Martin Reed of Community Spark once said, “the last thing you want to do is focus on a small core of your super members at the expense of the overall community”.
And I think that sometimes we do get stuck in that “bubble”, looking at the world that only includes those who engage with your brand, not those who lurk or never engage.
With all the ways to track and monitor social media and community engagement today we are able to get a lot of information about what is happening inside our community, but we can also monitor outside of our bubble. In my case, I’ve got tools (Google Alerts, twitter searches, etc.) set up to watch for keywords related to the many brands I cover and our competitors. Everything from Blogs to News outlets, twitter and Facebook posts, wherever members of my community might engage away from our official channels. I’ve even registered with pseudonyms (I only lurk with these accounts) at as many fan sites and brand related sites as I can. All of this gives me additional insight beyond what happens inside my community’s bubble.
It also allows me to respond on a very personal level to our members and fans. There is nothing more pleasing than to find a blog post about one our products, to make comments and to pass the link along to our community. And the owner has to like the additional traffic and personal response. But that just scratches the surface. I’ve caught issues with products by twitter posts, helped with easy support issues and generally made myself available to anyone who would want to talk to me about anything to do with our brands. All in an effort to see beyond that small core of super members.
I encourage you to pop the bubble and think of new ways to find and listen to your community.
Image: Blasen02_02a by pschubert
