Where some businesses (of any size) get relationships wrong, Chris says, is in laying claim to ownership of their audience, using phrases like “our audience.” While this might seem a trivial point, it’s an important one, because no audience or consumer group is solely one business’s property. You can’t own an audience, because they support, buy from, and enjoy many other products from companies besides your own. They rarely think 24/7 just about your business. Implied in community ownership is a company’s assumption that it’s okay to use that relationship to sell them more. That kind of
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