Are your customers your fans? Are they recommending you to their friends? Or are your relationships with them just scratching the surface? Find out the 9 characteristics that make up all relationships (and catch a glimpse of the super-secret way you can measure their potential to turn into customers and advocates) and why it's so important for organizations today to focus on building them. Based on the upcoming book "Recommend This! Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share" (Wiley, 2014) by Jason Thibeault and Kirby Wadsworth.

2. Are you customers
recommending you?

3. Maybe it’s because you aren’t really
paying attention to these things.

4. People
I’m a person,
not a “lead”

5. Or maybe it’s more like this.
Hi

6. I’m Bob. I can
help you!
I’m Joe. I
need help
We are really
good at this in
the real world.
We get it.
Handshakes,
eye contact,
stories. Trust.

7. Beep boop
bop bleep
Tweet,
tweet, boop
But how do we
do all that in
the digital
world? You
can’t shake
hands through
the computer
screen…or can
you?

8. Relationships
Hi…again

9. Welcome to the ‘Age of Influence,’
where anyone can build an audience
and effect change, advocate brands,
build relationships and make a
difference. Kirby and Jason have
written a practical guide to help us do
just that. —Ted Rubin, Social Marketing
Strategist, Keynote Speaker, Author of
Return on Relationship

10. “
The past several years of digital
innovation have utterly transformed
the human race's ability to
communicate and, more importantly,
have transformed our ability to form
relationships with each other and
organizations of all types all the time.
“
(From the introduction)

11. We’ve identified 9 characteristics of
relationships whether they are formed
in person or via digital channels

13. It all starts with a need. But because
we are human (and we like to connect
with other people), our needs are
generally for more than just a product.

14. History

15. When we’ve interacted before (maybe
it’s face-to-face, maybe it’s through a
piece of content), we have a history
together. Lots of history = deeper
relationship (maybe positive, maybe
negative…)

16. Curation

17. People form relationships because of
mutual benefit. I know things you
don’t. You know things I don’t. For
businesses, that’s products. I have a
huge selection of guitars so you don’t
have to go out and find them
separately.

18. Faces

19. Faces help us judge people, to react to
what’s said. We even have a part of our
brain dedicated to this called the
Fusiform “Face Area.” We key in on
faces.

20. Stories

21. Like faces, we are wired for stories.
When someone tells us a story, we
connect emotionally, we see ourselves
in their shoes.

22. Authenticity

23. Based on facial reactions and other
cues, our relationships are predicated
on authenticity. We hate fakes…and
fakers.

24. Consistency

25. And there’s nothing worse than a
relationship you can’t count on. If the
experience is different each time, it’s
harder to keep the relationship.

26. “It’s like having a friend and starting
over every time you meet,” says Robert
Scoble. “Imagine going to dinner at a
friend ’s house and the next day them
not remembering anything about you
or the night before!”
(From the introduction)

27. Credibility

28. Can there be a relationship without
any trust? That’s credibility.

29. ful

30. Finally, relationships are about being
helpful. If one person is always about
themselves, the relationship is bound
to disintegrate.

31. The difference between helping and
selling is just two letters. But those two
letters produce vastly better
relationships. This book will show you
how to build your business by being
undeniably useful. Highly
recommended. —Jay Baer, New York
Times best-selling author of Youtility

32. Hi friend!
Hi friend!
When you
master those 9
characteristics,
you can have a
lot of
relationships.

33. Only digital creates
a problem of scale

34. Everyone seems to want a relationship.
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi

35. At the same time.

36. How do you
know with
whom to spend
your time (and
marketing
budget)?

37. By measuring the value of the
individuals in your relationship
network

38. Relawatts
3 downloads
12 touches
4 reviews
6 keyword mentions
positive
4 comments
18 shares
14 keyword mentions
positive
74
RW
NRV
6 status updates
12 likes
18 shares
6 keyword mentions
positive
11 status updates
42 likes
31 shares
111 keyword mentions
positive
412 retweets
137 status updates
4 direct messages
118 keyword mentions
positive

39. How does it work?
First, the engine
in the clouds
pulls in all the
data for a person
and calculates
the score
The Relawatt
(RW) score
measures the
potential value of
individuals
RW
RW
NRV
64
RW
36
NRV
59
RW
17
RW
NRV
83
RW
NRV
NRV
RW
44
RW
NRV
NRV
76
RW
63
RW
NRV
09
RW
}
59
Then you can
segment based
on score
57
22
RW
NRV
18
NRV
NRV
RW
90
RW
NRV
NRV
89
RW
Finally, the
Network
Relationship
Value (NRV)
measures the
whole thing.
NRV
NRV

40. We’ve
uncovered a
super
secret
formula to
calculate
the Relawatt
value.

41. And written a book
about it.
(but more on that in a second)

42. Time to wake up, people.
Organizations that want to succeed in
tomorrow’s digital world have to be
radical. And that’s what Jason and
Kirby do through Recommend This!—
propose and support a radical idea
that business is all about relationships
and then they give you the Rosetta
Stone to translate it to digital.—Mike
Volpe, CMO, Hubspot

43. Relationships = competitive differentiation

44. You can’t steal
relationships or
fake them or copy
them. They
separate your
organization from
your competitors.

45. But only if you are consistently giving your online
audience what they want—great experiences.

46. In the real
world we
are good
at that.
But how
does it
translate
to the
digital?

47. “
The world we live in today has a
completely new set of rules thanks to
digital technology. Those old methods
of building relationships, things like
face-to-face communication, and
having a personal history with a
customer, may not seem to translate to
the way we interact and engage in the
digital world.
“
(From the introduction)

48. Community: the “general store” of the digital world.

49. Communities are one vehicle through
which we can translate those realworld relationship building
characteristics into the digital world.
But it’s just a vehicle. You still have to
do the translating…

50. This is all in the book.

51. Ultimately
people want
to be part of
something.
I have a story
to tell…
Anyone need
some help?
I just need
some facts…
My 1,000,000th
comment...

52. But not everyone wants the same kind of
relationship.

53. And what makes a great experience with your
organization? Different Relationshipof relationship
The 4 Knowing what kind Types
each person wants…
Source: Limelight
?
!!!
:) ;)
You Don’t See Me
Acknowledge
Attention Hound
Best Friends Forever
• I want to help myself
• Where are the product
details and specifica
tions?
• I don’t want to watch
this video
• Okay, so you know I’m
here when I need you.
Great. Now go away.
• Oh, there’s a big con
versation? I’ll gladly
join but after that, I’m
on my merry way.
• Ooo! A link. Cool, let
me click it...
• Ooo! Pick me, pick me!
• Can you tell me about
your product? Oh,
yeah, and did you
know my cat whiskers
can catch a ball?
• You want me to write a
blog post for you? I’m
flattered...
• You complete me
• Did you just complete
my sentence?
• I’m going to go log into
the “members-only”
site and see what cool
new stuff you’ve
posted.
Did we mention this
is all in the book?

54. Relationship Pyramid
Source: Limelight
More of your
audience is up here
because you are
giving them what
they want, when
they want it.
Intimate
Confidante
Friend
Acquaintance
Awareness
When you are offering great experiences, you
promote more people “up the pyramid.” More BFFs.

55. But we can’t give it all
away.
(that’s right, we wrote a book about it)

56. Who are we?
Jason Thibeault
Sr. Dir of Marketing Strategy,
Limelight Networks
@_jasonthibeault
Kirby Wadsworth,
Chief Marketing Officer,
Limelight Networks
@_acesage

57. That’s why we wrote this book.
To help you understand the
value of relationships (including
the formula), how to translate
those 9 characteristics to the
digital world, and how to make
the most out of all your digital
engagement.
Order it today! http://bit.ly/
1eRk7GC