people

Building Loyalty is Simple, So How Come We Make It So Hard to Do?

Loyalty. A funny concept. One that can mean so many different things to different people at different times.

Sports teams have loyalty from their fans. Well, the true ones do. Think Manchester City as opposed to Manchester United, where the latter?s ?fans? are more interested in prawn sandwiches than a good soccer team.

Indie bands have loyalty from their fans. Until they sign that big record deal, that is, then they become sell-outs.

Humans have loyalty from their dogs. But then you would be pretty loyal as long as you had someone cleaning up your shit.

So, yeah, loyalty ? a funny concept.

And yet it?s something that?s so important to so many people, they spend their lifetime(s) trying to work out how they can build loyalty around what they do.

After all, build loyalty, you build bigger success, right?

More readers; more subscribers; referrals; business; money. Get that gold rush and you don?t have to worry about marketing whatever it is you’re trying to build.

So, yeah ? loyalty is something pretty much everyone wants to achieve in some form or another.

And not just loyalty, but fierce loyalty. Because if you grab that piece of gold, the world is truly your oyster.

That shit starts revolutions.

And so companies spend thousands (millions?) on trying to create loyalty programs.

Bloggers spend thousands of words trying to say the things they think their readers want to hear to become loyal.

Social media ?gurus? spend all day on Twitter when they should be doing real work, just to try and get that extra loyal follower to buy into their crud.

And it?s all a waste of time. Seriously.

Because you don?t need to spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars trying to build loyalty.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Think like the person whose loyalty you want and ask what really matters to them. #pureblogging” quote=”Think like the person whose loyalty you want and ask what really matters to them. #pureblogging”]

You don?t need to be that desperate typist.

You don?t need to be that good-for-nothing-except-quotes-for-Mashable social media douche whose only loyalty comes from those laughing at him religiously.

If you want loyalty ? fierce loyalty ? it?s easy: be fiercely loyal first.

Show people you care. Show people you mean what you say.

Every time.

Show people they can trust you. Show people you deserve that trust. Show people you?re not a dick who simply panders to those stroking your ego (or your dick). Show people every one of them is equal.

And it?s not fucking hard to do this.

– If you?re a blogger, encourage dissention of your views and don?t let fanboys be your voice.

– If you?re a business, embrace your critics as much as your fans (if not more so).

– If you?re a manager, let everyone speak and not just Tommy Kiss Ass.

In fact, no matter what you do, in what discipline and in what medium, it?s really not hard at all to build loyalty.

Think like the person you want to become loyal to you and ask what really matters to them.

Get that simple thing right and you?ll have loyalty so fierce you?ll wonder why you were making it so difficult to achieve to begin with…

Don’t Let the Worst of Us Define the Best in Us

Today is a day that continues to impact Americans everywhere. The world at large also changed on this day in 2001.

Nothing has been the same since, for good or bad.

One thing that we must also recognize and face, though, is something my friend John Haydon shared.

“I will never forget the fear, ignorance, and hatred towards Muslims in the United States after 9/11.”

Sadly, this isn’t just the States.

I left the UK in 2006, and the vitriol and hatred rising towards anyone that “wasn’t British”, following the London bombings in 2005, was painful to see, and a key reason for leaving Britain.

As we saw on this day 14 years ago, tragedy can bring out the best in us. But it can also give rise to the worst in us.

Don’t?let the worst of us define the best in us.

As much as there are bad people in every race and religion, there are also good people countering the bad.

If we judge the many based on the actions of the few, the few will eventually become the many.

And we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

We Are All We Have

We?re born with our eyes closed, and we leave with them closed.?In-between, for however long we?re on this planet, our eyes are open.

And yet, sometimes, it feels like they?ve stayed closed since our first breath in the open air.

We see colour, but we see it as something that makes people different and not in a good way.

We see love, but it?s the wrong kind of love if it?s between people not of a different sex.

We see beliefs, but we rip them down and start wars to force our own beliefs on others.

We see so many things that are beautiful, but we taint them with our own twisted vision of what?s beautiful.

But we are all we have.

If only we opened our eyes, we would see we are all the same.

We live; we love; we laugh; we cry. We experience the same joy when a new child is born. We experience the same pain when our loved ones die. At our very core, we are all the same.

We are all we have. More than that, though, we are all we need.

It?s time to open our eyes to that.

My Social Media Story: The Facebook Penis That Launched a New Life

This is a part of a special series looking at how social media has impacted the lives of its users. This week, the story comes from Jacqui Malpass.

It isn?t every day that you get new opportunities. Sometimes they come in strange ways. Ways that you least expect, but none the less life changing.

In May 2014, I opened my then husband?s computer to find myself staring at his penis. A rare site.

The penis and the conversation, plus a variety of let?s call them interesting images and conversations with many other women, left nothing to the imagination.

Six weeks later, I was travelling with my two dogs to Spain to a house that needed more than a lick of paint to get it ship shape.

With my Internet upgraded and my precious laptop on a makeshift desk, I began to change the way I did business.

Living on a mountain in a tiny village, where the nearest town is full of retirees and Spaniards made it a bit tough to get out and network!

That?s all changed and I belong to a great female networking organisation that I help run locally.

It?s been a quite a year.

I am divorced, had time to reflect, worked on my house, created several online courses and experimented with different ways of working. Recently,?I started my personal brand (from the inside out) detox.

The detox includes looking after me (daily meditation, yoga, eating even better than I already do), websites updated, rebranding and an imminent book launch. I start editing my 6^th non-fiction book ? Leading the Eveolution ready for October.

I have plans in place for my first children?s book ? The Puppy With No Name. My circle of friends is growing online as well as locally, and life is good.

Who knew that such a small thing could have such a big impact?

About the author: Jacqui Malpass works as a personal brand strategist, book coach and is the author of five (almost six) non-fiction books. She has a dream to inspire 1 million people to write in some way.

She lives with three beautiful dogs, all of whom were abandoned and who give the best love a girl could ask for. You can read more from Jacqui at JacquiMalpass.com, and follow her on Twitter @jacquimalpass.

Smart Is Not Not Being Dumb – It’s Not Being the Dumbest

How smart are you? How do you rack up compared to your peers; your competitors; your parallel people?

There are all sorts of smart, but only one that counts. It?s not high school diploma. It?s not college degree. It?s not university PhD.

It?s experiential smart.

Your experience. Your knowledge. Your ability to act. Your ability to react. Your ability to pro-act. It?s your fluidity. Your flexibility. Your awareness that smart is not not being dumb; it?s?not being the dumbest.

Smart marketers see an opportunity before the opportunity presents itself.

Smart sales close the deal before the meeting.

Smart customer service prevents the issue before it leaves the manufacturing plant.

Smart human resources see through cubicle walls.

Smart public relations knows it?s not the story.

Smart comes in many guises, but the real smart? That?s what the smart folks have already figured out. Have used. Have profited from. And have moved on.

Smart is not last year?s model. Smart is not yesterday?s news. Smart isn?t even tomorrow?s headlines.

Smart ??real?smart ? is all the stories you never see until they?ve happened.

But?you made them. And now you?re telling new ones as everyone else regurgitates yours.

And?that? That?s?smart.