It Takes a Community to Raise a Brand, Not a Campaign

It Takes a Community to Raise a Brand A Presentation By: Sean Moffitt President & Chief Evangelist Agent Wildfire Inc.

“ Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi

“ Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction” Antoine De Ste-Exupery

“ Leaders have seized on collaboration as a powerful new lever to cut costs, innovate faster, co-create with customers, and usher their organizations into the twenty-first century business environment.”
Don Tapscott/Anthony Williams
Wikinomics

“ Creating a vibrant community is all about creating a critical mass of good minds and spurring them to spark off each other.” Barry Libert/John Spector WeAreSmarter.Org

Agenda
What’s a Brand Community?
Why Build One?
Types of Brand Communities
How to Plan It
How To Build It
How to Maintain It
51 Leading Examples

What’s a Brand Community?

Brand Community – Also Called:
Customer Community
Brand Influencer Team
Fan Club
Crowdsourced Network
Brand Wiki Members
Ambassador Program
Stakeholder/Developer Forum
Advisory Panel
Beta Testing Group

What It is Not – Social Network - A Platform (typically media-driven and online) that Brings People Together i.e. YouTube, Facebook, flickr, Wikipedia
Why It Doesn’t Qualify:
People-centricity without a brand orientation
A conduit, not usually the end brand game
- A social and media platform, not a brand rallying point

What It is Not – User Generated Promotion - A short term campaign/program that leverages content/insight provided by customers and participants
Longevity short
Reward and incentive –driven
Usually one objective in mind

What It is Not – CRM/Direct Marketing - Customer-centric tactics designed to interact directly with consumers without intervening media and with a primary call to action
Typically transactional
Does not link customers/member contributions
- Individualized but one-way, broadcast-driven

A Brand Community is: A group of people with a set of shared interests attached to a company/brand/product/idea, having the intention to improve its business operations for themselves and/or the brand’s benefit

Running - Nike Plus Finance- Wells Fargo Stagecoach Island Hospitality – My Starbucks Idea B-to-B - Intuit Quickbooks Community Automotive - Camp Jeep Travel – Starwood’s The Lobby Tech – Dell ideastorm eCommerce – eBay Powersellers Mobile – Virgin Insiders

The Magic “Community Triangle”:
Connects companies/brands with customers/ prospects/influencers/members
Connects members with each other
Connects members with non-members/prospective members

Brand Community Pillars
Participation in a group-based collaborative effort
Individual membership in a community
Common desires/goals/interests/passions/values
Brand production and consumption activities
Mutual trust and reward
Socialness, dialogue and interaction
Customization of experience
Online platform w/ offline experiences

Brand Community = Crowdsourcing Citizen Contributors
People join primarily out of affinity/recreation
Brand resonance
Interests
Chance for reward
Expression/Venting
Creativity
Hobbies
Secret desires
Latent skills and talents

Common Misnomers of Brand Communities: Members – not always top fans or best customers Origination – not always created/owned by companies Organization – not always open-source, open invite Goal Orientation – rarely exclusively company-motivated or member-motivated Place – not always structured online

Why Build a Brand Community?

Brand Communities - The End Game:
Accelerated sales
More traffic
Save costs
Drive marketing efficiencies
Entrench brand loyalty
Improve operations
Support products
Upsell services

Brand Communities – Direct Benefits:
Better insight and quicker feedback
Competitive intelligence/ market needs
Prepare launches/market introductions
PR defence and crisis management
Runaway word of mouth/evangelism
Reduce customer support costs

Brand Communities – Direct Benefits:
Lead the industry agenda & conversation
Organization-wide customer-centricity
Galvanize employees/vendors
Superior innovation/solutions
Favourable grassroots perception
New distribution/selling/customization channel

What’s Changed?
A Decade Ago Now
The Web Information Gathering Relationship Building
The Tools 1.0 Search/Broadcast 2.0 Collaboration/Dialogue
Openness Suspicion of Brands Openness to Brands
Scalability Limited by budget Viralness
Limited by geography No borders
Positioned products Mass customization
Key Measure Brand Awareness Brand Word of Mouth
Brand Satisfaction/Equity Brand Participation/Relevance

People/customers are asserting more control over brands
People/customers are reinventing industries by their participation
People/customers are demanding more from their brands
People/customers are relying on “people they know” , the ‘net links them up
The barriers to participate are down, connections are up
A generation of consumers have embraced Web 2.0
Winning brands are moving into the participation marketplace
Brand Communities help tap into four peer-generated market forces
The Implications for Brands?

Brand Communities Can Tap Four Valuable & Untapped Market Forces Peer Content Peer Engagement/ Fanship Peer Collaboration Peer Advocacy

Why You Should Play “ Host” not “Master” To Your Customers?

“ The Customer is in The Driver’s Seat”

“ Customers are Reinventing Industries…”

- Freedom
Customization
Scrutiny
Integrity
Collaboration
Entertainment
Speed
Innovation
“ Customers are asking for /exerting more:”

“ Customers trust, rely and act on advice from people they know”  90% of people trust their spouse, 82% their friends and 69% their work colleagues but …  only 27% trust manufacturers/ retailers, 14% advertisers and 8% celebrities” (Henley Centre)

The Internet Keeps Customers In Touch With The People We Know

“ Word of mouth drives choice” – 70% of word of mouth conversations have an impact on brand purchase (37% buy it/try it, 24% consider it, 9% avoid purchase based on WOM ) (Keller Fay) Key Fact:

“ Barriers for customer participation down”
Internet access
Mobile/cellphones
Video sharing
Photo sharing
File sharing
Blogs
Forums/Wikis
Rating sites
Open source technologies/APIs
News feeds
Social bookmarking

“ Opportunity for customer connections up”
3.3 billion cell phone users
1.3 billion Internet users
1.3 billion+ social network members
110+ million blogs
Ave. No. of Blog links - 12
Ave. No. of Facebook friends among Influencers - 164
No. of Per Person Brand-Related Conversations Each Year – 4,650

“ Some customers really want to connect with brands” -A word of mouth Influencer will average 184 brand word of mouth conversations every week (Keller Fay)

A New Brand Paradigm “ Something you Buy” “ Something you Trust” “ Something you Want” “ Something you Prefer” “ Something you Love” “ Something you Participate In”

Evidence of the Power of Brand Community I +++ Customer Experience/Advocacy/Purchase
Community Members:
91% believe community enables them to give candid feedback
89% believe company is truly concerned on what they have to say
82% were more likely to recommend the company to others
76% felt more positively about the company
75% felt more respect for the company
Members spend 54% more than non-community users
Source: Communispace/HBR

Community users remain customers 50% longer than non-community users. (AT&T, 2002)
Community users visit nine times more often than non-community users (McKinsey, 2000)
Community users have four times as many page views as non-community users (McKInsey, 2000)
56% percent of online community members log in once a day or more (Annenberg, 2007)
Customers report good experiences in forums more than twice as often as they do via calls or mail. (Jupiter, 2006)
Evidence of the Power of Brand Community II +++ Customer Loyalty/Relationship/Affinity

43% of support forums visits are in lieu of opening up a support case. (Cisco, 2004)
In customer support, live interaction costs 87% more per transaction on average than forums and other web self-service options. (ASP, 2002)
Cost per interaction in customer support averages $12 via the contact center versus $0.25 via self-service options. (Forrester, 2006)
Evidence of the Power of Brand Community III +++ Customer Support

The Mission – Realigning The Roles of Your Customers Turning Users, Customers and Consumers Into Authors, Producers, Scouts, Testers and Collaborators & Broadcasters Into Community Members, Advocates, Ambassadors and Evangelists Thinktank/ Sounding Board Scout/ Mystery Shopper Advisory Council/ Cause Torchbearer Seeded Adopter/ Beta Tester Customer User Consumer Collaborator/ Producer Evangelist/ Ambassador/ Advocate Community Member/ VIP Insider Person

Nike “The Consumer Decides”
" For every Nike employee, there's ten million consumers out there deciding whether or not the products and brands we offer really matter.”
“ The Consumer Decides is one of Nike's 11 maxims that really define who we are and how we compete as a company. Clearly, the power has shifted to consumers.”
Mark Parker, CEO - Nike

Types of Brand Communities

Communities Differ Based On …
The depth of involvement
The exclusiveness of membership

The 9 Types of Brand Community
Depth
Of
Involvement
Exclusivity High Low Low High Brand Cult Brand Nation Brand Network Influencer Group Advisory Panel Fan Club Brand Forums Ambassador Club Brand Meritocracy

WD-40 - Fan Club Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - Low http://fanclub.wd40.com/login.cfm

Intuit Quickbooks - Brand Forum Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - Mid http://quickbooksgroup.com/

Jones Soda - Brand Network Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - High http://www.jonessoda.com/files/community.php

Nike Plus - Brand Nation Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - Low http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

Maker’s Mark - Ambassador Program Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - Mid http://www.ambassador.makersmark.com/LogIn.aspx?url=/Default.aspx

Firefox’s “ Spread Firefox” - Brand Meritocracy Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - High http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

lululemon Ambassadors - Influencer Clique Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - Low http://www.lululemon.com/community/

Dell Ideastorm Advisory Panel Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - Mid http://www.dellideastorm.com/

Harley-Davidson Harley Owner’s Groups (HOGs) - Brand Cult Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - High http://www.harley-davidson.com

How To Plan a Brand Community

Step by Step Community Development
#1 - Organizational Audit
#2 - Big Idea/Cause
#3 - Set the Tone
#4 - Build the Plan
Focus – Goals, Audience, Type of collaboration
Language
Incentives
Rules
Tools
#5 - Validation of Program
#6 - Online platform
#7 - Seed & Release
#8 - Outreach/recruitment
How to Plan It

#9 - Staffing/governance
#10 - Sell across online and offline channels
#11 - Create activity/interactions - Activity depth/frequency
#12 – Stimulate Dialogue/Conversation
#13 – Provide Experiences to Support
#14 - Broadcast/link out to traditional worlds/play up success
#15 - Feedback to business
#16 - Reward allocation and announcement
#17 - Manage retention strategy – discover patterns and leverage, optimize or fix
#18 – Measurement, Insight and Refinement

1. Organizational Audit
Does your firm have the passion for this?
Do your customers want this?
Do you want to truly listen/capitalize on your community’s/customer’s input?
Do you have the manpower and resources to support the effort?
Does your organization provide a consistent effort throughout the customer experience?
Can you make a large enough commitment to see the returns?
What areas of community input could you most benefit from?

2. Big Community Ideas That Stick
S imple — find the core of the community and present it's essence
U nexpected — grab people's attention by surprising them and exceeding their expectations
C oncrete — make sure a community cause/mission can be grasped easily and remembered later
C redibility — give a community believability and reason for its existence
C ollaborative – get people involved in the community

2. Big Community Ideas That Stick
E motion — help people see the importance of an community (visual)
E scape – get people immersed in the community in depth, frequency and intimacy
E volving – ensure the community changes and adapts based on member's involvement
S tories — inspire people to use a community through a great narrative/manifesto and ensure its relevant
S ocial – get people talking and connecting with each other

3. Set The Tone

4. Build The Plan – FLIRT Crowdsourcing Model Source: Sami Viitim ä ki, Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

FLIRT - Key Elements
F ocus
L anguage
I ncentives
R ules
T ools
Source: Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

Focus
Business/Organizational/Customer Goals & Motivations
Type/scale of collaboration
Amount of Member Exclusivity
Audience/Depth of customer control

Focus - Marry All Party’s Interests and Capabilities
Shared mission?
Benefits measurable?
Benefits visible?
Benefits valuable for
the investment of time/energy/money?

Focus – Type of Collaboration/Goals
Innovation P&G’s Innocentive
Product development
New Threadless
Existing My Starbucks
Content generation Jones Soda
Decision making Marketocracy
Funding Cambrian House
Research – Insight TiVo
Customer Experience
Support Intuit
Expanded occasions WD-40
Optimal experience Specialized Rider’s Clubs
Marketing
Advertising Big Rock
Sales/Leads Ebay/Amazon
Word of Mouth Maker’s Mark
Distribution Channel Amazon
Employee IBM
Oftentimes, successful brand communities have multiple levels or types of collaboration

Focus – Scale/Nature of Collaboration Collaboration Exclusivity Brand Benefit Fan Club Low Low Brand Affinity Brand Forums Mid Low Brand Use Brand Nation Low Mid Brand Values Brand Network High Low Brand Participation Ambassador club Mid Mid Brand Advocacy Influencer Group Low High Brand Influence Brand Meritocracy High Mid Brand Solutions Advisory Panel Mid High Brand Innovation Brand Cult High High Brand Evangelism

Focus - Audience- Building
Who are they?
Who will be the first to seed?
How many of them?
Who qualifies? Why?
Characteristics?
What do they care about? What’s in it for them?
What do they talk about?
Who do they talk to? How do they interact?
How to contact/intercept them?
Is their an existing pool of people?

Who are the Natural Forming Groups

Key Community Audiences
C reators - create content
C ritics – scrutinize content
C onnectors – recruit members/ link/aggregate others
C rowds – consume/validate content
Source: Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

Interplay Among Audiences

Creators
Generate original ideas/content
Compete for the best solution
In it for:
the challenge
learning
fame
recognition
explicit rewards
Key community need:
feed intrinsic motivation
offer relevant extrinsic motivation
ensure sufficient level of creative freedom

Critics & Connectors
Involved in the conversation
Spread the word
Aim to influence a large # of people
In it for – Critics:
emphasize opinions
seek authority among their audience
In It for – Connectors:
emphasize sharing
seek to connect with a large audience
Key community need:
Be transparent & authentic
Enable effective conversation
Interact

Crowds
Low-level participation; activate in key events
Consume/vote on content
Decide what truly has value and what is useless – link to mainstream
Communicate mostly with ”friends”
In it for:
Participation ease, content and information
Entertainment/services/education/experience
Key Community Need:
eliminate barriers to participation
show influence in real time
draw into deeper levels of participation

Language
Authenticity
Transparency
Understand & respect
context
customer
Know social objects & emphasize social verbs
Human
Show them you’re affected

Incentives
Intrinsic
Better life
Challenge
Creativity
Satisfying curiosity
Learning
Fun & Enjoyment

Incentives
Extrinsic
Fame
Recognition (peer & company)
Access to channels & resources
Reciprocity / community
Explicit
Own products and services
3rd party offerings
Other non-monetary rewards
Cash rewards

Rules
Shared focus and objectives
Manifesto – communicate themes
Rules of initiation
Rules of interaction
Rules of intellectual exchange
Manufacturing constraints
Arbitrary rules
Rules/guidelines to spur creativity
Governance – who makes new rules?

Tools
Platform
own / 3rd party / hybrid
Singular/multiple
Tools for creation/developement
web service / physical devices / ideas
Tools for activity – see next slide
Skills & Knowledge
required education/prvious use
Company tools
internalizing/converting it into action

The 11Cs - Tools for Communities
Categorization i.e. tagging, sections, levels, lists
Collective Wisdom i.e. rating, ranking, voting, polls
Co-creation/collaboration i.e. CGM, ideas, reviews
Competition i.e. rewards, contests, status
Customization i.e. widgets, avatars, profiles
Conversation i.e. blogs, forums, comment,

The 11Cs - Tools for Communities
Connection i.e. messaging, integration, feeds
Contextual i.e. mobile, offline, online, IM
Community i.e. social networks, groups, teams
Communication i.e. photo/video/albums/news
Culture i.e. recruitment, engagement, causes

Amazon - Designed for Socialness

5. Validation of Community
User experience/ comprehension?
Member qualification?
Technical scalability/flexibility?
Seamless integration?
Data integrity?

5. Validation of Community
Creative/design acceptance?
Word of Mouth Referral appeal/Net Promotability?
Browser acceptance?
SEO friendliness?
Analytics?

Evaluating a Great Digital Brand Experience Source: Logic+Emotion

How To Build a Brand Community

#1 - Organizational Audit
#2 - Big Idea/Cause
#3 - Set the Tone
#4 - Build the Plan - FLIRT Crowdsourcing Model
Focus – Goals, Audience, Type of collaboration
Language
Incentives
Rules
Tools
#5 - Validation of Program
#6 - Online platform
#7 - Seed & Release
#8 - Outreach/recruitment
How to Build It

6. Online Platform - Factors
Goals of site?
Design expectation?
Open source/proprietary?
Depth of communication?
Brand/community facilitation?
Exclusivity requirement?
Sophistication level of audience?
Need for dialogue?
Cost and resource intensity?
Privacy requirements?

6. Online Platform - Options
Community Portal - Mozilla
Closed Influencer Network – P&G Tremor and Vocalpoint
Forum-based – Intuit
Blog-based – Stonyfield Farms
” Create, Rate and Develop” User-Generated Based Site – Threadless
Branded social network – Bud TV
Community Microsite – Dos Equis
Cause-related site – VanCity’s Change Everything
Virtual World – MyCoke.com
AdverGames – BK Games

Why Build Your Own Community (vs. operate on someone else’s network)
Act as a destination for all other inititaives
Identifies higher order advcoates
It remains as a shared asset with your participants (not part of somebody’s else agenda)
Costs are controllable
Flexibility of purpose, design and longevity
The OFFICIAL authority and source platform for company social information

Drawbacks of Creating Your Own
Level of honesty/transparency
Lack of scale and traffic
Objectivity
Resource intensity and trouble shooting too difficult to manage
Lack of member centricity or sufficient news

7. Seed & Release -
Refrain from mass marketing support of your community until you have built up a bank of social currency and seed advocates
Alpha – internal people
Beta – small external, early adopting group
Community managers – initial outreach
Launch Influencers – powerful grassroots media and word of mouth transmitters

Seeding The Influencer Curve “ The Ones Who Create Ideas” “ The Ones Who Spot & Scout New Stuff” “ The Ones Who Sell and Lead Opinions” “ The Ones Who Provide Credibility” “ The Ones Who Attract Attention” “ The Ones Who Connect & Spread the Word”

Recruiting A Potential Word of Mouth Army The Law of The Few: “The answer is that the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.” Malcolm Gladwell, the Tipping Point

Pace of Expansion - Flickr
“ We very carefully built the community on Flickr, person by person . The team and I greeted every single person who arrived, introduced them around, hung out in the chatrooms”
“ It was a very hands-on process, building the community . And in the beginning Flickr was built side-by-side with feedback from the community: We were posting over 50 times a day in the forums. “
“ After you hit, say 10,000 members, or so, hopefully you’ve created a strong enough culture that people are greeting each other. It really is kind of like building a civilization. You need to have a culture and mores and a sense of this is “what people do here.”

8. Outreach and Recruitment -
Existing audience
Employees
Database – Customers, Stakeholders, Suppliers
Referral – Fans, Enthusiats
Online
Search/SEO
Referral
Social media/links
Viral/video sharing
Social networks
Online ads
Widgets

8. Outreach and Recruitment -
Offline
Intercepts
Events
Consumer/Trade Shows
Brand Experience
Kiosk
PR/Stunts/Buzz
Paid media/promotion
Retail expsoure
Referrals

The Law of the Social Few
The 50-20-10-1 Rule
50% of people will passively participate/repeat
20% will actively and frequently consume/trade content
10% chime in opinions/rate and vote on content
1% develop and innovate content
Traffic is found in the social aspects of a community:
” 80% of Facebook users post on a wall”
The average social networker has 79 friends
The top two reasons people join communities are to:
Connect with other like-minded people
Ability for members to help others

How To Maintain a Brand Community

How to Avoid This…

Biggest Obstacles Managing Brand Communities
Getting people involved in the community (51 percent)
Finding enough time to manage the community (45 percent)
Attracting people to the community (34 percent)
Source:Deloitte/SNCR

#9 - Staffing/governance
#10 - Sell across online and offline channels
#11 - Create activity/interactions - Activity depth/frequency
#12 – Stimulate Dialogue/Conversation
#13 – Provide Experiences to Support
#14 - Broadcast/link out to traditional worlds/play up success
#15 - Feedback to business
#16 - Reward allocation and announcement
#17 - Manage retention strategy – discover patterns and leverage, optimize or fix
#18 – Measurement, Insight and Refinement
How to Maintain It

9. Staffing and Governance
Organization vs. Community-led?
Staffing?
Policies?
Policing/Handling disputes?
Meritocratic hierachy?

The Role of the Brand Evangelist – Core Responsibilities
Community Advocate - engaging customers by responding to their requests and needs
Brand Evangelist - host and promote events, products and launches to customers by using blogs, social networks, targeted seeding and conversational discussions
Communication Owner – microsite and blog editorial planning, content, publishing and follow up; identifying and inspiring advocates, and embracing detractors
Community Filter - responsible for gathering the requirements of the community in a responsible way and presenting it to client teams
Moderator/Ombudsperson/Police
Crowdsourcer

Brand Evangelist - Tasks
Program manager/developer – overall leadership of program
Events host – be the face of the brand and community at sponsored events
Recruitment lead – become a rallying point for inviting people in
Blog author/announcements – post frequently updates and successes of the community
Forum moderation –spark lively debate and exchange within forums
Research collector – ensuring the proper info gets collected and insights generated
Online administrator – handling uploads and downloads of information online

Brand Evangelist – Tasks (cont’d)
Community ambassador – being the face of this program with key stakeholders
Personal concierge – interacting one on one with new and VIP members
Client team intermediary, go-to and on-the-ground person
Product educator – mentoring loyal customers and new people
Mystery shopper/street/online intercepts –identifying true influencers
Pushing the membrane – online/offline outreach – executing creative ideas that push the brand into new exciting areas
Client stir stick – being the conscience of the community inside the company

Brand Evangelist - Skills
Resilience, passion, persistence
A keen sense about or an active participant in the community of interest
Project management - being able to handle multiple tasks at the same time with a customer service orientation
Creative - willing to try new things, to be self-starting and obsessed with – measurement as well.
Communication skills – comfortable speaking offline/online

Brand Evangelist - Skills
Social – likable, conversational and want to find and attract a passionate audience
Helping move mountains – assisting teams in getting community and thus client and members to be as successful as it can be
Encourage word of mouth and community - starting the conversation, recruiting others to join & ensuring that it continues
Experience with, and passion for, creating and consuming new content types: websites, social networks, blogs, podcasts, wikis, etc.

10. Online/Offline Expansion
Infect the customer experience with community touchpoints from front to back
Ask questions, spawn debate & drive traffic in your mass communication
Cement existing membership by sponsoring offline events
Extend out to social networks
At scale, create offshoot subgroups and community branches

Community Extensions
Video – i.e. YouTube
Photo – i.e. Flickr
Social Networks – i.e.Facebook
Bookmarking – i.e. Stumble Upon
Microblogging – i.e. Twitter
Mashups – i.e. Google
Widgets – i.e. Wordpress
Events – i.e. Upcoming
eCommerce – i.e. Craigslist
Search engines – i.e. Technorati
Wiki-based sites – i.e. Wikipedia
Location-based site – i.e. Brightkite

11. Activity/Interactions
Design to terminate barriers to participation
Create a real sense of vibrancy and content
Draw people deeper step by step
Personalized appreciation and attention
Create additional bank of social currency

Community Success Drivers

Options for Continued Engagement
Nominate/Gift Others
Polls/Tests/Games
Broadcast Profile/Get Fame
Testimonials/Sharing Stories
Referral/Team Building
Influence company direction
Playback successes
Become Recognized
Create Avatars/Personalization
Competitions/Challenges/Memes
Influencer-generated marketing
Local meetups/special events
Compilations/submissions/memes
Earn Influence Points
Support charity/cause
Customized rewards/treatment
Win privileged Access
Add multimedia (music/objects)

12. Dialogue/Conversations
Tone of Voice
Engagement Rules
Tyoes of Conversations
Ongoing, dynamic, currency
Design to draw people deeper step by step
New guests
Members
VIps

Tone of Voice
Pay attention
Be human
Demonstrate authenticity
Participate actively
Facilitate consumer customization/control

Engage in 27 Types of Conversation
Acknowledge receipt
Advertise something
Answer question
Ask a question
Augment a post
Call for action
Disclose personal info
Distribute media
Express agreement
Express criticism Express surprise Rally support Give a heads up Respond to criticism Give a shout out Make a joke Make a suggestion Make an observation Offer a greeting Offer an opinion Put out a wanted ad Rallying support Recruit people Show dismay Solicit comments Solicit help Start a poll Source: KD Paine & Partners

13. Supporting Experiences
Qualified community members should be exposed to an immersive brand/product experience before any substantial community activity occurs:
The experience should provide one of the following:
Exclusivity
Entertainment
Education
Escape
Aesthetic/sensory
Customization/personalization and/or
Interaction

13. Supporting Experiences
Examples
Product based- free product/trial
Experience Based – special event
VIP-Based – sneak preview
Activity-Based – competition
Research-based – beta tester panel
Altruism – goodwill badging/gifting

14. Playback Successes
Celebrate milestones
Broadcast the process involved
Show how contributions have impacted brand
Feature members, stories and tesimonials
Create network effects – the more people who join, the more everybody benefits

15. Feedback to Brand
Types of Feedback
Traffic/Membership
Engagement/Attention
Advocacy/Net Promotability
Sales/Conversion
Content
Visibility
Insight/Ideas
Support/Sentiment
Linkage ot Goals

Most Popular Community Metrics
- Traffic Pattern & Statistics - 75% - Community Member Engagement - 74% - Unique Number of Visitors - 72% - New Member Registration - 70% - Member Satisfaction - 59% - Provide Feedback/Ideation for R&D - 49% - Number of Referrals by Members - 33% - Transition Lurkers into Active Members - 29% - Impact of community on revenue - 27% - Mentions of Organization or Brand on other Community Sites - 27%

Most Popular Community Metrics(cont’d)
- Ratio of Comments per Post - 25% - % of Product Forum Posts that receive Answer - 20% - Promotions of Community Members to moderators - 20% - Keywords for Forums and Blogs - 17% - Cost Savings for Customer Service 16% - Ave. # of Customer Service Tickets/Month - 13% - Other - 13% - Number of Product Trial Downloads - 12% - Ave. Number of Tech Support tickets/month -11% - Cost Savings for Tech. Support - 11% - Average Time for a response - 10%

16. Reward Allocation/Announcements
Frequency?
Criteria?
Experiential/Virtual?
Expectedness?
Reciprocity?
Motivation?
Sustainability?
Broadcast winners?

16. Types of Rewards
Experiences/events
Free product
Badges/merchandise
Tokens/Treats
Money (for transparent effort)
Charity
Non-Monetary Rewards
VIP Status
Rankings
Points
Influence
Featured Fame

17. Retention Strategy
Identify your front row, treat them as VIPs
Understand triggers and dead zones
Assess ongoing needs of community
Extend out to different on ramps and off ramps
Max out on positive engagement rules...

Member Engagement Rules
Be willing to acknowledge and value what I have to say (yes, and…not no but…)
Make me an offer/pose a question and ask me to do something/react (don’t show me an ad and ask me to admire it)
Let me know what you want me to do. And how? And Why?
Give me a platform to drive my attention and make me look good
What thing – however small – can you do to improve my life

Play – if it seems easy and fun, I’ll ask someone else to play
Understand the environment – set the tone and determine what’s good and bad
If I’m going to be involved, you need to be involved
Love your 1 percenters
It doesn’t matter what you say, if I don’t like how you say it

Make mistakes, admit them, change and move on
Lower barriers – make this relationship low maintenance, add complexity later
Let the mess show – show me more and I’ll trust you more
Share your secrets – tell me something I don’t know and make me feel special

15) Be changed – show me that you’ve listened
16) Show humanity
17) There are no rules, just guidelines
Source: Change This, Cherkoff/Moore

Sub-segment Your Community Identify strategies and resources to harness each segment High self-centrality of consumption Strong social ties to community Low self centrality of consumption Weak social ties to community Devotee Tourist Insider Mingler

18. Measurement, Insight, Refinement
Audit community
Review vs. goals
Quarterly reviews w/ brand
Consider revised:
Features/Content
Extensions/Contractions
New Audiences
New Applications
Broadcast value and commitment internally

51 Brand Communities

1. Nike Plus

Standard Corporate Blogging, nowadays a no-brainer.

New Trends, video segments and user-generated video (If BYO don’t forget to make it linkable, embedable)

It turns out, the kids are crazy for Linux. (but consider, how representative is the audience?)

3. Brewtopia

4. Method “People Against Dirty”

5. eBay Powersellers

6. Amazon

7. BMW Mini Owner’s Lounge

8. Lego Ambassadors Programs

9. Threadless

10. BBC

11. Innocentive – P&G

12. CrowdSpirit

13. Fast Company

14. A Swarm of Angels

15. Red Bull

17. Ben & Jerry’s

18. WD-40 Fan Club

19. Virgin Insiders (Sugar Mama)

20. American Express- Member’s Project

Chris Matthews, Specialized’s Marketing Guru 21. Specialized Rider’s Club

22. MyCoke.com

23. Maker’s Mark Ambassador Embassy

24. Electrolux Design Lab

25. Mastercard – Priceless.com

26. Domino’s - BFD Builder

27. Starbucks - My Starbucks Idea

28. Oracle OpenWorld

29. My Football Club

30. Lomographic Society International

31. Mozilla Firefox

32. Toyota Hybrid

33. VanCity – Change Eveyrthing

33. Chapters/Indigo

34. NetFlix

35. Obama’08

36. Ron Paul

37. Zopa

38. Cambrian House

39. Big Rock Brewery - Friends of Big Rock

40. Jones Soda

41. Fiskars

41. Ducati

42. Jeep Community

43. Innocent Drinks

44. Marketocracy

45. Current TV

46. Starwood’s The Lobby

46.Intuit Quickbooks

47. Lululemon

48. Stormhoek Wines

49. Effem Foods – M&Ms mBassador program

50. Freshbooks

51. The Ikea Fans Club

Inquire: smoffitt (at) agentwildfire.com URL: www.AgentWildfire.com Blog: http://BuzzCanuck.typepad.com/ Explore: The Buzz Report Newsletter Signup at www.AgentWildfire.com Take a sip from the grassroots, don’t keep gulping from the mainstream…

http://www.supplychaintoday.com	571
http://blog.madmagz.com	160
http://www.scoop.it	124
http://www.slideshare.net	54
http://merille.com	17
http://pinterest.com	15
http://207.46.192.232	4
http://www.techgig.com	4
http://marveloper.tumblr.com	3
http://1291566461.nvmodules.netvibes.com	2
http://woo-like.com	2
http://moondaesa.tistory.com	2
http://1291566539.nvmodules.netvibes.com	1
http://www.m.techgig.com	1
https://madonna.blackboard.com	1
http://ranzeal.com	1
http://www.woo-like.com	1
http://bb9.up.edu.pe	1
http://www.linkedin.com	1
http://amurillo.typepad.com	1
http://twitter.com	1
http://ideathon.tumblr.com	1

It Takes a Community to Raise a Brand, Not a Campaign

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