In this post, I offer some thoughts on why people become loyal to certain networks & what marketers can do to encourage community loyalty. The Loyalty Cycle The cycle of developing loyalty is pretty simple, you ask users to take action & for every action they take, they receive a reward. It's also important to understand The Cycle of Social Interaction when trying to build community loyalty. understand the importance of marketing & the value of building communities to market to. Recognition. Badging. Points. MORE >>

How could you use these ideas or borrow from other companies to build customer loyalty into your business structure? Awareness Community Marketing Selling Small Business Apple business structure culture customer service Jeff Korhan loyalty ZapposThis evening I spent a couple of hours at the Apple Store getting my iPhone replaced and synced with the saved data on my Macbook Pro. This didn't cost me a dime because I previously purchased the extended warranty plan with this iPhone. This is what makes it a pleasure to deal with Apple. No questions asked. Think again. MORE >>

If this is how you operate, your market is best defined as a club, one whose value is derived from by exclusion of others who do not share their predominant values or beliefs. Communities are Larger and Inclusive. Communities by definition exist to equally serve the needs of everyone within them. larger community may be more beneficial to your company if it can easily grow and scale to accommodate additional business. The Best Online Communities are Hybrids. Thus, you need to define your community to achieve the optimal degree of exclusivity and inclusiveness. MORE >>

I recently received a notification from another influencer marketing tool seeking to engage me by flattering my ego, which will inevitably re-stir the frenzy of excited tweets, criticism , and everything in between. Criticisms against the dizzying array of marketing tools vying for communicators’ attention and loyalty reminds me of journalists’ gripes about “what not to do in PR.”. Their new face now portrays a friendly, vibrant, community-focused advocate for the common good. No one enjoys having their value reduced to a number, or bid for at an auction. MORE >>

This is a draft of chapter 10 of Social Marketing to the Business Customer by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman. This chapter focuses on how to calculate ROI of social media and Internet marketing programs in general. We’ve told you about a few companies that have achieved a notable return on investment (ROI) from their social marketing initiatives. In conversations with hundreds of marketers over the last few years, we’ve observed that few of them closely track the ROI of their social marketing programs. Customer loyalty. Market influence. 1900%. MORE >>