I’m a gamer and can value a great game when I play one because a great game produces a craving that I must have it, own it, play it and talk about it. There are lessons we can take and apply in business..

What do you get when you mix a great storyline, great gameplay, great graphics, great game design with greek mythology? You get God of War.

Did you notice I used the word ‘great’ not ‘innovative’ to describe this game? Santa Monica Studios didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel with the recently released God of War 3, they used the same formula that worked before (story + design + lots of action!) and brought in bigger and badder opponents that are simply a joy to look at. Look at the video in HD!

It really is all about the experience

If there’s one word I would use to describe the God of War games is memorable because it truly makes you feel you’re in another world. Everything about these games is from another world! It doesn’t do anything fancy, it’s just great. The experience you feel is what truly sets it apart from other games!

Just like there are only a handful of businesses that I consider memorable, so it is with games. But what then makes them memorable? I think it’s a combination of identity, something otherworldly and authenticity.

Identity because it provokes your feelings and you can empathize with it (think Kiva). Otherworldly because the experience you get is beyond anything you’ve ever imagined (think Disneyland) and authenticity because it just feels real, you can talk to anyone about it and it’s real to them too (think Avatar).

Raise your hand if you know anyone setting out to create a business that’s memorable? A product? A service?

To focus on the overall experience people get when interacting with your business, ask yourself: How are we being memorable?

What makes something memorable? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Don’t do anything fancy. Just be great is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

I’m happy because I wasn’t expecting any type of refund and boy did I get a BIG surprise with no questions asked.

Thank you GoDaddy!

GoDaddy put a BIG smile in my face is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

So how do we go beyond attracting attention to building trust?

By changing from a consumption mindset to a take action mindset. We want people to consume our content (attention) but do we really care if they take action on it (share/implement it)?  To build trust we have to care what they do with our ideas, I think that’s the key. This takes time but then again Rome wasn’t built in a day and real relationships take months to build.

With some much content getting pushed out there we have to be mindful of people’s time, so the question is: are we doing enough to help them solve their problems?

Ask yourself: Would I trust myself?

What say you, are you out there to grab attention or build trust? Which comes first?

On building trust is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

What makes people go WOM (word of mouth)? Something that makes them go WOW!

Check out the video above where two young girls do some pretty remarkable things. It’s safe to say that the people who witnessed this event went home with a big smile on their face because they were entertained and now have something interesting to talk about!

The point is that actions speak louder than words and as these young ladies did, they let their actions speak for themselves.

What actions are you taking to make your customers go from WOW to WOM?

From WOW to WOM is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Nowadays everyone and anyone can create content and it seems to me like we’re in a race to see who publishes the most stuff without much thought into what happens with it afterwards. The name of the game is to out-publish yourself before your competitors do so, phew! Good luck with that!

Sure most people are trigger happy and look forward to clicking that big bold ‘publish’ button everyday with just about anything to create that habit and keep going, yes their ideas do get refined overtime because of all the practice but sooner than later what they publish has the same sound and voice as their competitors because they’re playing to the same audience and are looking at the same things.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a BIG idea:

It’s not what and how much you publish, it’s what people do with it that counts.

Be strategic and focus on what can distinguish you from others. Be like Picasso and publish things that have your signature all over it!
I’m not saying create art, I’m saying publish ideas that people can use, that can help them do something better than before.

Action not consumption

People have short attention spans, they get hit by thousands as messages that want their attention everyday (and so do you!) and anything that does get their attention better be ‘memorable and useful’ because this is your only chance to get them to share it with someone else and better yet to come back for more.

Seth Godin does this very well, all of his posts have some idea that is entirely obvious. Andy Sernovitz also does this, his posts are short and sweet and most of them have some action you can take immediately. Sean D’Souza from Psychotactics probably does this better than anyone I know, everything he writes has his signature all over it!

If you’ve done your homework and spent time with your customers you’ll have more than enough ideas to publish for them that will make their world a lot more interesting.

Ideas not content is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

Popular online retailer Zappos is officially ‘sharing’ with the world it’s most important brand asset, the secrets to it’s culture. They’re not creating ebooks and podcasts about it, they’re moving into management consulting in the form of seminars and a website with employee videos where they’ll share their unconventional practices with conventional souls.

This is groundbreaking stuff. Can you imagine Apple sharing/selling the secrets to it’s culture? Probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Zappos knows their culture is unique and they’re going to use it to extend the reach of their influence because their goal is to offer not just shoes but everything else you can imagine armed with the powerful culture behind it as it’s competitive advantage.

What’s unique to you?

When you look at Zappos on the surface they’re not that different from other online retailers, they sell the same shoes and accessories and at pretty much the same prices. What’s different is much deeper, it’s distinct personality that emanates from the actions all employees make on a daily basis that makes them unique.

This is very powerful and you should take not: A companies best form of advertising is it’s personality.

What actions do you take to express your distinct personality?

We are moving into a very transparent world where what you say and do is dissected to it’s smallest detail to look for inconsistencies, every action you take forms the basis of your brands personality. Actions speak louder than words. You already know this but do you really take it to heart?

How and what are you sharing? What would you like others to share from you?

Sharing is how you build your brand is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

I ended up downgrading to a more stable version to use Evernote so I’m still a happy camper.

The problem (me using Evernote) was solved with them presenting me alternatives but more importantly they said “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, we’ll fix this”. Perfect!

PROBLEM

Even if you don’t make software you can still have this type of interaction with your users and solve their problems instead of just ignoring them an leaving them out in the middle of the storm which is where all negative word of mouth is born and you don’t want that. Oh you didn’t help me? Well the I’m going to tell all my friends about how you ignored me. You don’t want a pissed off fan!

SOLUTION

Yes. Saying I’m sorry is very hard for companies to do and even more is trying to fix it and THAT is your biggest obstacle to social media use. You can’t handle the fact that you might make mistakes (and you will!) and that your brands reputation might be damaged in the short term because you didn’t establish some ground rules before ‘jumping’ into the water.

The truth is the ground rules are very simple, they are the same as in the offline world, you solve people’s problems but the only difference is that people have more options and you have to be where they are. All your customers want is to have their problems solved but you’re worried about fixing problems when making your customers happy is exactly what you should be doing and sometimes this means being wrong.

An organization’s biggest obstacle to social media use is reputation management hoping that a PR disaster doesn’t happen yet if you look at this from another angle and see that you’ve been doing this and will keep doing this to stay in business then you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Say I’m sorry and help me fix my problems.

I’m sorry how can I fix it is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

"We wanted to make a real warm environment for our guests, so all of this was done for them," owner Judith Jones-Cone said.

I think this very cool because it builds a community right into the dealership and word of mouth is sure to follow, who knows what financial benefit this might bring but it right it really stands out from other dealers for sure.

ASK YOURSELF: how you can improve your customers experience by adding or subtracting things they care about. How can you make their experience more enjoyable?

Dealership builds a community into it’s business is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

But Hsieh has a hard time getting excited about any of this. What he really cares about is making Zappos’s employees and customers feel really, really good. This is not because Hsieh is a nice guy (though he is a very nice guy), but because he has decided that his entire business revolves around one thing: happiness. Everything at Zappos serves that single end. Other business innovators work with software code or circuit boards or molecular formulas. Hsieh prefers to work with something altogether more complex and volatile: human beings themselves.

What are YOU doing to make your customers and employees happy? What activities would make your employees and customers happy?

Come on then, go and make people happy!

Zappos marketing formula: make people happy is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency

"The communication and information professors, Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase, found that there tend to be two types of Twitter folks. The majority, or 80 percent, were what they called ‘meformers’ — Twitter users who sent out messages that revolved around themselves, updating others about their activities or sharing thoughts and feelings.

The other 20 percent are ‘informers’ — people who were actually sharing information. Not surprisingly, the informers tended to have larger social networks and be more interactive."

So which is better?

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer here. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are very much still in their infancy and as a brand or individual what it all comes down to is: are you’re someone people want to be friends with?

Be a friend not a broadcasting channel

What you should really be focusing on is being a real friend. Conventional marketing wisdom will tell you to always be selling but in this day in age we have it so easy to make more personal connections with consumers that consumers themselves are ‘demanding’ more interaction from brands.

Whether you are and ‘informer’ or ‘meformer’ and consumers are looking to interact with you, ask yourself: what actions can I take to create lasting relationships with my followers?

A good friend is a mix of a useful ‘informer’ with a fun and relevant ‘meformer’.

Are you and ‘informer or ‘meformer’? is a post from: Blu Maya Digital Marketing Agency