4. Kristina Wong, “iViu Technologies Partners with Hi-Time Wine Cellars on Mobile App,” OC Metro, April 10, 2012, http://www.ocmetro.com/t-iViu-Technologies-HiTime-Wine-Cellars-partner-on-mobile-app-04-10-2012.aspx
5. Jay Rosen, “The People Formerly Known as the Audience,” PressThink (blog), June 27, 2006, http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.
6. “Faberge Shampoo,” YouTube video, 0:29, posted by “mybeautyads,” December 29, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDxWNV4wWY.
7. Gary M. Stern, “Social Network Feedback Sparks Tempur-Pedic’s Sales,” Investor’s Business Daily, February 4, 2011, http://news.investors.com/management-managing-for-success/020411-562136-social-network-feedback-sparks-tempur-pedics-sales.htm?p=full.
8. Ernest Dichter, “How Word-of-Mouth Marketing Works,” Harvard Business Review, November–December 1966, 147–66.
9. The New York Times Customer Insight Group, “The Psychology of Sharing: Why Do People Share Online?,” 2012, http://nytmarketing.whsites.net/mediakit/pos/.
10. Nandita Verma, “Consumers Choose Email over Social for Referrals,” SocialTwist (blog), July 8, 2013, http://blog.socialtwist.com/marketing/referral-marketing-email-or-social; Jose Antonio Sanchez, “The State of Digital Content,” Uberflip (blog), March 27, 2013, www.uberflip.com/blog/the-state-of-digital-content; “SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS REPORT #14: The 2012 Channel Preference Survey,” ExactTarget, April 2012, http://pages.exacttarget.com/SFF14-US?ls=Website&lss=Micro.SubscribersFansFollowers.ChannelPreference&lssm=Corporate&camp=701A0000000cOGNIA2.
11. Andy Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2012), 6.
12. Rich Thomaselli, “Carnival Doesn’t Shy Away From Triumph Crisis—But Is Damage Done?,” Advertising Age, February 14, 2013, http://adage.com/article/news/carnival-cruises-pr-response-triumph-crisis/239819/.
13. Seth Godin, Permission Marketing (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 43.
14. Jeffrey K. Rohrs, “The Bill of Four Rights,” ExactTarget Blog, October 12, 2007, www.exacttarget.com/blog/the-bill-of-four-rights/.
Chapter 4
The VIP Joiners: Subscribers, Fans & Followers
I maintain that couchsurfing and crowdsurfing are basically the same thing. You’re falling into the audience and you’re trusting each other.1
—Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer (@AmandaPalmer) has a lot of SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and FOLLOWERS due to her years as a solo artist, band member (one-half of The Dresden Dolls), and front woman of The Grand Theft Orchestra. She is also accessible to her FANS in more ways than most anyone with a modicum of fame. She “couchsurfs” in their homes when on tour, crowdsources items from them as needs appear, and interacts with them personally via her website, blog, email, Twitter, and Facebook.
In 2012, nearly four years since her last album and after an acrimonious breakup with her record label, Amanda decided to seek funding for her new album, Theatre Is Evil, from her FANS via Kickstarter (@Kickstarter), the crowdsourced funding phenomenon. The campaign sought to raise $100,000. It finished north of $1.2 million. And soon, Amanda Palmer had a new, very vocal audience.
Detractors.
With that kind of money in hand, people who never had any interest in Amanda began to scrutinize how she planned to use the money. They wondered out loud and in print if both Amanda and Kickstarter had an “accountability problem.”2
Theatre Is Evil was released in September 2012, and five months later, Amanda delivered a TED Talk called “The Art of Asking.” In it, she discussed her career, the Kickstarter controversy, and her plans to continue couchsurfing, crowdsourcing, and asking FANS for different types of support.3
Why would she do this when she had such a lucrative Kickstarter campaign? Because she didn’t just take from her FANS in these exchanges; she gave as well: attention, conversation, free music, artwork, and more. To Amanda and her FANS—her people—she gave as much as she received. And it doesn’t matter if her detractors roll their eyes at that notion; to Amanda’s JOINERS—her SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and FOLLOWERS—the value exchange is just fine.
I share Amanda’s story because it highlights something every marketer needs to master: the art of asking. While it’s necessary, it’s not enough to obtain the permission we discussed in Chapter 3. You must also give your JOINERS something meaningful in return. When you do that, it doesn’t matter what the occasional detractors say. All that matters is the strength of your SUBSCRIBER, FAN, and FOLLOWER relationships—because they’re the engine that powers your business.