Pros and Cons on Building Community or Participating
Previously, I had worked with the amazing community builder Carrie Melissa Jones to promote CMX’s Community Value and Metrics research report. I got the opportunity to speak with one of my marketing idols, Larry Kim of WordStream and MobileMonkey fame on his thoughts on what brand community means and what his tactics were.
Interview with Founder of Wordstream Larry Kim
His approach to brand community building is to be an active participant in other’s communities rather than to build your own from scratch, unless you have a super targeted niche.
Do Your Research, Before You Bring People Together
On asking what his general philosophy was on brand communities, Larry Kim said: “My strategy is different, and it is unusual for a large company like ours to not have formal communities. Our strategy is to be highly engaged in everyone else’s community. Communities are little bubbles, even if you are big in one community, you might be a nobody in another. What I found is that there are so many communities out there, and we should aim to be the top participants in those.”
Larry did not want to be seen as a competing community to others out there. The world of marketing is highly saturated with communities.
“I want to be the sidekick, ally, and best friend of the people making the communities.”
Be Strategic When Resource Strapped
This approach changes how you would measure your success as well. Larry says his goal is to be in the top percentage of contributors. He wants to get the lion’s share of attention in the community we are participating in while still being thoughtful and helpful.
Larry shared this thought: “Think of whales and lampreys. Benefit from the whale’s effort and time by strategizing about your lamprey involvement in another’s community to benefit your own brand.”
He looks for two things before he engages with a community: overlap in the audience he wants to reach and the topics he personally wants to write about.
“If we can be in the top percent of the participants of a community, I want to be involved.”
Build Your Own, If You Can Cater to a Niche
Be honest with yourself about the true benefit to your customers or users. Be honest with yourself when you are looking at the competitive analysis.
“Companies tend to overestimate the importance of a community based on the novelty of it. Do you really think you can you get the top ten experts in your niche to regularly contribute? If yes, GO FOR IT.
He shared the story of his wife belonging to a Physician Moms Group on Facebook. It’s strong at 115,000 members. This is the ONLY place she can find relatable information pertaining to her and it resonates with others.
Reach People Where They Are
People’s attention is finite. One of the spaces people are already on is Facebook. Reach them where they are already instead of spending the effort to get them to a place you designate. If you are willing to give up a little power/control in exchange for infrastructure for free. Facebook’s algorithm is already surfacing the interesting things that followers are engaging with.
Ask yourself:
Where can I host the things that that I want and know I need to write and talk about?
How can I repurpose the contributions after I put it into these communities?
Utilizing other’s built communities (rather than building your own) is much less energy. You might be able to save money and time this way. Building these relationships with behemoths will gain you network. Ultimately, it all goes back what are you trying to accomplish, where is your audience at now, and how do they want to be interacted with?
