Pick one person. Go from there.

oooo... the questions keep coming. Well, after a discussion with a couple of others this morning, I realized I should re-post the sage advice of one of my favourite authors to answer the question:

What's this seeding? How does one pick a community to get involved with?

(other than the fact that I would be aprehensive to even think of going into business without a specific need solved, which I would think points directly at a community, here it goes...)

Marcus Buckingham, who wrote the fun First, Break all the Rules, once wrote (I think it was in The One Thing You Need to Know: about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success, but I heard him speak it, I haven't had a chance to read it):

Great Leaders need to find what is universal for people and capitalize on it. What is universal? Among other things, the fear of uncertainty. So, what does a great leader need to do to create a sense of security for people? Be Clear.

These are Buckingham's four points of clarity:

1. Who do we serve? (pick ONE core audience)
   
   [Seriously, one. Not two or three or more. One. And that one audience cannot be males aged 18-34...that isn't an audience, that is a demographic. In fact, some even say pick one person - preferably someone other than yourself, bias is terrible to work with. We're talking super specific here. Niches are larger than you think. Look at Bloggers. Mac users. Even more specific, blog-writing, mac-using moms. blog-writing, mac-using single moms. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to answer the next questions.]
   
   
2. What is our core strength? (why will they choose us?)
   
   [We're better just doesn't cut it. Even if you are. Pick one core strength. Think of what those Mac using single mom bloggers need most. Do they have a damn good reason to switch from Blogger to your CMS?]
   
   
3. What is our core score? (pick ONE metric to measure how successful we are)
   
   [Remember, if you move one metric, everything else will follow. If not, you've picked the wrong one]
   
   
4. What actions can we take TODAY to get there?
   
   [Baby steps are o.k. and actually preferable.]
   

Marcus' advice is really brilliant for leaders and for marketing. I've always had this list of questions when writing my marketing 'plans'.

And really, all four of these questions can be applied to most any business model. Believe me, the toughest questions to answer are #3 and #4, especially #4. Why? Where people usually go wrong with #4 is that, when planning, they forget their answers to 1, 2 and 3.

If you are marketing a new blogging platform to Mac using single mom bloggers, buying an ad on the Business Week website ain't gonna cut it (not that mommy bloggers don't read it, you just want to find a better channel).

technorati tags: marketing, newmarketing, marcusbuckingham, onlinemarketing, guerillamarketing, cluetrain