Establishing yourself on the social graph - Word of Mouth Media Relationship Ladder

[RebeccaHappy]

Reputation is what you need to gauge. Long to build quick to demolish. Wonderful to keep.

[chickefitz]

Love the "humming" Peter. Staying centered on our behavior is So key to this whole word of mouth media thing. Remembering that bad behavior (e.g. staying on rungs 1 and 2) follow us by word of mouth as much or more as if we had made it up the ladder is important!

[peterholmes1965]

Love it Chicke, more great implicitly delivered advice and guidance on the correct way to engage Word Of Mouth Media. I find myself humming the music all day which then anchors my thoughts to the ladder in all my offline interactions aswell .. thanks.

[chickefitz]

Actually, these are not "pillars" per se, as we don't want to build any of our activities on SPAM or NOISE or even just trying to elicit RESPONSE. We promote seeking out the next rung (getting past DIALOGUE to true CONVERSATION) before they can get to the place where people will REFER them (retweeting, forwarding, creating links or a true sales referral). REPUTATION is what ensues and if coupled with knowledge, uncommon wisdom and humility, is indeed the holy grail of Word of Mouth Media!

[espirituo]

Word of Mouth Media's 'Relationship Ladder' is on the forefront of articulating the 7 pillars of mutually-beneficial, authentic and empowering relationships, which are...

1. Spam

2. Noise

3. Response

4. Dialogue

5. Conversation

6. Referral

7. Reputation

[ugokwoli]

Totally amazing, Chicke. The rungs was nicely outlined and resonated just too well.

Thank you, I love it... so much!

[chickefitz]

What is really cool is how many of us were on the bottom rungs, not so very long ago. Shifting the conversations to adding value has been a learning experience and it is fun to share!

[addytseng]

Chicke,

Powerful message. I love analogies, just like you!

Snakes and Ladders (the board game) came to mind. And like the game, we can climb ladders very fast but we can also slide down a snake very fast if we are not careful. Maintaining a reputation that you earned requires vigilance.

I'd modify 'Honesty is the best policy" to "Authenticity is the best policy" ....because otherwise it's too HARD to try to keep all your lies/stories straight.

[chickefitz]

Thank you so much. I respond well to analogy, so am happy that others like it as well.

[racerx12345]

Chicke:

Well done! I like the use of the ladder and rungs analogy for how to rise up to social media super-stardom! I agree w/Rebecca---the music reinforces the brand.

[RebeccaHappy]

Excellent Chicke. Great to keep using the same music. I will certainly share this with my friends and tweeps.

[maerichl]

Chicke,

Again, awesome and professional What an insightful delineation displaying what we should all know soul-deep yet some have difficulty translating behavior from old school relationships -- like dating -- into new media relationships -- like social media. Each progressive rung provides the very foundation for the next. It's sure not a race.... and we can't skip rungs or we just fall off the ladder... flat on our face.

Let the training commence...