RonAmok!

Supersaturation is a chemical state where so much of one substance is dissolved into another, that the resulting solution finds itself in a precarious, or “metastable” state. By simply adding a disturbance into the solution, crystals are formed, kicking off a chain reaction that turns the liquid into a solid before your very eyes. Here is a video that demonstrates the phenomenon.

So why am I discussing chemistry experiments in a blog about New Media business communications? It’s because of yet another misuse of a social media buzzword: community–especially when used in the following context: “Come join my/our community.”

Honestly, the phrase drives me batty because it breaks a fundamental rule of Social Media by focusing more on the me than it does on the you–the customer.

“Come join my community” is a Traditional’s feeble attempt at Social Media. It’s and old-school marketing wolf in ”social media” clothing, who is trying to sneak traditional marketing messages into the conversation under false pretenses.

The most successful online communities aren’t built by self-promoting invitations. They organize themselves, crystallizing like that of a jostled supersaturated liquid. They form around like-minded individuals who congregate online to talk about their passions. If those passions center on your product or service, then you have the ingredients for a community.

Instead of spending all of your time, effort, and marketing dollars on promoting a vapid online community, create an environment for supersaturation. Produce great products and services. Create content that supports the community. Find experts, inside and outside your company walls, who can speak authoritatively.

Once the ingredients start to crystallize, THEN send notifications via services like Twitter or your corporate blog. Instead of using useless phrases such as “Come join my community,” highlight the work that is being done within the community. Talk about the problems that the community is solving, recap its most interesting discussions, share time-saving tips, the caloric values of recipes, or the success stories that the community is buzzing about.

In essence, make your notification worthwhile. If I like what I see, I just may hang around for a little while.

Tags: New Media Evangelist communities traditionals

Last week I had the opportunity to speak before two very different audiences. The first, The Silicon Valley Employers Forum, consisted of corporate benefits managers from 28 employers in Silicon Valley. The second group consisted of business VARs who sell hardware, software and professional services to the SMB marketplace. Although the audiences were vastly different, their collective reaction to the topic of Social Networking was identical:

• Both had heard of Social Networking and members could rattle off a list of Social Media tools and websites.
• Neither had a comfortable understanding of Social Networking and how to incorporate it into their businesses.
• Both groups were very eager to learn.

So, with so much talk about Social Networking occurring, why doesn’t Main Street business understand it yet? Because we in the Social Media fishbowl spend more time talking about the tools (aka. WordPress, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in) than what’s important: the fundamental changes that these tools are driving in human behavior. Social Networking is not rocket science; it’s Social Science.

Social Networking is about humans–business humans, customer humans, partner humans, investor humans–who now have the ability to communicate with one another on a much deeper level than at any other time in history. The concept isn’t new; we’ve belonged to Social Networks since the beginning of civilization. The only “new” part is that we can now do so online.

And until we can clearly articulate this distinction, Main Street will continue to be confused–unnecessarily.

Photo Credit: dizznan

Tags: Social Networking Rocket Science New Media Evangelist

Earlier this week, I spoke before an Ad Agency. After my talk, a member of the audience approached and asked if Social Media is appropriate for all demographic audiences.

Usually, such a question comes spring-loaded with a belief that Social Media is for the “youngins,” but I wanted to clarify this assumption before answering.

The man described his client, an upscale restaurant with an older demographic audience with income of over $150,000 per year, etc…

I explained that traditional demographic data doesn’t account for passion. Upscale diners are typically foodies who want to know every detail about their food, from the presentation, to the ingredients, to the preparation techniques. They like to exchange stories, recipes and share new dining experiences with other foodies. They watch “Top Chef,” “Iron Chef,” and scoff at Chef Boyardee. Therefore, if online content exists for them to satisfy these passionate cravings, then yes, they are an appropriate audience for Social Media.

Think about categorizing Social Media users more by their passions than by their age. For example, the average age of a Harley Davidson owner is 47 years old — not typically considered the “Social Media demographic.” Yet, the Harley Davidson’s Facebook fan page has over 178,000 fans!

Think passion, not age, income, etc… Find where your passionate customers live online. Then create content that helps them satisfy their informational cravings.

Good online content is to passionate customers like honey is to bears are to honey.

Photo Credit: jameschip

Tags: passionographics demographics Social Networking New Media Evangelist