Marketers often talk about passionate brand enthusiasts and using social media and customer service as tools to create brand loyalists and enthusiasts.

The secret truth is that getting people to like you is often as simple as just being nice.

Seriously.

Just be nice to people and they will love you.  It sounds obvious.  It should be obvious.  Many marketers hear this, nod their heads, and then when confronted with a potential customer they revert to sell mode.  Don’t do it.  Resist the temptation.

Here are 10 tips to help you be nice on the internet:

• When you respond to a customer, pretend that you aren’t trying to sell something. Just answer the question or respond like a normal person with no vested interest would.  People will want to learn more about you if you are interesting vs. trying to shove something on them.
• Empower your employees to do nice things for your customers and potential customers.  And reward employees who go above and beyond to be nice to your customers or potential customers.
• Don’t give everyone a coupon. You don’t need to give someone a coupon because they said they liked you (or hated you).  Appealing to deeper emotions (feeling valued, heard or inspired) will give you better long term results.  Don’t cheapen every interaction by making it about money.
• Act like you care. Really act like you care.  If someone trashes your product show a willingness to learn and help them.  Try not to get frustrated.
• Thank people. Thank as many people as often as you can.  It will make them like you.
• Address issues directly. If I email you to tell you that I hate your website, don’t send me a coupon.  Fix your website, or explain to me why you won’t.
• Do something unexpectedly nice when you get the opportunity.  This leads to story telling and word of mouth.  We’ve all heard about the crazy lengths that Zappos customer service goes through to make people happy.  They probably don’t do it every time, but when they do it is so unexpected that word gets out.
• Stop selling.  Stop trying to sell.  I’m not saying that selling is a bad goal for social media.  But if your goal is to inspire raving fans you have to switch out of sell mode.
• Say nice things to people. Complement them (but only if you mean it).  Tell them you are sorry that their pet died.  Act like you are a nice human being and like you care about the people you interact with.  Be careful not to be creepy about this, but just try to be nice.
• Promote other people. Promote their blogs.  Talk about how smart they are.  Drive traffic to their blogs.  Do this and be authentic and mean it when you do it.  Promoting other people goes a long way to building positive brand equity.

Here are some of my examples:

• When I was getting my business internet set up, my first experience with Cincinnati Bell customer service wasn’t very good.  I was so annoyed I was going to write a mean blog post.  But the installation guy who came to my office was so nice (and even got my internet connection boosted) that I completely changed by feelings, and have actually recommended them to a few people. (yes, it works offline too)
• I recommend a web service to a friend because I “know the guy” on twitter and he commented on one of my random tweets about Canada.

Do you have examples of brands that were nice to you and won your favor?

This post is a detour from my regular marketing posts….. please disregard if you are not interested in the personal randomness.

Over the weekend I was reflecting on last year and thinking about this year and what I want to accomplish.  There are things personally and professionally that I want to do this year, and by writing them here, and stating them publicly I’m hoping to increase my accountability.

What I want from you: Help keep me accountable – ask questions and call me out when I’m slacking.  And THANK-YOU in advance for reading my blog and taking the time to care about my goals.

Here are my 10 goals for 2010:

1) Learn how to play guitar

I bought a guitar a few years ago and never really learned to do much with it.  To help me stay focused I signed up for lessons already (had my first one last night).  Maybe by the end of the year I’ll post a video of me playing something (probably not).  On this note I signed up for lessons last week and have my second lesson on Friday.  Yay!

2) Take a Painting Class

I’m not particularly artistic, but I have always wanted to try to paint.  So my goal for this year is to take a painting class.  I will definitely post a picture of something that I paint, although it might totally suck and embarrass me.  I’ll do it anyways.

3) Volunteer More

I want to increase my volunteer efforts with local organizations this year.  Last year I was pretty busy and didn’t dedicate what I would have liked to in terms of giving back.  My goal this year is to find 2 local organizations that I am passionate about and really get involved and help them grow.  If you have any suggestions please let me know.

4) Post reviews of 26 Books

So I love to read, and I read a lot of books.  I have a lot of books on my shelves at home.  This year I want to read at least one book every other week (so 26 for the year) and post reviews of each of them on my site.  Keep me accountable for this!  If you don’t see reviews leave a comment!  I’ll write the first one this weekend.

5) Get in Shape

OK, so this is everyone’s goal (and explains why my gym is so crowded and diet food is all on sale).  A few years ago I ran a half marathon.  I didn’t really train right and hurt my knee, so I don’t know if that is in the cards again.  This year I want to really commit to fitness and creating a more active lifestyle.  I joined a hiking meetup group and a mountain biking meetup group to get things off on the right foot.  I also feel better on days that I work out (no surprise there), so the benefits are huge.

6) Take Surfing Lessons

So I’ve always wanted to surf.  I even looked up surfing schools a few times.  This year I will actually take a trip somewhere and take surfing lessons.  Anyone know any good locations?

7) Post on my Blog Weekly

OK, so this is probably another typical resolution, and I’m clearly off to a bad start since it is already mid Jan and this is my first post.  BUT, starting NOW I will post at least weekly. That is right.  At least once a week.  I did it.  I committed to something specific.  Now I have to do it.

Try a Video Podcast

Those of you who know me in real life know that I am very opinionated and that I love to talk.  So, I figure it is worth a try to bring this to life online with a video podcast.  I have a camera, so there really are no barriers.  My goal is to start this in Feb and to post regular videos as a test for a few months.

9) Do a Detox or Cleanse

OK, so I turned 30 this year (yeah, I said it).  I have definitely put my body through a lot over the years.  At New Years my good friend Jeremy Wright was telling me about the benefits of the Lemonade Cleanse that he did.  I figure that now is as good of a time as any to reset my body and make sure that I am healthy this year.  (I won’t do anything crazy).

10) Make Small Decisions Faster

I read a blog post from Seth Godin a long while back about how we spend a ton of time agonizing over decisions that don’t really matter.  For example, if you spend 3 hours comparing email newsletter solutions to save $5/month are you really ahead?  I spent months looking at different offices and office solutions before I finally made a choice.  The differences between the different offices were really marginal at the end of the day, but I spent a lot of time researching, looking at different options, talking to people etc.  My goal is to make the small decisions faster.

OK, so I hope that this wasn’t boring or off-target for my readers.  I usually focus on marketing, but figured that a slight detour would be acceptable as we all try to make the most of this upcoming year.

Do you have any resolutions or goals?