Their touch point, frame of reference, what gets their interest…is the ‘human experience’. Period.

Today’s American consumers (whose ever changing life stages must be taken into consideration) start their relationship with your business by examining and experiencing your intent and motivation. Consumers interact with brands like they do with other humans.  Since they highly value authenticity and transparency in relationships, all the more this is true regarding brand communication.

This is why your story…your purpose, your heart should be at the core of your branding. Your brand needs to be able to ‘touch’ the human heart in order to even get consideration in the first place. That is why sales pitches, hype, fast talking and slick in-your-face intrusive advertising does NOT work any longer.

Show me your interesting story (your human touch point) and you can call it a branding or anything else you like.

Sad to see these folks lose their jobs for sure but on the other hand I think this is a great wakeup call for those who depend on using custom social networks in their business strategy.

This is one reason I believe placing your most important digital assets in someone else basket is NOT a wise strategy. If you realize the advantage of valuing your digital assets…you will be way ahead of many competitors who simply want to pass this off to their web people.

Using free services is extremely valuable to businesses and groups today but the strategy should be to use these to lead the client, customer or members to your own web property so you have most of the control and say so. Not the other way around!

Keep in mind when using these 3rd party sites, the member data belongs to the site…not you! Your web presence strategy should be designed to ensure you end up being the owner of your tribe. After all, you are the one putting all the work into providing the platforms and opportunity for your tribe to connect. As you often hear me say…”He who owns the client wins”.

There are still many good options for you to own your social network platform and these can provide you the longevity and security to keep your online organization flowing, growing and safe.

Protect your digital assets! They are valuable to your business growth.

Believe it or not, many clients that have come to us to develop a new website did not realizing they did not own their previous website!

How can that be?

Well for starters…many web designers sell you what is referred to as a proprietary CMS (Content Management System) or a template based system. Both of these give you the advantage of adding content and managing some of your website functions from a browser accessed backend commonly refer to as a ‘Dashboard’. However, it the web system belong to the company your website it with not you. You only own your content.

How can you go wrong with a setup like that?

This may be ok for you if you are just looking for an ‘easy’ way to be online.

But if you really serious about growing your business and brand online you must understand your website and web presence is not just a marketing tool, (the most important one there is today I might add) it can be a real business asset if developed properly. That means you should own all of your website so YOU can grow it to evolve with you business objectives!

Everything from the domain, to the content, to the actual core files that make up your website, you should have a copy of this tangible asset in your possession. Do you? You would be shocked in the 13 years I have been doing this how many clients do not have possession nor control over their digital property!

Does this mean you have to be a website design expert to control and own your website destiny?

I’m happy to tell you the answer is a great big No! You can have your very own custom CMS that gives you the control to manage your website just like those propriety systems you are renting use of!

If you don’t need something that robust, there are all types of user friendly,  web editing solutions, and user management type solutions for your website needs. Not to mention all sorts of business solutions you can have incorporated into your website! You just need some help in knowing what the best option is for your business.

Finally, I strongly encourage you not to shy away from taking on a greater ‘ownership’ role regarding your web presence. There is NOTHING out there as powerful, as cost effective, as hard working, and far reaching as your presence on the internet. This is the place you should nor neglect to invest in to position your business for a turnaround in this economy.

What’s the difference?

Selling to a “Customer” is a transaction relationship involving an exchange of goods or services for money, versus selling to a “Client” for whom the salesperson takes responsibility for guiding and advising by taking on a stewardship role.

Big difference!

I have and so have many, many consumers for that matter!

It’s so hard to find direct access via the “old model” of doing business but now that social media has provided the tools to voice the consumers experience with millions online…you can now reach some companies and businesses who ‘get’ the power of the people in this digital economy.

If you want to position your business (this is for Entrepreneurs and Small business too) for success put a plan of action in place to monitor the conversations going on about you and your business…but better yet put a proactive plan in place that provides your customers easier access to you so your customers experience just how valuable they are to you.

If you don’t…you risk a negative firestorm started by an unhappy customer or client that can spread far and wide very quickly in cyberspace.

I am starting a list of the “new model” business contact approaches for your convenience and as proof this is a smart marketing move you need to do to position your business for the 21st century.

Need some help with creating your personal proactive ‘Digital Customer Care Sevice’ plan? I offer a 4 step process that takes the guess work out of how to get your Digital Customer Care service up and running ASAP.

FIND DIGITAL CUSTOMER CARE:

You can look up any business that has a Twitter access and link on Twitter Yellowpages.

Check out businesses on Friendfeed. Here is a great tutorial on how to do searches.

A user powered Twitter Directory, WeFollow.com

Here are a few digital care company contacts:

Strategic Business Designer
Hazel Nieves
Contact: http://twitter.com/HazelNieves

Comcast
Frank Eliason
Contact: http://twitter.com/comcastcares

Charter Communications
Contact: http://twitter.com/CharterCom

Pizza Hut
Contact: http://twitter.com/tuscanipastas

Please add any you come across.

Today I read this on E-Commerce Times…
[The king of the video rental stores, Blockbuster, is struggling for survival as its business model falters against competition from Netflix and Internet distribution of films. Still, the company has managed to persuade lenders to rejigger its financing, holding back the threat of bankruptcy for the time being.]

The explanation cited in the article for Blockbusters demise was the main reasons they are in trouble was because of Internet distribution and sinking franchises. Of course Netflix was also on their blame radar.

Yes, I hate to see a company go under but what really gets me as a small business person and a consumer is why does it take these corporations so long to see they are not as relevant as they once were to us? Is this a surprise to you Blockbuster? All the years I’ve been a customer of yours I’ve never been invited to engage with you except to quibble over some charges I felt were incorrect on my account. Not complaining…just stating the facts!

You had my email, my address, etc. I never received any opportunity from you to tell you what I like or don’t like about Blockbuster, no in-store experiences that were anymore than just a transaction, no real indication you care for me as YOUR customer. Just business as usual… which is what I find just about everywhere these days. Heck I why would I choose taking my time to come into your store and get a pretty much ho-hum service and experience when I can just hope online, order and go to my mailbox to get my flick from Netflix? Seems pretty simple to me I don’t need a whole lot of smarts to tell me your business model is not working.

Grant you this is my blog and my opinion but I’m jus sayin’…I believe most consumers, eyeballs or whatever we are referred to would agree with me when I say…service and interaction with most American businesses is sadly boring and status quo. I HATE status quo and I’m personally very tired of all the commercials, offers, and advertisement that show pretending caring companies, amazing burgers (which never look in real life like what you see in the ad), happy employees, etc. We are not dumb. We can tell the difference you know!

I’m not mad (yes, I am) just wondering why is it so hard for many of our icon businesses to genuinely care for their customer. To be successful in 21st century business you must sincerely value human beings as much as the bottom-line. Without us it’s pretty hard to have a bottom-line. Just ask Blockbuster.