The Online Community Manager Roundtable

Got back from @BillJohnston's Online Community Roundtable (appropriately with Round Table pizza) with new social media ideas buzzing through my head.

• Two topics that we got to talking about were the explosive growth of Facebook and how everyone we know in the US is on the network. I tend to think of Facebook as a more intimate party, slightly exclusive in the way that a birthday party for a longtime friend would be. You wouldn't think of inviting a Coke logo that will shout about nothing but Coke all night to it- unless the Coke logo was a fun game or quiz, had some great music or video playing, giving away free stuff all night or adding to the fun in some other way.

• The new way to think of social media marketing is closer to a political campaign where a political party (brand) goes in to a community (online platforms) and engages/energizes a core group of evangelists who are not going to talk about politics (the brand) the whole time. These evangelists will be in different places, some might be in a church group, others the neighborhood watch- and these old forms of community are increasingly being augmented or replaced by the online. Brands need to consider what kind of community these evangelists are in and energize/enable the passionate users to talk about *their* product in the way most appropriate. The tools appropriate for the church group will probably be inappropriate for the hip hop dance class. 

My quickly jotted down thoughts, do you have any?

On the Web Front interview with Chia Hwu and Alex Khomenko of 23andMe

From On The Web Front, episode 16:

In this week’s long overdue episode we are joined by Chia and Alex from 23andMe.com. We chat with Alex and Chia about their startup experiences at 23andMe and at their previous employers. In addition we talk about:

• The 23andMe Research Revolution which allows a discounted $99 rate for your own genetic testing and health traits
• Chia’s role as community manager and how tools like Twitter and Facebook can be used to engage your customer and grow your business
• And why any startup should have good air conditioning

http://www.onthewebfront.com/2009/08/otwf-16-23-and-us/

Check out the other great podcasts that Mike, Gabby, Robert and Stephen do on a semi-regular basis.

About

Chia Hwu

Community Manger, Social Media and Marketing Specialist, Science and Biotech Guru, Project Manager, Event Organizer, Blogger.

Chia Hwu, presently the Community Manager for 23andMe, has a strong grasp on how the landscape of marketing is changing with the emergence of Social Media. While her back ground is in Biotech, over the past 5 years she's been offering marketing and branding solutions for startups in the bay area. With her joining 23andMe to handle their grass roots marketing and community management needs, she's quickly becoming an excellentexample of how social media can help engage businesses with the members using their service.

Follow Chia on Twitter 

Interview with Chia at the Online Community Report

Thanks to Bill Johnston of ForumOne and his Online Community Report for giving me the opportunity to talk about my experiences with the unique 23andMe community.

Excerpt from the interview:
Q: Chia, you have a very unique community, in the sense that your community has the ability explore issues relating to a person's DNA. Can you talk about the strategy behind the 23andMe community?

23andMe has a very unique community that is based on having your genetic data. We currently only allow members who have been genotyped or have an Ancestry account post to the forums and the level of discourse is extremely high. We are very lucky to have such engaged, passionate and well-educated users who want to talk about their genetic results and share their data with each other. If you are interested in seeing what types of discussions are happening, create a free account and you can read through the threads.

Our community creates a place for people to engage with each other, it's pretty interesting to see how the interactions happen and how people connect, sometimes through their data and sometimes just in conversation.

I talk more about the unique community and the challenges of managing one- link to the full post here:

http://www.onlinecommunityreport.com/archives/536-Online-Community-Expert-Int...

Chia's Social Media Adventure bLogging Starts

Why another social media blog in a sea of blogs? Why get involved in what can sometimes seem like the echo chamber of Web 2.0?

Like it or not, social media, where anyone on the internet is a node for producing or propagating information, is here to stay. The tools might change but the internet has taken what made small town life so engaging and made it available on a global level. Want to know what your neighbor is driving? You used to look out the window at your neighbor's drive way- now that conversation has been taken to a new level. Now you can know what your first boy/girl friend in high school is driving. Perhaps the high school friends' choices in cars don't have a huge effect on your car purchasing decisions but your trusted friends' choices likely will. The conversations that used to happen around kitchen tables are now taking place on Facebook and Twitter. Who just bought a new device (and what was it?) or what is the hottest new band? You can see what your friends are doing with a few clicks of a mouse.

These conversations, which used to be private, one on one are now happening in public or semi-public and brands are taking notice. It is an opportunity to make a sale or lose a lead, depending on how the company handles the conversation. With the right amount of listening and sensitivity, the commitment to having authentic conversations, a brand can help co-create a conversation around their product or service.

The Community Managers work on the front lines of social media and brand, it's a hybrid of PR, Customer Service, Marketing, Product Management and "den mother". It's an interesting job description that is just becoming codified in corporate life and we wanted to have a place for that conversation to happen. A community of community professionals, as it were.