while i was disappointed in the lack of meat i found behind “six ways to make a friend ,” i did realize that the four tenets they list on how to “rescue a friendship” are great everyday tenets for brands.  if i was to leverage their ideas and convert them to the brand world they would look something like this:

• make the friendship a priority: great brands make their consumers their focus.  they are constantly looking for new ways to engage them, help them, surprise them, and make them smile.  they wake up everyday thinking about how they can make their customers’ lives better.
• hug it out: great brands not only only have rational connections with their customers but they also have strong emotional connections.  the relationship between brand and consumer has to be more than just transactional to be sustainable.
• the miracle of free long distance: the best time to engage your customer is not just when they are in your store.  thanks to technology (web, mobile, social media, etc) there are a million relatively inexpensive ways to talk with your friends.  just because they are not in your face, it’s not an excuse to ignore them.
• face time: although technology is great, there is no time like “face time” with your customer.  when they are purposefully choosing to spend time/money with you, recognize that moment as a privilege.  there is no time like face time to deliver on your promise and remind them why they chose you.

application to life. all of these ideas are applicable to individuals.  for example, while it’s important to spend face time with your audience (employers, employees, friends, family, etc), never under estimate the power of talking to them via other channels.  it would be impossible to talk to my entire network all of the time, but i am always amazed at how much they all know about me from following my updates on facebook.  think about these four tenets, what could you be doing better?

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• brand building
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• business branding
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• emotion
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• engagement
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• social media
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• technology