Are we blog-fatigued? Or is it simply that some of the Fortune 500 types are falling for the quick-win hype of social networks? Is the real problem that people simply don’t understand that blogging first came about as an electronic journal of one’s life achievements?

Blogging has the same problem as podcasting – either people understand it, or they think they do, and they don’t. Either way, few people think of blogging as a valuable asset to the businesses of today building for tomorrow.

Note, term. Because the proof of concept is in the incredible content of many blogs that is literally powering business success, with few other marketing strategies involved than common sense. Businesses that weren’t even designed around a blog, are adding blogs to their daily duties and growing customer communities who realise that there are real people behind the brand, and they like what they read and see.

Marketo did a pretty good job explaining what blogging really is, when it launched a social media month for its staff. That blogging needs to be planned for, not just adopted as a knee-jerk reaction to what the competition is doing and saying.

It’s all about marketing

I bet the one thing that stuck out for you from that presentation, as it did me, was the importance of having a reason for every single article. We can’t afford to waste time on wishy-washy content that doesn’t add value to the customer relationship, and that applies both to us and our customers themselves.

• Businesses that blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t
• Define the objectives for your blog well in advance: Is it to generate sales, brand recognition, SEO, raise your customer service standards, start meaningful and lasting conversations with your customers, build a community around a new product range – what? Have a commercial motive, not just a desire to follow the pack
• Create a content calendar in advance – regularity and consistency is key to building authority through blogging
• Work with other companies and be generous with your links – and you can expect the same in return (most of the time). It’s networking!
• On each blog post consider this: What is the action you want to trigger? Convince, persuade, lead, inform?
• Blogging is all about value, and it’s all about providing solutions to your customers’ needs.

Blogging doesn’t only work in isolation: It can provide the stimulus for you to create your own presentations (and have people like me share them with lots more people, thus amplifying your brand), to start a podcast or web video series, create eBooks and white papers, and so on.

If you haven’t already got a blog, start one now. And if you don’t know where to start – get in touch and let’s get to work.

Her day begins

Gina rises early (she keeps track of her snoozing with The Lark) and takes one of her favourite podcasts to the gym. While burning a few miles on the treadmill, Gina listens to a group of people talk about marketing (The BeanCast podcast, if you must know).

A guest mentions a beleaguered riverside town where bridges were recently adopted by local companies determined to help give the area a new lease of life by beautifying the structures.

Gina runs a little quicker at this point, and makes a note to look into ways she can stamp her own mark on the village she works in.

Creation <> innovation

As a member of the local chamber of commerce, Gina already offers free floristry classes on Tuesday evenings, where she covers her costs by selling the flora with which her keen students experiment.

Gina spread the word about her courses in her enewsletter, as well as by using her Facebook Page and Twitter profile.

Gina loves making art with flowers, and her customers appreciate the touch of a craftswoman at the top of her game. To Gina her work is instinctive, from the heart, and she rarely gives a thought to her innate talent.

With a keen eye for interior design Gina recently started experimenting with Google Hangouts, a relatively new service from the search company we all know (some love) that allows you to hook up a webcam and talk to 10 other similarly equipped people across the world.

On her Google+ business page, Gina focuses on the magic of colour matching and every week she spends half an hour helping people figure out what goes with what, from clothing to haberdashery.

Many of her fellow florists in the region don’t bother with internet initiatives beyond having a basic website geared towards local people, but because Gina works with a globally-recognised flower delivery service she finds that people often send business her way, no matter where they live.

Spreading it wider

Gina makes a special effort to stay up to date with her suppliers to find out what’ in the pipeline so she can update customers well in advance with bouquets that match their lifestyles and domestic decor.

A brief feedback form she hands or mails out with floral packages helps her understand the types of flowers her customers like best, and asks a little about the occasions they often buy flowers for.

Lastly she asks for the dates of five special occasions and every month she draws one lucky customer to receive a bumper box of flowers made up to match their lounge colours.

Listen and they will, too

Every week Gina writes a blog post telling people’ what’s hot in flowers at that time, and suggests a couple of products or services she’s become aware of that bring colour and style to any situation.

Gina only recommends things she’s experienced herself, making the most of her role as a trust agent among her customers – and she also earns a commission with each sale (affiliate marketing).

Since Gina has fast become recognised as an expert not only in flowers, but also interior design, many of her customers ask her advice when they’re ready to redecorate.

Networks, work

Gina has built up strong relationships with specialist tradespeople in her area and as a result of her bringing business their way, they have not only become trusting customers but the word of mouth marketing concept also applies in reverse.

As an innovative florist with huge exposure in a market typically populated by traditional thinking, Gina also finds herself called upon to talk at business groups and county conferences on how to market effectively.

Selflessly she gives plenty of hints and ideas on how to combine her offline expertise with online experimentation, and with a ready supply of business cards, she finds plenty of potential customers on hand.

Because she’s online, she can offer colour consultations by Skype – and if floristry services are required, she taps into her network or uses the generous commission on offer from Interflora’s affiliate program.

Giving back – CSR for everyone

Because business has blossomed for Gina, she has been able to recruit an apprentice who she has trained in the art of floristry. Mandy is showing a keen eye not only for beautiful flower arrangements but the passion to share her learnings and ideas with customers, whether they’re in the shop or on the business’ website.

By developing strong ties in the community, understanding the power of global reach, no matter how local the business might be, and leveraging the incredible opportunities of being available on many social channels online for advice and ideas, Gina has taken her business to a level of success she’d never even dreamed of, just a couple of years ago.

Better yet

Gina has become a fully-fledged, best-of-breed Sharing Superhero.

The first time I was exposed to such a thing, I was aghast: It was a mess of yellow highlighted text, reams and reams of paragraphs, a badly-formatted stock photo of someone for whom a gushing quote about the seller and their wares had been manufactured.

It was like reading The Onion – the parodied features where they use the same pictures all the time, with different names attached. And like an onion, those landing pages used to make me cry.

Sadly some haven’t moved on from that time in 2001. I’m looking at one right now. I’ll spare the creator a reddening but here are some more questionable characteristics doubtless featuring in the snake-oil merchant’s guide to landing pages:

1. Create urgency by abjectly lying about the number of items you have to sell/seats available at your webinar. I’m all about urgency – it’s one of the tried and tested methods of converting lookers to bookers. But using strikethrough to suggest you’ve sold a bunch of products, there are only a few more left, and then hard coding the same ‘remaining’ figure into the flow of your landing page where it’s been since you launched it is just dumb, dumb, dummy!
2. Why bother creating a favicon for your landing page? Use the one your CMS shipped with for added amateurism. People will admire you for not having bothered to dot the i’s. They know you’re so busy you don’t have time to do things properly – and it gives them a taste for the quality of the stuff they’re about to buy, probably for less than $98.
3. Use at least 5 different font styles. People love it when their eyes lock up due to your infatuation with colour and shape. Why stop at red Arial when you could use pink Comic Sans? Way to go, Helen Keller!
4. Always use Comic Sans: I didn’t just pick that one out for effect. Comic Sans oozes professionalism, respect, trust and authority. And if you don’t sell much stuff, you’ll probably get snapped up by a small boy to write his class newsletter in exchange for moist lollipops.
5. Write at least 10,000 words, because no trees need be chopped down through your rampant screen real estate megalomania. The rules of content don’t apply here – brevity sucks. Same applies to value. Just churn, baby, churn. And the Chinese thought they had it down pat with their burns. That’s nothing compared to the retinal torture of your wordy ways.
6. Make the same point at least eight times. Ideally 15, unless you contract RSI en route. You’ve heard the mantra about people having to read something five times before being convinced to buy? Well why not avoid the need to have to touch them on five different occasions, showing you care and are right for them, by reiterating it at least eight times in the same piece of copy? To hell with the science of marketing!
7. Over-promise and under-deliver. The more crap you write, the more people fall under your spell. Because you’re spouting such nonsense, you can write and write and it only takes you a short time to churn it out. By the time they come to buy your sub-standard gear, they’ll have forgotten what you promised, anyway.
8. Always offer a lifetime guarantee because loads of people will forget about it – and you’re sure as heck not going to remind ‘em once the spondoolicks have hit the PayPal!
9. The magic figure is $97. Doesn’t matter what you’re selling – dog collars for frisky men, or dog food for cats, or a two-page eBook on the benefits of wearing a dress on weekends (hell, I bought it) – you have to ship at $97. $97 is the clearest indication your product probably isn’t worth that – but the people who buy it, don’t know that! Guess what the price tag ends in for discontinued lines at PC World and Currys here in the UK? Yup – 97p! Just a coincidence? Of course!
10. Seal the deal with a raft of ‘fantastic’ bonuses available for the first 5 people to snap your stuff up. Psst – no-one can even buy your stuff without the bonuses, but people are hardwired into wanting more for their money so they’re bound to fall for this caper. Barely got enough genuine value in your stuff to merit writing a single chapter of a book? No problem! There are loads of free ebooks floating around the web you can tag on to yours (that should be free) to make it look like an irresistible offer. You’re really rocking the party now, sister! Oh, and incidentally – if these bonuses are only available to the first five people, yet you’ve already sold 35 (you said it yourself earlier – remember?)…
11. To your unfeasibly large ‘Register Now’ icons, smartphones are a curse, and their owners, the work of the devil. The second best people are those with 27″ monitors – and your favourites, those using projectors or with Digital Outside Of Home screens or the owner of the electronic billboards in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. These are the only people who can see your natty Register Now buttons without scrolling. The bigger the icon, the bigger the fool who buys, the bigger the ego of the seller. And so the wheel turns.
12. One of the lady ‘endorsers’ has to look like Joan Collins. Or Phil Collins. Just like in those 70s porn flicks (I have been told) where the music sounded a bit like Englebert Humperdinck, but wasn’t (I’m pretty sure about that…), you should use pictures that have a celebrity hint to them so people will feel more comfortable about being ripped, er, sold to. Social proof. Peer pressure. And your buyers will be so mesmerised by your sort-of-might-be star testimonials they’ll completely overlook those folks’ names, written in 8px Comic Sans, which is just as well: When was the last time you met a guy called Mike Rowe-Fowan and his wife, Chris Paquet?
13. Make sure the landing page doesn’t live up to expectations. Like this article.

Don’t worry – I have a great article coming up soon showcasing great landing pages. I have one in mind at the moment, and if you have some to share, drop me a line and let’s get them in the hall of fame!

Ben is a blogger. He has already amassed a great many articles, and even wrote an ebook to get people signing up to his newsletter list.

But despite being passionate about travel, he has lost his lust for writing.

Business recently started picking up for Ben, having earned some money from putting clickable banners on his website site using a Google AdSense account. But he’ not driven by money as much as he is by seeing the spark in people’s eyes when they learn new things or book holidays explicitly because of a detailed recommendation he has penned.

Recently Ben discovered a website where he could record short audio segments and share them on his website. But until today, he hadn’t given much thought as to how he could use it.

The passion to podcast

Then someone mentioned a website offering free music to podcasters. Ben hadn’t really considered podcasting because it sounded overly complicated, but then he started thinking about how he could really bring some of his blog posts to life by throwing his passion behind a series of radio shows. Yes – radio! The thought of being able to talk about his travel experiences was immensely fun. But where would he start – and why would people listen?

Ben excitedly popped to the music site and after signing up, downloaded a couple of tracks that he felt would spice up his recording. And it was while he was listening again to the second track that Ben had his Valhalla moment: He would scour his archive of blog articles to see which got the greatest traffic, and record a few episodes of his show based on those.

Perseverance

Then Ben, now in a creative whirl, had another idea. What if he could create a series of shows based on his eBook? One for each chapter, he mused. He could do some more research on the topics covered, riff on each for a few minutes, and…

And then he had another idea. What if he could rope in other people who were interested in the subjects in his book, to have a chat with him and have that chat recorded? He knew from the rivers of comments he was starting to see on his site that when other people added their voice to topics and started a conversation, it was the catalyst for even more people to pitch in adding even more perspective to the issue at hand.

So Ben started putting together outlines for each of his five shows to accompany the eBook, emailing prospective guests and structuring his short shows.

Mastering the jigsaw

What if he could update the eBook with his research, and possibly sell it? How could he achieve that? He knew how the eBook market was exploding, but surely he’d need to be a master of marketing to get the word out there.

Ben started thinking about leveraging the networks of guests on his shows; everyone loved being on radio, and his shows were web-based versions of the radio we all grew up with, he thought.

The more he thought about the networks of others, the more his mind raced. Ben started mooting getting tourist organisations involved – travel companies, and authors of printed travel books. There was a whole ecosystem of passionate people waiting to support him in his efforts. He was moving from traveller to trailblazer!

Show me the money

Maybe if the radio show was enduring, he could even get a sponsor on board. And what better way to show people what he was capable of than the living showreel that was the audio compilation to accompany his eBook. And from that same audio compilation he could use a teaser to market that eBook!

Ben was supercharged with enthusiasm. Already his passion was flooding back, and Ben was oozing the kind of confidence that comes with being an expert.

He was on the way to becoming a Sharing Superhero.

Tomorrow – find out how Gina’s love of all things floristry and tech turned her into a Sharing Superhero and blooming success…

Passion manifests itself in myriad forms and it’s perhaps never more potent than when it collides with an unbridled lustiness for success. It’s passion that makes people share their story. Such people of passion are the reason and inspiration for this book.

Where it begins

Smart marketing was once a dark art, before customers took control. Then, marketeers needed the touch of a watchmaker and the precision of a cardiac surgeon to find the perfect interplay of communications methods to get the sale.

Nowadays your sales force comprises the very people who buy your stuff. Advertising and direct mail has never mattered less, and demonstrating the essence, integrity and authority of your brand, more.

To be your evangelists, those activated customers need to have trust. They need to be engaged. And for them to produce the goods consistently through word of mouth marketing – founded today on the electrifying reach and pervasiveness of social networking – you need to foster loyalty.

In these customer-centric times we might be playing a different game to the one we’re used to, but there’s a constant that ties everything together. To be successful before, as we will, tomorrow, we need a burning passion for what we do.

The biggest difference is that today we need to prove it. Finding the right products to match our customers needs was enough, back then. Today faced by a world of competition, we need to go beyond the sell, and become the trusted aide, ally and counsel.

Put simply, we need to give everything we know, away.

Everything about where we began, everything about where we are, now, and everything about what we do, what we sell, and what the customer can do to make the most of everything we’ve got. Wherever the customer is, whenever they want it, and however they prefer to consume it.

And in doing so we need to take down the one road block that has hindered us from breaking down that glass ceiling protecting us from unlimited growth in the past. We need to embrace the competition, to share the great news from across our industry, and not in our little cocoon protecting us – and restricting us – from the success we deserve.

Today we’re in the era of the content concierge. You need to know who’s going to lead efforts to curate, create and aggregate information invaluable to your customers and crucial to your relationship-building efforts.

It could be you, or it could be someone else in your organisation who is as passionate and knowledgeable as you are when it comes to your business, customers and the industry in which you operate.

Realistic enough is the idea of having someone, a team, even, whose role is entirely dedicated to customer welfare and delight. To this end, many larger companies already have their own chief content officers, and community managers.

But your content concierge is different.

The content concierge needs to know what your customer wants, what your customer is saying, and provide them with everything they need – and more – to be flipping cartwheels in your favour.

The content concierge needs to speak frankly, authoritatively, honestly and openly. In this world of good and bad, you have to be prepared to roll with the punches and if negative stuff happens, don’t just bury it – embrace it.

A 2012 report by Reevoo (Bad reviews are good for business: The power of negative reviews) explained:

“But the surprising truth is that bad reviews and other negative feedback bring a host of benefits, from greater customer satisfaction to improved product development.

“Consumers spend four times as long on site when they interact with bad reviews, trust the reviews they see far more and convert nearly 70% more often.”

The content concierge first concentrates on the most important channel of communication for their company and customer, committed wholeheartedly to developing a solid reputation there before diversifying into new areas of opportunity.

But at all times, that content concierge is 100% devoted to bringing their brand to life. It takes resourcefulness, curiosity and a certain level of tech saviness, as well as the obvious passion, personality and prowess, to be a model content concierge – and that’s just today. Ask me next year what the prerequisites are and I expect the only constant will be that commitment to giving everything away.

What you really want to know is why in heck should you bother giving away all your secrets, when we’re living through tough times and it seems like you have more competitors by the month, willing customers away from your grasp.

You don’t really need to know or have the time to hear that I am physically forcing myself to write this book, using mediaeval instruments of torture at times to quell the Monday morning fug congesting my fragile mind.

Who cares that I’m castigating myself on being unsuitably distracted and playing the morning excuse card, especially since it is four minutes to midday and that aforementioned cover wouldn’t carry water even if it was a dromedary camel.

It doesn’t matter that writing a book is tough (jeez, does this guy ever stop whingeing?). You’re very much aware JK Rowling must have had thousands of sleepless nights.

And if you and I were the last people on earth, you’d still insist I mustn’t grumble, since compared to fighting wars, raising children and knuckling down to a haul of Harry Potter sequels, this gig you have in your hand must have been pretty easy to figure.

You know what? You have a point. It was simple to conceive. I’ve been inspired by so many business owners possessing the magical ingredients constituting Sharing Superheroes that the natural segue was to tell you all about it.

And now I’m going to give you my word that giving everything away is the first thing you’ll want to do when you finish this book. Finally, justifiably, you too will be a Sharing Superhero.

Superheroes? Really?

Last year some of the smarter folks in marketing started talking about it being the era of the chief content officer. That content was in some way the most pivotal part of any organisation looking to build a sustainable future.

I think in a short space of time, we’ve evolved from that perspective. It’s no longer about creating content, but about finding the content that is right for your customer, no matter its origin or format.

There are millions of smart people in this world, and as smartphone adoption becomes ever more prevalent, so they have a pen that creates content we can all view on the world wide web.

Some of my favourite blogs are written by people who just a few short years ago would never have been able to communicate across the world, let alone have a shop window for their expertise that is visible by billions.

The impact of content ubiquity is almost palpable for your business. Dovetailed with your own unique perspective, it is invaluable.

Which brings me on to the Sharing Superhero, she the subject of this very book you doubtless read on your incredible eInk device (in fact, self publishing itself is a feat you too will be considering before too long).

The Sharing Superhero realises the immense power she has with one eye on the amazing information relevant to her market, the other on her work and that of those around her in the business which rules her heart and mind.

Sharing is a team ethic – it can’t be compartmentalised. If you’re a sole trader, the ball’s in your court alone. If you work as part of a team, it’s essential your cadre shares passion for your business’ growth – or at the minimum, you find a single theme you’re all pumped about, start there. Whatever the size of your unit, the Sharing Superhero philosophy needs to be shared and worked throughout…

The Sharing Superhero is hyper-aware of every customer interaction, analysing and scrutinising even the nuances to harvest every little detail that could help others get the most out of her products and services.

The Sharing Superhero, more than anything, sees the opportunity in finding the time and resources to provide customers established and yet-to-be, with advice and ideas on every platform they populate.

The Sharing Superhero has founded an out-of-this-world reputation as the go-to expert – so vital in this austere era for every forward-thinking business – based on the 6 Ps of smart marketing, that you’ll be tested on later in this book.

The Sharing Superhero is growing a business that thrives today, and is unstoppable tomorrow. She is a constant source of inspiration and the beacon lighting the way for any organisation that wants to understand its customers better and build rock-solid relationships that both stand the test of time and create unprecedented levels of trust, engagement and loyalty.

It is the Sharing Superhero who best understands the power of word of mouth marketing; that we ourselves have no real control over that most powerful of marketing methods, but can only provide our customers with every tool and reason to spread the word about our good work and help grow our business through our being remarkable in their eyes.

I want you to be the very next Sharing Superhero and in the pages to follow we’ll be taking a look at what it takes to be such an incredible business operator.

Being a Sharing Superhero is having an innate knowledge of who you are, what your customers want, and being there with the goods before they even have to ask. It’s knowing where your customers are, and being in the right place, at the right time.

As we veer into a world where the internet, and access to information, is ubiquitous, the Sharing Superhero who, by definition, is designated a trusted advisor and content concierge by their customer communities, can make a success in any niche using the formula outlined in this book.

Make no mistake – being a pupil at Sharing Superhero School is challenging – but it’s fun, enriching and recklessly rewarding. It involves knowing yourself as much as it does the tools and tricks of Superherodom – so let’s not waste any time and dive straight in…

One last thing…

Secrecy is Kryptonite. To be a true Sharing Superhero you have to remember to not hold anything back. Whatever your customers want, you should not only provide it, but anticipate it.

Proactive responding is an art form that approaches scientific when you understand it, alchemic if you don’t. Just steer clear of the Kryptonite…

You have a few ways to get in touch with me. As well as the usual getWAM Twitter account, and our Page on Facebook, there’s a WordPress plugin called What Shall We Write About Next by Vladimir Prevolac that squirts a text box in at the bottom of every post.

Today someone decided to use that feature (thanks, anonymous!) and ask this question:

What if you have the five Ps (or at least you think you do), but the public couldn’t care less?

First of all, wow. You’ve got down pat Planning, Perseverance, Passion, Personality and Prowess – and you don’t know what to do with it?

Heck, you’re our dream client!

There isn’t a single industry in the world today that isn’t crying out for a disruptive innovator, one who champions the needs of both customer and business and marries them up using a groundswell of client feedback and an army of creative ideas.

I mean that. Whether you’re a greengrocer or a printer of greenbacks, you have an abundance of opportunities to position yourself as the natural go-to guy or gal.

With your Planning, you can create an amazing strategy founded on consistent delivery of information that you create, curate, or aggregate (the latter being a hybrid of the two former methods).

With your Perseverance, you can see it through to the point where your expertise is shining brighter than the sun on a particularly hot and cloudless day. I’ve also found the sun is incredibly bright on the crispest winter’s morning, too, which is a bit weird.

The Passion that keeps you up at night thinking and jotting is the same burning desire that people gravitate towards and empathise with. It’s the passion of leaders that provokes action and stimulates change.

Thanks to your Personality you provide folks with a unique perspective on any issue or idea that comes your way. There’s no such thing as noise and interference when you combine your Planning with Personality to provide a hyper-focused take on a problem at hand that turns an objection into a sale. The same Personality can break through clouds of commerce like the aforementioned sun to provide your customers with clear minds and a desire to do business with you. It’s personalities that make us all different, setting us apart through our one-of-a-kind insights and experiences.

And finally it’s the Prowess, those 10,000 hours of mastery that make us experts in our space, that garners the triple totems of respect, loyalty and trust to guarantee us an audience, community and tribe to last the test of time.

So what do I do?

Reader, I want to to take a bold oath: That from this day on, you stop keeping your passion a secret. That Kryptonite? Get rid of it – it’s weighing you down.

Take stock of everything you know, and have ever written, on the subject that makes your heart beat faster, and I want you to create a plan. Grab a Google Spreadsheet, and simply add days into column A to take you from now to the end of this year, a day in each row.

In column B, I want you to write down four words describing a subject you want to share.

Column C, think of all the methods available to you. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, blog, white paper, ebook, presentation, focus group, Google+ Hangout – heck, if you collect stuff, even Pinterest (just don’t get me loving that).

Column D – forget it. Today is when you start methodically championing your cause. You’re the expert – you’re that disruptive innovator that we’re all rooting for.

And be the best. Respond to questions, always. Listen and engage, constantly.

And deliver. Always deliver. Because if there’s anything we want, it’s concise content, riddled with value.

5Ps. Be the best.

Our businesses exist only when we generate profit. Otherwise we become charities, or have to clean our bank managers shoes each week in exchange for the right to operate. I don’t know about you, but the guy who runs my local building society has size 13s, so I choose profit.

And to earn profit, you have to create customer communities. The best way to do that? It’s word of mouth marketing – because if our customers are happy, they tell others, and that virtuous circle keeps going.

Sharing Superheroes is a strategy to stir word of mouth marketing, that method of business building that attains near mythical status due to its power to influence and grow.

While we can’t do the word of mouth thing ourselves, what we can do is be the conduit for our customers. To be remarkable, to listen always, and to generate and share content that inspires, excites and drives change.

And that’s what smart marketing is all about.

So let’s first of all understand the root cause of business builders becoming Sharing Superheroes, with a quick test of your incredible acumen:

1. List the five Ps of smart marketing.

I do hope you didn’t go the safe route and start off with product, placement and promotion, the heartbeat of that irksome multisyllabic incantations marketing students of yore would recite by rote.

Things have changed.

Did you know they invented fire and wheels while you were asleep? Let’ look at the 2012 version of the five Ps of smart marketing for Sharing Superheroes:

• Planning. Anything is better when you’ve thought about it first. When it comes to setting out your stall with well-crafted content that allures, appeals and inspires, preparation is sometimes as important as the information it produces. There’ no hard and fast rule to the amount of time you need to create something, because it could be, well, anything – a web radio show would take more time to plan than a Tweet to a useful YouTube video, for example – but you can never spend too much time getting ready to unleash valuable content on your customer community.
• Perseverance. Sharing Superheroes are always learning and rediscovering their craft, just as customers evolve in their changing tastes and preferences for consuming content. But to truly yield value from your efforts as a Sharing Superhero you must understand that we’re talking about building profitable relationships here, not a low-hanging fruit frenzy generating small pickings and leaving the customer wondering what hit them. I want your business to become both mighty and highly respected, growing your reputation as a master of your craft and leaving noone in any doubt why they buy from or sell to you.
• Passion. This is the very cornerstone of graduating as a Sharing Superhero. Finding your passion, letting it lead your every business decision (yes, I meant that), and bringing a smile to the table every day and every time you speak to a customer, is what differentiates you from your competition. If you ever come to work for three days without joy for whatever it is you do, you’re urgently in need of either a holiday or a new focus altogether for your productivity.
• Personality. You don’t need to be Russell Brand to evoke inspiration from every aspect of your content-sharing efforts. You just need to embody your brand. If you created the business you’ll know your company’s DNA inside out; you’ll know why people buy from you, you’ll know customers better than they know themselves, and you’ll know the part you play in their lives. Ask any customer why they enjoy what you do and you’ll quickly reacquaint with the personality that you need to constantly be expressing in your role of information concierge.
• Prowess. This is the expertise for which you are fast becoming renowned. You already have those skills – it’s merely a question of digging them out and putting them on show so that everyone is in no doubt why you do what you do, and why they’re here, talking to you. Please never underestimate your talents: One hour more spent learning something makes you an expert compared to everyone else. Prowess tag-teamed with passion is a concoction so intoxicating that it quite simply produces some of the world’ greatest people. As a Sharing Superhero scholar, you are well on your way to justifying your place among them.

I confess, I had a sixth: I wanted to add imPerfection in there, but let’s not reinvent that wheel you missed out on the first time around save to say that imPerfection makes you human.

Some of the very best ideas were thwarted by people dwelling on the tiniest inconsistencies or flaws. Others found genius in imPerfection: Remember the story of the Post-It Note?

Okay, I’m bored with this exam stuff though we’ve barely even begun. I had a point to make, and it’s made. Besides, it’s much more fun to put ideas into practice and I’m a lot less likely to have you return this eBook on account of it being rendered a journey of futility.

Why is it that so few of us are willing to take advice, yet all of us need it constantly throughout our lives?

We seek that beacon to guide us towards successful outcomes. So is it shyness, bravado or ignorance that stops us in our tracks when it comes to publicly seeking counsel for our own good and gain?

Thankfully the internet has made it easier than ever for us to covertly research answers to all of our questions.

Sadly most of the information online is shrouded in irrelevance and noise, making it difficult for us to find exactly the solutions we seek.

With the semantic web no more than a pipe dream, us businesses with sustainable success in our DNA need to change that.

It’s time for us to step up and to become lighthouses for our industries and future success through your content marketing strategy. For your clients, prospects, suppliers and staff.

There are four reasons why we need to look to the seafarer’s best friend to become the best content concierge in the land:

• Community. The lighthouse heralds land, and helps the inbound traveller navigate around the craggy outcrops and into a safe haven. As a business you have a duty of care to help your prospective clients decide on where to spend their money. There are problems to be solved, and thanks to your powers of listening and analysis, you are providing this crucial demographic with answers to questions – some of which they never knew they had.

  Equally your responsibility is to advise on the products of, and activity in, your niche. You are the arbiter and the intermediator. A business that understands its role as a content concierge also acknowledges that it is a barometer of its industry, the information it provides a litmus test for the customer to decide whether now is the right time for them to transact, or later.

  NerdFitness is a fantastic example of a business devoted to helping its customers navigate the waters during unsettling times. Getting fit is one of the hardest challenges we have to face, and you’ll find answers and solutions to all of your fitness-related problems in that one place.

• Influence. Who doubts the lighthouse in the data it delivers? Equally when you reveal the completetruth about your products, your industry, you demonstrate an indubitable and inherent expertise – and confidence.

  The web is full of truths and untruths and your role from a marketing standpoint is to offer transparent, legitimate and relevant content. The more accurate and trustworthy your information, whether curated, created or aggregated, the more respect your brand garners, and the more solid the relationship between you and your customers of today or tomorrow.

  Blogging expert Chris Garrett has proven time and again what it takes to influence a customer into taking an action. His newsletter provides case studies of clients’ challenges – and how he’s helped solve them.

• Inspiration. The power to influence customer behaviour is something that every business craves. As we all question our role in helping customers make decisions, those brands and businesses that can actually play a role in influencing the transaction are revered. Those organisations who consistently deliver customer-centric, trust-generating content are those first in line for sustained success.
• Sales. A business is an organisation that exists to generate profit. Let us not deceive ourselves: Every action we commit to has to have transactions as its outcome. The lighthouse leverages perseverance in pursuit of profit, and its content marketing strategy reflects that.

Like I said, this is all about building a better business. If you’ve started reading Sharing Superheroes, you’ll already know how crucial it is to gain an authority standing in your industry. Replicate the lighthouse and you’re set.

I want to quickly explain the premise behind Sharing Superheroes.

It’s clear that today’s best businesses are putting their customers front of mind at every opportunity. That customers don’t just represent the end of the supply chain, but the start of their sales efforts as they are in control of whether that business thrives, merely survives, or simply fades away.

To achieve massive success in word of mouth marketing, companies of today need to focus on creating customer communities to power their tomorrows. To build loyal evangelists by literally, as far as information goes, giving everything away.

Let us know what you think

The comments box at the bottom isn’t just there for decoration. Pitch in, be frank, and who knows – you might even get a credit when the book’s published, once we’re through serialising the content here at Word And Mouth. And if you’re feeling brave, why not record a voice message to the right.

If you think your business is a great example of the Sharing Superheroes movement, get in touch with me direct at dave@wordandmouth.com – let’s talk. I’ve got loads of Sharing Superheroes profiled in the book, but there’s always space for more inspirational businesses just like yours.

Want to get your hands on the Kindle version of Sharing Superheroes? Subscribe, in the box to the left, and let’s get you sorted – for free – when it’s baked.

That’s all you need to know for now. Let’s stir the pot, and start the book.

Prologue: Care To Share, Show to Grow – and how Carolla drove me crazy…

The proposed cover for Sharing Superheroes. You like?

I still vividly remember that first podcast I downloaded from the house of the Ace Man, Adam Carolla. Possibly the funniest guy in America, Carolla was kicked off the radio and promptly hit them with the bird by producing the most popular (Guinness Book of Records-accredited) podcast in the world.

Carolla’s growing his network to include car shows and home improvement productions. But it was The Adam Carolla Show, featuring his inside track on the funny about life, that really got me hooked.

There was something about the fact the guy gave away everything about his life that made it feel like I was getting a lot of value, for the price of my time. That Carolla was in some way affecting my life, positively, in a way no book ever could. That he was talking to me directly.

When he recommended the Man Grate, a stainless steel addition to any self-respecting Ace Man protegee’s barbecue grill, I went out and tried to buy it. I failed, because I live in the UK and that was a US-only product at the time, but that’s irrelevant. I’ve been talking to the girlfriend about making a trip to see one of his shows when we head to America later this year – and I’m prepared to travel hundreds of miles just to see him do his stuff live.

A few short years ago I would never have heard of Adam, let alone been able to tune in to his daily shows with celebrities he’s befriended through the years. I certainly wouldn’t have tried to buy products he endorsed, or supported the creation of his new studio using an Amazon affiliate code.

But technology has brought down the barriers and delivered a global village. Technology allows us to share everything. This is not a book about technology, but about the miracles that happen when you vow to show the world what you’re all about, what your business does best – that consequently allows you to do business better.

Get naked

Hundreds of companies are already baring all to give their customers a much-desired insight into what makes their favourite brands tick. Oh yeah, ‘favourite’ – this book was written in British English, so be careful there with references to fags and fannies, trunks and trashcans. You won’t find any insults in this book, so forgive me for being based in the UK and let’s nail this thing together.

What you’re going to learn in this book is how to share, what to share, why to share it and when to maximise all the efforts you’ve put in to content curation and creation. I’m going to save you a lot of time and heartache figuring out the right techniques and how to use all the resources in your arsenal to make things work just right for you.

I wrote this book for the people charged with instituting new, smart marketing strategies for businesses intent on laying the foundations for significant future growth.

You might be wearing a track in the C-suite corridor carpet, your schedule thick with meetings governed by an agenda typically subtitled ‘Where now?’.

You could be the sole trader intent on disrupting your industry sector by showing your peers that it’s not the goods, but the relationship, that determines the sale.

Or you could simply be an onlooker ready to jump ship from the world of the employed to your own boss, wondering how to build a business with baked-in customer-centricity.

It doesn’t matter where your starting point is for this new adventure. Whether you’re a sole trader or global enterprise, Sharing Superheroes know you’re not going to win a relay race without the support of your entire company, for it is they who determine your fate.

There are some tough decisions ahead: Do they have the passion, as well as the obvious prowess, to take your business to the next level of success?

The Sharing Superheroes system is not a quick-win concept: You’re going to have to commit to this and ache to share the mechanics of what makes your business and industry tick if you’re going to emerge triumphant.

But one thing I can tell you is this: Sharing is next to success. Tell more, sell more, is the phrase I befriended while running The Podcast Guy brand. And it did me proud as we helped the UK marketplace understand and embrace the power of web radio in creating meaningful customer relationships through knowledge sharing.

Now it’s going to work wonders for you, too. But first, humour me as I hit you with the Sharing Superheroes pitch…

Starting Monday, I’ll be serialising 2012s essential addition to your marketing bookshelf.

It’s been a proper labour of love, featuring some really useful messages, tools and resources to help you build a better business by giving everything away.

In typical low-cal promotional fashion, I put together a brief video that captures my passion for the book, and gives you a glimpse into what to expect.

There’s no fancy gimmicks at play here – just a simple 2-minute overview of Sharing Superheroes, and what you’ll be getting stuck into come Monday.

It’s a double-edged sword, this video: Short enough to tantalise, long enough to put you off altogether.

Regardless – it’s showtime. Do let me know what you think. Oh, and I promise the proper lighting next time. After all, there’s a web TV show in the making…

Don’t forget to sign up to the newsletter, left, to be sure of getting every chapter of the book – and your very own Kindle version, free, when we’re done with the blogging and commenting.

And if you want to get in touch, well…