Category Archives: Community

Where is this story going?

Community,

“Storytelling is joke telling. It’s knowing your punchline, your ending. Knowing that everything you’re saying from the first sentence to the last is leading to a singular goal and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understanding of who we are as human beings.”

Andrew Stanton via Refe Tuma

I always say that most of the best advice is totally obvious. This is another great example of great, obvious advice.

With some exceptions (fiction literature, conversations with your SO), you’re telling a story to deliver a punchline. But it’s SO easy to forget this and get caught up in writing the story without an ending…which is a great way to disappoint your audience.

Finally, a marketer realizes social media is not marketing

Community, Marketing, Tech

“We marketers are awesome at talking about ourselves.

In fact, our penchant for this may be the single most compelling reason that marketing should not own the social channels. We are TOO good at promoting and selling and social is not for direct selling, really.”

From Social Media Explorer

I cannot tell you how much it excites me to see marketers saying this. Finally, they are realizing that the immense value of social media is very hard to tap if you abuse it…and marketers are not built to focus on engaging instead of selling.

I disagree with her assessment that community managers are marketers (no, you’re probably interacting with social media marketers who really wanted the title of community manager). But I think she’s getting at the exact right thing: the department that is focused on making customers happy (in my opinion, this is the Community Department) should be running social.

You don’t become evil overnight

Community, Tech,

"Microsoft is" Google searchHow did Microsoft get a reputation for being evil and having inferior products? Was it one thing they did? Of course not. It was the increase in blue screens of death, along with bad Windows design decisions, antitrust lawsuits, along with the increasing quality of Apple products.

Did Groupon start out evil? No, they slowly started pushing tougher tactics as they reached for IPO, focusing less on their original goal of helping small businesses and more on metrics that investors.

Neither of these companies woke up one morning with a completely different reputation. They slowly earned it. (And they’re just as slowly trying to get past it.)

Most companies never aim to become bad or shady or evil. But many start sacrificing their values in the rush to hit short-term goals. They gradually start ignoring the customer experience in favor of the investor experience. And then, maybe years later, they suffer the consequences.

Invest in your values and your customers now and you’ll have longevity. Sacrifice them for the short term and suffer later.

(“But isn’t Microsoft massively successful? Can you really say that they’re a failure?” Sure I can. They used to be exciting and loved and the thing to have. They have plenty of revenue now because they’re a massive, diversified corporation but I can’t imagine Bill Gates feels that this is the company he dreamed of having.)

Why I love Halloween

Community, Life

jack'o'lanternHalloween has always been my favorite holiday. Yes, I like it even more than Christmas.

Why? I guess it comes down to Community. Or, if I’m not being hyperbolic, introversion.

I’m an introvert, something I’ve made no secret of. And it’s because of this that I find Community so interesting. As someone who isn’t able to walk into a room and make five new friends – or sometimes, not able to even spark a conversation – Community is a huge boon. A strong community can help me feel like a real human being. Real community helps me be social and fun and the person that people like.

Halloween is all about Community. Christmas? That’s about family. And that’s great and important (coming from a family with only 2 kids who are 6 months apart, probably less important to me than to big families). But Halloween is about the world around you.

robot costumeHalloween is scary…but enticing. You go out in the world. You meet strangers and take candy from them (something your parents normally tell you not to do). You see the generosity of the world, and you get to talk about your creativity (“I’m Spider-Man!”).

Halloween allows you to step out of yourself for a moment. Even if you’re an awkward person, once you’re a robot, or a space captain, or a zombie, you have some leeway to experiment with being a different person. A fun person.

Halloween is both scary and warm. You go out scared of the darkness (which again, your parents generally don’t let you out in) and you come back with your heart warmed – and your belly filled – by strangers.

Halloween is Community. And I will dress up every Halloween for the rest of my life.