Build your own community or go where people are? Do both
Image by MattRhodes via FlickrA common debate among those working in marketing and social media is between engaging people on your own domain – in an online community that you build and manage yourself – and engaging people where they are – out in social networks like Facebook and MySpace or on YouTube, external blogs or forums.
There is, of course, a place for both of these things – engaging people in social networks can often be more suitable for campaign-based activities. For generating discussion and buzz about a specific campaign and to engage people on a relatively short-term basis. Your own online community, on the other hand, is better suited to real engagement – something that is long-term and sustainable rather than a one-off hit.
But in many cases this either/or debate seems rather strange to those of us at FreshNetworks. We think the answer is quite simple – use both.
The hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement
There are many reasons to engage people in social networks, where they are. And there are many reasons to engage people on your own online community or other site. In fact the best way to build a sustainable approach to marketing and engagement using social media is to do both. These two types of site are useful for different things and are used by consumers in different ways.
Social networks are great for reaching out to people. Posting videos or content, joining discussions or finding where people are. They are less good, however, at building lasting, long-term and sustainable engagement. And less good at contributing to long-term business strategy aims.
If you find somebody posting videos about your product in YouTube then this is a sign that they care about you, your product and what they do. They probably would do much more if you gave them a chance. But it’s not easy to send them from YouTube to a discussion on a forum and then to join a group in Facebook (for example). You end up distributing all your engagement across social sites. You have little influence or control over these and your make the user-experience quite messy. You also miss out on all the benefits you should be getting of them being on your site – being able to ask them for (and use) profiling information, analyse what they do and say and create secure areas where you can talk to these engaged people about new product developments or other, more confidential things.
That’s why it’s best to have both. You cannot (and indeed shouldn’t) try to stop people talking about your brand in social networks. You should encourage it, give them information, tools and content to help amplify the word of mouth they create. But you should also create a space for them to come back to. This is the hub-and-spoke approach to social media engagement. You engage people where they are but provide a place for them to come to, a way for you to get all these enthusiastic and passionate people together.
It’s only then that you will start to get the most benefit from them, when you move beyond buzz and into real engagement.
Some more reading
- Social Media For Non Profits (slideshare.net)
- People are fed up of joining brand pages on Facebook (freshnetworks.com)
- Social Media Marketing Budgets on the Rise (mashable.com)
- Insights Qualitativos 2.0: Social Network Advertising Problem (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
- FIR Interview: Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research (nevillehobson.com)
The meaning of silence in an online context « The Human Element:
[...] users in person as well as hypertext; Matt Rhodes of Freshnetworks’ recommendation that we understand people in natural online communities as well as specially-constructed research communities. People share themselves and their [...]
13 May 2009, 1:00 pmBuilding the business case for online communities | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] Build your own community or go where people are? Do both (freshnetworks.com) [...]
13 May 2009, 10:35 pmlinks for 2009-05-13 « Using technology in the voluntary and community sector:
[...] Build your own community or go where people are? Do both An interesting look at why you need to engage with existing social networks / tools as well as building your own online community (tags: onlinecommunity reference socialmedia socialnetworking) [...]
14 May 2009, 4:02 amatul chatterjee:
First establish yourself where people are. And stay there, because fresh prospects are most likely to come there. You may be selling flute lessons. Obviously you can form a community of your students and pass outs. But you need to be not only on FaceBook, Youtube and others.
14 May 2009, 8:13 amIn fact you need to be at a whole lot of places to meet people unless you think you are going to sell or generate leads using PPC.
a very good situation over time would be if your community of flautists pulled in more new entrants. But till then keep your scouts posted.
Build your own community or go where people already are? Do both and integrate! - LLiu's Community Zen Master Blog - CommunityZenMaster.com:
[...] just read Matt Rhode’s “Build your own community or go where people are? Do both” blog entry and was compelled to add to it with my own blog entry beyond just my usual retweet [...]
15 May 2009, 5:47 amUK marketers admit falling behind social media trends | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] Build your own community or go where people are? Do both (freshnetworks.com) [...]
16 May 2009, 8:34 pmProving you that online communities in health care really work!! « Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog:
[...] Build your own community or go where people are? Do both (freshnetworks.com) [...]
19 May 2009, 8:55 amVince Stevenson:
Doing both, although it’s expensive in terms of time and resources would be the best option. Rgds Vince
3 June 2009, 3:24 pmTim Craig:
I am interested in using Twitter and social media to engage people and promote my business. However, although I am more than happy to reach out to people overseas and enjoy the international communication my business is based and operates in the UK. It seems to me that the US is much happier to embrace this medium has predominance.Is there a way on identifying and engaging with UK participants?
8 June 2009, 7:16 amOnline Community Building: Make affiliations more valuable by making people earn them « TIME TO GET STARTED:
[...] Build your own community or go where people are? Do both (freshnetworks.com) [...]
17 June 2009, 8:25 pmBuild your own community or go where people already are? Do both and integrate! - Telligent Business Community Team Blog - Business - Telligent Communities:
[...] 0 I just read Matt Rhode’s “Build your own community or go where people are? Do both” blog entry and was compelled to add to it with my own blog entry beyond just my usual [...]
23 June 2009, 9:56 pmThe most engaged brands on the web | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] This supports a need for brands to have a presence in a large number of social networks – interacting there and engaging with people where they are. But whilst engaging in this ever increasing number of social media channels, it is important to provide a space where these engaged people, these brand loyalists, can be brought together. Whilst you may engage them in a photo-sharing site or a mobile social network, you benefit most when you then provide a place for them to go to. Do you build your own community or go where people are? Do both. [...]
20 July 2009, 11:59 pmOur top five posts in July | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] 5. Build your own community or go where people are? Do both [...]
1 August 2009, 12:58 pmUsing Twitter to harvest ideas: MyIdea4CA.com | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] are and harvesting their ideas, encouraging them to come to ideas site and add their thoughts. This hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement is a classic and successful way of engaging people online, and a recent ideas site has gone one [...]
5 September 2009, 1:40 pmUsing Twitter to harvest ideas: MyIdea4CA.com « GET THAT BREAD:
[...] are and harvesting their ideas, encouraging them to come to ideas site and add their thoughts. This hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement is a classic and successful way of engaging people online, and a recent ideas site has gone one [...]
14 September 2009, 3:14 pmSocial media monitoring is easy; it’s what you do with it that counts | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] you have a presence there. This is an ideal role for your community manager to play as part of a hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement. The human element to gathering information means that you start to really understand not just [...]
29 November 2009, 7:06 pmSocial media as a crisis management tool | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] and this information will often become out of date quickly. This is where having an established hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement comes into its own. If you have a developed hub, and online community, for example, where you can [...]
21 December 2009, 11:11 amSocial Media Case Study: LEGO CLICK | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] LEGO CLICK community is a great example of the hub-and-spoke model of social media engagement. Users can contribute their ideas by tweeting with the hashtag #legoclick. They can contribute [...]
21 January 2010, 11:02 amwereFedUp | Quite sociable:
[...] Angeles uses a Hub and Spoke model of social networking to support a social marketing campaign fighting childhood (perhaps targeting [...]
7 February 2010, 6:52 pm