I recently attended a technology conference where all the discussions and presentations revolved around using technology to create a community. Even for commercial ventures, the real power of the internet is creating on-going conversations; conversations with and between real people.
It didn’t matter if it was a large newspaper or a solopreneur, everyone was talking about how they created interaction with their audience.
What does this mean for the average business person? First and foremost, you can no longer just put up a static website and expect traffic to come and the cash register to k’aching. You need to encourage and foster discussions with and amongst your audience.
This is why blogging has become so popular. It is an easy and effective way to encourage interaction. Readers can comment on your posts, bloggers can comment about you on their blogs and you can reply.
One of the challenges about this “new” interactive model of marketing is that you’re no longer in control of your message. You have no say over what others think, say and do with your material. While this can be scary for many – what if someone writes bad things about me – it is also powerful. By having real people starting discussions on your blog, you are no longer just a business marketing a product. You become part of their community.
Some people are resisting this model. They don’t allow comments on their blog, don’t interact with other sites and don’t participate in social media. They resist because they don’t understand how this new paradigm works. They can’t control it so they avoid it.
But if you embrace this idea of creating a community around your business you can be ahead of the game. In small towns, people still do business with people they know personally, people they’ve known all their lives. It’s about having a relationship with this person. When an outsider comes to town they have to prove themselves as a person before people will do business with them.
By creating a community around your business, you create Marshal McLuhan’s global village for yourself. People visiting your blog are no longer anonymous prospects that must be converted into customers. They are virtual neighbours. You don’t know all of them well, but you acknowledge their presence with a friendly greeting, wish them well and help them out when you can because that’s what good neighbours do.
There was a time when networking wasn’t a structured activity for serious business people. It was a way of life. It was just the people you knew and cared about. This is what creating an online community is about. It’s about creating a small town not of bricks and mortar, but of html and megabytes.
People and business who understand and embrace this paradigm and do a good job at creating community are the ones that will succeed. And not because they’ve outsmarted everyone and learned a new marketing trick. They’ll succeed because they’ve created a community where everyone can succeed.
Andrea J. Stenberg
