Social Media is About Communities Not Technology

Jeremiah Owyang shared an excellent summary of his recent Future of Social Web RoundTable, Event Notes:  Future of the Social Web RoundTable that need to be expanded on and understood by anyone attempting to use social media or the social internet to market whatever it is they are marketing.  While the Roundtable focused on the future of social web for major, corporate brands it needs to be stated that there are very few, large, small or individual businesses who are actually using the social internet in a manner that is generating significant  returns on the effort.  Why?  Because most simply do not get that the social internet and social media marketing are not about the technology, they are about the communities… not the one’s created for marketing purposes, but the communities that have naturally formed across the Net.

Natural Versus Marketing-Made Communities

Natural communities are organic, they evolved out of a cohesive interest or need among the participants.  They are dynamic and tend to have high activity rates within the membership and they are transparent.  Conversations flow openly and naturally between participants, there is no regulation or pitch between members, value is offered at every turn.

Marketing made communities, created by businesses or others, are those that fit the need of the creator - whether for lead generation or monetization.  Although monetization is not necessarily an indicator that natural community-based behaviors are not happening.  The key difference is in the conversations occurring.  Conversations in these types of communities tend to be regulated by the needs of the community’s creator or sponsors, they are less transparent, and less valuable to the participants at hand.

Now, this is not to say, communities that are monetized or formed by a company, are not successful - on the contrary, they can be extremely successful (depending on what you determine your success factors to be).  Rather, the point is whether the participants are free to behave in the natural ways their collective community of conversations goes… And, can those participants trust the relationships formed within the communities they participate in.

What Does This Have to do with Social Media and Marketing on the Social Internet?

Everything.  It has everything to do with how you engage your company in marketing on the social internet.  How you view or don’t view the very nature of the social internet will determine how you participate, at every level.  Period.  If you don’t get it, you won’t get any results from it.  You might get stragglers who convert into an optin or a sale, but you won’t get anything more than that, ever.  In fact, you’ll likely alienate your market even farther.

What Does All This Look Like in Plain English?

• Wrong Running through Facebook groups and posting your offer. Have you checked your analytics lately, do you really think, searching for, joining, and randomly posting your most recent offer is really going to generate quality traffic to your website or blog?  Even better, what do you think that says about your brand (and no matter how small you are, you have a brand)?
• Right Search for communities and groups where your audience is at and participate with offering an INSANE amount of value to the community as a whole.  Market through mentions and linking to your offering in  your profile and signature, but leaving it at that.

• Wrong Locate as many people as you can find, send them friend requests and then post on their profile or in some form of communication letting them know what you offer.
• Right Initiate and engage in conversations that are actually dialogue based, minus the pitch.  Find individual people who are within your target market, and interact with them in a two-way conversation that actually involves listening to them.  Post meaningful comments, engage in an INSANELY valuable way.

• Wrong You create a community on sites like Ning or a group on Facebook and offer some quick tips, all laced with promote, promote, promote.
• Right Build a community online that is driven by adding value to each of it’s members.  You realize pitching just doesn’t work as much as it used to.  Without the ability to actually form a community, you opt to join the other “naturally” formed communities already present online.

Photo Credit:  foxypar4 on Flickr

Update:

Great article from Valeria Maltoni on Conversation Agent about successfully measuring the ROI on Influence.  Great stuff here, even for the little guy

Here’s great information about social media taking time not money to be successful.

Great stuff here from Relationship Economy on the reason why we measure ROI in social media.

Data related to the power of social media, When Did We Start Trusting Strangers.

Best and Worst Practices in Social Media Marketing with Mike Fruchter

5 Steps to Social Media Marketing - Great Summary from HubSpot

Related Diva Posts:

• Doing Social Media Marketing Right with Nancy Marmolejo
• Social Networking and the Power of Influence
• Social Networking Taken to the Next Profitable Level
• Beyond Social Networking to Profitable Community Empire
• Free “Don’t Pimp Yourself on MySpace” Teleseminar Coming Up

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