Listening to a series on building communities around your company, how, why…etc. It’s Chris Brogan presenting and he is a smart guy, does this for a living.

My thoughts after his presentation?

First of all, it seems to me that you’re already part of a community, what you do with it is up to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big business or a new start up, you have relationships. You have relationships with your vendors, relationships with your customers, relationships with potential buyers. The relationships are your currency, the connections are the important thing. The importance of community was highlighted by the presentation, but I think one thing he didn’t say, which should be obvious (but so many times is not) was simply that …this is already happening. So whether you choose to participate online, proactively, with an implemented plan and strategy? Well that is up to you.

We’re doing this. We do it with our blog, with our Twitter followers, with our Facebook page, with emails. With phone calls, with meetings, with forums. Platform is not important, the connection is important and maintaining contact is important. Listening. I think the lines being open and maintained with regularity are the main factors in success. Are you listening? how are you listening? Are you customer-focused, or do you have your own agenda? We’re going to encourage you to be like the companies you like and value. How do they treat you?

If you can’t walk into a networking group offline and successfully connect, it might not be a good idea to try it on Twitter.

One thing I loved was Chris’s example of going to someone’s house for dinner, eating till you’re stuffed, having great conversation and then being handed a bill. That would change the entire dynamic of the relationship.  But what if it was a Pampered Chef party? I think that imagery is a great analogy, highlighting the mistakes that I see folks making on social media with their communities and community-building attempts. If you want to sell to them, be up-front about it. There is a way to do that without making people feel used. You invite them to a sales environment. They understand that it is a sales environment and accept the invitation. Otherwise, don’t make it a sales environment. But also remember that ROI doesn’t have to be about dollars, it can be about Influence, about ideas, about information that has a serious value. Also remember that no one like to be used. Celebrate your community members, value them, and use the golden rule.

Okay, so that said… a quick guide to building online communities:

1. Evaluate where you are and where you want to go and what kind of return you want.

Why are you building a community? Do you want more sales? You don’t have to sell directly to community members, you can use the information you learn about your brand/services to improve on your product or service and develop new products. That increases sales. Example? We have asked for critiques from people… just average joes, other designers, some business owners on our site designs and it’s helped us to make changes in how we do things and improve. So we sell more. It doesn’t necessarily mean we sell to the people who we directly interacted with, but their feedback had real value. But this kind of planning …knowing what you want and what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it, that has to happen before you start out.

2. Pick a platform.

You might have multiple platforms, depending on the engagement level of your community. The community has to be seen as a whole. Our community includes the forum members we interact with as well as the Twitter followers, blog subscribers, newsletter subscribers, Facebook “likers.” But they all have different engagement levels and they are all, individually, different relationships and that can’t be dismissed. If you’re just getting started then one or two platforms should be your focus and you need to track what kind of relationships you’re building.

3. Pick your measurement tools

There are a lot of different measurement tools out there and which one you choose will depend on what you want to measure. We use StepRep and Hootsuite and Google Analytics mostly. We have other arcane tools that our Internet Strategist pulls out and makes reports with, but the important thing is to have your goals and then have your measurement tools track your progress to those goals.

4. Listen and adjust

What will happen as you make connections is that you  will have goals change, ideas change, mindsets change. Take time to evaluate regularly and adjust your course. It’s important.

___________

Just some final thoughts. If I were a small business, new to the whole world of social media and learning how to use it, I’d go to some live, in person networking groups a few times and take notes on how interactions flow and get ideas for online networking. I’d practice offline a lot. I’d also listen to (and read) some Zig.

It bears repeating. You’re already part of a community around your company. What you do with it is up to you.

Share

0
Comments

Great minds think alike.

I got into Twitter because I wanted to help my clients use it to market their businesses. I saw it as a way for them to get exposure without a big AdWords budget.  Most of the people I serve are smallish family businesses, some more successful than others but all have seen the crunch of the current economy.

So though I was signed on as a user, I didn’t use it or have a handle on it until last fall, when I decided to use it regularly, but more than that to study it. Experiment. Research not just by reading but by doing.

Networking for me is like swimming for a fish. I’m not bragging, I’m stating a fact. I started my own business in 2001 and have sustained it through networking. I don’t advertise, or advertise very very little and I’ve never had a slowdown in workload. It’s been my experience that who you know is important. It’s also been my experience that you make the most of every opportunity granted you, no matter how small.

Story: I went to a conference once and the speaker was someone I liked innately. After the event, I found her email address, emailed her and told her how much I enjoyed what she did, told her some of what I did, and asked for a meeting. That meeting spiraled into a close friendship and working relationship that has spanned years and brought me a large amount of business. True story. I also got my internship with Axiom Marketing and Advertising because a producer hit on me at a local dive (this was college days, pre-marriage) and I asked for a contact. He was trying to impress me, so I got a contact and referral with the Creative Director. Not advocating this method, just relating what happened. (No I did not go out with him, ever, but he became a friend.)

Twitter is the biggest networking group in the world. Big chat room.

So yes, I’ve only done Twitter for a few months but let’s just say I quickly got my bearings.

Here is what I noticed. There were a lot of people in the same room shouting. Then there were a lot of people in corners having quiet conversations. I ran an experiment when I had around 100 followers, to see who was actually engaging with me, reading what I said. I stated my intent and asked for a response.

Three people replied. Three.

This made me go back and rethink my strategy.

It seemed to me that the power of Twitter, when you can’t be heard much… besides the SEO implications of your tweets…is to listen. I started to analyze why I was personally following certain people and why I was not.

I follow heroes. I follow people I know have a measure of understanding or success in their fields because this is a way to listen to them and possibly engage them. Not impress. But learn. Share ideas. I’m all about soaking up as much as I can from whatever source is out there and this was a gold mine. So I followed Andy Clarke and Michelle Miller and Richard Laermer and Duncan Bannatyne and Guy Kawasaki and Laura Roeder. The Wizard doesn’t tweet as far as I know or I’d follow him. I follow MODx developers and illustrators, creatives, David Finch…a Louisville, KY social media thought leader. Names that might not mean anything to a non-geek. Someone outside the field.  To me, important. (Duncan is a businessman and impressed me on his television show)  I followed several community members from Louisville. Then I followed people I might like. I ran a search on something that has always been for me, a cultural litmus test. If you passed that test in a social situation, we’d probably click well. And I added people who were tweeting on that subject. (Princess Bride movie – movies are quick ways to gauge someone’s personality) There were all types of people who came from that search and it’s been interesting to see the results. I’ve been followed and followed back people who share my political and religious beliefs. And some who did not.

Somebody said, I forget who, that in a room full of talkers, the power goes to the listener. And I’d felt that before I heard it. But they beat me to the punch in saying it.

Okay. So to this point I’ve started listening and divided people into two types…. broadcasters and engagers. These aren’t fluid types. They can change. A broadcaster might engage, and engager might broadcast. The question is, what is their normal mode? And then I saw the different motives people had with Twitter. You had some people blasting sales pitches (randomly with no context) and some people direct messaging with an auto-response. Ugh. You had teens staying connected to their posse. Housewives (funny beautiful ones) staying sane and connected to the adult world when they were surrounded by wee ones to care for. You had experts flaunting their knowledge, tweet after tweet after tweet…. constant broadcast stream. You had artists sharing ideas. You had developers sharing ideas. You had people asking for prayer, sharing stories. Writers, reporting on progress or working through plots. People voicing political agendas, people looking for a fight. Large groups of people trolling for hook-ups. Large groups of people slamming others. Then there is the usual crowd of “Names” …celebrities and the like, and Twitter is their stage.

“Names” and Average Joes seem to me to be really similar. After watching a few of  them, I’m beginning to think less and less that they use Twitter differently than others, they just have to be more aware of what they are saying because obviously more people hear it.

Anyhow, I have kinda been doing all of this on my own, reading a bit but nothing intense as far as research, not wanting to be colored by other’s ideas.

So to get back to my initial statement. Yesterday I ran across something in a search for a graphic, it was a breakdown of Twitter users. Based on work by @guykawasaki. You can see it here: http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/twitter-users-profile-infographic/ I’d followed him but not really gotten a lot… maybe he was the guy who talked about listening? Or was that @garyvee? Anyhow. I was honked. He beat me to the punch. I was all excited by what I was gathering and here it is. Part of it. Just part of it.

Oh well. There are gaps here. He hasn’t gotten into some of the things I’m seeing. This is broad.  I’m going to keep exploring. But now I also have to go read his freakin’ books to make sure I’m not parroting things someone else has discovered. Grouchy.

Anyhow.

The point of all of this is, for me, still to help my small business owner client grow. And after this research, I think what I’m going to be saying to my clients is simple. It’s okay to broadcast. But how you broadcast matters. Listening is much more powerful. It’s okay to have the motive of growing your business. But to stand out above a crowd of people who are self-seeking, you have to give. In a room full of posers, authenticity is shiny. There is no gimmick that leads to success. You have to be extraordinary, even if it is in only one way. One small thing even. And you can. Being consistent is extraordinary. That alone.  In the Louisville market, if your market is local, Twitter has limited range. We’re not in step with other parts of the country as far as usage.  There are people using it but Facebook is still much more popular here. It’s growing though. Don’t ignore it. Learn how to swim in it now so when it does hit critical mass here, you’re ready.

Check out the infographic, see who you are in relationship to it and admit that. Then define who you want to be, what your goals are. And don’t approach it like everyone else is. I think  we can’t control other people but we can control ourselves. So we work on ourselves..our business, constantly seeking improvement and innovation and are honest about it. And advertising whether on social media or AdWords is about telling the truth. Should be about telling the truth. And surprising people. But my strategy for anyone wanting to use Twitter to grow a business will start first with listening and tend more toward the Maven/Mensch model. (Say that three times fast- Maven/Mensch model.)

All right. Those are my thoughts for now.

Thanks @guykawasaki.

Share

2
Comments

Say you have a spa and salon. Say that spa and salon has a good location and great people. Let’s say… oh, just for hypothetical purposes? the spa is in Louisville, Ky. But it doesn’t have a ton of word of mouth…buzz. Say you’re the owner of that spa and salon and you don’t have a lot of green right now to spend on AdWords. Or radio. Or…much. But you’re doing your best and you want to do some in-bound marketing. Generate some buzz and sales. It’s the way to go, elbow grease. So how do you start?

First of all, I’m going to tell you, Mr Spa and Salon Owner, to actually care and be authentic to people you’re going to reach out to. Make connections and don’t just sales pitch. People do know the difference. Authenticity is important and I know you are overworked. But it will be better for you to actually connect with and listen to and engage with and care about 5 people than to sales pitch 500 people. Trust me. You will really see more return. This is true.

So that said… you could try this. You could listen on Twitter for things like “bad hair day” or “need massage” or “wedding” or another buzz word that might signify someone has a real need you can fill.

Go to http://search.twitter.com and click “Advanced Search”
Enter your search term, ie “bad hair day” or “wedding” or “facial” and down the page, enter your city and the radius you’d like to search in.

click the RSS feed button for this search, it is the orange one in the picture below:

and load it into your RSS reader so you can track it in the future (I use Google Reader) Then you can just watch your saved searches in your reader. You can also use TweetDeck. You can do as many of these as you like. The key to Twitter is listening. You hear me? Let me say it again. The key to Twitter is listening.

And then follow those people who you can actually help, do not DM (direct message) them with a sales pitch, but you could nicely (politely) send them a public @ message asking if they would like to try your services. Let them know you saw their lament about their bad hair day. Offer them a coupon. Be nice. Care. Do not send a sales pitch, be a person. A nice one. Actually look at who the person you’re contacting is. It is very VERY important that you treat people on Twitter the same way you would treat them at a cocktail party. “I couldn’t help overhearing your problem, can I help?” is acceptable. A DM with a sales pitch is not acceptable, that’s like going up to someone at a cocktail party and beginning a sales demonstration ala the ShamWow guy in the middle of their conversation with someone else. It is that obnoxious.

Listen. Care. Offer. Rinse. Repeat.

Are you listening?

Share

0
Comments