“You need to pay people something for their attention. You need to give them something of value. Something they want to know or use somehow.”
That’s not us talking. That’s Tomas Kellner from GE talking.
“Why should I care?”
Because, if you’re in business, the GE brand’s main digital outpost, GE Reports (gereports.com), has slowly amassed hundreds of thousands of devoted readers. Its stories regularly capture the attention of folks even on Reddit, one of the least friendly social media sites.
Takeaway: Folks are often deciding which brands to trust, what advice to follow, and who to forge personal or business relationships with based on one simple metric: Likeability.
As Tomas suggested, something usually triggers and fuels likeability, and that something is usually intentionally cultivated.
So, how can you cultivate? How much time do we have? Not much? OK. In short:
Through design—think Tesla & Apple.
Through humour—think GEICO & Snapchat.
Through ease of use—think Google & Amazon.
Through remarkable customer service—think Zappos & Rackspace.
Through storytelling—think… We could go on, you know. 🙂
Over to you: how are you paying folks for their attention?