Brian Basilico October 7, 2021 Today I want to talk about critical R.A.C.E Theory. Now I’m not talking about the kind of Critical Race Theory that’s taught in institutions. I am not talking about anything political or even something that has to do with NASCAR. Nope. The critical R.A.C.E Theory I’m talking about today has to do with the acronym R.A.C.E and how it can help you win in business.
De-Facebook
Recently (unless you’ve been under a rock) you’ve probably heard about problems at Facebook and a whistleblower talking about how they manipulate data with their algorithms to keep people on their platform. The trouble with Facebook has not been a recent phenomenon. It goes all the way back to 2015 and 2016 when Cambridge Analytica was sharing all our personal data.
Now, Critical Race Theory is something that is raising the eyes and ire of a group of people on social media. Essentially, what it is about is the teaching of some less than positive portions from American history that some people don’t want to be revealed or revisited. But we’re not here to talk about history.
We’re here to talk about your business future.
One of the reasons why Facebook is under scrutiny is that its algorithms try to keep users on the platform as much as possible. The longer people stay, the more money it makes through selling advertising (which is its main business model). So it feeds information to viewers based on two things, what they interact with the most, and what’s going to keep them interacting. And one study found that negative information that draws anger actually creates greater engagement.
Survey Says?
There was a study profiled in Smithsonian magazine by Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania. He conducted a study that found that anger is a high arousal emotion, which drives people to take action. He says, it makes people feel fired up and makes you more likely to pass things on. And that’s obviously what creates more engagement on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Berger also said that one emotion that outpaced anger in the study was awe, the feelings of wonderment and excitement that come from encountering great beauty or knowledge. And that would be something like a news report or some kind of discovery. Maybe they found a way to fight cancer, that gets people’s hearts and blood pumping. And he says, this increases our desire for emotional connection and drives us to share.
Creating Awe In Business
In a sense, when we’re creating content in our business, we want to make sure that we’re creating awe, inspiration, and good feelings and not getting people angry. Getting people angry and trying to create engagement in social media for business to business generally is a losing proposition. It’s really hard to get people to engage, but it’s not hard to get people to pay attention. And that’s what our critical R.A.C.E Theory is about.
Getting Into The R.A.C.E.
It’s about getting people to see your messages and hopefully consume them by clicking through, driving them to your website. Then from there, you should be collecting data and names if possible.
So again, R.A.C.E. is not about people, cars, or politics.
Critical can be defined in two different ways. It can be where people are criticizing your information or even your thoughts. And this can create an unfavorable view of your company or your content. The other way to look at critical is relating to, or being a turning point or specific important juncture. Meaning what you’re putting out there in content is changing people’s minds and helping them to move forward and see things differently. And that’s what our critical R.A.C.E Theory is about.
So here are the four parts of R.A.C.E. R stands for relevance, A for authority, C for commitment, and E to execution.
Relevance
The first part, relevance means that you’ve identified the person who wants to and needs to hear your information. The information that you’re providing is relevant to their current situation and embraces their challenges. How can you be somebody that can help them get through it?
Authority
The A is for Authority. This is where you have a reason or experience or a purpose that helps people to understand that you know what you’re talking about and you can provide, if not the solution, a better solution than your competition. Authority, like trust, has to be earned and takes some time. How do you create authority through your content?
Commitment
The C stands for commitment. Now commitment is more than just you being committed to something, it’s you being committed to the end-users commitment to getting something done. Meaning that you are part of the positive outcome based on what the person you’re trying to help is committed to doing. How can you explain your commitment to their success?
Execution
And then finally, it’s execution. Execution means not only do you have the information, but you know how to implement it and help those people achieve the desired outcome. This could be a financial success, this could be solving a problem in business, but whatever it is, How is your process or platform more successful than your competition?
If you can provide them with the relevance that you’re talking to them and their problem, and you have the authority to be able to solve their problem and understand their perspective with empathy, and you have a commitment to get this done and can help them execute and actually see it through to success, then you have the opportunity to win the race for their minds, hearts, and business.
It’s one thing to have those four components, it’s another thing to get it in front of people who will pay attention to it, take action on it, and help you build better relationships that lead to business.
Final Thoughts
How do you do that? You take a look at the current content that you have and ask yourself, could this be updated? Could it be rewritten and packaged in a way that makes it more relevant, shows more authority, shows the history of commitment, and tells people how you can execute it with better results?
What we do is try to match old content with current needs and issues. We interview the owners of the company. Then we package it in a way that matches the current ways that these companies’ customers are consuming content (eBooks, emails, videos, social graphics, and more).
How can their content be shared in a way that’s going to be more relevant to their audience? Then compile it into a system that helps to distribute for greatest viewing opportunities, and helps to collect relevant names, data, and generate more sales.
It’s all about getting YOUR AUDIENCE to pay attention to YOUR R.A.C.E.
So I’m not talking about formula one racing, I’m talking about the one formula that will help you and your business win that race.
I would love to hear your thoughts on your relationship marketing system (or, winning YOUR R.A.C.E.). Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about your own marketing system.
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