Today I (Lisa Gerber) ramble from influence to bartending to staying out of trouble.
Last Friday. 5:45 am. I just read and commented on Danny Brown’s post about Marketing and the Emotional Connection. The airplane doors closed. I am on my way home to Idaho for the week.
I dutifully shut down my phone and opened my book. See? There is always something to keep my attention.
The flight attendants launched into their safety presentation as I continued to read. Except this time they won the competition for my attention. I watched. Not because of that Seinfeld episode. (You know, the one where Jerry thought they were going to crash and frantically asked for a refresher course?) No, I closed my book and looked up over the seat in front of me and watched this guy re-enact escaping the plane and running, banging his feet heavily and noisily on the floor, down the lighted aisle. Don’t ask me why, I thought it was hilarious. I watched him snap himself with the rubber band of the facemask and I laughed out loud.
It’s not an easy thing to do, to capture my attention. You have a lot of competition. In fact, I’m trying to keep your attention right now, reading this blog. I hope to capture your attention every day as chief content officer.
On Danny’s blog, my comment agreed about the emotional connection in marketing.
I don’t know if it was being on a Scotsman’s blog, but he made me think of the local bartender. The bartender we go to see because he knows our name, he sincerely seems to care about us, he listens to our stories. He knows all about the neighborhood and can inform us on all sorts of matters. He knows what we drink. He gives us a free one every now and then. He makes us feel welcome.
Every brand needs a bartender.
Everyone is doing the same old thing. In fact, as I write this blog post, I’m thinking about how bored I am; Bored of writing about social media, tired of reading about it.
The mystery isn’t figuring out how to use it. The mystery is the same question it always has been; How can we influence people to buy our product or service? How can we capture your attention by being really different? We are in the age of the soft sell. Some call it the Thank You Economy, The Experience Economy. Whatever it is, I think I’ll start calling it the Bartender Economy.
The bartender is the gateway to my cocktail so he/she has my attention. But I can get the same drink in a MULTITUDE of places. How can they earn and keep my attention?
That’s mostly a rhetorical question. But have you noticed how easy it is to screw it up?
I like my bartenders with some smarts about them. They think before they speak and they don’t act like idiots.
Three Tips for Keeping Your Butt Out of Social Media Hot Water
- Act like an adult or shut up. What I’m trying to understand is, for every person that gets caught being an idiot online, are there more out there that aren’t being caught? I mean, do you think you’re not going to get caught? Or is it just stupidity?
- Put a filter on the pre-publish moments. Don’t know what I mean? Choose one:
- Is it ok if this runs on national news tonight?
- Would my mom be proud?
- Would you just double check the damn Twitter account and make sure it’s not your clients’?
Thanks, one more drink, please and I’ll move on.
Thanks to My Domestic Discipline for the image.