Apps like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram have fundamentally shifted the marketing landscape (and that’s only naming the most popular of the bunch). Now, organizations small and large are able to go straight to the consumer by funneling multichannel content straight into our omnipresent devices.
Marketing firms of course, know this and have long since shifted their strategy to include social media in their portfolios. But what if we could take strategies used by marketers to grow “consumer” (aka employee) engagement inside our organizations? I spoke with one of my good friends, Pablo Gonzalez, CEO and Co-Founder of Be the Stage, which shows leaders how to use technology to change the way they build relationships– not replace the building of them altogether. Here are 3 lessons I learned from Pablo about how reframing our focus on the consumer to the community can positively impact an organization both inside and out:
- Community is the not-so-secret secret to gaining trust.
- Freedom from an overwhelm of options can be found through community.
- Focus on the community to generate differentiated follow-up mechanisms.
Lesson #1: It takes a community to earn trust.
We have all been in a situation where we’re looking for a recommendation, ask a close friend or colleague, and they say, “Well, I know someone. Let me get you their information.” Undoubtedly, we trust this recommendation because it came from someone we already trust. It’s no surprise, then, that where trust is, community can be found. Pablo recommends finding ways to reverse engineer this wholly organic process so that you become the person the friend always recommends. “There’s no more powerful tool,” says Pablo, “than social validation at scale.”
One way to jump-start this process is by showing prospective clients or employees why they should want to work with you instead of telling them. For clients, this might look like getting on podcasts you know they listen to as a guest. Or to use Best Places to Lead as an example, it could be inviting anyone and everyone to tune in at 3:30 PM EST to participate in the live show of the podcast. For potential employees, it might look like a site visit for the third interview that highlights what a typical day looks like, or ensuring you have their future coworkers be part of a panel interview. As Pablo puts it, “the greatest moat you can build is community.”
Lesson #2: Community is a protective factor!
There are so many people, places, and things vying for our attention at every moment of the day, and it doesn’t seem like the attention vortex is slowing down anytime soon. Imagining a future with a more sophisticated AI that at the moment our pupil dilates, a menu of possibilities presents itself, Pablo reminds us about the protection community grants. As he notes, a community with high trust is one people tend to stay in.
Pablo offers a timely example given the current labor market: an employee with multiple strong relationships in the organization versus an employee with very few or one. Someone whose best friends work at the same company isn’t likely to be leaving anytime soon. Because people tend to stay in communities they trust and leave those they don’t, we can harness this desire for stability to thwart outside attempts to undermine those relationships. Says Pablo, “I don’t know how else to battle the robots except for what I inherently know how to do, which is bring people together, because I know that that’s never going to go out of style.”
Lesson #3: Follow the lead from the community you want to learn meaningful ways to connect.
In a discussion about methods for connecting with potential clients at trade shows, Pablo suggests a novel approach. Set up your booth with lights and recording equipment, send your salespeople out to chat with prospects, and send back the interesting ones to be interviewed live on the trade show podcast. Then, offer to text them a photo you took while they were being recorded, and now you’ve got their number. Ask for their email to follow up on preferred descriptions for posting, and then you’ve also got their email and an authentic reason to follow up.
This works on two levels. First, it demonstrates you care about their perspective on the types of problems your product solves and that there is some value alignment. Second, it creates organic reasons to capture information you need to follow up. When thinking about ways to engineer those organic moments, be intentional about understanding what motivates the community, what sparks their suspicion, etc., and from there get creative about your methods. For instance, if your company is staffed by people who are 40 and younger, do your research about their communication tools and styles, motivations, and suspicions. Then, use what you’ve learned to reimagine the tired format of the All Staff memo well before you need to send your next one.
To learn more from Pablo about centering community to optimize your business, be sure to watch the full episode!
About Best Places to Lead
Your company has the potential to be great. The leader’s responsibility is to unlock that potential – or doom it to mediocrity.
On the LIVE Best Places to Lead show, you’ll learn the hard-fought lessons from the front lines earned by business leaders who have already had their teeth bashed in and lived to tell about it. We’ll share the tips, tricks, mindsets, and frameworks that allow great leaders to lead differently.
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