This is the seventh installment in a series titled, How to Get Your Client on the Front Page of the New York Times, explaining how PureDriven helped vault the Google Twin Ports initiative (focused on Duluth, MN and Superior Wis.) to national prominence in its effort to win Google’s attention and become one of the few sites where Google will build an ultra-high speed fiber network. I’ve written this series in hopes of sharing with businesses, politicians and grassroots organizers how to best gain offline and online attention for your cause, event or organization.
Lesson 7: Connect With, Don’t Chastise Competitors
Photo Credit: AndyRob
With more than 1,000 competitors, the Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative had a lot of reason to worry. Not only were we competing against most other communities in America our size, we were also up against big cities with far more resources and money than we had. This post isn’t about why we eventually rose to the top online based on this Share of Voice Report, or landing on Page 1 of the New York Times. I’ve already covered those two topics. What I wanted to focus on here, is the attitude we had throughout the campaign, that I believe really helped us stay focused on our goals, which helped us catapult ourselves to national prominence.
We didn’t care a whole lot about the rest of the country. Sure, we paid attention to what everyone else did, and incorporated ideas we thought worked extremely well, like the idea Grand Rapids had of having everyone post their confirmation codes, after explaining to Google why they ought to build their network that that particular community.
But we didn’t spend our hours worried about resources other cities and companies had, nor felt like we needed to simply copy what everyone else did. We live by Lake Superior, so we used that in our wildly fabulous video, from which the world learned of our campaign.
Instead, we encouraged the cities who we thought were our biggest competition, by connecting with them through private messages, and even kicking around ideas for how we might be able to team up on public relations stunts to sell our cities collectively. We also did our best to credit companies by name with work they did for us, whenever we were being interviewed as well.
We also took opportunities to build on what other cities have tried. In response to Topeka renaming itself Google, we put out a spoof video renaming our kids Google and Googlette. You can see all those videos by visiting our YouTube channel.
We realized that over the long haul, you get so much further in life by linking arms and minds with others, instead of viewing everyone as a threat. Sure, we had our own secret sauce projects we didn’t share with the competition, but we knew worrying about what everyone else was doing would only cost us time and energy. The online and even offline marketplace may seem packed with competitors offering your services more cheaply than you can. But remember, you only need a small sliver of the overall pie to be successful. And the way to get a bigger piece of that pie is to encourage your competitors. Then they want to help and work with you. People aren’t genuinely thankful and helpful, which makes your effort really stick out. I know it sounds nutty, but view the online world as a friendly marketplace full of potential customers and other businesses you might partner with. In the long run, it will prove a much more fruitful venture than if you view everyone as a threat.
Don’t believe me? Jason Fried, of 37signals.com, wrote a great piece along the same lines, which you can read in the most recent INC. That particular column is exclusive to the magazine I believe, but if you click on the link, you can read other great stuff of his.
So Remember: Being helpful and kind to others can only help your business. Worrying and acting mean to competitors feels natural to many of us, but will ultimately lead to fewer sales.
To read the first post in this series, visit “Google called, so we vaulted our client to Page 1 of the New York Times”
To read the second, visit “In Campaigns, Little or No Money Sometimes An Advantage”
To read the third, visit “When Running Big Projects, Simple Tools Work Best”
To read the fourth, visit “Steer – Don’t Order – Volunteers For Best Results”
To read the fifth, visit “My Mistake Was Not Viewing E-mail as Critical”
To read the sixth, visit “If You Can’t Be Yourself, Be Someone Else“
