Create A Rabid Following

It is Not With Some Quick 5-Steps To Social Media Advice

by Jeremy Nulik

Already one hundred miles into a six-day ocean race, Shane Perrin woke to find all of his belongings had been stolen. The stand-up paddling world record holder wondered around the dock where he had tied up his board. For the past 40-plus hours, he had been paddling (standing up) through the Everglades Challenge, a 300-mile Gulf-water race from Tampa Bay to Key Largo. The competition had never had a stand-up paddler finish. Perrin was determined to be the first.

Until the morning of the third day. During the few short hours that he decided to nap, Perrin’s GPS, electronics and pack were taken from the top of his board. He had been training for months. The race was everything to him. And now there was no way he could make it happen. He could not navigate the water at night without his gear. The hours went by with no help from authorities.
Frustrated at the prospect of not finishing, he went to a local diner. Fueled by resentment, he posted to social media.

Then something odd happened. You see, up until that moment, most stand-up paddlers existed in pockets throughout the country. They were outsiders. They were largely seen as weirdos by the “water tribe” community, the other boat vessel racers. But when Perrin sent out this beacon, that rag-tag community suddenly came to his aid. They wired him money. They placed orders for gear. Within just a few hours, Perrin was back on the water with a newfound fervor for finishing his race.

Not only did Perrin finish the race. He, then, paddled for another 100 miles to Key West.

Perrin’s story is a lesson in what can happen when a person acts out of belief. When you allow your actions to reflect the way you see the world, you give an audience something tangible to interpret. And this principle of communication is what is missing from most of your marketing plans.

The basis of building trust with an audience starts with belief. Perrin had the belief that the world looks profoundly adventurous when you stand on a paddleboard. He believes this so strongly he stand-up paddles down river rapids and for hour-after-hour races. And he wanted the people who believed what he believed to be taken just as seriously as any other sailor or paddler. Today, he owns SUP-St. Louis, a company that has made stand-up paddling accessible to people in the Midwest. The company continues to grow in influence and reach.

The highest and best use of marketing is to reveal what was previously invisible. It is not to list features and benefits or to maximize your social media in five easy steps. You do not need to “crush it.” You do not need to mass email 1,000 people to get 100 responses and call on 20 people to get five appointments and close one. Whether you are business-to-consumer or business-to-business, your audience is a group of humans. And human understanding and behavior cannot be reduced to an algorithm. Before you get wrapped up in the tools and the how of your communications, you must know your purpose. Here is one way to start: On an instinctual level, why do you exist? What is kind about your intention?

Allow your purpose to dictate your strategy. Otherwise you will be like a resounding gong in the rising crescendo of brands competing on the same messaging basis. Allow your purpose and your belief to dictate your behaviors, and your audience will emerge to cheer you on – even for an extra 100 miles.

Jeremy Nulik (jeremy@bigwidesky.com) is evangelist prime at bigwidesky, a human business consultancy, in St. Louis, Mo.