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C-K Thought Expo:
Building Communities Before You Need Them
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Community: An enduring self-selected group of actors
sharing a system of values, standards and representations
(a culture) and recognizing bonds of membership with each
other and with the whole. Brand communities are
characterized in shared consciousness, rituals and
traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.
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- Albert Muniz Jr. and Thomas C. O'Guinn
Journal of Consumer Research, 2001

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That means communities aren’t necessarily
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Branded sites,
forums…
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Facebook pages, or
Twitter accounts
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But they could be
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Your community consists of those people who:
- Advocate for the brand
- Defend against attacks
- Forgive mistakes
- Provide constructive feedback
- Evangelize to non-community members
- Share stories with each other
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Do you have friends or “friends?”
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People don’t like to feel like they’re being sold
something
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But marketing and community building don’t
have to be mutually exclusive
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These communities of influencers, ambassadors
and champions have an obvious impact
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• Brand advocates spend 2x as much $ as average customers
(Deloitte study, 2010)
• 64% of online users are talking about brands on social networks
because the brand has provided a useful piece of advice worth
sharing (Zuberance study, 2012)
• When online users have a positive experience with a brand,
more than ½ of them share their experiences (Zuberance study,
2012)

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Unfortunately, communities aren’t built with
money or technology
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Communities are earned, not bought
Social media can build these relationships just as quickly as destroy them
Communities don’t care about “online” and “offline” budgets, org charts, or contracts
There’s a time and a place for soft selling, hard selling, and not selling
The brand is a member of the community, not the Emperor
Success is not measured in terms of “likes,” “fans,” or “followers”

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Make Friends, Not Ads, Right?
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“If all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail."
- Abraham Maslow
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Broadcast media was all about the brand
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Consumer
The
Brand

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Social media is all about the consumer
Consumer
The
Brand
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The Brand
Consumer

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People talk to people, not to brands
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“More than half of Twitter users worldwide
expect a personal response within two hours
of Tweeting a question or complaint and 51
percent of Facebook users expect a same-
day response to questions or complaints”
- Oracle’s "Consumer Views of Live Help Online 2012"
“It is what companies do with fans that create value,
not merely that a brand has fans”
- Augie Ray, Forrester
“In our study, when brand advocates were asked for
the most important factors in determining a favorite
brand, three ranked as extremely or very important
across the consumer product categories surveyed:
authenticity, honesty and transparency, and
sharing a point of view.”
- Deloitte, “A New Breed of Brand Advocates”
“Content calendars suck. Do you go to a
cocktail party with a script?”
—Gary Vaynerchuk

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She’s not going to marry you on the 1st date
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Become a part of
the community
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And then watch
as that
community
embraces you
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However, don’t think
you can build it and
people will come
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Foundation
•Identify your goals
•Identify your audience
•Define your personality
•Identify your community
manager
•Educate, Equip, and
Empower
Conversation
•Add value
•Discuss current issues
•Join other communities
•Take it offline
•Advance the industry
•Stop Selling
•Go above and beyond
Adjustments
•Measure
•Adapt
•Don’t take yourself too
seriously
Build your community foundation

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Identify your goals
(hint: a million Facebook
likes isn’t a goal)

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Identify your
audience
DIYersPros

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Figure out who you are
and what you stand for

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Identify a community manager, not a social media
content manager (and yes there’s a difference)
Community Manager Social Media Manager
Social media are a means to an end Social media is the end
Public Relations / Customer Service Marketing
Integrated into entire company Silo’ed
Focus is on the consumer Focus is on the brand
Deep relationships Shallow relationships

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Educate, Equip and
Empower
• Strategy
• Top Cover
• Social Media Policy
• New Processes
• Integration Points
• Crisis communication plans
• Long-term plans

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Remember that you’re a member of a
community, not THE community
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Foundation
•Identify your goals
•Identify your audience
•Define your personality
•Identify your community
manager
Conversation
•Add value
•Discuss current issues
•Join other communities
•Take it offline
•Advance the industry
•Stop selling
•Go above and beyond
Adjustments
•Measure
•Adapt
•Don’t take yourself too
seriously

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Add Value

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Discuss current issues

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Join other people’s
communities

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Take it offline
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Advance the industry

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Stop selling and
instead embody
your personality

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Go above and beyond

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Creating a Community Takes Patience, Hard
Work and Humility
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Foundation
•Identify your goals
•Identify your audience
•Define your personality
•Identify your community
manager
Conversation
•Add value
•Discuss current issues
•Join other communities
•Take it offline
•Advance the industry
•Stop Selling
•Go above and beyond
Adjustments
•Measure
•Adapt
•Don’t take yourself too
seriously

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Measure
Output
“Our Twitter followers increased by 134%
and Facebook fans went up by more than
90% over the last month.”
Outcome
“Leveraging its Facebook page, Twitter
account, and YouTube channel, we
launched a loyalty program awareness
campaign to increase Insider sign-ups by
50%. The promotion resulted in a 75%
increase in total Insider signups, with 67%
of those signups resulting from Twitter,
Facebook, and YouTube referrals.”
Social Metrics Business Metrics

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Adapt

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Don’t take yourself
too seriously

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If you’ve built a website, platform,
Twitter account, Facebook page,
community, it will be there for you
when you need it the most
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Questions
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