During a workshop I did on the 7th of January for In Real Life I actually think I found the main differences between companies implementing blogs, and companies having an online presence in a community. They have a lot of things in common, but still the level of control makes it more likely for companies to have a blog.
- Even though blogs can be transparent, the person ( or company) who creates the blog still has some level of control. They can decide what pictures are going to be up there, they can decide who writes the blog. To some extend they can also control the comments aka. they can delete them.
- When you have created a blogpost you have had your say in some topic - blogs are on/off writing, communities are constant and more of a "flow" experience.
- Blogs are person/company focused - meaning that even though you create a blogpost about something, it will still have some sort of relevance for the blogs scope. Communities are group focused, there is no sort of thing as a community scope - it's different from user to user. You can have a purpose of why you are a part of the community, but you can't give it a scope.
- You are more of a whole person in a community, why ? because the community is not only you, it's also the people who knows you and likes/dislikes you.
- The return on involvement in a community is higher than the return on involvement on a single blog. Likewise, the return on involvement is higher if you make the whole blogosphere into a community you participate in.
- if you strive to be a rockband (and I hope you do) you really need to be in a community to get more return on involvement on everything you do, let the community know what you are doing.
Luckily you can easily integrate your blogging into your community. The less the control, the more the gains, and the more the risk. it's not a question of either/or. it's a question of a supplement - but please make the community priority 1. and the blog priority 2. Everybody should be a part of an active community ( so all you companies getting facebook restricted so your employees can't use it during worktime - very bad idea and very un-rockband-like.
[control, rockbandism, blogs, communities, facebook, return on involvement]
[485 comments]
answer: mainstream doesn't exist in a community - I would even argue that there is no mainstream anymore.
Anyways I have been researching a bit during the last couple of days, due to my work with
Koblo.com -and the key that I found was in good'old Chris Andersons book "the long tail" where he basically argues the winning situation the niche's has over mainstream - and he even uses music communities as an example ! -
So the argument is battled between the mainstream hitlist vs. recommendation algorithms in a community.
Somehow as the mainstream disappears, the hitlists becomes irrelevant. Or to put it more clearly - I don't care about a pop chart hitlists if I am into rock'n'roll. Or maybe I do, but I will always get more relevant data if I get a rock'n'roll hitlist..
So RELEVANCY algorithms are key for music communities - as relevancy algorithms are key on amazon.com for books.
so in general hitlists are becoming obsolete - unless they are relevant and "up close" to the users.
it's kindoff the same idea that is spreading like a wildfire through the advertisement industry - to make ads seem like "relevant information" to the users so they wont notise that it's an ad...
smart thinking =)
oh - this is crossposted on the
koblo blog
[communities, music, relevancy, thelongtail, hitlists, recommendation]
[3 comments]
So in the process of relaunching the casa del Toothless Tiger on the web, I have written an manifesto that I believe I work and live by. Anyway before implementing it to the new webpage, I would like you guys to give me some input. (you can get a sneak preview of the new toothless tiger if you ask me nicely)
I really hope that you'll be able to recognize all of Toothless Tiger in the manifesto, and I hope you will give me feedback if there is something I'm missing.
so here goes :
Toothless Tiger: marketing school of Rock, web and communities
We are firm believers that the business of business is not business anymore.
Toothless Tiger work, live and die by the saying "the business of business is more than business"
We create presence marketing because we believe that marketing today and in the future consist of online/offline presence, and an ability to be where people are - mentally and physically
Our basis for our work is created on curiosity, compassion, questions, people, creativity, development and an ability to change and to spot tendencies faster than the market
Toothless Tiger is remarkably different that normal marketing because we dare to make “personal relations†the essence of our marketing.
We believe that the nature of the web is anarchistic, and the company needs to embrace this nature and live by the premises of the web. The web in essence is rebellic and a huge playground of undiscovered potential for businesses that dare to embrace it and enjoy the chaos.
what do you think ? - is it "Toothless"?
Huge thank to everyone ( especially
Mark Wubben) who has helped me come to this short manifesto...
[creativity, business, anarchy, marketing, people, presence, presencemarketing, tendencies, manifesto, Rock, web, communities, curiousity, personal-relations, rebel, compassion, questions, development, enjoythechaos]
[15 comments]