Category Archives: Trusted Relationships

“Passion” is way too UNDERESTIMATED…

“Passion” generally takes the backseat to “Promotion” – it is just way easier to promote than to build your messaging around Passion.  The path of least resistance is of course, least resistant. Take, for example, the normal Business Owner started or came into their business because of this very reason – they were passionate about…

Social Media is the “amplifier” for Word-of-Mouth

Word-of-Mouth has been around since the beginning of time – no one will every refute that fact.  While it is the most powerful form of communications – because it carries with it things like “trust” and “integrity” and “recommendations” and “confirmation” and “credibility” and a host of other such terms – it has always been…

“Promises” – still the foundation…

This week I was in a discussion with a new client about their business strategy and how we were going to help them integrate social media to help them build more word-of-mouth and sales – a conversation I have all the time – but this time it hit me and reminded me of something that…

Is the Sales Team the true home for Social Media?

Marketing, marketing, marketing – that seems to be all your hear about in regard to social media these days.  While no one can argue it has completely changed the way marketers have to think and act going forward (although many still haven’t adapted and believe traditional methods still work) I wanted to talk about something…

WOM is a strategy…not a tactic

I am often asked, “What can we start doing to build word-of-mouth (WOM) quickly?”  The answer is, not much. Word-of-Mouth embodies both STRATEGY and CULTURE.  It is not something you wake up one day and say to yourself, “Maybe we should work on word-of-mouth today or this month as our new initiative.”  Sadly, it just…

“Testimony” vs. “Tranparency” – any difference?

I was sitting in church yesterday at Overlake Christian Church listening to a great message by Pastor Mike Howerton talk about “getting unstuck” by facing where you are in life and how you can move on to be more at peace with yourself and others around you – then it hit me.  Mike was simply…

“Pimping” or Helping – which are you?

In the world today, you are either “Pimping” yourself, your company, or your products OR you are focused on “Helping” others so they can be more successful.  Be honest with yourself and take a good look at what you do as a business or an individual.  With the introduction of Social Media in the world,…

Promoting won’t get you WOM – unless you’re a coupon

While I am on the topic of Authenticity and how it is such a key component to success these days, I wanted to bring another topic into the conversation – how does it help you build “Word-of-Mouth” with your audience.  From a business perspective, this is the holy grail – “getting more of the right…

Authenticity is an "accelerator"

One of the wonderful aspects social media has brought to the forefront is the need to be authentic.  This was never a problem decades ago when everyone pretty much knew you and what you were about so it wasn’t a big issue.  But as we have spread out around the world it has been much…

Getting "It’s all about ME" to work for you

There is absolutely, positively no doubt in the world today that the key mantra for people is “It’s all about ME”.  We see it in TV programming (approximately 70% of today’s programming is “reality” TV), we see it in the traditional advertising and we really see it in social media. In one of my earlier…