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Dancing with the CRM Stars

Dear CRM Magazine,

Wow! Communispace is so excited that you have given us a CRM Service Rising Star Award, thank you! We are really proud of what we provide for our wonderful clients. The Communispace “two-step” of our services is no easy feat.

Dear CRM Magazine,

Wow! Communispace is so excited that you have given us a CRM Service Rising Star Award, thank you! We are really proud of what we provide for our wonderful clients. The Communispace “two-step” of our services is no easy feat.

We are thrilled to be CDW’s “dance partner” and also a partner to our many other clients who are striving to deeply understand their customers. It’s true that our emphasis on a continuous discovery process, going beyond simple feedback, helps our clients grow their business. It leads to better marketing, improved product development processes, and a company that’s truly customer-centric.

CRM guru Denis Pombriant’s comments make us want to twist and shout—we’ve worked hard to create a solution that gives our clients new insights while not leaving “community-building to chance.”

You think our two-step is impressive? Just wait til you see us cha-cha…

We really appreciate the recognition, thank you!

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Everything You Need to Know about Social Media You Learned in Kindergarten

kidsI’m no social media expert, far from it in fact. I blog now and then, I’ve been a community manager for several years, I share pictures, and I like to tweet (@drkleiman) once in awhile. However, a few days ago while talking to someone who wanted some advice about participating in online communities and social networks, a funny thing happened. As I listened to the advice I was giving, it reminded me of that Robert Fulghum poem, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

kidsI’m no social media expert, far from it in fact. I blog now and then, I’ve been a community manager for several years, I share pictures, and I like to tweet (@drkleiman) once in awhile. However, a few days ago while talking to someone who wanted some advice about participating in online communities and social networks, a funny thing happened. As I listened to the advice I was giving, it reminded me of that Robert Fulghum poem, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. 

If you think about it, it’s really that simple, the rules of engaging online are basic, human goodness even a 6-year-old can understand. Most of what you really need to know about social media, whether you are an individual or a major brand, you learned in kindergarten.

Here are few examples:

  1. Share – make sure what you do online using social media is worth sharing or at least not wasted space. It is after all called social media for a reason. You should try to provide value to your followers and make sure your participation in a community is adding something to the overall experience.
  2. Remember the Golden Rule – treat people how you want to be treated. Be nice, don’t yell, use your manners, have fun, and make friends.
  3. Be curious – Try some new things and be open to being clueless. Our CEO, Diane Hessan(@CommunispaceCEO) got on Twitter to try an experiment and poke around—she’s learned a lot from it and in turn has become a source of great information to her over 8,000 followers.
  4. Be a good sport – We all make mistakes, if you make one, own up to it—say you’re sorry. People will forgive you and may even respect you more for your honesty and good humor.
  5. Listen – You’ll be amazed what you hear. There’s a ton to learn using social media if you stop shouting and just listen.

Ok, so my personal favorite, compliments of my own 6-year-old is “take naps” however in this case it doesn’t relate. Or does it?

What are some others?

9 Responses to “Everything You Need to Know about Social Media You Learned in Kindergarten”

  1. Reward – six year olds like Gold Stars, or any symbol of accomplishment. Although my Life Coach blog is very young, I am lining up a giveaway next month. Lots of goodies :)

  2. jwallace says:

    “taking naps” absolutely makes sense! This is the best guideline I’ve found thus far!! and simple to follow ;o)

  3. Dave Armon says:

    Agreed. Nap time can only make us better communicators.

    Is the SM version of the Gold Star the badges we earn for checking in on FourSquare?

  4. Debi Kleiman says:

    jwallace – maybe “nap time” in regards to social media is the idea that sometimes you should take a break from it! Some things are better said or done in person; or there can be a tendency to get addicted to your online social life… so taking time away for it, for a “nap” of sorts, is just good sense.

  5. Debi Kleiman says:

    Will, I like the idea of rewards – makes me think about gaming too, also a part of social. Using rewards (tangible and intangible) can make the community stronger and more interesting! Thanks for adding that.

  6. Lisa Cahn says:

    How about
    6: don’t run (walk/tread slowly) with SHARP objects (or words or anything that can harm yourself or others….
    Be wise about what you say and do

    7: READ and do PUZZLES…it develops and hones your mind skills. Do your research. Surf the web for ideas, but don’t forget to give CREDIT where CREDIT is due (no copying!!!)

    8: PAINT a picture of what you or your business are or want to be…make new pictures often…put them up with magnets on the fridge…watch your evolution…be proud of your talents (humbly of course)

    9: Put things back where they belong…be ORGANISED…protect the earth; reuse, recycle, wash carefully, cut up old magazines but read the stories! Don’t forget your /the past…

    10: Taking naps is ESSENTIAL to healthy life

  7. Josh Bernoff says:

    From your keyboard to god’s ears . . . you are right but civility is a hard thing to earn. Gizmodo just shut down comments since people weren’t being civil.

  8. Deb, these are great common sense principles. Building on your point about listening, making an earnest effort to interact instead of just broadcasting pays dividends. Social media aside, it just makes sense, even to Kindergarteners.

    Most of us would rather talk *with* someone than be talked *at* and we appreciate when people respond to us. Sometimes that even compels us to share on behalf of someone else. And solely getting inundated with someone’s stuff isn’t a relationship.

    It sounds simple and yet many companies seem to disregard fundamentals… thanks for the post.

    Joseph Kingsbury, Text 100

  9. Barbara Vogel says:

    Golden rule indeed! My condo had an online discussion board for owners and tenants to share info, etc. I was shocked at how nasty and uncalled for some of the responses were to some of the questions posted. The property management company eventually shut down the discussion board. If people are rude offline, they will probably be rude online as well.

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A New Day for Market Research

It feels a little different now, something is in the air. Now, people can’t get enough of customer insights, it’s the connective tissue in the body of business growth. It used to be that market research was this staid, project thing—have a question? Do a study! That just doesn’t work in today’s marketplace where customer attitudes and behaviors quickly become outdated, as markets and needs move at the speed of light.

It feels a little different now, something is in the air. Now, people can’t get enough of customer insights, it’s the connective tissue in the body of business growth. It used to be that market research was this staid, project thing—have a question? Do a study! That just doesn’t work in today’s marketplace where customer attitudes and behaviors quickly become outdated, as markets and needs move at the speed of light.

Last week, I saw two things that made me really excited to be in the customer insights business. First, colleagues who attended the ARF Research Transformation initiative meeting in early November relayed some quotes from a speech made by ARF CRO Joel Rubinson, like this one:

“…marketers must become fast learning organizations. Researchers need to become agents of change to help the organizations they serve transform in this way. Such organizations realize that great ideas can come from anywhere and that there is shared control with consumers. To serve such organizations, the researcher’s role, must expand beyond measurement to also listening for the unexpected in order to inspire the organization.” (My emphasis was added.)

Inspiration!! Yes!! Inspiring takes things to a whole new level, and really, if businesses are serious about customer centricity, shouldn’t the customer be the muse? Isn’t this the way for insights to be strategic and game-changing—not just gathering dust in a binder on the shelf?

Then, to further add to this feeling there’s something big happening… BCG published a study stating that nearly 90% of blue-chip companies aren’t fully leveraging their market research functions because they are simply order takers instead of strategic partners generating breakthrough insights. In the best companies, researchers can answer the “so what” in a meaningful way and provide senior executives with perspective critical to their decision making. Wake up people! It’s time to seize the day!

Given the rapid growth of online market research, especially customer communities, (which according Forrester Research analyst Tamara Barber, is only going to continue to gather steam), there is a huge opportunity for customer insights professionals to get a seat at the C-table. They can have a connection to the voice of their customer (or non customer as the case may be) at all times. They have a listening channel to hear the unexpected—new, fresh, ever-changing perspective, to impact their business decisions both large and small. They can “bring it” every day.

I think we are at an inflection point in our industry; it’s time for transformation to take hold and bring about this new order for market research—customer insights are going to be the lifeblood for organizations that want to thrive in continuous change. (We recently did a webinar which talked about the change in thinking that’s needed for 21st century market research, and how insight communities can meet these needs; listen to the full session here.) Are you seeing this too? What do you think needs to happen to make researchers the “agents of change” in this new business order?

12 Responses to “A New Day for Market Research”

  1. Ken says:

    Great post Debi. Terrific content and writing. A must read.

  2. Randy says:

    Good insight! I’ve seen so many companies not leverage project results to their fullest. Plus mkt research groups within co’s are too dug into the weeds these days. There needs to be a layer of customer insight pro’s who are the trend spotters, and communicate to c-level. You can’t be digging through the weeds of SPSS, AND spotting the trends, AND pulling the slides together, AND working with c-level on “what’s actionable” on a daily basis.

  3. [...] This post was Twitted by drkleiman [...]

  4. Amen. Market research is dead. Long live the fast learning marketer…

  5. Rachel Happe says:

    Great post Debi -

    I couldn’t agree more and actually I see the secret sauce of all communities being very actionable, real-time, insights. The companies that use their communities to do this will have huge advantages if they can figure out how to quickly roll insights into corporate operations. Of course, all of that is predicated on being able to build robust communities… and that is not small feat and a barrier for many companies at the moment.

    Carry on with the great work you guys do :)

    Rachel

  6. Right on Debi!

    I think what you are driving at is also a corollary of the relationship development aspect of social media and leveraging communities for customer insight. Good insights SHOULD come from good relationships. As we move past the era of mass marketing and into the one of social connectedness at scale, the insights the marketer can get through customer relationships provide a real opportunity to listen to the customer at scale…

    To use one of those old SAT-like analogies, perhaps as Traditional Market Research was to Mass-Marketing, Customer Communities will be to Social Media Marketing…

  7. Absolutely agree – these are exciting times. Too often still corporate researchers are excluded from key strategic meetings where they can get a full understanding of the issues. Cross-functional teams (always including a researcher) are the most effective way for companies to get a holistic perspective of the issues/opportunities and work towards a common goal. In the less progressive companies there is a disconnect between product development, brand management, marketing, sales, and customer service – driven by turf wars and inefficiencies. The researchers I know are intelligent and creative, fully capable of evolving with the times, but they need the support of the top executives. Sometimes a change in structure (and accountability) needs to come before a change in thinking occurs.

  8. [...] This post was Twitted by dmeiselman [...]

  9. Debi Kleiman says:

    Great comments! Thanks! I am so excited to see the energy around this topic.

    It is about speed and actionability that leads to increased relevance – the holy grail of insight right Rachel? We’re digging deep for it every day, lucky to have amazing curious clients. Thanks. :)

    I agree Cathy, a change in structure could help the mindset shift. I think c-suite says they want insights but then doesn’t make it a priority to go to the source or make it a continuous feed. I think there’s something in the way insight gets served up in organizations that can make all the difference too. It needs to paint a picture, tell a story – inspire!

    So true David, and it creates huge possibilities to learn even more than ever before. It’s a true shift and the market researchers that harness it and recognize the value in these new relationships, rather than getting hung up on the technicalities, I think, are going to be the leaders going forward. Love your analogy!!

    Randy, it’s interesting to think that maybe there needs to be a “translator” skill set for insight pro’s –or a strategy layer on top to help bridge the divide to executives day to day decision making and what they are learning with consumers. Another idea — how about if executives incentives were aligned with how well they truly “get” their consumers. Could there be a measure for this?

    What else? Tell me more of what’s on your mind here…

  10. Barbara Bix says:

    Hi Debi,

    Couldn’t agree with you more–yet so few B2B businesses gather market insights as a regular part of their daily operations. Sure, Sales is out there with prospects and customers but they don’t have the time–and aren’t financially motivated to share to disseminate what they learn–with the rest of the organization.

    It was interesting to note that Pragmatic Marketing’s recent survey noted that product managers are working hard on product roadmaps and marketing requirements–yet are spending very little time with prospects, customers or marketing research. It makes one wonder how they get products and communications right.

    Perhaps they’re not. I just sat in on a Marketing Sherpa presentation that said that getting the message right is a key concern for B2B businesses–so I hope they do start taking advantage of social media venues to get easier access to customer insights.

    That said I think the trend is moving in the right direction. With growing interest in web analytics, marketing automation, etc., companies see the impact customer insights can make–and that dearly held assumptions about customer preferences are not always valid.

  11. foibles says:

    speed and actionability indeed. It’s important to be agile. Tools for tracking raw trends and sentiments ‘in the wild’ have a use but they are often crude because the data hose is so fat and noisy (think: Twitter). Polling and surveys still have a place at the table, albeit adjusted for new media platforms. zoomerang’s facebook app comes to mind as one tool for fast action.

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Why Being a Market Leader is Both Scary and Fun

Wowza, last week was a big week here at Communispace on the awards and recognition front – specifically, Forrester Research published a report naming Communispace a leader in the market research online community space. The report* ranks Communispace tops on all three major dimensions.

Then to top it off, Communispace, together with our wonderful clients, won an unprecedented two Forrester Groundswell Awards – you can read the full nomination stories on our website. Phew, that’s a lot of Forrester Research accolades in one week. And we couldn’t feel more proud, grateful, excited and yes, maybe even a little nervous.

Wowza, last week was a big week here at Communispace on the awards and recognition front – specifically, Forrester Research published a report naming Communispace a leader in the market research online community space. The report* ranks Communispace tops on all three major dimensions.

Then to top it off, Communispace, together with our wonderful clients, won an unprecedented two Forrester Groundswell Awards – you can read the full nomination stories on our website. Phew, that’s a lot of Forrester Research accolades in one week. And we couldn’t feel more proud, grateful, excited and yes, maybe even a little nervous.

Yes, nervous. When you are the market leader, you have competitors who want to knock you down, so you can’t rest on your laurels.  And you also have clients (or customers, or partners) who want to know what’s next and how you are going to be even better than before. And let’s face it, we’re a pretty driven and curious group here at Communispace too, so we’re putting pressure on ourselves and each other to “take it up a notch”. Definitely fun, especially given our love for pushing into new frontiers, but we could also find out some new stuff that maybe doesn’t jive with what we know today.  We’ll have to take a hard look at our resources, people, and capabilities to see what’s going to propel us forward and what’s dragging us down.

We’ve reached an exciting point in our company’s growth, it’s great to see all that we’ve accomplished in this young market space.  And the experience of getting here provides the fuel to turbo charge what’s next – but now we’ve got to crank it up even more than before. How do you keep the innovation fires burning in your organization? I’d love to hear your ideas.

* The Forrester WaveTM: Full-Service Market Research Online Community (MROC) Vendors, Q4 2009.

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Welch’s and Diddy: Enjoy responsibly

1/3 Welch’s Grape Juice, 1/3 Simply Lemonade, and 1/3 Ciroc Vodka make up the O.G. Diddy. Sound good? Below, check out the full rundown from Diddy, and watch while his personal bartender demonstrates the crucial mixing process.

1/3 Welch’s Grape Juice, 1/3 Simply Lemonade, and 1/3 Ciroc Vodka make up the O.G. Diddy. Sound good? Below, check out the full rundown from Diddy, and watch while his personal bartender demonstrates the crucial mixing process.

In the video, Diddy insists that you have to use Welch’s as “only O.G.s know ‘bout Welch’s” (note: O.G. stands for “original gangsta” and that I actually had to look up what it means using the urban dictionary, not very O.G. of me). Then, as a guest on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night show last week, he shared the O.G. Diddy recipe again. It’s a huge viral success—with the multitude of tweets (Diddy himself has 1.6 million followers), Facebook comments, additional YouTube videos, and exposure on NBC, this is generating some serious “free” buzz for Welch’s. This is stuff you just can’t buy it’s so genuine and real. Yet, the video on YouTube has been viewed the most by men aged 18–34, who probably know what O.G. means, likely not Welch’s traditional media target.

In fact, Welch’s is considered a family brand, maker of great tasting, high quality, healthy juices and jellies for the best PB&J sandwiches (full disclosure, they are a client) targeting moms with kids. The story of Welch’s began when Thomas Bramwell Welch and his son Charles in 1869, both teetotalers, were looking for “unfermented wine” to use during their church’s communion service.

So, on the one hand, associating the brand directly with alcohol probably isn’t high on their marketing agenda. But on the other hand, Diddy (clearly an O.G.) is a modern icon of style and hip hop cool—doesn’t that help Welch’s become more relevant to a new target audience?

I wouldn’t say this is a case of a brand getting “punk’d” by social media, as Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang defines it in his ongoing list of examples. But because it’s so uncontrolled, unexpected, and very different from how Welch’s is perceived in the market today, the brand they’ve invested millions in building—is it a good thing or a bad thing?

If you were Welch’s, what would you do? I am going to contemplate this as I watch the ice melt a bit in my O.G. Diddy…it’s really delicious.

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Do you have a destination community?

maine-1Leaving Maine after another wonderful weekend there, I had this thought—no one just goes to Maine. You don’t drive through it to get anywhere; it’s not a “center” of anything—unless you are a lobsterman—and if you haven’t ever learned anything about it, odds are you wouldn’t go. But, when you do check it out, you learn there is so much going on there, you can’t imagine having never been and you can’t wait to go again. In a way, it’s the same for online communities, without something interesting going on all the time, or a reason to visit over and over, why would people go?

maine-1Leaving Maine after another wonderful weekend there, I had this thought—no one just goes to Maine. You don’t drive through it to get anywhere; it’s not a “center” of anything—unless you are a lobsterman—and if you haven’t ever learned anything about it, odds are you wouldn’t go. But, when you do check it out, you learn there is so much going on there, you can’t imagine having never been and you can’t wait to go again. In a way, it’s the same for online communities, without something interesting going on all the time, or a reason to visit over and over, why would people go?

Well, we know a thing or two about this topic—creating vibrant, engaging communities that members WANT to go to, and not just once, but over and over, week after week. And our clients enjoy the benefit of having all these highly engaged members primed and ready to help them with their business. Another great company, Powered, is our kindred spirit when it comes to stuff like this. They know what it takes to create a content-rich social community experience and how that effort (and it’s not a small one!) can really pay off for brands. So, we decided to join forces and share what we know with the hope that you too, can experience what “destination communities” are all about!

We’re having a webcast on June 24th at 2 pm CST/3 pm EST, I’ll be there as well as (fellow Mainer and) Powered CMO Aaron Strout—but wait there’s more! Rock star Forrester Analyst Lisa Bradner, expert on all things marketing and branding, will be sharing her great insight on the topic and joining the conversation as well! So don’t miss it. And be sure to let us know if you learned something.

Link on over to register…

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MythBusting: How Online Communities Really Work

Recently we held a webinar with ARF called “MythBusters: 10 Truths about Online Communities.” It was a terrific session that ended with a very lively audience Q&A. I wanted to highlight two of my favorite myths here because they seem to pop-up every week on someone’s blog, video, or tweet and a little clarity is always a good thing. We’ve been around the community block for 10 years…and learned a lot along the way. Read on as we share the goods!

Recently we held a webinar with ARF called “MythBusters: 10 Truths about Online Communities.” It was a terrific session that ended with a very lively audience Q&A. I wanted to highlight two of my favorite myths here because they seem to pop-up every week on someone’s blog, video, or tweet and a little clarity is always a good thing. We’ve been around the community block for 10 years…and learned a lot along the way. Read on as we share the goods!

Myth: The only viable brand communities are fan communities.

In our experience we have found this to be untrue. Most spontaneous, organic communities are typically hard core brand fans (or sometimes rabid detractors). And while these types of communities can give you a lot of interesting information…they are not well suited for figuring out how to reach and connect with a brand’s more skeptical or fickle consumers – and for most brands, people with moderate feelings represent the majority of the target.

In fact, many Communispace client communities include some mix of potential customers—prospects, lapsed customers, emerging segments, consumers loyal to competitors’ brands, and so on. It is a popular and effective strategy, because figuring out how to connect with these groups is often a company’s greatest opportunity for future growth, and communities are one way to build that communication channel.

A good example of involving non-customers in communities is Charles Schwab and their community of Gen-Xers that was brought together to better understand—not what this group’s current investing needs may be—but how to become their investment service provider of choice 10 or 15 years down the road. What they learned was so powerful that they were able to create new products and services to meet the needs of this target group— resulting in a 56% increase in GenX customers vs. a year ago (as of September). (We’re quite proud to say that Schwab and Communispace won a Forrester Groundswell Award for Listening, based on the business results from this community.)

Smaller, private communities are transparent and intimate by design, which means members develop a relationship with the company and a commitment to help; so the advice and feedback is honest and extraordinarily relevant.

Myth: Brand communities only work with high involvement products.

Here’s the truth—brand communities only work with highly involved, actively listening brands.

It makes sense that high involvement products—those that require a lot of consideration and investment of emotional energy by consumers prior to purchase—would be most likely to engage people through community.

Yet our experience tells an interesting story…when you look at the 325 communities we’ve built by industry, for example, it’s pretty clear that the majority manufacture low involvement products or offer not-so-emotionally engaging services. Toothpaste, soda, shampoo, grocery stores, household cleaning products, and newspapers are not what we think of when we imagine passionate consumers. And it’s also hard to imagine customers passionate about their savings account or insurance coverage. Yet the majority of the communities we run are organized around the everyday fabric of people’s lives. So one thing we’ve learned is that it’s the process of building community itself that creates involvement and inspires passion, even when the product doesn’t.

A great report I read on this same idea was from Josh Bernoff at Forrester. He recently wrote: Social Technology Strategies For “Boring” Consumer Brands (membership required)—that shows how building applications to talk about customers’ problems can create a way to connect with them, a sort of “borrowed relevance” that can surface all kinds of great ways you can better relate to them. One example from the report talks about how AXE, maker of deodorant and other personal care products targeted at young men, created an incredibly dynamic and insightful community full of guys talking to each other—but not about deodorant. As our AXE client would say, the community is more like a virtual locker room, it’s totally genuine, and the input members give to AXE truly guides brand messages that resonate with their target.

OK those were my two teasers, but there are eight more! Now it’s your turn to check out the rest of the webinar. C’mon it’s seriously good…you can watch it at your leisure (and don’t worry you’re not required to register). We just want you to take it all in—we think it will be a useful tool as you build your community strategy.

Once you’ve had a chance to watch the webinar, report back and let me know—are there more myths that need busting?

One Response to “MythBusting: How Online Communities Really Work”

  1. Doug says:

    Thanks for the WMV presentation. Well done!

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Are you ready for a brand community?

In the April Harvard Business Review, Susan Fournier and Lara Lee contributed an insightful piece “Getting Brand Communities Right” . They make some great points that are useful for companies thinking about engaging their customers through brand communities and building deeper relationships that ultimately drive loyalty and growth.

In the April Harvard Business Review, Susan Fournier and Lara Lee contributed an insightful piece “Getting Brand Communities Right” .  They make some great points that are useful for companies thinking about engaging their customers through brand communities and building deeper relationships that ultimately drive loyalty and growth.

At one point, they talk about how it can be a mistake to focus exclusively on opinion leaders when building communities – I couldn’t agree more!  Opinion leaders are great for buzz campaigns and other types of selling activities, but a community should value all points of view from the whisper to the yell. In fact, in communities that we build and manage, we believe so strongly that all points of view are equal that we don’t use features to encourage members to rate and review one another’s posts or make stars out of the most frequent posters.  It’s important that a community encourages everyone to contribute and play a role.

I also like the emphasis the authors place on the idea that a brand community is a business strategy not a marketing strategy.  Amen! We have seen the greatest successes with our clients when their learning agenda for the community touches a broad range of stakeholders in the organization and is tied to their most important strategic initiatives.  Eventually, companies that achieve success with their communities are regularly asking themselves: “have we bounced this off our community yet?” They already know that they have a group of totally engaged customers (sometimes even prospects) ready and willing to help.

Finally, I thought the Community Readiness Audit the authors provide through the web version of the story was quite cool.  It is a quick, interactive tool for you to answer some questions about your organization to help you decide whether you’re ready for the challenge (and work, dedication, elation, and and and…) of having a brand community.  Please check it out and then let me know what you think.  Are YOU ready??

2 Responses to “Are you ready for a brand community?”

  1. Ruth says:

    As a non-profit trying to brand our organization, we struggle with differentiation. Today there are 37,000 nonprofits in MA and the limits on funding and resources are tighter than ever. So branding is a business strategy for us and Debi’s perspective rings true. We need to hear all our stakeholders including donors and members. The web has provided us with a great start on this but we need to move to more communication among our 45,000 members to really get programming and services right. Retention for us is mission critical so we have to keep our ‘community’ engaged. We are ready.

    Love the new blog.

  2. Mike Rogers says:

    One other trap that many companies fall into when developing a brand community is to neglect the real world angle. Brands and companies should use both online and offline events to build upon each other.

    All offline events should have elements that promote the online community go grow online membership. The only community obviously provides a perfect forum to promote and drive participation in offline events.

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All Media is Social, aka Your Customers are People too

Recently, at the MTLC Social Media cluster meeting, Brian Haven, recovering Forrester analyst and now aspiring entrepreneur, made a terrific, thought-provoking presentation. The first part of the presentation showed how the online behaviors that we call social media today are actually things people have been doing for a very long time, in some cases since the beginning of time!

Recently, at the MTLC Social Media cluster meeting, Brian Haven, recovering Forrester analyst and now aspiring entrepreneur, made a terrific, thought-provoking presentation.  The first part of the presentation showed how the online behaviors that we call social media today are actually things people have been doing for a very long time, in some cases since the beginning of time!

Think cave art = early Flickr

  • Sharing
  • Connecting
  • Opining
  • Broadcasting
  • Creating

I thought this construct was so interesting because underlying it is the idea that successful social media efforts are just ways to help people express themselves in innately human ways – albeit with a technology spin. So when companies are looking to understand and connect with their customers, I think it’s important to remember that we are all just humans – and if we aren’t designing and interacting with customers in ways that recognize that, celebrate it in fact, these efforts will likely fail.  After all, this approach might lead to uncovering the important emotional connections and storytelling that builds great brands.

How does your company get human?

One Response to “All Media is Social, aka Your Customers are People too”

  1. I had this exact same thought. Last month, I happened to catch a late night rerun of “Sex in the City” and realized that in every episode, Carrie starts writing her column on her PC with a provocative question and ends the session with a conclusion and often a second provocative question. Unconsciously, that is how I write my blogs today…..who knew that Carrie’s column was an early blog

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