First sit down and have a think.
What is a passive user to me?
and then
What is an active user?
Ok.
Now what does a passive user have to do (actions) to become an active user.
Now what barriers are there in that process? Remove all barriers. Make it easy.
Done.
Now, what action am i stimulating?
Make the engaged user emotive enough to begin the process.
With a start up how do you legitimise?
What makes this concept real? how can we communicate that? how do we convince people that in all likelihood we will never meet but conduct business with?
Quotes, press releases, buzz, real physical address, photos via flickr, blogging, techcrunch mention..
All different routes.
How about a standard, a brand, voted for by the industry, like the Intel Inside brand.
A brand that reinforces legitimacy and rewards action.
Certain actions provide points, and start ups are only admitted once they have met criteria set by the community.
A brand that says we are a real business and are here for the long haul.
Now I’ll be the first to say, this isn’t for everyone, and if you are facing legimacy problems maybe there’s something bigger wrong.
However there is a real market need.
I don’t think this is quite the answer, but it’s less wrong than no answer…..
What is personality?
Google ‘definition of personality’ returns “the complex of all the attributes–behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental–that characterize a unique individual; “their different …”
Essentially personality is what makes us different and unique.
Big businesses try to stamp out personality to keep regimented systems for franchises, to reassure customers, to get the right cogs doing what they need to.
Yet more often than not a loyalty between organisations is between people, not the brands.
It’s people behind every company and every interaction and with people comes their personality.
We shouldn’t shy away from that, we should embrace it, what are the personalities behind our business? and how can we leverage that? (and in term keep them happy).
I was thinking this as I bought a coffee from Cafe Monet, in Newmarket.
I wandered in and 3 people were in there and they all said hey anton, morning anton, etc to (as I instantly became aware) Anton the barista.
Anton looked up and said ‘hey buddy’ to me, and carried on talking to various people, within 30 seconds you could tell he was the personality behind the cafe and the reason people kept coming back.
It was like everyone was friends, a real sense of community.
I daresay his 10% extra effort with every customer leads to 80% (or higher) return rates.
I’ll definitely be going back to say hi to Anton and grab a coffee (plus the coffee isn’t half bad).
The question is, what personalities do we have? and how can we embrace them?
I have been thinking a lot about Twitter and the communications channel it provides.
A few points:
So what services would then bode well under these conditions? Quite a lot, Competitions, Market Research, News…here’s one I have been chewing on:
Fitness Plan
Offer a free fitness plan, where you have a trainer, throughout the week putting out exercises you can do in your office (or from your desk).
Imagine engaging several hundred local people to do the same exercise at the same time and report back (kind of flashmobbing but in the office).
Keeping fit is a big problem for office workers. You can then engage with the audience and help them keep fit.
Monetisation models are numerous: upselling, selling gear, consultations, build a community, sponsorship.
Take it further, exercises to reduce Occupational Overuse Syndrome (oos), dietary?
Oh and you can use it as a feedback tool to find out immediately the difficulties your market are having and help them. (Help me help you)
Firms that need me know me.
This should be your objective.
In your niche do the firms that need you know you? if not why?
If they do. Gold.
Leveraging is great. Get your existing assets and use them to leverage your profit.
Here’s my idea.
Say your a Mechanic / Doctor / Lawyer / Tattooist?
Any one on one service.
Your existing assets are your clientele.
What is the biggest selling point for new clients? Recommendations.
You could go away and build recommendations into your site ask your clients to jump on. Might work. Requires effort.
What i suggest is jump on LinkedIn.com. Create an account.
Set up an account for your organisation and each of your individual service level staff.
Instead of sending clients emails. Ask them to add you as a connection on LinkedIn.
Customers with great experiences will send through recommendations.
(Lesson: go where your customers are)
Set your profile to Public. Search engines will pick it up. So new clients ‘googling’ you can find you and all your recommendations.
Take it one step further. Create a Networking group on LinkedIn ie PBC & Son Networking Group. Allow your clients to network with other clients. Help them (help you).
All of this only takes a few hours to setup. No fee. So what are you waiting for?
For the naysayers:
Just another idea for you. Chucking it out there. As usual, those whom are motivated will reap the rewards.