Community Building Tips From Spike Jones

January 13, 2010 · View Comments

Jason Falls

Passionate fans willing to knock down walls to tell people how cool your brand is seems to be what everyone in marketing is looking for. My friends at Doe-Anderson helped build an ambassador program around Maker’s Mark bourbon. Sexy product. Passionate people. Fun times. The Harley Owner’s Group is similar. Sexy product. Passionate people. Fun times.

But what happens when you are challenged with creating a groundswell of people nuts about your product and it’s not sexy? That’s exactly what Fiskars asked Brains on Fire a few years ago. Spike Jones, Geno Church and company sat across the table from their client who asked them to drive people crazy about … scissors.

And they did.

I caught up with Spike in Chicago recently to talk about community building and word of mouth marketing and ask about Fiskateers – a community of scissor crazy, scrap booking passionistas.

Community Building With Spike Jones from Jason Falls on Vimeo.

For more on Fiskars, check out their website and the Fiskateers online community home. For more on Brains on Fire, including a pretty dandy blog, check ‘em out at BrainsonFire.com.

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Tagged as: brains on fire, community building, fiskars, fiskateers, Jason Falls, Social Media, spike jones, word-of-mouth marketing

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  • Very interesting stuff. The key of Fiskateers' success was to focus on people's problems/passions and not in the product itself. Of course, some brands are so sexy that people will talk about them, but there are very few brands who enjoy this privilege. So it's back to basics. Figure out how your brand solves your customers' problems and which functional/emotional benefits it provides them.
  • Amen to that. Thanks Antonio.
  • Scissors might not be exactly sexy (although there may be a few Fiskateers who would debate you on that point) but Brains on Fire and Fiskars have definitely helped us ratchet up their fun quotient. And for the record, we think Geno and Spike are equally pretty =)

    Angela
    Lead Fiskateer
  • Duly noted, Angela. Thanks for stopping by!
  • Relevant input - thanks!
  • Dang, Spike gets all the interviews… cause he's prettier!!!

    Anyways, Jason great job at SoFresh Nashville… next time I see you I want an interview damnit!
  • You got it!
  • Good interview, it's cool to see how you can build community around nearly any company or product if you do your homework and figure out what people want.

    Jason, on a different topic, the joking part at the beginning about Spike Jones vs. Spike Jonze vs. Spike Lee actually made me think of your site. Do you find that the launch of Social Media Examiner has caused any brand confusion for Social Media Explorer? I find that sometimes I accidently mix the two up now when I'm scanning through Google Reader or come across a link somewhere. Since you're a contributor there I guess you may benefit either way.
  • Great question, Adam.

    I have been getting a lot of confusion over Social Media Examiner. I
    was an early contributor there to help my friend Michael Stelzner get
    his new blog up and running. The name similarities didn't really
    bother me until people started tweeting that people should read Jason
    Falls's Social Media Examiner. Still, it's not that big of an issue
    for me, though. I love Mike and the folks he has writing there are
    good people who give good advice. If people go read it instead of my
    blog, they're not being steered wrong. SME (mine) stands on its own
    and while there's a bit of name mixup sometimes, it isn't diverting
    people away from SME as far as I can tell. Thanks for asking!
  • Jason - I guess we should just merge :) Just kidding. Anyhow, over at SocialMediaExaminer we are BIG fans of Jason Falls and Social Media Explorer.

    The good news is this jungle is big enough for explorers AND examiners :)

    A big fat thank you to Jason for helping us get started. We are all friends and as Jason said, if anyone shows up on his site instead of ours, we agree they will never be steered wrong.
  • Agreed, Michael. I still happily tell folks to read the Examiner. And
    will continue to do so. Glad to help get the motor running over there.
    Thank you for all your help and advice over the years, too, my friend.
  • It's a bummer about the confusion, I figured that was probably happening. But glad it isn't diverting people away.
  • spikejones
    Thanks again for having me on the show, Jason. I'll make a movie about you one day. Or a music video. Whatever.

  • Can Spike Lee play me? Heh.
  • uh, sorry - wrong post/wrong comment. too many windows open. you may delete this :)
  • Well said, Rachel. I've been hearing a lot of pushback against ROI as
    a measure of success lately. Funny how that pops up now. Good point.
    Thanks for it.
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