Social Karma – Doing Someone a Small Favour Creates Advocacy and Makes Good Business Sense

We received a request via our website  for a quote to assist someone with uploading images to their LinkedIn Company Page.

A 5 minute phone call later, we quickly ascertained that it was probably a resizing and formatting issue.

We advised that we could fix things very quickly for them – and of course, we were asked, ‘How much will it charge – as I will have to get a PO approved before we can go ahead.’

The job was realistically a 10 min job to fix – and all in all we probably spent  a total of 30 minutes end to end.

We could have charged a fee for this task – however, as an agency, whilst we’re commercial, we’re also fair and reasonable.

Instead, we said, there’s no charge. It’s a small job, won’t take more than 10 minutes – and instead, tell people how nice we are.

We fixed the problem – and by the time we’d fixed the problem – they had made a post on our Facebook Page, their own Facebook Page, personal Twitter and business Twitter accounts – sharing the news that we were indeed; friendly, personable, knowledgable , refreshing and impressive – and come highly recommended.

It transpires that the person we spoke to is a consultant – and works with many organisations – and so she too will be spreading the news beyond that organisation and recommending us to her other clients.  In her words – I’ll return that favour over and over again.  Thank you so much.

Had I tried to pay for such promotional advocacy – then it would have cost much more than we would have charged for this small job.  And it would have given her a very different viewpoint on who we are as an agency.  Penny pinching charge by the minute – or who we are, fair and reasonable.

So, next time, you’re asked to do a small job – think about the advocacy factor – I guarantee doing a good turn for someone once, will pay much higher dividends in the end.

This blog post was brought to you by Michelle Carvill, founder of Carvill Creative, the online visibility experts and author of The Business of Being Social – A Practical Guide to Harnessing the Power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn for all Businesses.

If you need any help with creating content or anything else then do get in touch with us.