Just watched Tara do her thing. It would not do it justice to call it a presentation – it was a fabulous example of creating interaction, and discussion, and it hit the right level of powerpoint, video, and conversation. Her piece is well covered here at random thoughts.
Some key points she made, and spoke eloquently and passionately about were
- inbound, rather than outbound messages
- making tools available for a community, then getting out of the way
- being part of the community, not a tourist
- being 100% authentic
- advocating FOR your community to your company rather than the other way around
- being 100% ethical
The worrying part is that, it still feels like a leap of faith to most people. The conversation keeps coming back to “how can we make money”, “where is the ROI”, “how do I build a community”. All valid questions, but absolutely not the right question today.
This is just not the point. The point is that a community is nothing more than a grouping of like minded people, with a common interest. Companies cannot invent or create that. What they can to is to tap into that commnity, become part of that community, and listen to it. Its also true, as Steve Rubel spoke to this morning, that this is new, won’t automatically replace the old marketing overnight. My characterisation would be that it will be iterative.
Old 100 New 0
Old 90 New 10
Old 80 New 20
etc etc
The key will be how quickly the second/new column bubbles up, and it won’t be linear but more like hockey stick in direction. The fact is that internet and Web 2.0 are facilitating those communities, and when you layer on the demographic change, that will accelerate the change.
So the greater risk is to remain old marketing mode, with no experimentation with new models.
Experiment. Get the CEO’s attention, because any experimenting will be killed off by the Corporate Communications group, and for good reason. They are paid to manage reputation risk so why introduce new risk? Once CEO is onside, some experimenting could be:
1) blog – talk about customer service, or product design, or online banking. Watch the ideas come in
2) create a wiki to design bank products. Who will contribute? Experts in the field, called customers.
Relevance to Bankwatch:
The ideas above are radical. Wells Fargo have a “safe” blog talking about Wells history. Why not talk with customers about the core services. Use the blog as a sounding board, and something to personalise the bank. Of course it will be crashed from people complaining at first, but it will settle down into rational conversations.
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