… and brand engagement starts with building successful communities.

Hat tip to Ray Hartjen (twitter/blog), my previous boss at Sony for reminded me about the Fish! Philosophy. Ahh yes, so what is the Fish! Philosophy you ask. Well, it’s actually a pretty cool book. It’s an easy read and it’s inexpensive; but the lessons learned are valuable and can be applied to building strong communities. The FISH! Philosophy includes four very simple, interconnected practices:

Be There is being emotionally present for people. It’s a powerful message of respect that improves communication and strengthens relationships.

Play taps into your natural way of being creative, enthusiastic and having fun. Play is the spirit that drives the curious mind, as in “Let’s play with that idea!” It’s a mindset you can bring to everything you do.

Make Their Day is finding simple ways to serve or delight people in a meaningful, memorable way. It’s about contributing to someone else’s life, not because you want something out of it, but because that’s the person you want to be.

Choose Your Attitude means taking responsibility for how you respond to what life throws at you. Once you are aware that your choice impacts everyone around you, you can ask yourself, “Is my attitude helping my team or my customers? Is it helping me to be the person I want to be?”

Building a successful community is more than just being transparent or authentic. Yes, these are two very important virtues but in order for a brand to make any impact at all in the social web, they have to be believable. That means “being there” and learning, listening and having real life conversations with people (some call them customers). It means being able to “play” and have fun with the people that you care about and that also care about you. It means “making their day” or I would prefer to say “delighting your customers”. There are numerous ways you can delight your customers and it could start with simply saying thank you publicly. “Choose your attitude” is a no brainer. Be positive and outgoing; attitudes like that have a tendency of rubbing off on others and when your customers are happy, you will stay happy.

Another way to think about it is what I have written on my linkedin profile which I try and live by daily:

I believe that marketing is good; and if you love your customers they’ll love you back and tell others about it. I believe that business results are critical but should not be the driving force behind connecting with people. I believe in being real, authentic and human. I believe that consumers are real people with real passions. Let’s start treating them that way.

Relationships are hard, just ask my wife. There will be ups and downs and pokes along the way. Your customers will not always be happy with the decisions that you make. But if you have invested time and energy nurturing the community, that level of trust will never be broken. So when you say, “hey customer, you have to try this new XYZ product. It’s awesome and you will love wearing it” … well, your customers will be listening, just may believe you and then maybe, just maybe go out and buy one.