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  • What happens when your fans start singing along…

    Posted on August 9th, 2010 by Geno and currently 0 commenting.


    Last week fate hooked me up with Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air interviewing Brian May of Queen.

    The bulk of the interview was about May’s new book, A Village Lost and Found, a book on stereo photographs and poems from T.R. Williams in the 1850s. May surprised me by making physics and his passion for stereo photographs very engaging.

    Then the conversation turned to Queen… Growing up as a Wayne’s World teen, I’ll admit to many (and I mean many) experiences of singing with my buddies at the top our lungs Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, and many more Queen tunes.

    Brian May explained that it wasn’t always that way… Queen was a band you listened to, and when their fans came to their concerts they listened. He tells Fresh Air host Terry Gross that ironically, that famous “stomp-clap thing” in “We Will Rock You,” wasn’t even included in the original song. May explains that he got the idea after a particularly animated Queen show at Bingley Hall near Birmingham, England.

    “The audience was responding hugely, and they were singing along with everything we did,” he says. “I remember talking to [lead singer] Freddie Mercury about it. And I said, ‘Obviously, we can no longer fight this. This has to be something which is part of our show and we have to embrace it, the fact that people want to participate — and, in fact, everything becomes a two-way process now. And we sort of looked at each other and went, ‘Hmm. How interesting.’ ”

    May continued, “What can you give an audience that they could do while they’re standing there? They can stamp and they can clap and they can sing some kind of chant,” he says. “To me, it was a united thing. It was an expression of strength.”

    How simple, and brilliant. “We Will Rock You” is the most famous song that May wrote. He added that, “My God. Most people don’t even realize that I wrote it. Most people don’t realize that it was written. It’s sort of become one of those things that people think was always there. So in a way, that’s the best compliment you could have for the song.”

    I think there’s a lesson in “We Will Rock You,” guys. Too many times we don’t listen to our fans singing, we want it to be about us. When we keep singing that tune, it will continue to be just about us… next time you’re at a meeting and you don’t know what to do… try a stomp and a clap, you never know what’s going to happen next.

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  • 8.19.10 - PRSA Webinar - Geno talks about How to Grow Word-of-Mouth Movements

    Posted on July 2nd, 2010 by Geno and currently 1 commenting.

    What does it take to build a movement of loud and proud brand ambassadors? More social media applications? Faster technology? Geno Church teaches you the seven lessons on how your brand can build and grow a movement, starting with how to treat people like fans, not customers, and how to allow your fans to share brand ownership. Learn the difference between a movement and a campaign, as well as how to measure ROI. Hear about word-of-mouth case studies, including the Fiskars Brands “Fiskateers” movement, which now has more than 5,000 members worldwide, and the Effie award-winning Rage Against the Haze youth anti-smoking initiative, which has more than 7,000 active teenagers involved despite a complete state program budget elimination.

    PRSA Webinar

    Thursday, August 19th

    3:00pm, EST

    Members $150 / Non-Members $250

    Register: http://www.prsa.org/Learning/Seminars/view/663/How_to_Grow_Word-of-Mouth_Movements

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  • The UnExpecteds

    Posted on May 10th, 2010 by Geno and currently 8 commenting.

    I’m wondering out loud here… in our search for collecting passionate fans and friends, are we missing a key ingredient? I can go for days, weeks, even months and receive good customer service. Some of those interactions involved my favorite restaurants, stores, hotels, and online purchases. If I asked myself did I tell anyone about those experiences? My answer would have to be no.

    I asked myself that question after reading the McKinsey Quarterly on “A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing.” There’s a ton of great stuff to dig into in the report, but one part struck me as very interesting.

    Most companies actively use customer satisfaction insights when developing new products and services. Yet a satisfied customer base may not be enough to create buzz. To create positive word-of-mouth that actually has impact, the customer experience must not only deviate significantly from expectations but also deviate on the dimensions that matter to the customer and that he or she is likely to talk about.

    That last sentence, in my opinion, is the meat sauce (sorry vegetarian friends): the customer experience must deviate significantly from expectations for a customer to be likely to talk about it.

    That level of a customer experience that goes beyond customer expectations is rare. I believe it comes down to The UnExpecteds. My definition of an UnExpected is the PEOPLE that are touchpoints for a brand that go beyond making a customer satisfied… they’re the folks that own the experience for the brand. I’ll go a step further. I think they’re the real fanatics for the brand and, in turn, for the customer.

    I also think The UnExpecteds can be other touchpoints with the customer. Daniel Pink recently wrote a post about asking a Marriott employee about purchasing a stamp to mail a letter. The employee said she would do it for no charge. Daniel called it the 44-cent solution.


    I’ve recently experienced The UnExpected from Mac and Kat the founders of the small, American-Made accessories company Pierrepoint Hicks. They get it: it’s the little things that matter. My bowtie came handwrapped with a little thank you from Mac and Kat. The packaging is just the beginning of course, the product still has to live up to the expectation, and it did. A knock-out plaid with a unique two-tone aesthetic that caused blog “Half Pint Gentleman” to remark “Cary Grant would most certainly own the entire line.”

    Of course the real UnExpecteds are PEOPLE. Jay Baer had an encounter with an UnExpected, Randy the forward cabin flight attendant, for US Air. I’ll share part of the conversation from Jay’s blog post:

    “Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to experience ecstasy from start to finish, as I have at your disposal a selection of beverages and all you can eat snacks that are sure to delight each of you. We have the sublime sea salt and cracked pepper Kettle brand potato chips on board today. We have a new item, similar to the fig newton, but filled with strawberry. I highly recommend them.”

    Randy delivered information in an unexpected way… a memorable way… a way that made Jay… talk about it.

    I want to share one more UnExpected this one comes from Angela Daniels Fiskateer #009. Angela told us about Robert Suchan… aka Aunt Barbara one of the nation’s top-selling Tupperware consultants. What makes Robert… I mean Aunt Barbara an UnExpected? I’ll let the video tell the story:

    So, how about it… got a story about the UnExpecteds you want to share?

    * For those of you wondering, my Sunday Night Confessions post will resume next week.

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  • Sunday Night Confessions. Feel Lucky?

    Posted on May 2nd, 2010 by Geno and currently 0 commenting.

    I guess I would have to consider myself a lucky person. Nope, I haven’t won a car or the lottery for that matter. When situations have taken a turn for the worse, I try to find the bright side of the situation. Sometimes it might take a while, but it’s usually worked out for me.

    I haven’t thought much about “feeling lucky” until I read The Element by Sir Ken Robinson. The Element actually has an entire chapter asking, “Do you feel lucky?”

    Sir Robinson, shares stories of people that had bad things happen to them, but they turned their situation into an opportunity. Good and bad things happen to all of us, but as Robinson points out “the difference is our attitude toward what happens.”

    The Element shares the wisdom of Richard Wiseman who wrote the book The Luck Factor, he has identified four principles that characterize lucky people.

    • Lucky people maximize chance opportunities.

    • They listen to their intuition.

    • Lucky people expect to be lucky.

    • Lucky people have an attitude that allows them to turn bad luck to good luck.

    Sir Robinson points out that one way of opening ourselves up to these new opportunities is to make conscious efforts to look differently at our ordinary situations. He calls this reframing the situation, the ability to reframe, to look at a situation that fails to go according to plan and turn it into something beneficial.

    I believe that Sir Robinson is on to something. In fact Chris Brogan’s recent post on Escape Velocity is about the pain and hardship that many Americans are currently facing. Chris defines “escape velocity” as “the ability to leave a situation that isn’t helpful or desired.”

    My confession this week, I’m an ‘eternal optimist’, I always think it’s going to get better. That doesn’t necessarily make it so, but it does put you in a situation that something good can happen.

    How about you… do you feel lucky?

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  • Sunday Night Confessions. Feeling Inspired.

    Posted on April 25th, 2010 by Geno and currently 2 commenting.

    I just got home tonight from a week on the road and I’m totally unprepared for my post tonight. So my confession post tonight will be more of a reflection than a confession of my week on the road.

    I started out this week traveling to San Mateo, California to be a presenter and attendee at NewComm 2010. Kudos to Jennifer McClure, SNCR and the Redwood Collaborative for putting on a dynamic, diverse, education focused event.

    To be honest I arrived in San Mateo a bit tired in the feeling inspired department. But fate has a funny way of working things out. I arrived early to get my speaking packet and I was meet by the friendly check-in crew from Redwood. Then I heard a voice calling out my name, it was Paul Chaney. Paul you’re a helluva nice guy… and in my opinion one of the best ambassadors for social media.

    My conversation with Paul was just the beginning; three days worth of meeting great people and lots of interesting, insightful conversation.

    So here’s a few reflections and some confessions from the past week:

    Never take an opportunity to be a presenter for granted. It truly is an honor to share and engage with people. I find it’s always a rewarding and educational experience to be a presenter.

    It’s about the PEOPLE stupid, the great thing about attending a conference like NewComm isn’t all the tweets, and the foursquare… it’s the people. Catching up with old friends and meeting new ones face to face is the Killer APP.

    Take a cue from Chuck Hester don’t dine alone at a conference. Chuck is the master at getting strangers together to dine and chat. And it’s a lot of fun.

    Take it from my new friend Doug Haslam with Voce Connect, it pays to use more photos and less words in your presentation. By the end of the day the attendees can get a little word-weary.

    Scott Monty has me convinced that Ford should be in my next new car decision mindset.

    I must confess every time I listen to “The Truth” by Jason Aldean I tear up… I’m a sap.

    And finally I wrapped up the week by heading to Dallas to help make a presentation of a new identity to its organization members. It’s a bit stressful but very rewarding to see the reaction of a new identity unveiling. Our clients put tremendous faith in all of us to make them shine.

    To wrap up this ramble… this week inspired me. Every now and then we need something or someone to reach into our soul and give it a recharge. You can’t get it without putting yourself out there, I’ve found the risk is worth it. Have an awesome week…

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