fans

The ultimate fan is an immortal fan!

Does your company have a 12th man advantage?

On the heels of Super Bowl XLVIII, I think we're all now familiar with the term "12th Man." In case you unplugged or tuned out for the last 72 hours, here's how it's defined on Wikipedia:

On Tuesday, I wrote about cult brands from the customer perspective. Today, my focus is on a view from the inside, from the employee perspective. What is the employee's contribution or impact on creating a cult brand? (Given my recent push for focusing on the employee first, this follow-up perspective should be no surprise!) Can employees become raving fans? A simple answer is this: Yes; employees are your "customers" (albeit internal), too!

Here is a ten minute talk I recorded for New Music Strategies’ AmpNMS ‘online music knowledge event’ about Making Friends With Fans:

Last weekend I gave a talk at the International Communication Association about the increasingly interpersonal nature of the relationships between musicians and friends. In it, I draw on the interviews I’ve done with musicians to identify some of the positive new rewards they get when they can interact directly with their fans, cover many of the tricky interpersonal issues they face in trying to negotiate how much those relationships can be like friendship, and briefly summarize the main strategies they use to manage boundaries in ways with which they are comfortable.

Today the world has 6.92 billion people. They all wake up and look for the sun in the sky. They also look up at super brands and aspire to belong. The future is bright for brands that evolve their consumers into passionate advocates. Loyal consumers who buy without question. These are consumers who are worth their weight in gold.