Posts tagged as:

community building

Community Building Tips From Spike Jones

January 13, 2010 · Comments

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.

Read More

{ 35 comments }

How To Increase Your Business By Relinquishing Control

December 14, 2009

If you’ve been studying social media, or even half paying attention to it, for the last few years, you’ve heard some truisms proffered that are scary to most business people. One of the most recited is that in order to be successful in social media you must face the fact you no longer have control. [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

Building Community

August 14, 2009

The next time your boss, client or co-worker says, “How do we build a community?” answer them with this:
Invite someone to it.
Ben Thomas, creator of under-the-radar but useful tools like SalaryScout and LeadVine, was listening to London Geek Dinner podcasts one night and caught some inspiration from Lloyd Davis, founder of the Tuttle Club in [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

Building On-Line Community Starts Off-Line

January 26, 2009

Tomorrow I have the honor of co-presenting the topic, “Building On-Line Community,” with Maker’s Mark president and CEO Bill Samuels Jr., to The Conference Board at its 2009 Corporate Imaging and Branding Conference in New York City. It’s a two-fold honor, the first being that I get to share the stage with Mr. Samuels, with [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

Social Media Is Free. You Don’t Even Need A Computer.

June 4, 2008

If I had a dollar for every business owner or marketing professional who, in the last year, has asked me what it costs to get involved in social media, I’d be rich. Okay, maybe not rich, but I could honestly take those dollars and make a car payment.
[flickr style="float: right"]photo:2549050343[/flickr]When I tell them the cost [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

The Marketing Of No Marketing At SXSW

March 10, 2008

There might be a social post later, but the “Self-Replicating Awesomeness, The Marketing Of No Marketing,” session is worth a post of its own. In my opinion, six of the top social media and community building minds on the planet were panelists. There’s too much knowledge there to just mention it.
Stowe Boyd and I joined [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

Saturday SXSW Social Media Exploration

March 8, 2008

Saturday brought forth another great day of learning, networking and fun at South by Southwest (SXSW). It started with a social media breakfast that, because of the crowded restaurant and waiting list for seats, forced me to grab three random people I didn’t know to join me at my table. The result was three new [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

How To Build A Community Of Brand Enthusiasts

February 21, 2008

 ”We’re really interested in building community!” brand managers enthusiastically say. “We’re hoping a social network, perhaps a CEO blog and, um, er, widgets! We must have widgets. Then we’ll have a community!”
The question is, did I hear an actual person say this or is it hypothetical based on the general misunderstanding of social media in [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

How Many Agencies Claimed They’re “Connected” This Week?

February 14, 2008

Because I’m one of few advertising agency folks playing vocally in the social media space, several friends have asked for my reaction to Forrester’s “The Connected Agency” report released Friday. I’ve also had a few ask what I thought about Jeremiah Owyang’s ear-flipping of the agency world with his post on Sunday.
My reaction? I’m surprised [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here

How To Build Brand Communities

January 7, 2008

There’s a consistency in what CEOs, CMOs and brand managers are saying these days. “We want to create a community around our brand.” More and more of them are saying it to social media practitioners and champions since advertising agencies can juice your messaging up on “buzz” or craft a catchy video that “goes viral” [...]

Comments Keep Reading Here