Comments on: Powerful Communities

By: It’s time for the full-court press « Jason Kristufek’s We Media blog

It’s time for the full-court press « Jason Kristufek’s We Media blog — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:16:54 +0000

[...] and ability. It resonated with me as we face an uphill battle to transform a media company into a community connection and how daunting of a task that must seem like given all the negativity about the media industry. [...]

By: marywillie

marywillie — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:17:51 +0000

I like slide 35 and, the young mothers one also struck a cord with me. I sometimes feel that we’re so tied up in being the leaders, being in the conversation, that we don’t see what the world outside of our own is doing.

By: robbrood

robbrood — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:42:39 +0000

The slide that hit home to me was the idea of “pulling” rather than “pushing.” Although not a new idea, it is one we are not accustom to in media, but as Rob Campbell points out might be financially risky.

It’s harder to get people to gravitate TO you rather than simply pushing out message after message. One of my former boss’s favorite sayings is, “It’s impossible to push a rope.” Sometimes that’s what it feels like we’re trying to do.

But how much more powerful and gratifying would it be if we did things people find interesting to the point they seek us out repeatedly and spread the word about us to others in their community.

In other words…instead of continually trying to chase people down constantly, why not create things with real value and interest to the communities and perpetuate our viability and vitality in that fashion.

By: contentninja

contentninja — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:02:04 +0000

If you look at the script for slide No. 29, you find this: “Successful brands embed community in everything they do, listen to the conversation wherever it’s taking place, and respond by valuing the contribution in whatever form, and wherever it’s taken place.”

That’s monumental, because the truth is, it’s far easier for a superblogger to engage with the community than for a brand or a company. The latter is where we’ll struggle the most.

By: wemediaguru

wemediaguru — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:41:55 +0000

I like slide No. 28 the best. The background image says “The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty.” Working with a community to do something that helps or benefits it is hard work. Very hard. The ones that succeed are the ones who are going to throw out conventional paradigms, be better listeners and actively and smartly respond. I go back to a statement that Becky.com said when the Web Best Practices Group was still around: “It’s about how people live.” It’s most certainly not about technology. It’s about being useful and, in a business sense, providing something that works. Now that I get into this, I also like slide No. 39. The equation of content, tools, services = attention, participation, interaction, content. If we add that kind of value to a community, then we meet at least one success metric.

I also like slide No. 33 and think it actually fits what we are calling the ‘superblog’ the best. I think the layers are about perfect. I still, however, can’t get away from the reality that the superblog is a product – not that the label really matters though. I just like being argumentative. My point is, I hope everyone realizes that the communities that surround certain topics are going to congregate to what we are calling superblogs because that will be the place where the conversation will be, even though internally we think of it as raw content. Remember we are encouraging the superblogs to become, in a sense, a curator of the conversation and not a one-way microphone. If that happens, and is done well and adds value to the community, it will be the destination for the conversation. My fear is that we will be in a rush to further segment those communities by taking what we consider raw content and repackaging it elsewhere just for the sake of repackaging it. We will need to really be cognizant of the audience for each brand where the packaged product ends up even more so than we are now.

By: pegschmitz

pegschmitz — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:25:37 +0000

This is an excellent resource – at our staff meeting last night I was encouraging staff to investigate resources that would help them understand why we’re pursuing our course of action. I will definitely forward this link to them. I liked the idea of “thousands of pounds worth of consultancy . . . freely given.” Personally I get excited to think that we could be part of connecting individuals and creating opportunities to crowdsource and problem solve.

By: Mike Coleman

Mike Coleman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:07:49 +0000

My favorite slide was the “firestarters” slide: 5 reasons blogging is worth it. It encapsulates some ideas that have long applied to many endeavors (e.g. the investment of personal time and dedication). Blogging and other social media create a new and unique value in that the average person’s persona is now easily made public in the form of their content, comments and level of participation.