Page 40 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 1: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT ■
18 ogy constraints. Hang a big “All Welcome” sign out and watch your audience create.
Creation
Beyond curation is what is more generally recognized as “content creation.” Unlike
curation, a great first step that requires little more than a response to an event—you
indicate your like or dislike for a photo, for example—content creation requires that
community members actually offer up something that they have made themselves. This
is a significantly higher hurdle, so it’s something for which you’ll want to have a very
specific plan. “You can upload your photos!” by itself is generally not enough.
How do you encourage creation? Step 1 is providing tools, support, help, tem-
plates, samples, and more. The less work your members have to do the better. Does
your application require a file of a specific format, sized within a given range? You can
count on a significant drop in participation because of that. When someone has taken
a photo on a now-common 6- or 8-megapixel phone camera, stating “uploads are lim-
ited to 100 Kbytes is tantamount to “Sorry, we’re closed.” Instead, build an application
that takes any photo and then resizes it according to your content needs and technol-
When MTV’s Argentinean business unit sought to extend its consumer presence
in the social spaces, it teamed up with Looppa, a firm I work with in Buenos Aires,
to create online communities that encouraged content creation and sharing. Using the
content tools, participants created in excess of 300,000 photos and 200,000 com-
ments. Over 30,000 videos were uploaded and shared by members within the com-
munity. It is this sort of active content creation that marks the shift from the read-only
traditional brand community—come and play our games, read our announcements,
and buy our product—to the socially participative Web 2.0 community.
Driving this content creation is a simple underlying theme: People like to share
what they are doing, talk (post) about the things that interest them, and generally
be recognized for their own contributions within the larger community. Reputation
management—a key element in encouraging social interaction—is based directly on the
quantity and quality of the content created and shared by individual participants. The
combination of easy content publishing, curation, and visible reputation management
are the cornerstones of a strong community.
Looppa: A Connected Community Platform
Based in Buenos Aires, Looppa provides a set of social technologies that enable the creation of
branded social communities built around passions, lifestyles, and causes. You can find out more
about Looppa on the Web. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention I’m associated with
Looppa as a shareholder and an Advisory Board Member.)
http://www.looppa.com