Highway to Hale

Here it comes. The inevitable BAD DAY. You can feel it rolling in. We’ve all had them. Things just aren’t going your way. Maybe you woke up late or your boss got on your case about something. Maybe you haven’t had your coffee yet or you aren’t feeling the creative juices flowing. It’s just not a good day.

I’ve got some more bad news for you.

Time to put the smiley face on because your brand doesn’t get a bad day. Your community doesn’t deserve to feel the pain of whatever stress you’re trying to handle. If you need to, go blow some steam on MySpace with a cryptic update, because your community isn’t there to pity you – they’re involved because of the value you bring. As marketers, we preach all day to add value, but consumers aren’t looking to add value in social media, they’re looking to take whatever value you’ll give them.

The current buzz around social media is that your brand should be human and it’s fine to make mistakes – screw that. It’s not fine to make mistakes*. Your brand should have personality, but your goal should always be a perfect user experience. It’s tough to achieve, but you sure as hell better be trying whether you’ve got a black cloud over your head or not. Nobody wins if you’re not always acting as a pleasant touchpoint for your brand.

Online communities exist 24/7 and you need to have your game face on during all interactions.

What do you do to avoid the impact of bad days? How do you turn that frown upside down when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed (extra points if you can use more cliches in one sentence)?

* Mistakes happen and you should always learn from them (acknowledge and make it right if possible)…but don’t brush them off as if there’s no problem.

Photo by "eschipul" via Flickr

If you’ve read Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents, you’re familiar with changing the game to succeed. Game changers are people that don’t just outperform their competition, they bring something to the table that transforms the industry or spawns a whole new industry. Maybe you’re like HubSpot, and have the ability to create an industry based on inbound marketing.

Before you can change your game, you need to know exactly what your game is. If you’re a sports fan, I have no doubt that you know Colin Cowherd. Cowherd always takes shots at people that think they can be sports radio personalities. It’s not negative, he just hits people with a dose of reality. The reality is that you don’t know his game. You might know a TON about sports or get everything right about your team, but that’s not Cowherd’s job. Like all radio personalities, Cowherd doesn’t get paid to be right about sports. He gets paid to entertain you. He admits that when he’s wrong, his ratings are noticeably higher.

To a listener, it sounds like Cowherd has a job because he knows sports (and there is a level of knowledge required…but that can be learned if you’re interested). You can’t compete with Colin Cowherd until you realize the arena in which you are competing – you’re not competing in sports, you’re competing in entertainment. If you take the entertainment too far, you’re not valuable to the sports community and if you take the sports too far, you’re too boring.

Another example in sports is Dwight Freeney. When asked about his game plan with an injured ankle in the Super Bowl, Freeney told reporters that he planned to find the ball and tackle the guy holding it. It sounds simple, but think about how many football players place emphasis on beating the guy in front of them. Freeney mentioned that he doesn’t get paid to beat his man or tire out an offensive lineman, he gets paid to put the man with the ball on the turf. He understands his game. He is past the obstacle directly in front of him when he starts (mentally), and he can focus on the true goal.

Do you recognize your game? Do you understand the reasoning behind your methods? It helps if you focus on problem-oriented problem solving. Yes, solutions are good, but if you think about solutions, you often miss the core of the problem. For example – if you’re living space is too dark, the solution might be to get more lights (one logical route). Consider this though: the problem is not that you don’t have enough lighting fixtures (lighting fixtures are ONE solution), the problem is lack of light. The problem opens new paths other than going out to buy new lighting fixtures. Have any ideas?