Mad about the boy

Like many thousands of enthusiasts all over the world, I was in the queue at midnight on Friday for the latest edition of the Harry Potter series. I haven't queued that late at night since Bruce Springsteen came to Edinburgh in the 80s. So what's so magical about Harry?

The proverbial visitor from outer space would have been somewhat bemused to see the long lines of chattering youngsters stretching through the shopping mall where we set up camp on Friday night. 

And when the countdown to midnight began only to be greeted by a big hysterical cheer I had to suppress the innate temptation to crack open a bottle of Champagne, shake everyone's hand and wish them a Happy New Year. 

So what's the magical ingredient in the Harry Potter success story? For me, it has to be Word of Mouth. Everyone who loved it was so enthused that they told everyone else that they possibly could and their enthusiasm expanded Harry's universe at a spectacular rate.

And once everyone had heard about it, almost everyone wanted to be involved. 

Though nothing in publishing will ever be quite like Harry Potter again, the same principles can be replicated time and time again in marketing. All you need is a remarkable story and an enthusiastic bunch of highly motivated customers. Just find that and the magic will take care of itself.

It's a long hard blog

Where does the time go? I've been so busy over the past month that I've neglected my blogging duties. And that got me thinking. Maintaining a consistently active and interesting presence on the internet takes time, determination and dedication if you're in any kind of smart business then you really have to take these types of bloggers very seriously.

It's a point that's eloquently examined time and time again in Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. They investigate the whole notion of people as the message and how persistent bloggers can have a major impact (positive or negative) on the customers of all kinds of business. 

And the conclusion that we'll all have to face up to at some point in our marketing campaigns is that there's an amazing resource out there that you can use positively in your campaigns but only if you've got a really good story to tell, you treat your customers with absolute respect and you're willing to concede that much of your campaign will be beyond your control. 

That may be a step too far for those who are more comfortable in one-way media but it's a lot more likely to work.