Posts Tagged ‘communities’

February14

Meet in the Middle

By: Spike Jones

Irony can be very entertaining…especially in the social media fishbowl. On one hand, we hear the SM kids shouting from the rooftops that it’s all about one-on-one conversations. How it’s high-touch. How pushing out messages from the top-down is no longer effective. It’s about grassroots and bottom-up now.

And then they tell you to reach out to influencers.

Do you see the irony here? You reach out to influencers in hopes that they’ll broadcast the message to their audience (we’ve talked about before). Which, you know, wreaks of top-down marketing.

When it comes to building communities or ambassador programs, both ways – top down and bottom up – can be effective. But here’s where it gets interesting. We will use influencers to broadcast that we’re looking for a specific type or person – and one of the qualifiers IS NOT which social sites they are on or how many followers/friends they have. The main qualifiers are based on passion. That’s the core that we’re looking for. And believe it or not, most of the time those good folks are what us marketers would refer to as “the bottom” when it comes to influence and status on social media.

So it takes both. But instead of starting at the top and hoping that your message gets pushed down, or starting at the bottom and hoping something magical will happen, you need start at both ends and meet in the middle. It might be counter-intuitive, but it works.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, word of mouth2 comments

December13

Campfires. Not Communities.

By: Spike Jones

The word “community” is quickly approaching over and misused status in this shiny social media and word of mouth industry. And it saddens me.  But don’t get me started on “social community.” What does that even mean? Isn’t the very definition of community a place where people (or things) are social?

Which brings me to my point:

Just because you get a bunch of people to sign up for your website or “like” you on Facebook, or even follow you on Twitter, doesn’t make it a community. So stop calling it one.

During my college years, I worked at a camp for four summers in a row. There were the various activities and events, but the night that really brought your cabin/teepee together was campfire night. You’d go out as a group and pick a spot in the woods to build your campfire and then hand out the ingredients for the s’mores. Everyone would pick out their marshmallow roasting stick and the bonding would begin. People would share. Open up. Talk about what really matters. It was always a powerful evening. Well, after the sugar rush wore off.

My point is that maybe we shouldn’t be concentrating on gathering communities, but starting campfires. At least it’ll force us to think about how we bring people together and what kind of interaction we want to have with them. Do you want just another personality-void gathering of random people or intimate groups of folks that are there to connect in a way that’s valuable to them (not you)?

Chew on it.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, rants, word of mouth6 comments

March1

Lead. And follow.

By: Spike Jones

Yes, you have to do both. And the trick is knowing when to lead. And knowing when to follow.

Back in the days of the one-way communications, it was easy, because your mission was to lead. There were no real feedback loops, so you just pushed. Sure, you wanted (and still do) to lead in your industry and lead the competition, but you also wanted to get people to follow you. After all, leaders can’t be leaders unless they have someone following them.

But now, in the land of social media and social communications and communities and instant feedback, brands need to learn when it’s appropriate to lead and when it’s appropriate to follow. Not follow their competitor and do something just because the guy down the street is doing it. But follow the lead of your customer. Because if you’re paying attention, they’ll point you in the right direction. Great leaders know when to follow, for when they are tuned in to the needs of those around them, they listen. They change course as needed. And that can only come from active listening that becomes action.

via ONE/MILLION on flickr

Back in the pirate days, each boat was a democracy. The sailors would elect their captain and could oust him (and in the rare occasions, her) whenever they wanted. So that captain had to lead in a way that gained the confidence of his crew, but he also had to be plugged in to the culture and know when to back off and take cues from his fellow pirates, or else they would replace him. Now think of each brand as a pirate ship and you get the picture.

So know when to lead. And know when to follow. There’s a balance there. How do you find it? Participate in the lives of your customers and employees. And it will soon be as clear as the nose on your face.

Posted in: brands, lessons learned, marketing0 comments

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