Only Dead Fish

The Power Of Online Communities (2)

I've had such great feedback on my question relating to The Power of Online Communities that I'm going to highlight everyone's comments in a post. To remind you - in advance of my conference talk tommorrow I asked what is your maxim for how best to engage and facilitate an online community? Within 3 hours I had 17 responses from agency digital strategy leaders, media researchers, account planners, media owners, creatives, and some of the most reknowned thinkers on social media strategy:

"Serve their agenda, not yours."
Mark

"Treat people as human beings, understand what interests them...but...if you want to engage social media creators then you have to be a part of that world"
Amelia (via a post on her blog)

"Do - make their participation worthwhile (whether interaction, feedback, utility, reward, connections). Don't - prevent them doing what they want to do"
Simon

"Go to where your communities are - don't expect them to come to you (simple)"...and..."Understand and respect the values and protocols of the community - be sensitive."
Tom

"...the importance and power of participatory exploration."
Gavin

"Don't ask them too much, even if you do indeed provide value. The larger and inclusive you aim the lower barrier of participation you set."
Asi

"What goes around, comes around...there's no getting anything from an online community if you're not bringing anything to the table."
Willem

"Get Stuck In!"
James

"Be like Zorro - quick interventions and thoughts, then step back."
Will

"Be a utility provider. You provide the location, the tools and the encouragement/reward for being involved, but once the users turn up, what they do with it is all theirs, and the most you can do to shape it is to inspire and aid them."
Dan

"Communities first (ie serve their interests above your own)"
David

"Use existing communities (FB, Flickr, etc) where possible, don't try and make your own."
Richard

"know your audience would be número uno. then be real. and interesting."
facu

"Discover your social currency. What cultural behaviours or dynamics are relevant, or would make anyone care about you? Or,think really long and hard about what value you provide for people in a social context."
Dino

"Do put the topic of a talk you're giving on The Power of Online Communities to your community and then watch them demonstrate The Power of Online Communities for you ;-)"
Jamie

So there you have it – thousands of pounds worth of free consultancy in one post. That’s how online communities work.

The Power Of Online Communities

Image courtesy
I'm giving a conference talk on Wednesday this week on 'Harnessing The Power Of Online Communities'. One of the things I will be saying is that I believe that almost all of the important learnings I have gained about how online communities work have come through being a part of one. In order to illustrate how productive the community can be I thought it might be fun to crowdsource some opinion, which I will feature in my talk. In return, I thought I'd share a few of the major points that I'll be making:

• Understand that it's not about the technology. It's about the people.
• Don't think about how you can create an online community. Communities already exist. So think about how you can help that community do what it wants to do.
• And give them something useful
• Engage, participate, listen
• Above all, know your audience

So, I'd love to know in one sentence - what is your maxim for how best to engage and facilitate an online community? Or, if you prefer, how not to...

Wario Land - Shake It

Can't stop watching this - it's brilliant.

Modern Branding

Good concise presentation from Adrian at Zeus Jones who, as I've said before, really do get it. This reminds us not only how prescient John Grant's thinking was and is, but also finishes by questioning whether it's possible to create truly different products with the same processes, disciplines and people, and even whether our customers are better at branding than us. Good stuff.

Modern Branding

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: grant john)

56 Leonard St, Tribeca

Liking this from 'A Daily Dose of Architecture'. A lot. A new development by Herzog & de Meuron (them of the bird's nest) in Tribeca, NY.

Just look at that. Most skyscrapers are all smooth lines. This is, well, it's almost pixelated. Like the sort of towers you'd build out of lego as a kid. Or the biggest game of Jenga you ever saw.

The architects describe it as "houses stacked in the sky".

I want me one of those apartments. Now.

Oh, what's that you say? The prices range from $3.5m to $33m? Maybe next year.

Think Tank

Yonks ago Russell used to do a thing called Post of the Month - people nominating  what they thought were the best posts of the past month and then opening it up for a vote. He stopped doing it sometime ago and I kind of miss it not being around. It would always throw up blogs I hadn't seen and posts I hadn't read, and it was always interesting to see what people voted for. And it was a great way to give a wider audience and a degree of recognition for some good writing (and thinking). So I thought I might resurrect a Dead Fish version of it.

Some logistics...
The concept is simple. At the beginning of each month (probably a few days into the new month to give me a few days to assimilate my thoughts) I'll post my own selection of the few posts I think deserve wider recognition and invite people to nominate their own, with a view to ending up with a maximum list of around 10 or so. Once I have the full list I'll open the voting for a week or so, the aim being that by the middle of the month we have a winner, which I'll announce via a post on this blog. I'll also twitter the odd reminder/announcement (you can follow me here).

I've created a category (category cloud, top left) called 'thinktank' and will categorise all the posts relating to this into it so they are retrievable. Over time who knows, it might become a useful repository.

A few rules...
You can't nominate your own posts - you can only nominate someone else's. You can nominate more than one post if you'd like, but please be realistic about the number I can short-list. If there are too many nominations or any other issues that arise I will use my own discretion (sorry, but it is my blog)

Criteria...
I really don't want to be restrictive about what to define as worth nominating - as long as it's broadly concerning the subjects that are discussed every day in the 'plannersphere' (advertising, communications, digital, planning, design, culture, media et al) - if you think it is one of the best things you have read in the past month put it forward.

The prize...
Sorry folks, no monthly cash prize I'm afraid but winners can bask in the reflected glory and respect of their peers. And I've also created a visual below that the winners can 'wear' on their blog for the duration of their reign (I'll post a resized version).

I'm thinking of starting this off in early Oct for posts that ran this month but before I actually undertake this, I'd like to ask whether you all think it's a good idea (or not). Feedback please. Any suggestions for improvements happily received - my aim here is to do something which is worthwhile for everyone. So what do you think?

Opportunity

"Don't look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity.

We are always waiting for the perfect brief from the perfect client.

It almost never happens.

You're probably working on a job or project right now and saying 'This is boring, let's just deal with it and get it over with. We'll make the next one good.'

Whatever is on your desk right now, that's the one. Make it the best you possibly can.

It may not be great, but at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did the best you possibly could, and you may learn from it.

And you're always free to do an alternative that does satisfy your creative standards.

Good briefs don't just come along.

That's true, even if you've earned a reputation for doing good work (although that helps).

Successful solutions are often made by people rebelling against bad briefs."

Paul Arden from this, which I read over the weekend and can recommend.

Blackdown

Early, Sunday morning.

Up above, the skies were cloudless. I've missed blue skies.

Marketing In A Meltdown

Image courtesy

Charles is right. It's slightly odd that there is not more chatter amongst ad people about the current turmoil in the financial markets. The breadth and depth of the tumult this week is leading to some pretty fundamental questions being asked about the way things are done. This infographic from the New York Times kind of says it all: 29 companies losing over a trillion dollars in value over the past year.

I was asked to do a piece for New Media Age the other day and one of the questions was about adapting models in the face of a new economic climate. My answer focused around how I felt that in tough times digital has the potential to deliver unprecedented value. And I really believe that.

Companies that have the right approach recognise that digital facilitates greater experimentation and innovation (and what better time for innovation) through low cost of entry and the ubiquitous availability of free online tools and services. Network effects mean more opportunities to share, rapid and easy proliferation of new ideas. Social aspects enable interaction, engagement, customer insights (and what better time to stay close to your market). And if that's not enough, David Armano has captured more reasons why digital makes sense in a recession here.

But. Only companies with the right approach. And that's the thing. There is still a huge gulf, I believe, in those that I think will embrace the real opportunities presented by the web and those that won't. And it's a gulf in mindset.

In his seminal presentation to the music industry, Ian Rogers talked about how models built on scarcity were ultimately doomed. And that, to me, is just it. Most existing models are built on principles of scarcity. The organisations that will win will be the ones that recognise the opportunity presented by ubiquity. Really, the choice is yours.

Scarcity says 'I go in search of the things that I like'. Ubiquity says 'The stuff I like comes to me'. Creating a destination and expecting people to come to you, or distributing your content to make it easy for people to find and access it? You decide.

Spending time trying to find the good stuff in an ocean of content, or having 100 of your likeminded friends do it for you via delicious networks, twitter, comments, blog posts, twine? You decide.

Holding onto your ideas because they are, you know, yours. Or believing that the more you share the more value will come back to you? Your choice.

People don't stop talking in a recession. So making your marketing dependent on a scarce resource - your advertising budget. Or making it more dependent on an abundant resource - your customers? You decide.

Resources to create: scarce. Resources to co-create: ubiquitous.

Attention...scarce. Interest...ubiquitous.

Tough choice. Not.

The Future

Hat tip to