The battle between the need for marketers to be focused on where the community’s conversation organically leads vs. the urge/want/need to “push” company-centered content out on the world is an ongoing struggle. Here are a few key truths to building and maintaining a successful, thriving community that picks up your company’s “messaging torch” and carries it better that you can, Ms. CMO.
1. Your community must be owned: Yea, you’re using social media! But, just who is overseeing it all? With marketing, sales, R&D and customer-service involved, the task is to get all these teams working together. Often, a community is launched without any set definitions of who owns what. In essence, there are three marketing models for social media:
- CENTRALIZED- The social media department functions at a senior level, reporting to the CMO or CEO, and is responsible for all social media activation for the brand. Dangers? Having a social media head means departments outside that person’s scope might not benefit from efforts in the medium. I.E., is customer care really being considered if social media is centralized under marketing? Example of this model: Ford and Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications director.
- DISTRIBUTED- In this setup, no one person technically owns social media. Instead, all employees from customer care, marketing, media, community/media relations and beyond represent the brand and work social media into their roles. Dangers? No standardized practices, and social media uncontrolled can veer a brand off-message. Example of this model: Best Buy
- COMBINATION- Centralized best practices and decentralized execution. A brand maintains a committee of social media stakeholders to work up its position and voice, which it disseminates to the company at large. Dangers? How do you hold departments accountable to a research council? Also, when a social media program goes sour, who ends up as the fall guy? Those who build the strategy, or those who implemented it? Example of this model: Kodak
2. You must let your community go: Pay attention to what’s happening in your community and monitor member interactions, but don’t strive to control the conversations and activity that are happening. Example: Mountain Dew. The soda brand took its “Dewmocracy” campaign one step further to find new flavors and allowed skater dudes to take control of its marketing by implementing crowdsourced consumer involvement. The more you control, the less people participate. It all goes back to trust.
3. Figure out how to mobilize your community: A community doesn’t just exist within the confines of your online community, and can’t thrive in a silo. The days when execs made decisions behind closed doors and expected people to rally behind them are gone. Find opportunities outside your community, and offline even, to continue driving community participation. When consumers told Mountain Dew they were also looking at and sharing on 12seconds.tv, the brand wasn’t familiar with the outlet. After investigation, the company started integrating the site into “Dewmocracy.”
Once you’ve engaged your community, you can’t stop. Make a continuous effort to talk about your industry, ask questions, provide humor at times, and listen, listen, listen. Let your customers know when you take their advice… and why when you don’t.
About Wendi McGowan