Humanizing your brand starts by empowering employees to build trust with customers and influence word-of-mouth recommendations. Companies have lost some brand control as people now rely more on peer recommendations than company advertising. To regain influence, companies must close the divide between marketing and customer support, involve frontline employees in brand discussions, and support internal and external communities helping one another with the brand. Building human trust in the brand through employees fosters deeper relationships with consumers.

1. Humanizing your brand starts with your employees… or… Is Your Brand Powered By People? Francois Gossieaux @fgossieaux

2. in the beginning…your brand was controlled by ads (=YOU)

3. Then we found we could get our information from our tribes… …based on Reciprocity and Fairness

4. So we no longer had to listen to companies (=YOU)

5. ..and instead could rely on friends and colleagues…people who want to help us and warn us…

7. Of course…

8. So how do you regain some control of your brand??

9. 1) Fix the great divide between marketing & customer support – your brand is only as good as your last transaction…

10. 2) Bring down that wall!

11. …and get a seat at those tables where recommendations are being made

12. Find your internal and external tribes and let them help one another

13. “To the extent that we can be ‘human’ we will be fostering a deeper level of trust with consumers” – Barry Judge, CMO Best Buy

14. http://www.facebook.com/hypersocialorg Francois Gossieaux @fgossieaux w. http://www.human1.com e. francois@human1.com b. http://www.emergencemarketing.com c. http://www.marketingtwo.com