Brand Fandom
Part 2: How do you turn customers into fans?

Last month, you may recall, B-Sides introduced the concept of converting clients into fans. No more is it enough, we pondered, to build loyalty for your brand. You must build fans willing to wear t-shirts.

This month, we offer suggestions towards an approach that may build fandom. The details are particular to your industry, audience and brand, so we'll leave them out. Instead, we will describe principles.

Keep in mind that fandom does not happen overnight. Like a band working a touring circuit year-upon-year before the house is always full, persistence brings eventual rewards. But for that band to attract fans that wear t- shirts, they must stick true to the approach. Sure, their style may change over the years. Fans may come and go as a result. That's ok. The fans that stay will be more rabid - in a marketing sense, they will be advocates that proselytize your brand - and convert more rabid fans. The fans that abandoned ship were fair-weather fans, anyway. Point is, stay true to original values and approach, but do not be afraid of evolving the details.

Here are some principles worth considering when developing approach:

• Do Not Be Faceless: No one will identify with a faceless entity, and fans need to identify with you. Essentially, do not hide whom you are in an appeal to reach a broader audience. Show yourself. The person that is behind the communications should be visible and available.
• Authenticity: We can't express this one enough, which is why it pops up all the time in advice we offer. Everyone can spot a phony, just ask J.D. Salinger - err, wait, you can't. Trust us, people will respond better to what your brand actually is - warts and all - than some constructed presentation.
• Personable: Simply put, be human. How does this differ from the first two? Well, this one requires you to reach out to your audience as an individual communicating with another individual. In social media, which really applies to all these, this is key. These are the posts that talk about you favorite bagel or loathing of weather. But it also talks about the concern you have for an upset customer, if it is genuine. Personable people have compassion, faults, odd habits, etc.
• Go where they are: Your fans are hanging out. Are you hanging out where they are? No? not even sure where that might be? Better figure it out. Find where they are congregating - especially online - and hang out with them there, while being personable, authentic, and full of face.
• Not all business, all the time: Seriously, you know the friend: He's the one who can't leave work at work. She's the one who when you hang out only talks about work. It's awful. Have some downtown with your fans when you are not pitching, promoting, selling. The irony is, this is a great way to do just that.
• Integrity: Your fans are fans because they identify with you, your values, your principles, your lifestyle. If you break that, it is a serious violation. This is not the kind of evolution of a band evolving; this is a brand that never actually was what it claimed to be. Don't do that.

In The Know
Former Rocky reporter starts investigative news non-profit to fill void.

Is iNews the future of journalism?

According to founder and director, Laura Frank, iNews is a "bridge to the future". iNews is a non-profit investigative news organization that reports on stories with state-wide interest and then provides those stories to local news outlets to be published. "There are stories that we, as citizens, are not learning about because of the crisis in journalism" says Frank. With recent cuts to news outlet budgets and the decline in reporters, Frank says that there are stories being untold and investigative reporting is the first to go. iNews aims to fill in this gap in reporting and provide citizens with the in-depth news that they are missing out on.

Frank was inspired to start iNews after she left her position at Rocky Mountain News when it closed in early 2009. "I had several stories that would never be printed" says Frank. "So I began to figure out a way for citizens to access those stories." The result was iNews. The aim was to deliver stories where people were already looking for them, in their local paper, favorite television show or on their mobile device.

iNews' first story delved into the touchy subject of university campus sexual assaults. "Our first investigative report was published in the Coloradoan, aired on Rocky Mountain PBS, and appeared on their websites" says Frank. iNews is part of a national non-profit news coalition called the Investigative News Network. The Investigative News Network has about two dozens members around the United States who all work together to investigate nation wide interest stories and deliver them to their home state.

iNews is funded, like many other non-profits through grants and donations, but also through training events. iNews hosts training events for citizens and journalists focusing on how to get information. "We want everyone to get information and share it" says Frank. The training sessions range from how to use Google to how to perform public record searches. Frank believes that citizens need to be able to find information and says that "citizens have a big role to play in this new journalism era."

iNews recently received a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, that will fund their next eight multimedia stories. So far iNews has been well received by local media. "Five years ago this wouldn't have happened because newspapers were so entrenched in competition," says Frank. Today, however, newspapers are happy to receive the stories. iNews hopes in the future to "get some of the stories reported that would not have otherwise been told."




The Hook Up
Here are a few of the events in May that we think you should try:

Annual Celebration of Philanthropy
Date: May 13, 2010
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Hilton Fort Collins

The Community Foundation of Northern Colorado will spend the evening celebrating the generosity of northern Colorado citizens. Timothy Wirth, the president of the United Nations Foundation, will speak at the event.

Fort Collins Senior Center Arts and Crafts Show
Dates: May 1-Jun 2
Locations: Fort Collins Senior Center

This arts and crafts show celebrates artists over the age of 50. The show will be on display throughout May.


A-Train Update
Rockstar entrepreneur Dawn Duncan joins the A-Train team

We can hardly call it a "hire." Dawn Duncan joining the A-Train team is more like destiny.

A-Train President & CEO Gretchen Gaede and Dawn have been colleagues and close friends for decades. Gretchen co-founded and built A-Train parallel to Dawn spending the last 16 years building Creative Career Connections, which was re-envisioned as Broadreach Recruiting over two years ago. In that time, both have become two of the most prominent women in Fort Collins' business community.

As of May 1, Broadreach Recruiting will be closed - the company was broken up and assets sold - and Dawn will come on the A-Train staff as full-time Senior Account Executive. Dawn's background in client management, marketing, and business development will be a major asset to A-Train. With confidence building in the economy, and Dawn on-board connecting A-Train to clients desiring the best full-service marketing in Northern Colorado to take advantage of the upswing, we expect this to be a time of significant growth for A-Train.

For Dawn, the transition comes at a time when the recruiting industry is in a state of flux, and personally she desired new challenges. Early in her career, she worked in marketing, and in a sense she has come full circle.

"Marketing is totally in my blood," says Dawn. "Even though I've been out of it for a while, I've still been promoting the hell out of things. If I like something, the whole world knows about it."

Anyone who knows Dawn knows that she also shares A-Train's commitments to high-quality service, both professionally and philanthropically. She has been driving the greater good in Northern Colorado for many years - just in a different vehicle.

"I am really excited about the addition of Dawn to our team," says Gretchen. "We have an extremely tight employee culture and she will be a perfect fit for the creative, strategic and giving nature of A-Train. I know she will make a positive impact on the company and on the work we do for our clients."

Email comments to josh@atrainmarketing.com.