360DigitalInfluence

Clients recover fairly quickly after being told that I cannot help them create a Social Media strategy! The discussion then quickly veers around the different ways in which Social Media can help in running their businesses better. We usually warm up by discussing the following.

1. Listening, monitoring and insights gathering.
2. Influencer mapping and building relationships with key influencers.
3. Tactical campaigns, promotions, applications, viral videos etc.
4. Creating blogs/sites and other forms of information dissemination.

It gets more exciting when I tell them that all of the above are really at the ‘periphery’ of Social Media and that the single most useful opportunity that Social Media offers is the ability for the client to build, nurture and grow a community / audience for the brand or product.

(The term online community can be defined in many ways. For me the following criteria are important.)
1.     The members should have chosen to join the community and should be able to leave if they want to.
2.     The community manager should be able to get in touch with the community at any time.
3.     The community members should be able to engage in conversations with each other.
(If the third criteria is not satisfied I would call it an ‘audience’ rather a ‘community’ (an audience is also extremely useful of course)

So why is building a community THE most valuable investment that products and brands can do using Social Media?

Consider the following situation. Imagine that you are a beer brand in Singapore and have built a 100,000 strong community on Facebook. Here are just some of the ways in which you can benefit from this community.

• Information dissemination: Have a new citywide new promotion? A new pub opening? A new look for your bottle? Or simply want to wish a super weekend to you fans? Instead of spending millions of dollars on advertising (to reach the same target audience through traditional media, you can directly communicate with your target audience – for free!

• A deeper relationship with fans/customers: This is possible by engaging in conversations with them and allowing them to co-create the brand with you.
• Market Research: Launching a new beer for women? What is better than being able to receive instant feedback from thousands of fans?
• Ideas: Receive ideas for free all the time.
• Increased effectiveness: Once you have a large community, every tactical promotion/ campaign that you run online will be hugely more effective and has the potential to go viral. Just because you have a base to start with.
• Permanent asset: An online community is a permanent asset and does not deplete resources every time you use it (unlike advertising)

I am just scratching the tip of the iceberg here. How you use your community is simply limited by your imagination.

So how do you go about building a community around your brand or product? Well, that is another post in itself! I will get around to writing that in a couple of weeks.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) is looming in the distance and with leaders of the 193 nations preparing to gather, how does Asia come into play?

Considering that Asia is among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change it was a bit dismal to note that leaders who participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum over the weekend conceded that COP15 is unlikely to reach a legal agreement on imposing hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Fortunately, Hopenhagen gives the rest of us a channel to participate, to be heard, and hopefully, to create a global community that will help our leaders into making the right decisions.

Hopenhagen brands a movement that brings together people who share the optimistic belief that “we can save ourselves from ourselves” and “when people lead, leaders follow.” – Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather

In addition to that, with comScore’s latest findings that Asia has the largest and fastest growing Internet population, our role in the success of Hopenhagen is becoming more apparent.

Currently, the numbers for Hopenhagen.org‘s Asia visits, from 14 September to 15 November, are as follows:

• 13.7% of site traffic
• 60% per week contribution rate to the site
• 17% of the signed petition
• 21% of all shares on the site

So what are you waiting for?  Be counted.

Sign the Climate Change Petition
Get your Hopenhagen Citizen Passport
Be a Fan on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Share Videos
Show your Citizenship
Get Support

Faster Louder brings music to my ears. Literally. It’s home to just shy of 60,000 Australian rock music fans, and with almost 25,000 forum threads, over half a million posts, countless gig reviews, photos, blogs and groups, it does a truly stellar job of creating a home for musician and music lovers like. It’s one of the four community sites run by The Sound Alliance. All of their sites are focused on music and young adult culture in Australia. Among them is also inthemix, which is ranked #1 in the NetRatings Music & Radio category.

Having just celebrated its 5th birthday, Faster Louder is hardly what one would class as new, but even as a social media veteran, FL hasn’t missed a beat when it comes to keeping up to speed with all things social. There are so many features, I wouldn’t know where to begin. But, I’ll try.

Faster Louder has an army of over 2000 active contributors who are constantly reviewing, podcasting, interviewing, photographing, filming and sharing their love of music with like minded fans. Once you set yourself up on the site, you start having a personalised user experience straight away, with all the relevant gig listings and reviews for your city being available to you. If you like any photos, reviews or articles, you simply click the “I heart this” button, and it will be bookmarked to your profile, so you can start searching for like minded music-lovers to connect with on FL. Similarly, any events you’re going to will be added to your social calendar, so if you’re looking for a concert buddy you only need to check who else is going.

Competitions are constantly being added, so you’re never short of great chances to win experiences that money can’t buy. Pretty much anything you see or do in FL, you can broadcast it to the rest of your social networks, and if you’re on twitter, you can follow @fasterlouder to be updated every time there are new reviews, concert announcements or competitions. The crew at Faster Louder have also done a great job of connecting their community in real life: hosting parties and gatherings and members only gigs. What can I say? I’m a fan!

So, whether or not you’re a music-lover, I can’t recommend Faster Louder enough. Click around; become a member; take a look at how people who GET social, DO social.