SAMBA Blog

Should you have an online community?

I have blogged about The future of marketing and Do you have a community? By now, you can probably tell that I am really big on community building. There are many benefits to having an online community, or, what Seth calls 'creating a Tribe.' However, you have to ask, “Should you have an online community?” The answer could be NO. Here are some reasons you should NOT have an online community:

• If you do not think your community will enjoy connecting with others with the same interest.
• If you have several unhappy customer and you are afraid they will talk to each other.
• If you want complete control over everything said in the community.
• If you cannot deliver “services” the community wants.
• If you cannot tie back the community to your core business values.
• If you do not think a community will scale your business.
• If you cannot figure out who your community is (after you read this).
• If you have other successful methods of permission marketing.

After reading these questions and your answers are YES, an online community is not for you. If you answers are NO, it is time to start thinking about the goals of the community. To be continued…

What if you only had one customer?

How closely would you listen to them?

How fast would you respond to them?

Would they be satisfied? 

Happy? 

Thrilled?

How special would they feel?

Would they recommend you?

Photo credit: Sarah Austin by Mark Stanton

Change the question

Sometimes there is no good answer to the question someone asks.

It could be they aren’t asking the right question to start with.

You win nothing by being part of the group trying to answer the wrong question. So rather than trying to answer their question, change the question. Figure out what the issue, challenge, problem really is and answer that instead.

Your odds of winning just went up.

What gets you up early?

Spike Lee gets up every morning at 5a.m. and starts his day of work.

He'll write or craft a scene or screen footage. He starts the process of filmmaking in some capacity.

Frank Lloyd Wright said, "To love one idea is to love God." He worked tirelessly and made those around him exhibit the same discipline in their work.

Determination and willingness are not "trends" among successful people in the world. They're qualities that reveal a deep knowing of where you're going and why.

It's a single, clear focus. A set path on which you're moving with full momentum.

With a clear direction and concentrated goal, waking at 5a.m. is not a chore. Or an obligation. It's what you do because you know your target and what it takes to get there. There's no question in your mind about running full speed ahead because you see what you're running towards.

The trouble lies when there are four paths in front of you, not one. When you're uncertain of what your purpose is and how to get there. Then the willingness to be alert or to stand at attention wanes. It's harder to purposefully get up when you're not sure what the purpose is.

Getting clear on what you want and how you'll get there is a crucial first step in being able to make the effort needed to succeed. Because waking up at 5a.m. or working till late in the night, or working tirelessly requires serious effort. The larger meaning behind it has to shine through for you to toil away daily and exceptionally.

It's not just about getting the work done. It's about wanting to wake up every day ready and excited to do the work you know you were meant to do.

The Myth of Changing the World

Building a company is hard work. Be clear what you want. So many entrepreneurs start something without a solid idea of what they want to achieve. Some want to fundamentally change the world. Others want to make a lot of money. We know individuals who have succeeded with either goal. Of course, most of us want to achieve a little of both.

It helps to know why you’re starting a company. Because when you run into the inevitable dip, you’ll make the right decision. You might decide to call it quits because you don’t see a way through the obstacles or you might tough it out because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Either way you choose, try to be faithful to your original goals.

What doesn’t work is when conflicted entrepreneurs, who set out to make money, change their goals when they encounter the dip. They then start talking about how money isn’t everything. They proclaim that getting rich isn’t important to them. That changing the world is what they’re really after.

We hear a lot of folks talk about changing the world. Is that really what they set out to do from the beginning? Is that really what they purposefully decided when they launched their startup? How many are being true to their original purpose? How many are just rationalizing why they haven’t quit yet?

It helps to know that you can always quit quickly and start anew if you’re just trying to make money.

Smelting Gold In The Twitter Ghetto

Twitter is a ghetto, and most individual tweets are worthless. Yet on any given day there are dozens of really interesting conversations worth following.

Even if the value of individual tweets is fleeting, the value of these conversations and contexts is permanent. The problem is that there's no good way to read through past conversations after the fact. For example, during #sesny today there were ten or fifteen really interesting conversations. But of course for every insightful tweet that contributed something to the conversation, there were twenty that were retweets, spam, nonsense, or just offtopic. That's not so bad when you're reading the new tweets in real time, but trying to grok the conversation later it's completely unbearable.

While twitter as a whole is probably best described as a ghetto, there are a ton of thought-provoking conversations being generated that deserve to be preserved and curated — the same as a museum would do for works of art worth saving for future generations.

As an example of what I mean, check out my lens on the Hacking Education conference that took place the other week. That lens still might not be perfect, but it's infinitely easier to read than scrolling through the 65 pages of mostly-garbage tweets that make up the official #hackedu twitter search.

Every event needs a twitter hashtag, and every hashtag needs a page like this. Otherwise the vast amounts of knowledge and culture created daily will be as ephemeral as the tweets themselves.

Service or Hospitality?

"It's absolutely irresponsible for anyone in a high touch business not to know who their customer is today."
- Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group

I recently heard Danny Meyers, a successful NYC restaurateur, say that the difference between service and hospitality is like the difference between an off the rack suit and a custom made suit. He described how his restaurants have been able to use technology solutions like OpenTable to know who their customers are and when they'll be dining. His team then uses that information to do more than just provide service, they custom design a hospitality experience for their guests.

I believe that Danny's advice is relevant far beyond the traditionally "high touch" businesses. Whether you're an auto-mechanic, an author, a hotelier, a clothing company, or a coffee shop...the technology you need is readily available to connect you directly with your end customer so you can provide a customized "hospitality" experience. If you don't, one of your competitors will...and then you lose.

Just providing service isn't enough...if you want to be remarkable you have to provide an experience.

It looks like we're all in the hospitality business now.

Do you have a community?

A community is a group of people who share the same interest. The question is not, “Can you build a community?” Communities exist or they do not. The correct question is, “Do you have a community and how can you harness it?”

It is not always clear from a business context if every product or service has a community. Think about toothpaste. Not a lot of people care about their toothpaste. However, you can think about community from a different perspective such as a dentist or a mother. Tooth care professionals such as dentist have an interest in researching what toothpaste is the best for their patients. Mother's who are concerned with their children’s teeth are very interested in finding and discussing which toothpaste is the best. How can you harness these two groups who have a common interest and create a community around the product? The community always existed it is just creating a forum to bring them together.

Mistaking motion for progress

Getting things done is not the same as making progress.

Progress comes when the boxes you check off your long to-do list are the right ones, the ones that actually move you toward the goal. Otherwise, you’re getting plenty of motion, churning, without getting anywhere.

Step one is knowing the goal. Step two is knowing what the crucial path to get there.

Progress comes when you keep the crucial path as the priority. Otherwise, you’re just running in place.

Idea Prediction: Mapping Science Based on Clickstream

Finding trends is not only for the fashion forward style pushers. Finding trends in scientific research is incredibly valuable. How would the market respond if it knew what scientists were reading and downloading this instant? What would a young biologist stumble upon if he followed a map into another field of research, let's say, social science?

This article in SEED magazine caught my attention this evening. As online analytics improve and more research becomes available online, simple click through maps can easily track and visualize the aim of interest of the world's nerdiest.

Mapping ideas based on clickstream and monitoring user behavior is not only improving marketing; it's improving science.

A quality quote from lead researcher Johan Bollen and Seed writer Greg Boustead:

“When we see a buildup of activity at a novel intersection of research, that activity is seeking an outlet that isn’t there,” Bollen says. Such buildups might serve as useful tools for determining the potential value of establishing a new journal or allocating resources to help focus burgeoning fields. Bollen sees this as one of the map’s most promising applications: “By identifying these areas and mathematically defining the probability that they would provide a good outlet for that buildup of interest, you can predict the emergence of new ideas.”



A new map of science based on clickstream data. Credit: PLoSOne

The future of marketing

 In my former life (pre-SAMBA) I was a marketing manager for a start-up technology company. The common theme was, “Do more with less.” Less money, people, technology and time! This was 4 years ago when social networking platforms and tools were just taking off. If I had the same tools available today, the first thing I would do is build an online community. Then shape my strategy for sales, marketing R&D, and support to utilize my community:

 

• Sales - Customers are inundated with marketing messages. It is proven that word of mouth marketing and recommendations have much larger success rate. An online community will serve as your volunteer salesforce.

• Marketing – Integrated marketing is expensive and hard to break through the clutter. Posting a message to your top customers through a community platform is free and towards highly qualified leads.

• Research and Development – The solution to a problem cannot always be found in-house. Crowdsource your idea, solution, advertising, packaging, etc with your online community.

• Support – Hiring a person to answer questions is expensive. Having a community driven online support team is free.

 

The future of marketing is strategically building and leveraging online communities. For examples of how companies are utilizing their online communities visit my Squidoo Lenses on Tribe Communication Tools: Etsy and HAIR the Broadway Musical.

The Startup Myth

The world would be a much better place if fewer people tried to build startups. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we could use less entrepreneurship. Innovative entrepreneurs will pull us out of this recession more sustainably and more meaningfully than any government bureaucrat with indirect policy levers could ever do. What I am saying is that we need more people wanting to build companies, not startups. That is not a too subtle distinction.

Would-be entrepreneurs proclaim proudly how they are starting new businesses and are willing to endure many years of blood, sweat, and tears. To be sure, the willingness to work hard and persevere ranks high on the list of essential entrepreneurial character traits, but I think we have over-romanticized the startup life. Low pay/no pay, long hours, and years of struggle have come to be badges of honor for those of us still in the minor leagues of startups. We’ve either frantically adjusted our business models (groping after every hot trend like Web 2.0, social networking, or microblogging) or we’ve stubbornly stuck to our original ideas regardless of market feedback. The most important thing we have in common is that we’ve been unable to graduate to the major leagues of thriving, growing, established companies too big and successful to be called startups.

However you define a startup, trust me, there is no glamor or glory in remaining a startup. But we’ve come to fall in love with the Myth of the Startup. We all know a few guys who seem to perpetually be working on a startup. They love the story of being a startup entrepreneur and the attendant lifestyle. Even more pronounced is the first-time entrepreneur who has bought into the Startup Myth. His romantic vision of startup life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and he is destined to struggle with a small “startup” because that’s what he wants.

Dump the warm fuzzies. Entrepreneurship is not about startups. Entrepreneurship is not about eating ramen noodles and scraping by. Entrepreneurship is not about being able to tell your friends and family you are a founder of a startup so you can finally impress them. Entrepreneurship is not about working 12 hour days ad infinitum and sleeping only 4 hours per day to show the world how tough and committed you are. Entrepreneurship is not about attending industry conferences so that you can hear yourself speak and tell your competitors how excited you are about your opportunities. Entrepreneurship is not about blogging about entrepreneurship. Most of all, entrepreneurship is not about some romantic ideal of living a tough startup life.

Get real. Entrepreneurship is about growth and value. Entrepreneurship is about creating something a sufficient number of people want or need. Entrepreneurship is about turning every dollar of resources spent into something worth more than a dollar. Entrepreneurship is about building a company and growing it beyond startup stage. The list of what entrepreneurship is not is much longer than the list of what entrepreneurship is. That’s because there are a lot of things people associate with entrepreneurship that really don’t have anything to do with entrepreneurship. It’s like describing a hamburger. Despite the many different ways to make a hamburger, there are almost infinite ways to describe what a hamburger is not.

Dream, dream big. Think, think different. Start a startup and eat ramen noodles (rice and soy sauce in my case) if you have to. Revel in your foldout tables and chairs. Dance a jig in your cozy garage. But realize that all these are just trappings of a startup. Figure out a way to scale so that your startup can grow to be a valuable company. Build a company, not a startup. If you love the startup lifestyle, leave your company after it outgrows you to start something new again. It’s a good thing to have your company outgrow you, your garage, and your romantic visions of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Hewlett-Packard Garage

Want to be on the list?

Take it from Danny Meyer, famed NY restaurateur who has redefined the meaning of customer service for the restaurant industry.

You don't need to know the chef since middle school.
You don't need to eat there four nights a week for a year.
You don't need to tip the maître d' $100.

You do need to be sincere.

If you loved the dish, ask to meet the chef.
If you loved the service, tell your server (and their manager).
If you loved the entire experience, tell the owner.

And make your next reservation on the way out. By the time you return, you'll be on the list.

Sincerity wins again.

Your inner lemonade stand

Lots of people say they'd like to be an entrepreneur, but society puts up barriers so most adults just go out and get a job. This results in people who don't think they have what it takes to be a business owner. But, if you've ever tried to get a job you've tried to sell your services...and that's what an entrepreneur (or freelancer) does.

Seth Godin said recently at a WSJ event that the way you become an entrepreneur is to "get in touch with your inner lemonade stand". When we were kids we inherently knew how to make a living. We knew that if we could find a market (thirsty people), and provide them a product they wanted (lemonade), and charge them more (10 cents) than we paid for it (free from pantry) we could make a living.

Most successful businesses aren't started by people with a great new idea. They're started by people like Annie and Mark Danielson, who realized that people like to hang beautiful things on their walls and became one of the largest employers in southern Colorado. Or Jacob D’Aniello, who was sitting in a cubicle looking for change and found it in pet waste removal (and was recently named one of the top franchises in the country by Entrepreneur magazine).

The driving force of our economy is small businesses. Perhaps the answer to our current economic woes is for more people to be like Annie, Mark and Jacob, and get back in touch with their inner lemonade stand.

What's your beast?

Hercules is strong. But like the rest of us, he needs help every now and again.

One day Hercules was outside and he saw a nasty-looking beast rear its head on the side of the road. He took his club and smashed the beast’s head. To his surprise, the beast grew three heads instead of one. He struck it again and this time it grew six heads. The harder and faster Hercules struck, the larger the beast grew. Suddenly, Athena appeared. “Hercules!, Can’t you see? Stop hitting Strife (the monster)! Keep hitting him and he grows. Leave him and he returns to its original size.”

In William Ury’s “Power of a Positive No” the example illustrates how reacting to someone during an argument will cause them to get angrier. Think of the myriad situations in our lives that invite knee-jerk reactions or negative emotions because of the lack of control over our circumstances. Strife means turmoil, upset, uncertainty. You can’t think or see clearly. It’s Hercules beating the beast without noticing how big it’s growing (i.e. constant action in the wrong direction.)

Sometimes things happen that we don’t understand (Why did I suddenly lose my job? Why has this illness befallen me?) How often do we react, keep trying to fix things, worrying ourselves to death? We act like Hercules when we don’t understand the more we react, the more things spiral out of control. Leaving it alone for a while, retreating and coming back with a clearer head (or three) is a wiser option. It’s better to think about the solutions without stress or angst and focus on your needs, the larger goal at hand.

Next time you’re in a bind and can’t find a way out, remember Hercules and the beast.

You don’t have the right to exist

Heads up auto industry. You too music industry. And over there, we see you hiding, publishing industry.

You exist at the whim of the marketplace. And for too long now, you’ve been a negligent lover.

You bring roses, not realizing that she’s allergic. You bring chocolates, not noticing that she’s sensitive about her weight. You bring diamonds, not caring that she prefers pearls.

So why does it surprise you so to find yourself out on the street?

You don’t have the right to exist. You earn that privilege in tandem with love from the marketplace by paying attention.

Paying attention to what she needs. Paying attention to what she wants. Paying attention to what she desires.

And then giving it to her.

Only then do you exist at all.

Don't fall into the Doom Loop

The "Doom Loop" is actually a defined business concept in Jim Collins Good to Great.

It's when you:
a.) Find a new direction
b.) Enter a new program
c.) get a new leader
d.) start a new event
e.) react to a new fad

without having any plan of action, no accumulated momentum, no buildup, no direction. You then get disappointing results and react poorly, without understanding what went wrong.

I'll add: f.) LIVE YOUR LIFE (since i can't ask Jim's opinion)

How often do we react poorly and without understanding to the many many situations in our everyday lives?

There is a permanent record.

The permanent record that you were threatened with in grade school now exists.

Isn't it ironic that when we were in elementary school we were all threatened that any transgression, from running in the hallways to food fights to selling marked up dime bags of Kool Aid on the playground was going to go in your "permanent record"? At the time, it was a very effective threat because eleven-year-olds didn't have a way to prove that the principal wasn't keeping a manila folder of every mistake and misstep. Some parents even leveraged the same threat.

We didn't know it, but we were safe then. There was no permanent record.  No manila folder followed us around but most of us didn't realize it until long after we figured out that Mom was the Tooth Fairy and Dad was Santa Claus.

But today, there is a permanent record. Pending recent changes in their terms of service, Facebook is forever. MySpace is MyHistory. Google doesn't forget. Everything is archived.

Don't believe me? Check out this view of the Apple website.

How does your permanent record look? Are you ready for "just Google me" to be your business card?

Living without the list

Most people want a list...they want to be told where the boundaries are and what they are supposed to do.

When you decide to scale a company, if you create environments for people who want the list, they will flock to you.

The shortage in society is people who can live without the list. That's what we're missing.   If you can become that person...you won't have to worry about applying for a job ever again.

Be like 50 Cent - rapper, businessman, tribe leader

You don’t have to be arrested for dealing drugs, shot 9 times, have multiple successful rap albums, own a record label, have a drink named after you or have your own video game to be like 50 Cent. All you have to do is lead an online community.

Yes, 50 Cent has a tribe. Thisis50.com is one of the most successful and active online communities in the world. The site, hosted by Ning, has over 400,000 tribe members and an additional reach of 55,000+ through embedded videos. The website boast, “Thisis50.com is one of the most frequently updated, highly trafficked news and entertainment destinations online. It is not only a social network, it is an entertainment community and a brand that has grown to be one of the biggest media presences on the planet.”

By owning and leading Thisis50.com community site, 50 Cent holds the permission, money and power of this tribe (I wonder if he will add ‘permission’ to his reality show, "Money and Power"?)

He has the permission from his tribe.
- The 400,000+ members signed-up for the community site giving permission to promote and sell all things 50 cent and his surrounding world.

He has the power of an attentive audience and access to their demographics.
- Within moments he can tell you the age, location, likes, dislikes of his tribe.
- When he needs a volunteer sales force to promote his new record, who do you think will be the first to buy it and tell their friends?
- When he has a new video game, who do you think will buy it?
- When there is a new artist on his label or a company he wants to promote, who do you think is the most likely to listen and buy their music?
- When he wants to go to a new record label, who takes the tribe names with them?

He has the money
- 50 Cent has no shame to have multiple ads on his website. He even has a page dedicated to information to advertise on his website.
- Word on the street is he sells ads to his own record label. Because he has the permission to sell to his tribe, the power of attention and ownership of the demographics, he can reap the rewards of the money himself.
- The members of his tribe are the most qualified leads on the market. No need to rent a list or pay for an expensive ad in a paper. The people who love his work already belong to his tribe.

If you are an author, blogger, actor, business owner, or leader of any sort, you should be like 50 Cent and start your online tribe now. First you get the permission, then the power, then the money.