developing real-time, online communities

The hard question is whether or not Brands are trusted members within a community. The harder answer is generally — No! What to do to get back to Trust?

Trust Me, Only the First Bite Hurts. Many Brands have lost trust with consumers, so entering a Community is not a positive move as perceived by the members. In fact some Brands almost seem to hate or be at war with their customers. So what can a Brand do to get back to Trust? Drive CIC.

Probably every Brand manager is looking at some online social media project right now–thinkin’ omg I gotta do something.  For the ones that haven’t already made a mistake plan for social media — they should get into bed with Cali Lewis, well at least watch this interesting video interview (in a bed)  with Chris Brogan.

Brogan makes the xlent point that many Brands are not trusted these days — some for obvious reasons, like banks, car companies, fast food etc. Others have a more subtle, but perhaps more strained relationship with their customers/prospects like Ryanair or mortgage lenders like Halifax where the consumer is actually an adversary.

There seem to be a lot of issues around all of this, but the fundamental point is that if you don’t trust a brand — it won’t be a positive part of an online Community. It just annoys everyone or is a blocker to getting Community Inspired Content (CIC) rolling. Brogan seems to make a living working with corporates to use social media tools in a positive way to make the personal connection between company and individual–seems like he should have an un-ended need for his services (pls get over to EasyJet Chris!).

So, back to the challenge of the Brand manager trying to figure out how best to play in the social web.  The two obvious moves have significant issues:

• Traditional online advertising noise/interference : Buying ad programs may not get the brand above the noise–or the brand could find ads actually sitting in areas where it being attacked. Online programs also have big costs and are they really delivering the bang for the buck?
• Building A New Community is Hard: This is a bold, most likely pointless activity for a Brand with a battered reputation.  First of all it is an expensive enough risk, and most likely the Brand does not have any skill/experience in doing this type of thing. Worst though, the Brand is exposed directly to the Community members which is in fact an off-balance situation between individuals and an impersonal corporate entity. We saw a lot all the Brands that stepped into Second Life beat a retreat when they understood that their risk/costs for engaging with individuals in a fast-moving, unpredictable community was high and in fact their reach/value was trivial.

So in the face of a bad choice and a worse choice, what should Brand managers be considering? Basically they need to navigate a course back to Trust by finding their role in driving CIC.  Short answer = Co-Content Creation programs.

Why is Co-Content Creation the Way to Go?

Co-Content Creation is new content that is produced by an online Community in concert with the community members on some level. It is of course funded by a Brand or the Community itself. I think largely it should be a mix of commissioned, curated and UGC. Importantly, co-creation should frame a useful activity where  Community members see value. Most of the new online communities (like of course our Heritage Key or Demand Media’s Livestrong.com) are further multi-channel — allowing a concept to be packaged and delivered across site as well as media/social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and of course iPhone.

The Brand can Benefit  a lot in a Co-Creation Program:

• Unique, relevant content that the Community will appreciate and engage with. Content should also be media rich, diverse and web-dynamic.
• Perhaps not banner level reach, but deep community penetration across web, mobile and even real-world (as most Communities have physical reach).
• Speed to live — usually new content is already in a the community content pipeline, so it can be tuned to fit quickly. Certainly setting-up a micro-site is a few days work, no more.
• Association with innovation if there is a relevant app to combine with.
• Co-creation should run over a 3-6 month timeline minimum, year is better. So there is also the momentum as the content becomes richer, it will gain exposure.
• Brand can fully leverage their own promotion, email muscle to drive their customers/prospects/stakeholders directly at an online area that will be on message, without other brand interference.  There should be some PR lift as well.
• Zero risk — (ok a little risk) the Brand does not need to do much to make this happen — ok, pay is a good thing. But there is no management of the Community or issues with production. The Brand just needs to do what Brands should already be good at — promotion and promotion.
• Brand can choose how to engage with Community members and use the Community as an appropriate focus, rather than have the direct exposure.

Basic Framework for Co-Creation Programs

The Program should run for minimum 3 months but 6 months or longer is best. The main idea is to get a consistent flow moving onto the site and that there are some time-definite events to catch live. Content should also be sourced from the Community as much as possible.

Basic formula (but expect many variants):

• Frame a video series, with mix of community members and respected figures. Video is key as it will drive traffic and generate links to a lot of site content. Video should hit site 4/week or so.
• A bulk of new, inter-linked content — so feature articles, blogs, image galleries, maps, listings. Something new on site everyday to pump the flow across web — use RSS as well
• Interactive features — good be something simple like a quiz/game or more complex applications that engage/add value to Community. We have a virtual experience on Heritage Key as an example.
• Contests — but these should involve content that will hit site, ie photos, blogs, group activities
• Real-world events — again a good chance for the Brand to actually meet people and make personal connections (which also can be in virtual experiences).

Probably in the first wave of serious Co-Creation it will be fairly expensive proposition, but not expensive for a major Brand.  I can already see how this could be rolled-out on a micro-level (probably so does Google somehow ;0 ).

Tweet This Post