Bookmarking Hearts and Minds

Good Morning Campers...

Yesterday I registered with over fifteen online "social bookmarking" services - web sites that (amongst other things) allow users to share their favorite topics, shows, music, web sites, blogs, etc. with the world.

Imagine if your business was mentioned - by name, by link, etc. - as someone's favorite ___. That would be cool, right? That would feel good, yes? Recommendations are really powerful, as they're arguably one of the strongest qualitative metrics of performance.

Thank about it - someone could be "perfectly" qualified for a job, but it is ultimately a reference or recommendation that puts them over the edge and gets them hired.

Here's the point - a recommendation represents satisfaction - a "state" that can be described as "positive, emotional gratification, as an outcome of participating in an experience."

Achieving satisfaction, which interpretively can be extrapolated as a path to brand loyalty, can only logically take place by creating an experience for the hopefully soon-to-be satisfied to partake in. Very few people recommend a business or brand just because they see it advertised, because it's the least expensive, or even because it's the most popular. No one recommends a brand that does not first deliver satisfaction.

A recommendation is an emotional commitment, just as satisfaction is an emotional state - neither of which can be achieved without establishing relationships that foster the emotions. In marketing, this can only take place in person via live experiences - the essence and incarnation of experiential marketing.

Online social networking can prompt relationships, and bookmarking may affirm relationships, but the only reliable exercise in truly establishing relationships is live marketing.

Marc Portugal