July 12, 2007 Comments
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Back in my ten part series on "Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work," I wrote an article about tapping into motivating factors to get more people to talk about or write about your products and services. One of the strongest motivating factors I explored was "appealing to the ego." Rohit Bhargava explores this idea today at his Influential Marketing Blog.
Rohit explains the "wego" (web ego) or "blego" (blog ego) this way:
...it's an increasingly common word being used to describe the hyperactive egos of many bloggers. It's becoming a negative word, often referring to the qualities of some bloggers to be judgmental, narrow minded and arrogant. Yet some amount of ego makes us human. We all want to be appreciated, recognized or feel important. As each of our personalities and identities continue to move online - our sense of self worth and ego are moving online too - only not just through blogging. Having a blog is not as important as having a profile. And there are many more people who have these profiles on sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and thousands of others. These profiles, as well as blogs and sites that you update, make up what you could call your "wego" - or web ego. Whether you buy the word for it, or only the idea ... the fact that individual identity is moving online is undeniable.
He goes on to explore some of the more common ways to tap into this ego for your own marketing purposes. From branded award "badges" to ranking widgets to connections on social networking sites, anything you can do to help someone else feel special, or important, stands a good chance of helping you expand your marketing reach.
It works in Vegas.
High-end casinos do not employ casino hosts and offer up amazing perks and upgrade to high rollers so they can lose money. They do it because when you make someone feel important, their ego surfaces. Make someone feel like a high-roller and chances are they'll act like one. Bets increase, time spent gaming increases and while they may occasionally walk away with some extra money, the house always wins.
What can you do today to help your customers feel appreciated? What can you do to appeal to their ego so they might spend more time talking about you and about the great treatment they've received from you?
How can you leverage the "wego" to drive more sales?
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