Gather Around
Filed under: Social Business - Strategy & Networking
We don’t just join communities because we like a product or service or thing. We gather around people who feel what we feel, and we share passion for things that bring us some sense of pleasure or joy, or even healing. ~Chris Brogan
I’m curious. What are your passions? How do they shape your community? Your business? Your life?
Short-Hand and Signals
I read an article this week on The Value of Dynamic Signals. The author discussed signals, technology, and context — and what that brings to improved productivity.
My thoughts went immediately to signals used among members of a community — a tribe, if you prefer.
There’s a private, short-hand language used between spouses. “I don’t eat no crust, Mama,” and “Josh, Don, Billy-Bob” have meaning to me and my husband. I doubt either quote creates a sense of community among anyone else I know.
If I mention cowboys and horses on Twitter, a broader community might be engaged; especially if I were tweeting at 4:00am. Danger Bay, mojitos, and Whuffie are signals used in wider circles. Not a single one of those terms have any meaning among my girlfriends here in Atlanta.
The signal above might mean something to Lane Bailey and Bobby Carroll. I know it represents a sense of community as I’m driving around town.
What are some of the signals you use to say, “I belong.” Share them in the comments and we’ll expand our community. Gotta close, “It’ almost midnight.“
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=39194718-84b5-427b-ae33-f9e64dd1b9bf)
Social Media Marketing Strategy
What’s your social media marketing strategy?
Your customers (clients, buyers, sellers) are spending more time in social spaces than ever before. What are they doing there?
Are they visiting Facebook a couple of times a day to check status updates? Learn what famous movie matches their personality type? Send birthday cards?
Maybe they spend time on YouTube listening to the next Idol from Wales. Perhaps they linger on coupon shopping sites.
People have different levels of commitment in social media, so learning your customers social networking behaviors is critical to developing a social media strategic direction.
Forrester Research has grouped consumers into six different categories of participation they term Social Technographics:
At the heart of Social Technographics is consumer data that looks at how consumers approach social technologies – not just the adoption of individual technologies. We group consumers into six different categories of participation – and participation at one level may or may not overlap with participation at other levels. We use the metaphor of a ladder to show this, with the rungs at the higher end of the ladder indicating a higher level of participation.
A strategic approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. Translation – observe and listen.
The metaphor of a ladder is used to describe the six levels of participation, with rungs at the higher end indicating a higher level of participation:
- Creators
- Critics
- Collectors
- Joiners
- Spectators
- Inactives
