• In a world where consumers and customers can share their experiences with each other, the relevance and importance of advertising and marketing messages is constantly shrinking.
• People today have the ability to form communities with or without the support of a brand.
• Brands with fiercely loyal communities seem to be much more profitable and much more loved than other brands. Harley Davidson, Apple, GoPro being cases in point.
• The biggest challenge for a brand to support a community is the fear of letting go of control over their brand.
• A community is fiercely loyal if
  • They are proud of the brand and are willing to flaunt it.
  • They trust the brand and the members of the community itself.
  • They are a tribe of passionate people.
• Things that brands can do to enable their communities are
  • Create connection points
  • Create support points
  • Bring in predictability
• Building a fiercely loyal community is about doing the basics of business right (good product, good support, good strategy, etc) and allowing your customers to do the rest.
• Fiercely loyal customers will do the best marketing for their brand, the kind that brands can’t buy.

You can reach Sarah on Twitter.  You can buy her book Fierce Loyalty.

• Great customer service can become your key differentiator in growing your business and it doesn’t cost much.
• We are now moving to a customer service based economy.
• Customer service has the potential to become a competitive advantage for a business.
• You don’t need a lot of budget to create an awesome experience for your customers.
• Hire people for their empathy and not for their skills.
• Being Human is critical for any business..
• Focus on making the customers you have feel amazing and the customers you want will come to you.

You can reach Peter on Twitter. You can also find his social stream here. You can buy his book Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans.

• Sustainable success doesn’t happen overnight. So, as entrepreneurs, we need to be in a business for the long term.
• Successful entrepreneurs do something about what irritates them and turn them into successful businesses.
• More important than profits is happiness of your employees. How can you help your employees make it their dream jobs or leave.
• Hiring is critical and wherever possible, Hiring should be based on working on test projects with the prospective employees rather than just some conversations.
• PR is critical for a business. Controversies can be an entrepreneur’s best friend.
• Sometimes you have to slow down to go fast.

You can reach Scott on Twitter,  YouTube and Google+.