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

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

3. “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

4. “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

5. “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

6. 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

7. What’s a Brand Community?

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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
Why It Doesn’t Qualify:
- Typically transactional
- Does not link customers/member contributions
- Individualized but one-way, broadcast-driven

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Why Build a Brand Community?

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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23.  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?

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

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

26. “The Customer is in The Driver’s Seat”

27. “Customers are Reinventing Industries…”

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

29. “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)

30. The Internet Keeps Customers In Touch
With The People We Know

31. “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:

32. “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

33. - 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
“Opportunity for customer connections up”

34. “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)

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

36. 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

37. • 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

38. • 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. Types of Brand Communities

42. Communities Differ Based On …
• The depth of involvement
• The exclusiveness of membership

43. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

53. How To Plan a Brand
Community

54. 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

55. Step by Step
Community Development
#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

56. 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?

57. 2. Big Community Ideas That Stick
• Simple — find the core of the
community and present it's essence
• Unexpected — grab people's
attention by surprising them and
exceeding their expectations
• Concrete — make sure a community
cause/mission can be grasped easily
and remembered later
• Credibility — give a community
believability and reason for its
existence
• Collaborative – get people involved in
the community

58. 2. Big Community Ideas That Stick
• Emotion — help people see the
importance of an community (visual)
• Escape – get people immersed in the
community in depth, frequency and
intimacy
• Evolving – ensure the community
changes and adapts based on
member's involvement
• Stories — inspire people to use a
community through a great
narrative/manifesto and ensure its
relevant
• Social – get people talking and
connecting with each other

59. 3. Set The Tone

60. 4. Build The Plan – FLIRT Crowdsourcing Model
Source: Sami Viitimäki, Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

61. FLIRT - Key Elements
• Focus
• Language
• Incentives
• Rules
• Tools
Source: Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

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

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

64. 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

65. 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

66. 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?

67. Who are the Natural Forming Groups

68. Key Community Audiences
• Creators - create content
• Critics – scrutinize content
• Connectors – recruit members/
link/aggregate others
• Crowds – consume/validate content
Source: Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

69. Interplay Among Audiences

70. 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

71. 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

72. 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

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

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

75. 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

76. 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?

77. 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

78. 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,

79. 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

80. Amazon
- Designed for
Socialness

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

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

83. Evaluating a Great Digital Brand Experience
Source: Logic+Emotion

84. How To Build a Brand
Community

85. Step by Step
Community Development
#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

86. 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?

87. 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

88. 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

89. 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

90. 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

91. 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”

92. 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 PointMalcolm Gladwell, the Tipping Point

93. 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.”

94. 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

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

96. 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

97. How To Maintain a Brand
Community

98. How to Avoid This…

99. 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

100. Step by Step
Community Development
#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

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

102. 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

103. 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

104. 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

105. 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

106. 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.

107. 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

108. 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

109. 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

110. Community Success Drivers

111. 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)

112. 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

113. Tone of Voice
• Pay attention
• Be human
• Demonstrate
authenticity
• Participate actively
• Facilitate consumer
customization/cont
rol

114. 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: KDPaine & Partners

115. 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

116. 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

117. 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

118. 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

119. 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%

120. 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%

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

122. 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

123. 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...

124. Member Engagement Rules
1) Be willing to acknowledge and value what I
have to say (yes, and…not no but…)
2) 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)
3) Let me know what you want me to do. And
how? And Why?
4) Give me a platform to drive my attention and
make me look good
5) What thing – however small – can you do to
improve my life

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

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

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

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

129. 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

130. 51 Brand Communities

131. 1. Nike Plus

135. Standard Corporate Blogging, nowadays a no-brainer.

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

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

139. 3. Brewtopia

140. 4. Method “People Against Dirty”

142. 5. eBay Powersellers

143. 6. Amazon

144. 7. BMW Mini Owner’s Lounge

145. 8. Lego Ambassadors Programs

147. 9. Threadless

148. 10. BBC

149. 11. Innocentive – P&G

150. 12. CrowdSpirit

151. 13. Fast Company

152. 14. A Swarm of Angels

153. 15. Red Bull

154. 17. Ben & Jerry’s

155. 18. WD-40 Fan Club

156. 19. Virgin Insiders (Sugar Mama)

157. 20. American Express- Member’s Project

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

160. 22. MyCoke.com

161. 23. Maker’s Mark Ambassador Embassy

162. 24. Electrolux Design Lab

163. 25. Mastercard – Priceless.com

165. 26. Domino’s - BFD Builder

166. 27. Starbucks - My Starbucks Idea

167. 28. Oracle OpenWorld

168. 29. My Football Club

169. 30. Lomographic Society International

170. 31. Mozilla Firefox

171. 32. Toyota Hybrid

172. 33. VanCity – Change Eveyrthing

173. 33. Chapters/Indigo

174. 34. NetFlix

176. 35. Obama’08

177. 36. Ron Paul

179. 37. Zopa

180. 38. Cambrian House

181. 39. Big Rock Brewery - Friends of Big Rock

182. 40. Jones Soda

184. 41. Fiskars

186. 41. Ducati

187. 42. Jeep Community

188. 43. Innocent Drinks

189. 44. Marketocracy

190. 45. Current TV

191. 46. Starwood’s The Lobby

192. 46.Intuit Quickbooks

193. 47. Lululemon

194. 48. Stormhoek Wines

195. 49. Effem Foods – M&Ms mBassador program

196. 50. Freshbooks

197. 51. The Ikea Fans Club

199. Inquire: smoffitt (at) agentwildfire.com
URL: www.AgentWildfire.com
Blog: http://BuzzCanuck.typepad.com/
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