How to create successful hero marketing

A literal ego trap? 
Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

Seth Godin comments that words matter.

Consider the following text, edited from an earlier post:

Dave Balter is a word-of-mouth guru. He founded the word-of-mouth media network BzzAgent and has written two books on the subject of word-of-mouth marketing. Dave launched a great hero marketing campaign recently to promote his second book, The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II. Dave reached out to a network of big thinkers and asked them to show some generosity in promoting the book. Who did Dave a favor? Seth Godin. Jackie Huba. Chris Brogan. John Moore. Greg Verdino. And 15 others. If you look at the related posts, almost all of these bloggers are promoting Dave's book out of generosity to a fellow big thinker.

So why did it work? The offer was limited. It was relevant to the bloggers and their readers. And it was a motorcade of generosity, from the bloggers to Dave and on to their readers.

Do you learn as much from a "hero marketing" example as an explanation of an "ego trap?" Do these words matter to you?

Let me give you something else to consider:

On July 29th, an invitation was extended to the readers of a prominent blogger to join a "members-only tribe." It's invitation only until this blogger's new book publishes in October and early members get "privileges and bragging rights" including "a chance to contribute to a new jointly-authored ebook, with full credit and links to the contributors." To join this tribe, you must pre-order the author's book three months in advance for about US$11 - but this isn't about selling more books; it's intended to filter out the tire-kickers from more serious community members.

Does this sound like hero marketing or an ego trap to you?

Know thyself, then you can create heroes and set traps, or decide to follow a hero or step into a trap - for whatever reasons make sense in your story, not someone else's.

Comments

[Marc Meyer]

Peter,your reference to Triibes is both an ego trap and hero marketing. Seth appealed to the exclusivity and invite only sexiness of his social net to goad readers and users into buying his book in order to get "in". The hero marketed to his followers and they did as they were told because their egos told them that perhaps it would open doors and allow them to get closer to the marketing guru...But once they got in, I think some might have realized that it was just another NING network.

But it serves up two good points that you have mentioned. Seth leveraged his hero worship status to drive sales via WOMM and the viral aspect of invite only status: and his followers/readers and their egos fell for the ego trap and bit.

The question is, those that did bite, Do they care that they did? Do they know that they fell into an ego trap? What will the Ning group actually do in the end? and does Seth actually care?

I'll tell you what he does like, that his name gets thrown around in blog posts like this because it does what he does not have to do. Market Seth and his books.

Per your question, can you learn from this? One can only learn if they have the temerity to step outside of themselves to see the situation as it truly is for both the ego and the hero.

[Tom Asacker]

I see a book in the not too distant future, "Ego Trap: Subtitle to Be Determined by My Many Virtual Friends," by B. Peter Kim. Kudos!

[Peter Kim]

I find it interesting that this post has dramatically fewer comments than the discussion of the ego trap. "Hero marketing" just doesn't get at the heart of the matter. Words matter and I believe it's usually best to get directly to the point.

Marc - I don't know how the people felt but I wonder if anyone who's in the network has provided feedback. There was a clause about "what's said in Triiibes stays in Triiibes" so we might not hear much. Believe me the irony or self-delusion, maybe both, of setting an ego trap and believing you make heroes is not lost on me. I don't believe I'm focusing on the negative here, I'm focusing on the facts.

I agree with the lesson learned wholeheartedly.

Tom - :)

[Larry Irons]

I'd say it is both. As Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman say in Marketing Metaphoria, "...there is much more to a hero than his or her label. Heroes are often on a journey, a situation that requires understanding the type of journey. And, there is typically a goal in mind, perhaps providing liberation or freedom to others and thereby restoring balance to a community."

The lofty goal outlined by the Zaltmans is implicit in the offer made by Godin as a promise of inclusion in a limited community, while the explicit purpose of the journey offered is to provide an advantage, in the form of a co-published book, to all the individuals who participate and pay the price of admission. All in all though, I just think it is a marketing gimic by a guy who publishes books so fast you wonder how he finds time to think about what he says. But, perhaps that is the purpose of the community.

I get a sick feeling when I compare these gimics for promoting books to the Topica discussion around Cluetrain Manifesto during the first couple of years after its publication.