You and Your Community

Chapter five of Groundswell is interesting. It talks about how your identity isn’t necessarily how you make it or advertise it. Sure, it has a big impact, but, the way your audience sees it and talks about it, really defines it. Then there comes the fact that, especially because of today’s online domination, you need to listen and be active within your community to keep your brand relevant and, well, alive. You can’t spend a bunch on advertising and sit on the sidelines and watch everything; you need to participate.

So how do you listen? According to Groundswell, there are two ways:

Create a Community

Establishing a community is something I’m always interested in. I see people all over the internet create these loyal and active communities (for example: Markiplier, SherwoodTV, Sonic the Hedgehog and, as silly as they are, Denny’s) that provide consistent feedback to their latest work for the betterment of their future. Essentially, creating a community gives you a means of listening directly to your audience in a way that talking over Twitter might not.

I like games. Admittedly, probably too much and there was prime example I could think of that can match the “create a community” label. In 2012, Nintendo introduced a platform called Miiverse. It’s essentially a place where users can discuss anything under any community which, in turn, provides feedback directly to Nintendo. They even stay active by commenting as well and invoking participation. As important as listening is, it’s useless unless you act in making changes or just using the information.

Monitor the Brand

By yourself or with the use of a third-party, keep an ear to ground by watching what’s said about your company on social media, blogs, Google searches, etc. Having a private community is nice, as previously seen, but it has a bias in that it’s yours. Listening outside of it gives an overall view to how the company and your product/service is seen.

For example, look at the rise of business review sites such Yelp. They’ve become a massive statement about the company when written by someone who uses it. This in turn affects potential users/customers/members. Listening to these and reacting, professionally and appropriately, can help prevent future mishaps or even change something you thought was working right.

The Business Approach

Regardless of industry or business type, paying attention to your online presence is important. You may have a community or problem you don’t know about or an opportunity you can discover.
I understand, that you can think that there’s some businesses you can’t make a community. If there’s anything I can say, it’s that regardless if you’re doing web design or your doing novel writing, everyone is different and has their own interests. The internet gives everyone a way to talk about it, collaborate and meet other fans as well. Look at YouTube for example, there are millions of communities established by all these people who took a chance at doing something they like and the categories range from news to art to video games.

Being active and listening gives a business a chance to make a personal connection to their audience and in the products or services they provide.

SOURCES

Bernoff, J., Li, C. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies (expanded and revised edition). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing