Brand Advocates: Turning Enthusiastic Customers into a Powerful Marketing Force

Chapter 26

Advocacy Curve

Companies and people don't adopt innovations at the same pace. Some embrace breakthrough ideas quickly. Others are more cautious. They wait until there is lots of proof that a new idea really works before adopting it.

The speed at which your company, organization, or even you typically embrace innovations determines where you sit on the adoption curve. (See Figure 26.1.)

Figure 26.1

Source: Geoffrey Moore.

Social Media Adoption Curve

You can see how the adoption curve works with social media. Companies that are early adopters jumped quickly on social media. They created the first Facebook fan pages and started using Twitter early for customer service and support. Best Buy, Ford Motor Company, and Virgin America airlines are examples of social media early adopters. Porter Gale, the former VP of Marketing at Virgin America and a member of Zuberance's Advisory Board, was blazing a social media path at Virgin America when most executives thought Twitter was something their eyes did at board meetings.

Innovators like Porter Gale didn't need ROI models, business cases, or research studies to convince them of the power of social media and connected consumers. They dove right in.

Advocacy Adoption Curve

Advocacy is a marketing innovation. It represents a different and, we would argue, much more effective approach to building your brand and business than traditional ...