Today I’d like to share my favourite piece from a new e-book called “What Matters Now”, a collection of short articles written by 70 of today’s leading thinkers, many of whom I admire and follow. I hope this gives you inspiration about how to get the word out about your current project — whether that be a website, a book or a song about dead girls not saying no (*cough* Nick Jardine)
Two tech executives with no food experience and no marketing budget launch a product called Bacon Salt.
Next, they search for people on social networking sites who profess a love for bacon, then friend them. Among a small percentage of those people, enthusiasm begins to spread about Bacon Salt. What began as a tribe (“Tribe” is internetese for an unofficial group of people who share a common interest, affiliated through the Internet – Jack) quickly multiplies into 37,000 fans on Facebook and MySpace.
Months later, the buzz spills over into newspaper articles, TV interviews and the holy grail of PR, an appearance on Oprah. Two guys who knew nothing about the food business and had no marketing budget now had a certified cult hit. Inspired, they create several other bacon-flavored products. It’s the birth of a brand.
Their success began with a small – very small – group of self-identified fans of a category. Even if social networks have millions of members, it will never translate into millions of buzz-spreaders. The Bacon Salt story illustrates that it’s usually a small percentage of the tribe within the larger tribe who spread the word—usually about 1 percent. They are the One Percenters.
The One Percenters are not the usual suspects of name- brand tech bloggers, mommy bloggers and or business bloggers. ( Most internet marketers focus their efforts on getting a mention by these highly read bloggers. Jackie and Ben’s point is that targeting these people might give you a large audience but the people you’ll reach won’t be what you want – fanatical evangelists who spread the word about your product — Jack) The One Percenters are often hidden in the crevices of niches, yet they are the roots of word of mouth.
This year, your job is to find them and attract them.
Authors of the books Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists.
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