Should I Put My Blog Posts on Medium?

Medium, if you don't know, is an open, easy-to-use platform where anyone can create an account to start writing and to share that writing with the world. Awesome, well known people like Barack Obama and Gary Vaynerchuk have used the platform to publish content, as well as plenty of not-so-awesome, not-so-well known folks. One strategy that many writers and marketers employ is publishing content first on their blog or website and then publishing it again on Medium a bit later with a link back to the original piece (or no link sometimes). Medium has incredible reach, and allows bloggers and writers to upload their own, previous published content with no consequences. So, I wonder, should I put my blog posts on Medium?

I Have More Than 500 Published Posts On This Blog

With more than 500 posts over the course of four or five years, it would seem like I shouldn't need the reach or any additional help. Anyone who has been writing that much for that long ought to have plenty of followers and ought to have quite a niche built out for them.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

All the blogging was in a whole lot of fits and starts, and is also an archive of several different blogs, since many of the posts were from my freelancing blog and my two business blogs as well as anything that I decided to write for personal purposes. There's not a whole lot of cohesion to the content or to the process of writing all of the 500 posts. I somehow just happened to write all of it over the span of a few years.

However, many of these posts are just getting dusty. They were great, on point blog posts when I wrote them and they got a lot of traffic when they were originally on the business blog. But, the posts aren't doing much for me now. Yes, I do need to go back and update the information, make sure the links still work, pick a new photo and clean up the SEO portion of it. It's very possible the fact that I haven't done all that yet is hurting. With all this in mind, post my content on Medium may be a good thing to do with old content.

I'm Hesitant Because of the Decentralization

I'm concerned about doing this because I don't own Medium, and therefore I give up control of my content when I put in on Medium. If Medium shuts down, then all that content is gone. If Medium decides it's great, then they'll feature the post and promote it. If not, then they aren't going to do anything to help my content reach the people I want it to reach. If a post does really well on Medium, then I can't guarantee that those people will associate the work with me and the brand that I'm trying to build. It may increase my audience for a day, but I won't know for sure how many of those people will stick around and will read my next post or be interested in anything else that I might have to offer. At least when you promote and share your content on social media, you have a little bit more control then on platforms like Medium and LinkedIn.

Overall, it might be worth trying Medium with a couple of posts, just to see how it works and to see if I like it. Everyone talks about how great the platform is and the potential and exposure it gives people. As I said in a previous blog post, I just need to start talking and stop worrying about all sorts of little things that don't matter in the long run.

Need to Know vs. Cool to Know

My team and I used to have to do an exercise in "fascinating" and in finding fascinating stories. The exercise involved choosing, in our opinion, the five most fascinating stories that we covered within the past 24 hours. Now, we all understood the definition of the word "fascinating" and the general concept of how it feels and what it looks like. The trick was really avoiding stories like the AMA's repudiation of the military's ban on transgender people because, well, it's hard news, it's sad and it's not quite something you'd share on social media quite like #TheDress. Although I didn't share the dress. Quite frankly, it's an ugly dress. Nonetheless, most news falls into three categories: "need to know," "cool to know," and "not news stop reporting on it". I'm not going to talk about the last category because I think everyone with intelligence and critical thinking skills knows what sorts of stories belong in that category. Okay... I'll talk about it a little bit just to get it out my system.

The first ever TED Talk I watched is this one below featuring Alisa Miller. It was the TED Talk that introduced me to the wonderful world and brand that is TED Talks, and I've watched plenty of them since. I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon it, but I do remember that I showed the video as part of my Political Issues class during my senior year of college. That week, we were discussing the media, and this video illustrates the "not news" category quite well. I also totally just got another idea, but first, the video.

With the third category out of the way, that leaves "need to know" versus "cool to know." "Need to know" is similar to "not news" in that it's quite obvious what sorts of stories would go into that category. They're the type of stories, no matter the topics, that will influence a decision regarding our lives or careers or that may change our world view. They're stories about events happening in our area or that affect people we know or people similar to us.

Cool to Know/Fascinating is a Grey Area

"Cool to Know" is the grey area because there are many stories and topics that clearly fit into this news category, but depending on who you ask, would also fit into the "need to know" or the "not news" categories. For example, I know plenty of people who would argue celeb news is really "not news," but there are specific stories like Robin Williams' death that would fall into one of the other two categories. Perhaps much of the aftermath and the reaction to his death wasn't necessarily news, but the point is that "cool to know" news is much like the fascinating news that I had to choose and put together.

It's subjective, so "cool to know" news is harder to spot and to put together into an email or a feed. The five stories that I would put on my list is likely to be very different from what my fiance or what my mother would put on their list. I also think that the "cool to know" aspect of news is one that is very under-reported in the media, at least "cool to know" news that is still informative and intelligent. Like, #TheDress is cool to know in a lot of ways, but the story was spun in ways all over the web that were just fluffy and clickbait. Doing cool to know news without it being a puff piece, or clickbait, or a middleman to the good, original journalism.

Maybe finding fascinating isn't the hard part. The hard part is showcasing why something is fascinating and why others ought to be fascinated by the story. All of that part is the reporting and the news that's not the clickbait and that's not the fluff. That's the hard part.

Talking. About Everything.

I like just about everything. I think everything is neat and that everything is fascinating to somebody. One of my favorite aspects to writing articles for the college newspaper was talking to the people who were putting on various events, or who were trying to start a club, or who were behind some sort of student policy initiative. I love this because those people I interviewed were passionate and excited about the work they were doing and I found it infectious. I remember I was doing a short article for the newspaper about a fashion show the Black Student Alliance was hosting. After interviewing the person coordinating the event about it, I really wanted to go! I'm not into fashion and I wasn't a member of the Black Student Alliance, but the event coordinator was so energized about doing the event, about it's theme and about the people she was working in it. It was hard not to be part of her passion.

I'm Interested in Just About Everything

This quality is a good one. I work for a news app that released its first vertical news app, Inside Drones, and we're going to have two more coming out this week on two completely different topics. The week after or so, we're going to have another two or three coming out on two or three more different topics. By the end of the summer, we should have 11 vertical apps out as well as our main Inside news app, all available in the App Store for people to download. That is A LOT of topics, and that won't be the end of the line. The point is that being interested in everything is a good thing because Inside is going to cover everything ultimately, whether we do it in a vertical app or we feature the topic in our main app. My job involves sharing all the cool things we cover and getting people who love these topics into the right app(s). If I'm not interested in drones, then I certainly share the neat stories we feature or get drone enthusiasts using the app. They'll be able to tell a mile away and they'll just use a different app or website instead.

Right now, my job is primarily Inside Drones and the main app. But, come August or September, I'm gonna be doing this 11 times over across 11 different topics. So, really, my job isn't for someone who has already decided they know what they like or who isn't willing to learn about things they may have previously thought was gross or boring. I'm not lying. We cover EVERYTHING, which is a lot of things.

I Just Need to Start Talking, Reading and Writing

I just need to do those things and not be afraid. I need to not be afraid of not being good at any particular thing or of making people angry because I don't talk about the things they want to read about all the time. I need to stop being afraid of being criticized or of crazy people threatening to dox me or send me rape threats or something. Talking, reading and writing, both here on this blog and at work. I think that's really it. I need to do a whole bunch of little things, but talking, reading and writing are the main things. The little things can follow and can amplify the main things once the main things are actually on this blog and on the work blog and are actually being done.

As Seth Godin said, "the heart of real growth is a simple idea: people decide to tell other people. Start with that."

I Want to Talk About All the Things

When most beginners start blogging, all them blogging and social media gurus tell you that you gotta pick something. Nobody likes jacks- and janes-of-all-trades, so you need to pick something and specialize in it and build a community around that one topic you picked. It's easier that way. It's easier to attract a community. It's easier to position and present yourself. Besides, you can't be everything to everybody and you can't possibly do everything anyway. All those gurus forget to mention HOW HARD it is to pick. People are complicated and often have a variety of interests and passions, sometimes competing interests and passions. Other people just don't know what their passions are, or aren't sure among several different choices so they don't want to commit to one topic. Although clarity comes from engagement, not thought, as the great Marie Forleo says, at times it can take quite a bit of "engagement" for folks to figure out which passions and interests to spend their time on.

Therefore, I'm Going to Do All the Things

I'm just going to do all the things cause I want to do all the things and I'm going to be my own blogging and social media guru and make it work. I'm going to make it work because I think it's awesome and I think just about everything is awesome (except cockroaches, as they are not awesome). There's probably going to be a lot of app marketing, inbound marketing and content marketing in here as well because I know a lot about that stuff and I do it for a living so it's kind of hard not to have it seep into the rest of my life. After all, I have plenty of categories in my sidebar, which illustrate that I certainly love all the things and have already made previous attempts at doing all the things, even though I wouldn't have called any of those posts or categories attempts when I first created them. Never mind some of the stuff that I wrote about previously. Some of it I will iterate and bring it back and others I will not.

I'm Also Probably Going to Promote Apps Here as Well

I know! It makes me such a shrill to promote products or whatever on the blog or on the sidebar. But, first of all, it's part of my job. I love my job and I do love the apps that we create. Our apps cover all sorts of topics, and some of those topics I'm probably never going to talk about in depth on this blog. For example, our latest app is Inside Drones, which is about hobby drones, quadcopters, and how they're used in various industries. It features drones news and only drones news. so it won't ever have celebrity news or sports news or even topics more closely related like gadgets or tech news. I'm probably never ever going to talk about drones in a blog post. But, people are doing some pretty awesome things with drones, like this Drones Racing Championship that's happening next month. That just sounds darn cool. How do you not promote that and talk about that?

On a side note, I need to create my reading list for this website. I like to all sorts of books and I have plenty of favorites and recommendations, spanning all sorts of topics. You know what, if I like it I'm gonna promote it. Plain and simple. Marie Forleo does that with some of the guests she has on her show, and I've certainly bought the books and other products from some of her guests. One of my particular favorites is Sally Hogshead. Her research and ideas on fascination is just amazing.

This is the Moment I've Been Training For

I haven't blogged in SO LONG, and getting back into the swing of blogging daily or multiple times per day has been a difficult process for me. Just several years ago, I was writing 1800, 2400 words a day with no problem. I was writing blog posts for clients, blog posts for my own blog, blog posts for free for different organizations and much more. Nowadays, I can't find the motivation to do a single blog post, whether it's for myself or for work. I'm not sure what the problem is, but the only way to fix it is to sit down and write a 600-word blog post like I am doing now. Then do it again tomorrow, probably for work this time. And the do it again the next day, maybe two blog posts (one for work and one personally). I ought to get into the habit of creating great content anyway, as I need to do a lot of it over the coming months to deliver value to our users and creating opportunities for people to get to know our brand and, ultimately, download one or more of our apps.

I Need to Grow the Brand

I have about six months to get as many people as possible using Inside and its various apps. As long as it's not illegal or a method that's just acquiring bots or something, I can use just about any marketing method that works to get the job done. It's quite scary in fact. There's a lot at stake. My boss is putting a lot of faith in me to accomplish something great. I don't want to fail or to be perceived as someone who is bad at this job. I've done similar work previously, but not at this scale or this pace. Working with various apps also poses new challenges that I've never overcome before, although I am equipped with tools that I didn't have when I blogged and did social media marketing in the past.

Eventually, I Want to Revolutionize App Marketing

Small tangent, but there's an inbound marketing concept called The Buyer's Journey. It's the journey that every buyer goes through as they make their decision regarding their purchase. I think app marketing is completely focused on the decision stage and just getting the person the app. There's nothing really in the app industry on moving someone through a buyer's journey and working with a potential user to become an actual user. There's not a whole lot on ensuring actual users are happy users and doing things to turn them into fans and promoters of the app. The emphasis is so much on just increasing users and getting new users. I want to change app marketing by demonstrating that focusing on the awareness and consideration stages of the journey, you can still increase users while also having happier users who use your product more often and will do the work to get others involved. I suspect that by rushing potential users to the decision, or only presenting the decision, that folks who are still in the awareness and consideration states will ultimately delete or stop using the app because the app didn't meet their needs or solve their problems after all.

To Do That, I Need to Make This Moment Count First

I can talk about changing app marketing and what I don't like about it and what I could possibly do working at an app to provide a better experience to users when they consider, download and use apps. However, I need to accomplish a few things at work over the next few months. If I do that, while I talk about app marketing, inbound marketing, and whatever else comes to mind, then incredible things will happen.

I've spend several years blogging, several years learning how to do inbound marketing and content marketing, and I even started my own business to provide those exact services. All of that, I think was the training and the practice for this year and these next six months. I need to step up to the plate, take a few swings and hit a few home runs in the process.

My New Merit Badge Quest

Josh McCoy, 14, made headlines earlier this month by earning all 135 Boy Scout merit badges. It took him three years to get them all, ranging from American Business to Woodwork, from Disabilities Awareness to Pioneering. He isn't the first to accomplish this feat (252 Boy Scouts have also accomplished this in the organization's history) and he probably won't be the last. So I wonder, if he can do it then I can do it, right? First of all, I'm just way cooler than a 14-year-old. I'm a grown up. I have a college degree. I have a great job at Inside.com. I live on my own and don't need my parents' permission for things. I have an advantage in awesomeness. Plain and simple.

Second of all, I don't see any reason why I can't do it eventually. Sure, I don't have a summer camp to help me. I'll probably have to find instructors for some of these badges, or perhaps spend a year back home in Hawaii to tackle some of them, particularly the water-based badges (there isn't exactly easy access to a lake or ocean in St. Louis). So, it will probably take me longer than three years to get this done, but I'm not going to let that stop me or scare me out of doing this.

Third of all, I think it would be cool, as a woman, to go after and to accomplish the requirements in each of the merit badges. I was never a Boy Scout, for obvious reasons, so I couldn't really do this when I was younger. I also think that many of the skills associated with these merit badges are fascinating and worthwhile to learn. As I learned in fourth grade, "Reach for the stars. You won't always get them, but you won't end up with a handful of mud either." Stars or mud, here I come!

So, I'm gonna do it and get all the merit badges! Consider it a new life quest or pursuit, versus a New Year's Resolution or an abundance of free time. Adventure is fun, and I could use a little more adventure in my life. I am sure this will take me longer than a year to complete because I still have a job to go to five days a week. I anticipate this will take me 10 years, and within this time I am sure the Boy Scouts of America will add a few more new merit badges to conquer. In the meantime, I've outlined the rules for this life quest/adventure of mine and devised a few immediate steps to get me started, such as picking the 10 merit badges that I'm going to complete first.

My First 10 Badges

The Plate

1. First Aid
2. Personal Fitness
3. Cooking
4. Reading
5. Pets

The Dock

1. Emergency Preparedness
2. Personal Management
3. Citizenship in the Community
4. Athletics
5. Fingerprinting

Merit Badger Rules

• Five badges will always be on the plate at any one time.
• For the five badges on my plate, I can complete the merit badges and their requirements simultaneously and in any particular order. Meaning, I don't have to complete the First Aid merit badge before starting any of the requirements for the Personal Fitness merit badge.
• After I complete a badge on my plate, I will then choose the next one from the dock. After choosing from a badge from the dock to move to the plate, the next badge on the dock will be chosen at random from a jar.
• Before starting any the requirements of any merit badge, I am to read the pamphlet first.
• For each merit badge, I will find five news articles related to the merit badge topic and submit them to Inside.com.
• I am not allowed to use Inside.com or its resources to complete any of the requirements for any badge, with exception of the rule listed above.
• The definitions of "troop," "patrol," "family," "scout" and "counselor" will be fluid, depending on the badge and requirement. Obviously, I am not a scout and I do not have a patrol or a troop, so I will choose who will fit those definitions on a case-by-case basis.
• When I am required to explain or to discuss something, I will write in up as a blog post. When I am required to discuss something, I do have the option to do a video instead of a blog post if I so desire.
• When I am required to demonstrate something or to participate in an activity, then I will take photos and/or shoot video as proof of the demonstrate or activity
• When given the choice among several requirements, I am to choose meeting with someone and/or visiting a location over the other choices since these are more difficult and time-consuming than most other requirements.
• When given the choice among several requirements, if all the choices are equal, then I can choose whichever requirements I am most interested in completing.
• There is no timeline to completing this venture or to complete any specific merit badge.

What's Next?

Now that this is announced and out there in the world, I will get started on reading the pamphlets for my first five merit badges. I need to choose my six books for the Reading badge, schedule my doctor and dentist visits for the Personal Fitness badge, and document the proof of my cat Flop-a-Set for my Pets badge.

Photo via dmuth

Facebook Pages Better than the Website? Fans Think So

Every Thursday, I will republish my best articles from Technorati.com. Since Technorati redesigned its website and is under new managements, tens of thousands of articles that were previously published on the site are no longer available. I have been given explicit permission to republish my work on my own website. When talking to 1000 social media users about how they felt about liking brands on Facebook, market research firm Lab42 found that 50% of them said that the Facebook page is more useful than the website. Sure, that statistic can be interpreted to mean that social media users prefer the social media profiles of brands to the website, or that social media users just like them better. However, the key word is 'useful', and no one has yet taken the time to figure out why Facebook pages are considered more useful, or how to make one's website more useful than before.

Lab42 also found in this survey that the biggest motivators for liking a brand on Facebook were promotions/discounts, free giveaways, and customer loyalty, in that order. Brand websites rarely have the first two, and are primarily "brochureware", bland marketing jargon that's meant to sell the visitor on the product or service. Judging from the biggest motivators for liking a brand, most social media users are already sold on the brand and its product or service. On the one hand, this should make it easier for brands to learn about their customer base, since it seems that the Facebook fan base would reflect who's buying the product and service. On the other hand, Facebook fans using the pages in this manner could make it difficult for brands to up sell, or even buy at all, since it seems that most fans are only buying when there's a discount, or are just grabbing the free stuff.

This is further shown in this survey, where almost half of social media users said they liked a brand, but had no intention of buying from that brand. The reason? They only wanted free stuff (52%), or they like the product and can't afford it (46%), or they only liked the brand to help out a friend (24%). Perhaps Facebook pages are best at giving consumers the best of their world; a free product or a great coupon. So, how do brands get the best of their world, whether it be from Facebook or from the website?

The biggest thing that I would recommend is business blogging. Stop all the brochureware on your website, and put something on there that's actually for the customer and about the customer. Consider that over 44% of small businesses don't even have a website! Also consider that even though 60% of businesses have a business blog, 65% of them haven't updated in over a year! No wonder people don't find them useful! There's nothing there for them! And these statistics don't include those that do blog regularly, but only update about new products and company updates. Customers don't care about that. It's no surprise they're going to Facebook to get a free sample or a coupon. At least a free sample or a coupon gets the customer what he or she needs to solve their pain point.

The next thing to do to make your website more useful, after you have the business blog, is to create a resource center. This resource center can include white papers, ebooks, webinars, articles, free content that will actually help prospects and potential customers move through your buying process and actually consider your for something more than a discount.  The best thing about a resource center? It's free, and you can actually learn more about your prospects, what they actually need from you, all while building trust and a customer relationship. After all, the number one thing, from the Lab42 survey, that brands could do to get more likes on Facebook (and retain them)?

More giveaways!

Oh look, you have all this awesome, engaging, relevant content that's for free that you can share, content like buying guides, how-to's, tip sheets, checklists. You know, stuff that will not only help customers, but will go much farther in nabbing and retaining fans than a coupon or a free shirt.

Do those two things, and you can actually improve both your website and your Facebook page. Sounds easy enough.

What Do Small Businesses Do on Social Media?

Every Thursday, I will republish my best articles from Technorati.com. Since Technorati redesigned its website and is under new managements, tens of thousands of articles that were previously published on the site are no longer available. I have been given explicit permission to republish my work on my own website. A new survey from email marketing software firm VerticalResponse found that 43% of small businesses (100 employees or less) spend at least six hours a week on social media, with seven percent spending over 21 hours a week on Facebook, Twitter, and such. The survey also found that two-thirds of small businesses are spending more time on social media than they did a year ago, suggesting that more small businesses are either realizing or actually seeing the benefits of social media marketing.

Facebook and Twitter are still the most popular networks that small businesses are using, coming in at 90% and 70% respectively. Although LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest are touted as must-use networks in social media marketing, a majority of small businesses, according to the survey, don't use these sites at all. Of all the things small businesses could do on social media, it turns out that finding and posting content takes the most time, followed by learning and education (presumably this means learning how to use the social network, the survey isn't clear) and analyzing efforts. The least time consuming task was responding to questions.

Six hours a week is a lot, and many small businesses are struggling with the work load and the time it takes to manage multiple networks. The survey doesn't say a whole lot on how small businesses spend these six, eight, 12 hours a week, but there are good ways to spend that time. If you're spending this much time on social media, and want to be assured that you time is well spend, then here are the things that small businesses ought to be doing:

1. Responding to Questions - This is a must, especially since there are much larger companies who ignore, and even delete, questions and responses from fans on Facebook and other networks. It's a little worrisome that small businesses spend the least amount of time on this, as it means that either there aren't questions to respond too, or questions are going unanswered for too long. If there's any engagement from fans or potential customers on social media, then always make them a top priority.
2. Building Relationships - Surprised this wasn't on there, which means it either wasn't asked, or small businesses are treating social media too much like another avenue to push a marketing message. Think of the 50/50 rule when it comes to sharing content: 50% your content, and 50% other people's content. Yes, other people's. Retweeting, repinning, and resharing other people's stuff helps them as well as you. You provide more value to your own followers while making a connection with the person who's content you are sharing. Make sure social media is used to participate in a conversation, not just to take one over or to start one. It shows that you are listening.
3. Analyzing Efforts - This is also a must, but analyzing your social media marketing efforts is much more than counting fans and mentions and comments. Actually, those numbers don't mean all that much. What really counts, when analyzing your social media marketing, is how much traffic social media drives to your site, how many leads are coming from social media, and how many of those leads you're turning into customers. After all, those are the things that keep businesses going. If anything, small businesses need to be measuring their success on social media. If not, there's no way to know if you're wasting your time.
4. Defining Goals - Small businesses need to spend time figuring out what they want out of social media in the first place. These goals need to line up with the core needs of the business, and need to be more specific than "increased brand awareness" or "increased customer engagement." What's a good goal for social media? Something specific, and targeted toward the needs of the business, like "have 10% of our leads come from social media" or "have 100 people sign up for our webinar" or "get 50 more subscribers for our blog by the end of the month."

Poetry Saturday: Light Ray Divergence

I wrote many poems in my physics class during my junior year of high school. I have several poems about physical concepts, or inspired by my time sitting in that classroom. I should find that poem I wrote about how nice a day it was outside, only to find myself stuck indoors. I feel like this poem was an odd attempt at a love poem, but I don't know for sure. I didn't write too many love poems during my few years of intense poetry writing. I'm not the type to get mushy. I wasn't in love either during that time, which probably made a different. Too bad for my fiance. No poems for him. But he does get Valentine's Day cards, birthday presents, and dinner, so I think it's a fair trade.

Light Ray Divergence

Your light is incident to me

and the reflection is congruent.

We are similar

as your light strikes me.

I am a plane mirror;

what I show you is undistorted

It is proportion.  It is truth.

I reflect your light.

But it doesn’t reach your eye.

somehow, you don’t see

the Laws of Physics

the regular reflection of rays.

Your light is incident to me

and the reflection is congruent.

I saw a virtual image:

you at the critical angle.

Honesty as a Competitive Advantage, Upcoming Necessity

Every Thursday, I will republish my best articles from Technorati.com. Since Technorati redesigned its website and is under new managements, tens of thousands of articles that were previously published on the site are no longer available. I have been given explicit permission to republish my work on my own website. Trust is an increasingly valuable commodity when it comes to doing business, one that some try to take advantage of with fake social media reviews and other strategies (old and new) that are meant to fool customers; however, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers Ph.D argue in their latest book it won't be long before the only successful businesses are the ones that are extremely trustworthy.

Their book, Extreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage, says that the rising levels of transparency in society will mean that businesses will have to protect customer interests proactively. By investing in ways to preserve reputation and to build customer relationships, businesses will develop the extreme trust necessary to survive a world where the social domain and the commercial domains are constantly colliding.

"In the future, companies will have to do this because of competitive pressure," Peppers said. "If they don't do it, someone else will."

Peppers also said that the book is fundamentally about how business will change because of technology-driven innovation, and described extreme trust as the "inevitable evolution of business over the next generation or so.

We can probably think of many examples of how different companies and industries treat their customers as transactions, how they try to make money off of people instead of working with them to earn their profits. Below are some of the book's most noticeable examples:

• Banks will soon have to stop relying on overdraft charges, because so many of them are based on simple customer error.
• Credit card companies will have to coach customers on avoiding excessive borrowing.
• Cell phone providers will have to help customers find the cheapest calling plans for their usage patterns.
• Retailers will have to remind customers when a gift card or rebate card has gone unused or may be lost.

"[It's up to] companies to decide whether they understand that they have two goals now: make money this quarter, and figuring out how what they do and what they say is going to affect the long-term value of a customer," Rogers said. "Long-term value is determined today."

What makes a trustable company, versus one that will simply do what it says and follow the law? Peppers and Rogers say that a trustable company will do three things:

1. Do Things Right
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Do the First Two Proactively

Customers would be willing to pay $11 more a month for a mobile phone company they actually trust," Rogers said. "[A trustable company will] keep you posted on what’s good for you about the business, and offer things that are valuable to you instead of making you search for everything from scratch."

Therefore, current tactics used to develop trust, such as fake social media reviews and black hat SEO techniques, only tarnishes a company's long-term ability to gain trust for a small-term (if any) financial gain. Even though falsehoods can happen (like someone spreading misinformation or even leaving a bad, yet real, negative review), doing things so well that loyal customers come to your defense is a much better way to go.

"Social media takes care of [a falsehood or negative review] by burying it with more accurate data," Rogers said. "There are simply not enough lawyers to take everything off the Internet."

"Customers want to be treated the way their friends treat them," Peppers said. "The real solution is social credibility. As long as you have cultivated a reputation in advanced for being trustable, people will value your business and mourn if you go out of business."

The book may be considered a must-read for anyone leading an organization, but it is also a must-read for any consumer who wants to be a consumer of trustable brands, and not just another transaction. The only way for extreme trust to be the way we do business in the future is for people to demand it now, and to take it away from those who make their money by taking advantage of their customers.

"There have been radical changes in the last five years. This is not a fad," Rogers said. "There will always be more interconnectedness and never less. This is the way we will have to compete."