Make your problem somebody else's

Experiences facilitated by brands but not about brands - David Gillespie (broken record).

Entertainment, content of all shapes and sizes, offline, online, anywhere you like it. The problem could be a lack of conversation, and when you give the community around your offering the tools and platforms to make themselves heard, you take a step towards something much bigger than where you've been before. As I said when I called social media out, the exciting thing about where we are in our digital evolution is for the first time in our history it is as easy to create content as it is to produce it.

So what are you doing with this opportunity?

User-generated content was the first ham-fisted attempt to do something creative in this space, but it is only going to get better as organisations get more comfortable with the conversation going on about them. There is no silver bullet when trying to harness the enthusiasm of your tribe and align it with an organisation's goals, this quote from Henry Jenkins though will steer any effort in the right direction:

The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do…I don’t have to control the conversation to benefit from their interest – Henry Jenkins - MIT

If your problem is nobody knows about you, make that the community's issue and give them a reason to talk. Rally the tribe and give them purpose, make your anonymity their problem, let them solve it in their way. If you've been good to them along the way, they will reward you more than your own efforts ever will.

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Image courtesy of paf triz, with thanks to compfight.

RSS feeds added to Marketing Magazine site

This is a bit of an admin post (1, 2, 3 - "Boooooooring!!!"). Marketing Magazine have added RSS feeds to their site for particular bloggers (including me). So, if you'd like to subscribe to my posts on Marketing Magazine you can now do so.

Additionally if you don't subscribe to this site currently but would like to, please go right ahead! It is free, easy and guaranteed to do many ill-defined and vague things.

Social networks and anti-social activity

A few weeks back I posted that I'd been invited by Marketing Magazine (Australia's most widely read advertising and marketing publication) to contribute regularly to their magazine and blog on their newly-revamped website. My first post is up, looking at social networks and why they're not the digital wet dream marketers are hoping for.

What people fail to understand is the activities carrying the social media boom have always been social. Music, movies, fan clubs, photos of friends, staying in touch, whatever. Technology has facilitated a new means for those things to take place but it hasn’t changed the core motivation.

Read the whole post (no registration required).