Tag Archives: 1000heads

The Value of a Value Approach

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You all know that I am sold out on having a value-based approach to, well, just about everything.

A value based approach is about giving more of you to people and developing deeper relationships, rather than having your thumbs in 101 pies. By not giving lots of little, but less of more, you can build relationships that have a great yield – in pretty much whatever you do.

I wanted to show you some of the returns, the value if you will, of a value-based approach that I’ve experienced this week. I’ve had a shower of love and recognition from a range of people recently, all as a direct result of this value-based approach.

1. First of all, I received a much appreciated link from Like Minds Alum Joanne Jacobs writing about the trough of disillusionment for social media strategies. Joanne has spoken at the last two Like Minds events, and I was thrilled to hear from her that since her keynote in February, she has received continual work from people who have watched the video or referred someone based on watching it.

How I built value: This is an instance right here of me getting to know someone and actually help someone who is greatly respected and I’d never think would be in the need of my need. It’s my honour and privilege to be associated with her – and it’s all because of value.

2. Secondly, there was quite a humbly moment for me when I discovered on this post from James Gordon that I am among the UK’s Top Marketing Blogs. I’ve been blogging now for a year, and to get that kind of recognition was really, really humbling – mostly because I haven’t focussed on getting blog recognition.

How I built value: I don’t focus on retweets and traffic but just engaging you wonderful people who spend time regularly commenting here. Together, we make ideas reality, and that is what is being recognised. To regularly get an average of 15 comments per post for a blog that might occasionally hit 200 uniques a day is pretty good engagement – and I’m only keen for it to become more!

3. Thirdly, I had a bittersweet moment when my latest intern Jonny Rose left the Aaron+Gould flock to fly to London’s shores to focus on his Masters. Jonny wrote this very loving peice on the time he spent with me, poetically entitled As Good As Gould. He is a person of unquestionable character, of sincere and genuine motives, and of incredible comic genius. I’m glad to say he’ll be blogging with Like Minds, so you can enjoy his unique style there and on his blog.

How I built value: Jonny has worked with us for the last two months, and it has been my pleasure to impart some of my experiences and insights to him. Every day that he worked, we talked about what he was learning, the bigger lessons, and about nurturing his skill set.

4. Finally, a fall-of-my-seat moment happened for me on Wednesday when Molly Flatt, James Whatley and my other friends at 1000heads named me as one of their 10 WoM Thought Leaders. To be recognised by my friends Molly and James (and I do mean friends) is a wonderful thing in itself – but then to see who I was named next to was just a whole other deal. Right next to friends and heros like Joe Pine, Chris Brogan, Joanne Jacobs, John Bell (who I’ve all met now!), as well as James Gilmore and Emanuel Rosen – I was ecstatic.

How I built value: Well, the whole story is here actually. All I did was give exposure to people I believed in, however small the exposure that I could give was.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • I know you’re all building value relationships. I’m keen to know which ones. Tell me who you’re building value with.

Lessons in Experience from 1000heads

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxVsxbhYhs

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch it directly on YouTube.

My friend James Whatley pointed me to this exceptional peice of work that he and the team at 1000heads did for Nokia. In the video above, you see the execution of a master plan of word of mouth creation and experience planning, in which they surprise a group of Nokia fans around the world by arriving on their doorstep or flying them to London and then giving them gorgeous sports cars to drive to fulfil a challenge that involved using various Nokia products like OviMaps and their phone.

Two things to say here. First of all, I hear people slam Nokia a lot (mostly Nokia fans) for not having Apple’s marketing machine. But I don’t see Apple hiring WOM planners like 1000heads and doing incredible things like this, or this, or partnering with Like Minds, for their fans on a regular basis.

Second thing: this takes us right back to our discussions on experience and expectation management. Remember this diagram below from Managing Expectations:

Suspense Curve with Trailers and Films

If we break this video down, the trailer (the front loading of the experience) is when people get the cars in the first place. It surprises people, it delights people, it’s completely unexpected. But what it now creates is suspense.

Suspense is the experience of anticipating an experience, and when you create one great experience, people will begin expecting another.

The real beauty of this video and work by 1000heads is not the cars at the beginning, it’s the fact that they exceed the expectations and deliver a better experience after that.

To put this into a metaphor, as per the diagram above, the film was better than the trailer.

Expectation Management for Event Planners

Here’s a quick note to the hash of people creating events around the world: you need to understand suspense and how to front/back load your experience to make sure that your marketing doesn’t exceed your delivery. I’d have you start by reading about the Expectation Pyramid, and then the Basics of Expectation Management.

If I was in a fighting mood I could list event after event where it sounded and looked far better than it actually was. The days of these hacks getting away with this won’t last much longer in my opinion.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • If we were talking about a purely digital experience, when have you had your expectations exceeded?
  • What can we draw from that experience to learn more about digital suspense?

Another look at Scattering Seeds

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NigmIlPr9k

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch it directly on YouTube.

This is a quick clip of me on Tuesday 15th June in Helsinki, chatting about how Like Minds Conversation Helsinki came together. I wanted to show it because I’ve having another thought about value vs volume and also about spreadability being like scattering seeds.

The point is that Like Minds in Helsinki came about through a chain of events that I could never have planned. In actual fact, it came about because we asked 1000heads to partner with us for our Like Minds Conference in February, but without charging them – so essentially promoting them for free. We loved what they were doing and just wanted to use the platform that we had to give them more exposure.

Of course, our relationship began to flourish from that point. One connection then hooked onto another, and before we knew it, we’re in Helsinki running a Conversation and also a Summit with the tourist board of Finland.

Value vs Volume

The value play says that rather than seeking to grow through shallow touches with lots of people (therefore volume being required to turn a profit), we seek deep relationships that have far more yield. This is contrary to most internet and social media marketing which is purely about volume. However with my story of Helsinki, I want to reevaluate this a little.

I’m not sure if you can predict which relationships will be valuable and which won’t. We’ve all been let down by people we had expectations of, and then been surprised by others who have exceeded our expectations. This is church, in business, in work, in life, in family – in relationships of any kind.

This means that if I carefully plant my few seeds in a few select locations, am I not leaving room for this exception equation. You’d invest in the ones who you predict will yield the most return, and leave the ones that you predict would not yield a good return. And then problem with that is as we described above – your expectations aren’t always right. People surprise you – either by letting you down, or coming to the fore.

In my mind I am beginning to see that we need both the value and the volume play. Spreadability is like scattering seeds – and you don’t know which of those seeds will yield what. But by scattering a volume of seeds, you create room for expectations to be both let down and exceeded.

This volume-based scattering is like the training ground where value-based relationships then come to the fore. Something that my social sales funnels make room for.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • We all acknowledge this effect – synchronicity – is the product of planning?
  • Can you predict a value based relationship?