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It Takes a Community to Raise a BrandA Presentation By: Sean Moffitt

President & Chief EvangelistAgent 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 WilliamsWikinomics

“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 SpectorWeAreSmarter.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

Why It Doesn’t Qualify:- 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

Why It Doesn’t Qualify:- 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 PlusFinance- 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

PeerCollaboratio

n

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

- 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”

“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 andConsumers

Into Authors, Producers, Scouts, Testers and

Collaborators & Broadcasters

Into Community Members, Advocates, Ambassadors

and Evangelists

Thinktank/Sounding

Board

Scout/MysteryShopper

AdvisoryCouncil/Cause

Torchbearer

SeededAdopter/

Beta Tester

Customer

User

Consumer

Collaborator/Producer

Evangelist/Ambassador/

Advocate

CommunityMember/

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

InfluencerGroup

AdvisoryPanel

Fan Club

BrandForums

AmbassadorClub

BrandMeritocracy

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


http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

Maker’s Mark -AmbassadorProgram

Exclusivity - 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 -InfluencerClique

Exclusivity - High


http://www.lululemon.com/community/

Dell IdeastormAdvisoryPanel

Exclusivity - High


http://www.dellideastorm.com/

Harley-DavidsonHarley Owner’sGroups(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 toPlan 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

• 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

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

3. Set The Tone

4. Build The Plan – FLIRT Crowdsourcing Model

Source: Sami Viitimäki, Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

FLIRT - Key Elements

• Focus

• Language

• Incentives

• Rules

• Tools

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 Interestsand 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 BenefitFan Club Low Low Brand AffinityBrand Forums Mid Low Brand UseBrand Nation Low Mid Brand ValuesBrand Network High Low Brand ParticipationAmbassador club Mid Mid Brand AdvocacyInfluencer 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

• Creators - create content

• Critics – scrutinize content

• Connectors – recruit members/ link/aggregate others

• Crowds – 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 toBuild 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

ProvideCredibility”

“The Ones Who

AttractAttention”

“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 PointMalcolm 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 toMaintain

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 ExperiencesQualified 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

ExamplesProduct based- free product/trialExperience Based – special eventVIP-Based – sneak previewActivity-Based – competitionResearch-based – beta tester panelAltruism – 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 BrandTypes 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 Rules1) 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

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


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


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

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

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…

ittakesacommunity 1225728182406564-9

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