LeaveSmarter - Round II
All our lives we've been taught to, "Practice what we preach," but not until we start getting a little older do we really understand the implications. When we're young, we tend to be overly idealistic, yet we continually contradict what we believe by making boneheaded mistakes and bad decisions. Businesses are the same way. In infancy, it's often tough to stay the designed course, but as businesses grow up, businesses mature the same way individuals do. That's why I like telling you about what my cohorts at 800-CEO-READ are doing, because we are more and more trying to truly implement the good business practices written about in the books we tell you to read. We are also trying to round up the best of the best, get them in one place, and give you - the business community - a chance to interact in an intimate environment with some of the most keen business minds of this generation. That's why we developed the LeaveSmarter Speaker Series. We kicked off this event series with the talented Heath Brothers of Made to Stick Fame. Now, for Round II, we bring in two of the most impressive and well-respected marketing minds this side of Seth. Actually, they are not on "this side" of Seth. They are his peers, his equals. They are that good. And by "they," I'm referring to Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, authors of the must-read, Citizen Marketers.
Let's get the details out of the way. The Ben & Jackie event will be held on March 22nd (that's next Thursday folks), from 11:30 - 1:00, at the fabulous Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design (if you do not live in Milwaukee, but find yourself stopping by anytime in the future, make this a necessary stop). Here are the full details.
Now, here's what I wrote about Citizen Marketers back in January (wow, the New Year seems so long ago, especially since it was the first time I laid eyes upon iBLF - who is not to be confused with this or this).
Ben and Jackie are the masters at talking and writing about the influence average citizens like you and me now have on today's business world. What affect are we having? Well, using various types of new social media, we are continuously creating content for and about companies that we simply have no connection to. We're making better commercials for free than, say, Budweiser, is paying 2 million smackers for at half-time of the Super Bowl. We're not just evangelizing anymore, we are marketing.
By doing this, by using social media and mass collaboration (there's that term again. Get used to it, because you are going to continue hearing and learning about it) to create content about brands and products and companies, we are absolutely turning ideas of traditional media up up down down left right left right B A select start. We enthusiastically grab our cameras, make videos, write songs, and then we sit down at our computational devices and throw them into the webisphere using blogs, podcasts, YouTube, online bulletin boards, and whatever other form of media exists. If it's possible, we're doing it.
Whether companies know it or not, our influence as Citizen Marketers is influencing so many aspects of their businesses. Customer relationships have long surpassed saying, "Hello! Welcome to ______, can I help you find something." Nope, now that people have free reign to discuss product design, function, service, etc, companies are being forced to interact and acknowledge the customer voice in completely new ways.
So the book, what's in it? Well, it introduces who Citizen Marketers are and what motivates us/them. It discusses the affects we/they have on business functions, and even entire business models. It talks about some examples the power of citizen marketing has, probably the most recent and well-known being Snakes on a Plane. And it gives you some of the early winners and losers in this new business landscape. Oh, and of course, it talks about some of us (not me of course) who have really had and affect, like Red Cart Romance, who started a blog called Slave to Target, and ended up greatly influencing Target's mentality.
The Offer:
Now you know about LeaveSmarter, you know about Ben & Jackie, and you have a good idea about their book. Here's your chance to win a free seat at the event. If you can get to Milwaukee next Thursday, let you finger happily click the pretty "I Want One" button to be entered into the drawing. Good luck, and I hope to see all you local yokels at the event. One last time, go here to register. Actually, make your boss pay and write it off as continued education or something. I think you can do that.
Sorry! This offer has expired. Check out today's offer instead.
