The ambiguous segment

Communication professionals consider segments before anything else. We can’t help it. When we begin a new project, conduct an analysis or gather for lunch – yes, it’s almost that extreme – we immediately think of our target audiences.

But something has caught my attention lately: the fashion-culture-eco-music-literature-café-blog-people obviously belong to a certain segment. But their blog behaviour says otherwise.

Follow me:

Community minded, egocentric or something else?

Culture, ecology and literature are the characteristics of one segment. In Denmark, we call these people “spelt people”. They are the community minded, those who value solidarity and fellowship more than the individual.

But I have noticed them posting pictures of themselves reading books, eating ice cream and promoting their personal, organic beauty products or their new dress. So my question is: are you really community minded when you – in a café with your ‘spelt friends’ – take pictures of the ecological elder flower juice on the table instead of your friends? To me, it tastes a little more like individualism and materialism… 

How to make magic with strangers

The final keynote of this year’s community conference was Lila King, self appointed Participation Director at CNN – the world’s largest channel for news.

Lila King told us about making collaborate news – or magic with strangers – at the online and user driven community iReport, which started in 2005.

iReport is a platform for participating in the CNN news, and the community has just reached 1 million users – or iReporters, as they are called. On iReport, users can post stories, videos, photos or texts. The very first iReport was about a squirrel that was really really hot – not exactly a news breaking story, yet still the beginning of a successful user driven community.

Lila King taught us a few important lessons when engaging with users and communities:

Lesson #1: Be specific about your wants and needs

Lesson #2: Make a promise and take the users seriously

Lesson #2,5: If you make a promise, you have to keep it

Lesson #3: Create lots of ways to participate in the community

Lesson #4: Make a framework for creativity – if you are too specific no one will participate, if you aren’t specific, you just create a lot of noise

Lesson #5: Be ready to turn on a dime – you have to be adaptive to users, changes and needs

Lila King’s main point  is that users will adapt to social tools and make them work in the specific moment that they themselves need it. Therefore, iReport is not just about generating news, it is also about generating loyal users.

The journey to social engagement

After a great lunch in the sunny yard, the Community Conference proceeded with the speaker Jake McKee, who is one of the co-founders of Ant’s Eye View; one of the world’s leading social media consulting bureaus.

Jake McKee compared the journey  for social engagement with a quote from an old ad created by Sir Ernest Shackleton to get volunteers for his upcoming polar expedition:

Volunteers  wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.

In other words, Jake McKee stated that the succesful journey to social engagement requires practioner experience, pragmatism and perseverence – but the payoff is immense.

The journey towards social engagement is a process from the stage of traditional engagement, to experimental engagement, to operational engagement, to measurable engagement and finally to the stage of full engagement. The process through the different stages is just as insightful as reaching the final stage.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ad from 1913 was a great success: 1000 men volunteered for his south polar expedition and the ones he picked helped create history. Jake McKee asks companies: Are you ready for your journey?

Learn more at Ant’s Eye View