (Just yesterday I was reading commentary on a Dallas Morning News blog that admonished: “The first rule of fact-checking is to stay away from FactCheck.org.") However, I like that for one topic, for instance—an ad sponsored by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund that attacked Gov. Palin’s stance on aerial hunting—the researcher posted her findings concerning the ad, and then later posted in it's entirety, "as a service to our readers," a rebuttal letter that was sent her by the DOW. My vote: Props for giving full access to a primary source that challenged your own fact finding.

Two sites with great reputations for veracity focus specifically on government spending: OpenSecrets.org and FedSpending.org. The former is sponsored by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit “research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy." This year the organization celebrates its 25th anniversary. The latter, which went online two years ago and in June logged it’s 10 millionth search by an individual, monitors the activities of the White House Office of Management and Budget to give you "easy ways to see exactly where, and on what, your federal tax dollars are being spent."

Looking more generally at Election 2008, there’s Politifact.com (pronounced puh-lit’-eh-fact), which aims to alleviate people drowning in the flood of campaign rhetoric who “just want the truth.” A joint effort by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly—two respected, independent newsrooms—the site fact-checks each line of our candidates' speeches, TV ads, and interviews to determine the amount of truth in the claims they make. PolitiFact says they are “bolder” than previous journalistic fact-checking efforts because they’re willing to “make a call, declaring whether a claim is True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True or False." They even have a special category for the most ridiculous claims called "Pants on Fire." My verdict: They are by far the most fun and creative site, with their infamous “truth-o-meter” and their new “flip-o-meter” (for flip-floppers on issues).

Moving on to even more general media issues is AIM.org. Accuracy In Media (AIM) is a non-profit, grassroots “citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.” They claim not to advocate for one side or another and instead desire a fair and objective media--without bias or partisanship. However they are on the watch for media coverage slanted to the left, as they assert that’s the most prevalent bias.

Still more general and decidedly more liberal-leaning (although not by their own assertions) is RadicalReference.info. Less glamorous but global and equally tenacious, this site features… “a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality.” Their goal is to provide reference services to "those looking for answers they don’t readily find in mainstream media and other information sources.” A person can submit a question online for fact checking on behalf of a company or organization or "those just looking for answers from a trusted source.” (I noticed in their resource section they offer a guide to independent bookstores.)

A couple other general sites worth mentioning are RefDesk.com and LibrarySpot.com. Billing itself as the “Fact Checker For the Internet,” RefDesk was founded in 1995 as a free resource that indexes and reviews quality, credible, and current web-based resources for the general public. And the massive LibrarySpot is “a free virtual library resource center for... just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.” The idea behind LibrarySpot is bring to library and reference sites together with editorial reviews in one user-friendly spot. LibrarySpot hand-selects its sites and their editorial team reviews for the quality, content and utility. I also like Librarian's Internet Index (LII), a publicly funded website & free e-newsletter service that offers “Websites you can trust.” Dozens of high-quality websites are selected weekly, described, and organized by their team of librarians. They claim over 20,000 entries, maintained by their librarians and organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics. I like the site design—it’s easy to browse or search.

So from marketers and publicists at Fortune 500s to independent or simply overly-busy publishers, there’s are a lot more resources available to us these days when it comes to writing, reporting, and discerning the truth. ...No excuse for excuses.

Customer Needs and Wants: Is there really a difference and why should we care?

Yesterday I mentioned a book by Peter C. Brinckerhoff, Mission-Based Marketing, that helps non-profits and other mission-driven companies stay competitive. Brinckenhoff makes an interesting distinction early in the book that's worth sharing, as it’s extremely helpful no matter want type of company you work for or lead. He writes:

“…there is a huge difference between needs and wants. You may need to rethink your traditional view of working to meet customer’s needs. What you must target is their wants. … People have needs, people seek wants. There is no more fundamental, no more important foundational success for successful marketing than those six words: People have needs, people seek wants.”

I am in totally agreement. If your company is not meeting your customers’ needs, you are not going to be here in a couple of years. And if you’re not fulfilling your customers’ wants, you may be here a couple of years, but your business is not going to be in good shape; you will be constantly playing a reactive game of catch-up to the company or organization who is fulfilling customers’ wants. And the reactive game is always more costly, more stressful, more damaging to your brand, and just plain less profitable. The motivation to find, purchase, and use products is driven more by wants than by needs. Our human needs will be fulfilled, one way or another. What and who fills those needs is based on our present wants, desires, dreams, and inspirations. We feel the need, then—faced with many options—we choose our want. And even more than that: we will go out and search for, even evanglized for, things we want. You won't find people doing that for things they simply need.

This key point also relates to definitions of “quality,” which I referenced in an earlier post (Sept. 18), in particular, those by Noriaki Kano and his “attractive quality” dimension of the word. Customers judge the quality of our products, brand(s), and companies based on a combination of meeting fundamental needs and surpassing their expectations (fulfilling desires).

So how do we determine which is which—a customer need or a customer want? Well, it all starts by listening. How to listen, what to listen for, and how to makes sense of what we hear? All fodder for next week’s posts….

More Mission-Based Marketing

On Monday I was discussing mission-driven companies and the promotion of their agendas, vision, and brand(s). There’s a good book on this subject, which I recommend: Mission-Based Marketing: Positioning Your Non-Profit In an Increasingly Competitive World by Peter C. Brinckerhoff. Though written for people leading and working in non-for-profits, most of its principals can be applied to the for-profit sector as well. Brinckerhoff outlines six characteristics of non-for-profits that are truly competitive in today’s open market. He also outlines what he sees are the six core steps of the marketing cycle that non-profits (or any company for that matter) must master. But his core point—woven throughout the book and supported by philosophy, case studies and practical examples—is that an organization can be Mission-Based and Market-Driven. Perhaps his most valuable contribution to this point is his discussion of a critical timeless question: which is right, the markets or the mission? Here’s a discerning passage on this:

If your organization moves toward the market, if it listens to what the market wants, some day, some week, some month you will be confronted by a market want that conflicts with your mission, your organizational history, or even your personal values. What are you to do? What should be your guide? Which, in such a conflict, is “right”—the market or the mission?

Let me put this as succinctly as I can in three sentences:

1. The market is always right.
2. The market is not always right for you.
3. The mission should be your organization’s ultimate guide.

The market wants what it wants, and there is no denying it, no ignoring it, no trying to make it not so. The people that you serve want what they want, but you can and, in some cases, should only give them so much.

And here is the point: the choice is always yours as an organization. You can choose not to meet a market want whenever you feel that it is in conflict with your organization’s mission or values. …

The most important skill in this area is learning how to say “no” to a good idea , and even to a real need. Even though a market may want you to provide a service you need to back away if you can’t do it well, or if doing the service would jeopardize everything else you are doing. More and more non-for-profits are learning that they cannot be all things to all people, that they cannot solve all the problems of their community, and thus that they need to pick and choose what they do well....

Also, for those squarely in the for-profit world, check out: Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green. This book on “social investors” (i.e. Bill Gates, Paul Newman, Bono, George Soros) not only offers insight into the mindset of some high-profile givers, but also illustrates how the principals of social capitalism work—and work well. The book has also been used in emersion programs by the Clinton Global Initiative to empower social responsibility among both corporate and grassroots leaders.

If you have any other favorites on this subject, I’d love to hear about them. And until then, keep marketing your mission, telling your company’s story, listening to your customers, and following your guiding star.