A brand advocate is a person or group that likes your brand, speaks or blogs or tweets or otherwise communicates about it, may buy your brand, and certainly influences others to consider doing so. A brand advocate is a like a billboard with credibility – no, not literally, but you get the idea.

vSA tells its clients that they will benefit from having brand advocates – that, in fact, they need them if they want optimal performance from their companies or organizations.

Here are a few benefits:

-Believability: Isn’t it credible when someone else sings your praises? Third-party endorsement tends to ring true.

-Velocity: Talk goes viral. Your advocates are your feet on the street. They have no reason to be “selling” you – they simply admire your company, products, services, or mission.

-Reputation enhancement: People say your company is great. They say it all the time. Point taken.

-Stability: A great reputation can help navigate your company through stormy seasons.

How can you get brand advocates?

-Since Mahatma Gandhi said it, it is worth hearing, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” So ask.

-Seek media coverage (print, online, broadcast) that provides third-party endorsement, whether by virtue of an article being published or – even better – a bylined article by someone who speaks well of your brand – an advocate!

-Gather testimonials and case studies. Customers who’ve used your products and services to solve problems, who come back to you over and over, brand loyalists… it may sound like old school but there is a reason companies continue to use testimonials and case studies – they act as proof that the company has advocates!

-Get your products and services reviewed and tested independently – publish the good news about how they’ve done.

-Train users in the best ways to employ your products and services, and make advocates of these users. Better yet, make them loyal for life.

-Get involved with independent training and certification programs through which your products and services can be recognized for their excellence in specific usages or characteristics.

These are just a few of the many ways to build brand advocates. We’d enjoy hearing about your experiences, in this blog or on the van Schouwen Associates Facebook page (where, by the way, your “like” vote counts in our book as brand advocacy)!

Location-based marketing is all the rage in consumer marketing circles. As B2B marketers we feel, well, left out. But there are a host of reasons that B2B marketers should step into this brave new world.

First – what is it? Location-based marketing is interaction with customers or prospects by their location, offering special opportunities for which the recipient’s location is a key factor. (As in “I’m currently down the street from the latte for which you’ve texted me a coupon.”)

In this new generation of the term “location-based marketing”, this interaction takes the form of electronic messaging to the customer or prospect, often through mobile device but on occasion through that near-archaic box on your desk or in your briefcase – the PC.

Even before marketers started shooting out messages to consumers on their mobiles, and even before consumers started “checking in” to let marketers and friends know their current location, B2B firms were using earlier forms of location-based marketing.

Where did it come from?

“First-generation” examples from my own marketing firm’s experience:

•We’re managing a client event and conduct a live radio broadcast from the event to draw in additional business attendees.

•We’re with a B2B client at a trade show, showing a new product for the first time; we Tweet editors in attendance to invite them to stop by the exhibit for a person-to-person demonstration.

Where is it now?

Examples of ways B2B firms will leverage new forms of location-based marketing:

•“Check-in” apps will be used increasingly at trade shows and conferences to let attendees know about product promotions, introductions, educational opportunities, and cocktail hours available to a select audience that is “on location”.

•B2B companies that conduct road shows and special events to convene with, educate or market to prospects can have these prospects opt in to receive messages and opportunities based on their geographic proximity to an event.

•B2B companies and their PR firms will invite editors to press conferences and deliver media alerts using location-based marketing tools.

Of course, B2B marketers will have to be vigilant not to misuse location-based marketing. People at work are busy and justifiably impatient with interruptions to business at hand. Messages and offers must be relevant, useful and occasional. Text me once and I may respond positively. Text me three times and I will unsubscribe.

This article was first published in The Conversation.

A little background: van Schouwen Associates is not a New York advertising agency. van Schouwen Associates makes its home in far-less-visible Longmeadow, Massachusetts, right outside Springfield, close to Hartford, CT and reasonably adjacent to Boston. While it lacks Madison Avenue glamour, it boasts easy parking and two Starbucks outlets and is therefore an excellent location from which to serve clients up and down the eastern seaboard. We do a good deal of marketing and sales outreach, which is only right, since van Schouwen Associates is, after all, a marketing and public relations firm.

Still, every unexpected incoming inquiry is refreshing and welcome. In fact, we’re often surprised by the companies that find us, and by HOW they find us. We learn from their experience, and by learning, we can provide better support to our clients.

Aside from referral business, most prospects who find vSA find us on the Web. Like most of our clients, we want this to happen increasingly often, and to involve increasingly attractive prospects. Here’s what we’ve learned…

Lesson 1: SEO is tough when you’re in an overcrowded field and when the words often used to describe your services also have other meanings and are all over the Web (take marketing, public relations, consulting, strategy, and B2B as just a few examples of terms nearly as common as pizza or gas station).

Lesson 2: It’s sometimes surprising what prospects are looking for, and the very specific terms that allow them to find you. We’ve had people call from across the country because they Googled B2B Web applications for mobiles.

Lesson 3: Sometimes prospects find your company because they’ve asked Google a question and you’ve already put the answer online! Prospects will likely Google questions about how to solve a problem that your company’s product or service can indeed solve, and therefore your content marketing should be sure to ask that question, maybe even in an FAQ section on the company Web site, or in your corporate blog.

Lesson 4: Blogs, editorial/media coverage, social media, and other non-sales-promotion-y outreach are credible, well-read and visible, both in real life and on Google (vSA generally focuses on Google for SEO because it certainly holds the lion’s share of the search market; sorry, Yahoo).

Think content first, sales second. When you offer value and credibility, sales opportunities often follow.

Lesson 5: Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman) said it all the time. He didn’t benefit a bit from it, but your company may derive a modicum of wisdom from the classic phrase: “I was always well-liked.”

Be well-liked… or at least well-known. Show up on incoming links on the Web. Comment on relevant blogs and link to your business site. Get listed in directories. Use relevant affiliate links (relevant ones only please).

Lesson 6: Content rules. Make it meaningful. Make it authentic.

Lesson 7: Keep tweaking your online presence. It’s a rare company that can’t show up better than it does online. Except maybe Facebook or Google.

Remember the fax? Remember the print or TV ad campaign that reigned supreme as the “way to get the word out?” Remember direct mail when people actually read their mail while more than three feet away from the nearest wastebasket?

No, I don’t either. Even though I’ve been a marketing professional for nigh on three decades and an avid follower of consumer culture since about age three when I “invented” a toothpaste that would STILL BE STRIPED when you spit it out. (Unfortunately, I didn’t have the manufacturing facility to bring this fine toothpaste to market at the time.)

Remember when you sent a resume on nice paper, through the mail, to get a job? That’s gone, too.

Everything has changed, for obvious reasons we’ve hashed over forever (not included here!) and a few that are somewhat less obvious, even to those of us in the trenches:

• Companies now need brand advocates; it is no longer enough to independently trumpet about strengths. It is instead imperative that the people who could purchase or influence purchasing are enthusiastic about what you do and how you do it.

• Social media… it’s more than Facebook. And it cannot be ignored. Smart marketing campaigns send the same key message points across multiple media, in many cases including social media. This is true (albeit sometimes trickier) in B2B. Forget silo marketing.

• People’s access to information may not actually make them smarter, but it certainly makes them more easily informed. Or disillusioned. No longer is it true (if ever it was) that “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

• Content is king and queen. The way to break through the noise is to have something worth saying. Educate, help, solve, entertain. If you have nothing to say, go back to the drawing board and figure out why, because content-poor marketing is a waste of money and time.

Evidently, just about anything we can do on an illuminated screen, we WILL do on an illuminated screen. Take for example reading (Nook, Kindle). Exercise (Wii). Meetings (GoToMeeting, Skype). Keeping up with friends (Facebook) and with news and gossip (Twitter). Finding love (Match, eHarmony). Business networking (Linkedin).

At the vSA office, we’re finding that some of the work we identify as being part of that catch-all “client marketing” has in fact merged with something more akin to “facilitating the process by which our clients bond with their prospects, customers, influentials, and affiliates”.

In more than a few cases, this means Web applications. Whether the illuminated screen in question is a desktop, notepad or mobile phone, the need to create synergy and loyalty is well-served by applications that let the user do something that either is not possible or is less convenient any other way. Examples include online training modules, B2B planning tools, calculators both simple and complex, members-only apps, custom purchasing programs, catalogs for sub-licensing, and even games to play to learn about new products. Typically, the process is to build the app, test and test (and then test!) the app, and at last make sure the intended audience knows it’s out there and understands how to use it. Depending on the application, a company may make it freely available, or use it as an incentive or reward for customers and prospects who meet chosen criteria.

Some people remember the Web in its commercial infancy, when creating a good-looking site – essentially an online brochure – was the ultimate goal. Next came Web 2.0, with its more personalized experience and its tracking of the user’s every move (useful for business, questionable for privacy)! Now, the Working Web presents business with almost unlimited opportunities to provide value – and to bond, so to speak – with the people it most needs to engage.

What’s more refreshing than a new start?

Here are just ten “to dos” – small and big – any of which you can employ to make 2011 an exciting year, professionally and/or personally. Everything you do to grow in one way likely helps you grow in other ways, too. Or so I’ve experienced.

In fact, I’ve done or attempted at least four of these in 2010. Perhaps four more in 2011?

•Question some of your own assumptions. It’s harder than it sounds.*

•Take on a challenging project at which you’re not confident you’ll excel – probably keeping some form of safety net such as associate support or a long-lead deadline, just in case.

•Learn accounting or bookkeeping skills you’ve always brushed over.

•If you typically drag yourself to work when you are sick, stay home, for heaven’s sake (I could use this piece of advice myself).

•Read a “for Dummies” book about a topic that holds some interest for you – (oh, don’t scoff, it’s a pretty good series).

•Marry him or her, if he or she is the life partner you want.

•Learn some relevant business acronyms: VAR, COGS, MSI… or invent a new one that resonates.

•Make a new friend, find a new mentor, let go of a friendship that no longer works.

•Take a class, in a physical classroom or online.

•Save some (or more) of the money you earn.

Other ideas? Happy holidays. Happy upcoming new year.

*Ask any liberal or conservative.

It is easier said than done, of course. But, if you are in a position in business, government or another sphere in which being inspirational or trendsetting is key, it may well be worth the effort. (Plus, some people would rather lead than follow, no matter what.)

A thought leader is somewhat snidely defined by Wikipedia as “business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas.” (This link leads, nonetheless, to a good article that is worth a few minutes if you’re interested in the topic.)

Being a thought leader goes beyond a few light bulbs of inspiration. It involves having an in-depth understanding of some key aspect (or many key aspects) of your field. These may include the technologies, people, and trends involved, and the direction in which this field may be going. A thought leader also has opinions on which way things should be going, and these are generally (optimistically!) based on more than quick judgments. Typically, a thought leader also knows what others have been saying and feels no compunction to be in lockstep with the other thought leaders, nor to disagree with them. Being a thought leader takes nerve.

There’s also (hello? anyone out there??) the issue of being heard over the noise. How can one be a thought leader if one has no followers? If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear… It’s pleasant to think that some thought leaders would express their opinions because of a clear intellectual or ethical compunction to do so, even if no one or hardly anyone is listening. Even if there will be no book sales. Or speaker fees. But most leaders want followers. Being a true thought leader eventually demands that you have (although not so formally named) “thought  followers”.

There is also the question of forum. A thought leader can start small. She can be the manager of a group. She can give seminars, write articles, give speeches to small groups. She can blog. Being a thought leader demands that you find a medium or multiple media in which to express your insights.

But most of all, the thought leader needs insights. Vision. Education. Breadth. The person most likely to become a thought leader has all these. The thought leader also enjoys a clarity of thought process that, while not an infallible defense against errors in tactics, strategy or advice delivered, allows cool reassessments and logical course changes when required. Generally, that clarity of thought will also inhibit the leader from speaking about an opinion until he is PRETTY SURE that opinion is valid. This is not always the case. Take Pat Robertson‘s many quotes.

A thought leader need not always be followed. Should not always be followed. That alone is a reason either to become one or to focus on being an independent thinker, sifting the insights of many, swallowing none of them hook, line and sinker.

With unemployment still high, many professionals set adrift from previously apparently stable jobs and new grads pounding the pavement (or the keyboard) looking for work until their shoes wear thin (or their fingers hurt), contemporary “wisdom” about careers deserves a hard second look.

The myth: Do what you love and the money will follow. Oh, please. We may all wish it were true. The fact is, you can love doing something a lot, but if there’s no demand for your service, your product, art, or ideas, and you can’t build that demand… the money, most assuredly, will NOT follow.

The grain of truth: Your enthusiasm for your work likely means you’ll work harder and do a better job than you’d do if unenthused. Good performance obviously contributes to success. Plus, your own energy communicates and helps create enthusiasm in others around you. Nonetheless, don’t quit your day job to market those handpainted dog bowls… not yet.

The myth: There is no loyalty among employers toward their employees. Especially in businesses in which you are “more than a number,” your dedication, abilities and contributions do count. Decisions about promotions and raises are flavored by employers’ regard for hard-working staff and their feelings. What’s more, many employers do agonize over layoffs and even terminations “for cause”.

The grain of truth: It’s business. When it comes down to brass tacks, employers and managers have to look at the bottom line, at trends and at your performance. Loyalty will not trump business considerations in most cases. And in some big companies, decisions about your future are made by number crunchers who don’t know you from Adam.

The myth: You need to decide early on what you’re going to do with your life, career-wise. Really? One of my associates went to medical school in her 40s, another to law school, and both started successful second careers. Another began as a commercial photographer and made a 180 degree turn to a long and rewarding career in public service.

The grain of truth: It’s great to head off to college with a major and a career path in mind, or to get a first job that sets you on a ladder to dizzying heights. There are other ways to go, but they can be more difficult. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, career changes today “can entail major costs in retraining and pay cuts – plus, in the current job climate, the risk of not finding employment.” While this sounds unappealing, staying in a stultifying career for, oh, 30 to 40 years, could be a lot worse. Bottom line: it’s your life, and you want it to be as fulfilling as possible.

For the cynical reader: Yes, it does matter if the customer likes your company, at least in the long run. Companies that are disliked (check out the 10 most disliked companies in America) pay for their unpopularity in a number of ways. There were few lines at BP service stations this spring and summer, even though station owners were far removed from the decisions that precipitated the environmental disaster.

Okay, likability is in many ways separate from business results. Most of us work with a few companies whose names we could use as a curse! Factors including pricing, convenience, product quality, the mass or lack of competition a company faces, and others compete with and sometimes trump the “nice” factor.

Nonetheless… it matters. How is your company doing?

1-Do customers communicate both their satisfaction and their dissatisfaction to your company and its staff? Praise and happy customers are great. Constructive criticism, especially in terms that indicate customers would genuinely like to continue doing business with you, is just as important. Constant angry feedback, on the other hand, must not be construed as a positive.

2-Do customers exit stage right as soon as a viable alternative appears? Not good. If they work with you solely because you’re the only provider of certain computer chips or fresh bagels, that’s scant protection from new competitors.

3-Do customers who’ve stopped doing business with you (perhaps because they’ve retired, moved or changed focus) often keep in touch in some way? Outstanding…

4-What is the daily tone of your customer interactions? Friendly? Curt? Listen carefully.

5-Have you asked or surveyed? “What’s our reputation among our markets (or in our community)?” “How are we doing for YOU?” “Would you recommend us?” Make it easy for customers to tell you – online or off, in writing or in person – what they think.

It’s good to know.

We’ve been reviewing resumes. If the right person applies, we may have a position available. Admittedly, the bar is high. And we’ve had a lot of applicants. Over 100 so far for a single job.

But here’s the thing. I’ll bet van Schouwen Associates is like a lot of companies right now, in that we’re not looking for just anybody who can fill a seat and perform some tasks. vSA staff is high-performing. Always, and these days especially, anyone who joins our ranks must bring stellar skills, a certain sparkle and the get-up-and-go to get really challenging work done on really snappy deadlines.

When the cover letter says, “I am looking for a position with a growth-oriented company that allows me to further my career goals,” do we jump up and down with excitement? When the resume blats, “achieves marketing goals within budget and exceeds corporate expectations”, guess whether an interview will happen?* When the email announces that the applicant seeks a sales position (which this isn’t), how does that come across?

Savvy employers want more than ever from employees and applicants because we face a wild business environment. If a company like ours doesn’t find the right applicant, it may not hire at all. At vSA, we know full well that some of the resumes we just put aside required a lot of effort on the part of the applicant, and that the cover letters are heartfelt. We’ve all been there.

The challenge is to get into the head of the employer. We admire an applicant who addresses our real concerns, which may variously include ramping up quickly, being well-versed in up-and-coming industry sectors, writing like a star… etc. We also admire an applicant with a personality.

So that’s the input we sometimes wish we could offer in the “no thanks” email we send to many applicants. Because we do mean it when we say, “We wish you well in your career search.”

*No.