Why Building Your Tribe Beats Traditional Social Media Every Time In today's hyper-connected digital landscape, conventional wisdom suggests casting the widest possible net across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Ads to capture potential customers. Yet, this approach increasingly yields diminishing returns as algorithms become more complex and feeds more crowded. However, there's a compelling alternate strategy that beckons back to marketing's most fundamental princi

Jeff Crosby, CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, shared a powerful insight with Publishers Weekly in an April 2022 article  titled How Religion Publishing Became a Billion-Dollar Industry : Publishers need to meet readers where they are,  not where they wish they are. His prescient observation punctuated one of the article’s main points, that Christian publishers must now seriously consider “the views of readers who are increasingly detached from traditio

Most of us were taught the importance of listening  in kindergarten because listening is part of the learning process. It is an essential and durable skill. We must learn to listen, so we can listen to learn. In today's business environment we have fancy phrases and sophisticated methodologies for listening to our stakeholders (customers, constituents, employees) including: User Experience (UX) Stakeholder Journey Maps Advisory Panels Surveys, Polls, and Reviews Focus Groups

For the last several years, my company has engaged thousands of parents, teachers, administrators, students, and community partners in interviews, focus groups, and other feedback activities. Among the questions I have asked them is this: “Does your school district (or organization)  listen to you?” On the surface, that might sound like a dumb question. Afterall, if they are participating in a focus group or one-on-one interview, doesn’t the activity itself constitute clear p