using community initiatives to drive brand results
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
CommunityInitiatives
Dylan Thomas, Digital DirectorSDForum MarketingSIG, Jun 14, 2010
We are a digital brand building and communications group.
We help organizations express themselves in digital media.
Based in SF and Barcelona
About Rassak
Digital Brand Communication Strategy
Digital Community Building
Digital Presence Development
Digital Performance Optimization
Services
Select Clients
Community Initiatives
Dylan Thomas, Digital DirectorSDForum MarketingSIG, Jun 14, 2010
So what is Community?
Community is People(And stuff).
You already havea Community.
WHAT?!?
Think ofCommunity like Brand
Intangible.You’ve got one.It’s more about them.
You are at the center,
You are integral,
You are the heart
of SOME community.
BIG POINT
Manifestations of Community
blogs, forums, email newsletters, usergroups, facebook pages, twitter accounts, social media, events, your employees, their families, your customers, their customers, your vendors and partners, etc, etc, etc.
SID
EBAR What about
“Social Media”?Social media is a manifestation of community
It can be the only expression of that community, or one of many.
Community initiatives may or may not leverage social media.
#1 Provide a platform for Communication, Connection, and Marketing
#2 Improve Support & Customer service (and reduce costs)
#3 Empower the customer/Accelerate Innovation
3 things* you can do
*there are WAY more
Some Examples
Escuela Buena Vista
Communication-Connection
Axiom Group
Communication-Connection / Product Extension
Product Value Add
Worldreader.org
Communication-Connection-Marketing
Show me the Money
Dell Twitter
Marketing / Customer Service
• Key Points• Dell uses over ~35 Twitter accounts to engage
different audiences• Accounts used for information sharing,
customer service, and marketing (including coupons/deals)
• @DellOutlet generated $6.5M so far
Dell Twitter
Marketing / Customer Service
Factory5 Racing
Communication-Connection / Support / Unofficial Selling Point
• Community support is a central advantage for sales of kit cars and Factory5 has one of the best
• Insanely supportive community• Bridges On-line/Off-line• FFCars. com is entirely independent
Factory5 Racing
Communication-Connection / Support / Unofficial Selling Point
Dell IdeaStorm
Customer Voice/Innovation
Quick Background• 2005 = Dell Hell raging = Massive Problem• 2006 = Launched Blog = Massive Failure• 2007 = Launched IdeaStorm = Massive
Success
Key Points• Gave customers a place to vent and be heard• Demonstrated Dell’s commitment to customer
service turnaround
Dell IdeaStorm
Customer Voice/Innovation
SAP’s Ecosystem
Communication-Connection/Support/Innovation
SAP Stats
People– 2,000,000 Members– 400,000 newsletter
subscribers.– 200,000 Contributors– 4,800 bloggers
Growth– 30K new
members/month
Traffic– 1M unique visits/month– 20M pageviews/month
Volume– 6,000 posts/day– 200+ forums– 1.5M topic threads– 6M total messages
Communication-Connection/Support/Innovation
Avg Response time to a question: 17 minutes
• 5 Main Communities• Connects developers, customers, partners,
experts, and universities…To each other and to SAP…For real.
• Focuses on the individual• Has been widely successful in fostering
cooperation, innovation, and productivity.• Blends on-line and off-line• Crazy points system. The have banquets, give
awards, but the points themselves award the most valuable thing, Status
• Is the actual hub of the SAP community
SAP’s Ecosystem
Communication-Connection/Support/Innovation
OK,NOW WHAT?
You’ve got Goals, right?
BIG QUESTION
Build or Join?
#1 What do you want to achieve?
#2 What are your resources?
#3 What is already going on?
Considerations
• Do you HAVE to build your own destination?
• Is there already a place where people address the topics that you want to cover, for the purposes that you want to achieve
• Is their a hole in the “market”? Really?
• If there is a hole, is there a good reason? Can you find evidence of latent interest, or are you just trying to build something that no one cares about except you?
Pros• “The Official Community”• Ultimate control of the platform, feature set,
development, message• Ability to integrate however tightly you wish
with your other initiatives and properties.
Build:
Cons• Start at Zero• More time• More effort• More expense• Possibly duplicated effort• Failure is possible, public, and embarrassing
Build:
Pros• No Waiting, No Budget, No Problem– Zero start cost– Zero platform cost
• The hard part, gathering the initial members of the community, is done (or at least started)
• Street Cred– Interacting with community on its terms
• Failure can be quiet
Join:
Cons• No Control over message• No Control over platform• May not be able to do everything you want
Join:
Ebay community Loved Paypal.
Ebay bought BillPoint.
Users revolted.
Ebay supported Paypal.
SHORT STORY:
LESSON:Ignoring your community is expensive.
#1 Be Honest
#2 Be Valuable
#3 Fit in and Follow
Joining:
If You Build it…Pay AttentionTo This Section
Design Imperatives
#1 Show Activity#2 Reward Members#3 Set Expectations
#1 Recency#2 Quantity#3 Results*
Show Activity
*if applicable
Dell IdeaStorm
#1 Recency#2 Quantity#3 Results*
MyStarbucksIdea
#1 Recency#2 Quantity
#1 Recognition#2 Everything else
Reward Members
Be up-front
Keep them in the loop
Share plans & Successes
Set Expectations
• “Be the change you want to see”• Do unto others as you would have them do
to the community.• Show people how you want them to act.
Behavior Modelling
“The most difficult part is not the technology but actually getting the people to behave well.
“When first starting the community the Flickr team were spending nearly 24 hours online greeting each individual user, introducing them to each other and cultivating the community.
“After a certain point you can let go and the community will start to maintain itself”
“People will greet each other and introduce their own practices into the social software. It’s always underestimated, but early on you need someone in there everyday who is kind of like the host of the party, who introduces everybody and takes their coat.”
--Caterina Fake, Co-Founder of Flickr
Behavior Modelling
• Building requires a huge investment of time up-front, cultivating behavior and relationships.• Efforts can take a long time to bear
fruit• Communities become self-
sustaining over time
This is will take a while
Now what are you goingto do about it?
Q&AFacebook.com/rassakexperience