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?
