The New Rules of Business

The old rules of business were pretty simple.  In fact, William Dillard once summed them up in three words: Location, location, location.  The idea was that any business could be successful, so long as it was located on the right street corner in the right part of town.  Well, things aren’t that simple any more.

With the rise of the internet and e-commerce, the physical location of your business is less important than it was in the past, especially when your business is service-related or when you sell intangibles or products (like software or web design) that can be delivered online.  Even traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are feeling the effects of this revolution, many of them adding an online store to augment their retail sales and shipping their products around the world.

If location is no longer of primary concern, what, then, are the new rules of business?  I call them the three Cs: content, connection and conversation.

Let’s start by saying that if your business hasn’t joined the online community and started participating in social media, you’re missing the boat in a big way.  It’s time to get on the bus.  That said, you need to pay attention to how you are conducting business online.

Do you see social media marketing as a form of free advertising?  Think again.  If you join the party with that outlook, you’re dead before you begin.  This is where the three Cs kick in, starting with your first step: content.

If you’re going to participate online, start by paying attention to the content you’re providing to your prospects and customers.  And by content, I mean everything you provide to your customers: your websites, your social media profiles, videos, e-brochures and anything else your customers see need to communicate that you are an authority on your subject.  That goes without saying.  But they also need to demonstrate a high level of interest in your customers: what they find interesting and entertaining.  You also need to clearly communicate that you care, not just about their wallets, but about them.  Today’s consumer wants to see that you have a vested interest in them.  Once they do, they’ll be ready for new rule #2: connection.

Once you’ve grabbed the interest of your prospect by providing great content, you need to make it easy for them to establish some kind of connection with you.  Whether it’s a Facebook fan page, a Ning community, an active Twitter stream or a forum on your own website, give your customers somewhere to hang out and chat with other customers.  This is how you start to build a community for your brand; it’s also one way you can really set yourself apart from all the other companies who do exactly what you do for the same price (otherwise known as your competition).  Providing a place for your customers to connect with one another and with you will naturally lead to rule #3: conversation.

Take a quick minute to compare the way Chipotle uses it Facebook fan page to the way General Motors does (or doesn’t).  On Chipotle’s page, you see steady interaction from the folks at Chipotle.  They interact with their customers who take the time to stop by and leave a comment.  They banter, they joke, they fool around, and their customers LOVE them for it.

Now look at GM’s fan page: at the time this post was written, I had to scroll all the way back to December 10th to see a dry, boring reminder about some webinar they were conducting, reminding people to dial in and listen.  Nowhere on the page do you see them engaging with their customers, whether fans or detractors.  As a result, you see a lot of comments on the page making note of the fact that GM is essentially non-responsive to customer concerns.

You’ll notice another difference, as well: General Motors, one of the best-know brands in the world has around 106,000 fans on Facebook while Chipotle, a relatively small chain of burrito restaurants in North America, has almost 530,000.  That’s the difference that conversation makes.

So if you want to make 2010 a banner year for your business, make sure you’re paying attention to the new rules, the three Cs for success in business in our modern era: provide the best content you can to demonstrate that you have your customer in mind, provide them a place to make a connection with you and other customers and, one you’ve got them there, engage them in a conversation to show your level of commitment to their satisfaction.

Those are the new rules of business.  Are you up to the challenge?