{"id":860,"date":"2014-12-04T06:15:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T11:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2015-01-06T22:52:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T03:52:50","slug":"big-vs-small-company-influence-are-you-a-church-or-a-key-maker-episode-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/2014\/12\/big-vs-small-company-influence-are-you-a-church-or-a-key-maker-episode-68\/","title":{"rendered":"Big vs small company influence: are you a church or a key maker? Episode 68"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/boxing-mouse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-861\" src=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/boxing-mouse-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"boxing mouse\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Big company, small company &#8211; does it matter when you&#8217;re trying to sway people\u00a0with community and influence marketing? Since influence is earned, does it really matter if you work for a giant church of technology\u00a0or a small startup? Will people\u00a0drive miles for the best chai?<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5215\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-860-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John says that he had a harder time getting people to pay attention when he was at a startup than when he was at VMware. He likened being a startup to being a tiny mouse standing on a cup.<\/li>\n<li>Matt, now at a startup, says that although he has a much bigger relative share of voice inside his company, his overall potential audience is smaller.<\/li>\n<li>Amy refutes: social media has changed the game, or at least the relative difficulty of using a multiple of tools that make you look bigger than you actually are.<\/li>\n<li>At a small company, everybody has 10 jobs &#8211; so there is often no one social media or influencer marketing or evangelist role.<\/li>\n<li>At a small company, goals may be more tactical.<\/li>\n<li>Do you need to be selling big expensive products to afford to hire a community manager?<\/li>\n<li>How does the company even know you&#8217;re doing the right thing, contacting the right people?<\/li>\n<li>How does a small company create that &#8220;X&#8221; factor?<\/li>\n<li>Veeam certainly did it.<\/li>\n<li>Bay area startups are starting to hire community managers very early.<\/li>\n<li>Does influence go with the company or with the person? Can you go from a large company to a small company and keep your influence?<\/li>\n<li>Good influence marketing is relatively cheap, so company size may be irrelevant.<\/li>\n<li>John has been reading a lot of Paul Ford. @ftrain.<\/li>\n<li>tilde.club<\/li>\n<li>Would John Troyer always have been John Troyer without VMware?<\/li>\n<li>Effort = Ability.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anna_Karenina_principle\">The Anna Karenina\u00a0Principle<\/a>: Big companies are all alike, but small companies are all unhappy in their own way. There might be a wide range of influence programs in a small company, but in a big company all influence marketing programs are all alike.<\/li>\n<li>Maybe it&#8217;s easier to be influential at a small company where you have more of your own voice rather than having to echo the corporate voice.<\/li>\n<li>The consensus seems to be that the big company ammo is balanced out by small company freedom. Your influence is up to you.<\/li>\n<li>John&#8217;s\u00a0key-restaurant-church theory: some companies are like churches, some are like restaurants, and some are like key makers. It&#8217;s easier to do influence marketing for a church (often a big company) than a key maker (often a small company)<\/li>\n<li>John&#8217;s chai guy, Raman Bechar, differentiates himself by making great chai, and only making it his way.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/recipes\/article\/Best-cup-of-chai-this-side-of-Bombay-2638589.php\">Best cup of chai this side of Bombay.<\/a> (He&#8217;s moved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/ramans-coffee-and-chai-half-moon-bay\">down the road a bit<\/a> since that article, but is still in Half Moon Bay.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5214\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-860-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?powerpress_pinw=860-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big company, small company &#8211; does it matter when you&#8217;re trying to sway people\u00a0with community and influence marketing? Since influence is earned, does it really matter if you work for a giant church of technology\u00a0or a small startup? Will people\u00a0drive miles for the best chai? &nbsp; John says that he&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/2014\/12\/big-vs-small-company-influence-are-you-a-church-or-a-key-maker-episode-68\/\">Read All Show Notes<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Big vs small company influence: are you a church or a key maker? Episode 68<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5216\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-860-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?powerpress_pinw=860-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Geek-Whisperers-Big-vs-Small-Companies-Ep-68.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}