Page 119 - Social Media Marketing

insights that will help you better define products or innovate in ways that will lower 97
costs or differentiate you from your competitors? In short, how do you become part of
the communities your customers or members belong to and begin to realize the prom- ■ ╇ U sing B rand O utposts and C ommunities
ised benefits of social computing? You participate in the activities they are involved
in—with full disclosure and transparency—in order to build the levels of trust that that
will elicit their contributions of knowledge back to you.

This is the purpose of the brand outpost, a place you create for your brand
within the context of an existing social network. Offering useful applications to your
audience at the location of their choosing rather than requiring that they come to
your website (or simply assuming they will) is the final element in setting up for social
business.

In an interview with BusinessWeek, author and blogger Jeff Jarvis noted three
common mistakes that many companies make when adding social-media-based mar-
keting programs to their overall communications mix. Of the three mistakes (see
sidebar for complete reference), one in particular applies to brand outposts: The mis-
take is expecting your audience to come to you, to visit your website for example, for
information. Jeff points out that it is essential for you to go to them instead. Look at
the following list of the typical places where brand outposts are established: In each
of these cases, you are going to them. The following are examples of common brand
outposts:

Twitter

Second Life Islands

Facebook Business Pages

YouTube Channels

What defines a successful brand outpost, one that enjoys organic (aka “viral”)
growth? Most likely, it’s an application, a tool, or an articulated purpose that meets a
clear need for an important subset of the community participants around the outpost
who are themselves part of your target market or are the influencers for it. This isn’t
as self-serving as it sounds: When you cut away the fluff, it’s all about providing some-
thing useful for someone you’d like to do business with, and doing it on their terms and
in “their part of town.” That’s pretty simple.

Fundamental to the brand outpost and its role in social business is that it is part
of the larger community. Outposts exist to serve the needs of community members
that are not met directly elsewhere. Effective brand outposts are created where a target
audience already exists: Your outpost should include a useful application or compelling
activity related to your brand, product, or service that connects with your customers
frequenting that outpost.