At least one part of the ad inventory that MS has purchased on Facebook seems to be directed at existing MS employees on Facebook. Good for them. In building a community of passionate evangelists/advocates, one of the best (if not the best) place to start is with your existing employees. So, I see the...

People often say something to the effect of "networks are dead, we're in a billion channel world now," when referring to Internet/YouTube, etc. I'm going to postulate that the universe of channels is actually much, much larger than that. Why? Because the person is the channel. The tools are at the point...

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times..."The #1 reason why people go to events is to meet other people." It's not about the (often boring) powerpoint presentation. It's about your ability as a host to create an environment that is a social lubricant and helps people meet each other. This...

Took another step in the evolution of our Public Sector Partner community today. I hosted the first "Planning for the Remarkable Event" call today. The objective is to raise the game of all of us who execute customer-focused events to make them truly " remarkable ." But, it's not about my broadcasting...

The intersection of two of my favorite things...football and technology. But there's a much bigger message here. It touches on building community . It touches on collaborative development . The original post is so good that I am copying wholesale from Church of the Customer Blog If you're a football...

Reading your customers' blogs is a great way to keep your fingers on the pulse of their experiences. Another one is Facebook , MySpace, etc. I use a service called "Twitter" where I 'f ollow' a guy named Jerry Colonna . Jerry was partner in Flatiron Partners with one of my favorite bloggers, Fred Wilson...

What's the holy grail of marketing? To not spend any money and have your customers do your marketing for you. I call them " raving fans ." My buddies Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell call it " Citizen Marketers " After reading Ian Ayres book, Super Crunchers , I visited the author's website and dropped...

When you prepare a presentation, er performance, for any group, may I suggest this: Prep as if you were going to talk to a class of four year olds Adults need the same thing, though you won't get the same instantaneous feedback, in terms of involvement and attention. My daughter's nursery school has...

When we talk about a "community" of partners and how we want them to market with us, we need to understand that community and marketing go hand-in-hand. A breadth partner community, by definition is a 1:many relationship. These partners don't have the unique, personal relationships on a 1:1 level that...

Here's the offer...help us redesign the masthead (pictured here) for our Pu blic Sector Partners Newsletter . (We think it needs a new look.) If we go with it, I'll include a link (and a write-up) about your skills/firm mention you on the next WIN Webcast send you a free copy of Windows Server 2003 w...

The ideal scenario, IMHO, of a partner community is where the partners themselves are involved in building the marketing and communications vehicles that they will use. So, when I see a glimmer of hope, I am PUMPED UP. Example #1. Fredrik read my post about the WIN Webcast and offered up a comment :...