It seems that social media has been a catalyst for a number of things; how businesses chose to do business, how they communicate, and how active they are in the communities their consumers are members of. I want to explore the idea that community leadership seems to be taking over thought leadership, and while thought leadership is still an important piece to the puzzle, how has social media changed previously authoritative dynamic?
First, what is a thought leader? Generally, thought leaders are those in business recognized for innovative ideas and have a passion and the clear confidence to promote and share new ideas in actionable forms. They’re recognized with credibility for understanding business, consumer needs and marketplaces at large.
Thought leadership has always been a way for businesses to carve out a credible space for themselves within a given niche, and while it’s still important, this way of being separates you from the community–or your customers. It puts you in a position where you are the expert yes, but it doesn’t make you apart of anything other than your company, or yourself for that matter.
So what’s a community leader then? Technology has enabled a certain social dynamic online, it’s made it very easy to find and connect with like-minded people, and it’s made it easy to communicate back and forth, very quickly. Because people are able to find each other so easy, they are forming communities, and these communities are discussing what interests them, and in many cases this may be your brand, product or solution–or at least the problems those things can be fix. In this environment, a community leader is someone that’s apart of one of these communities, thus represents that community and stands for its best interest.
Today, it’s important that we join the community and with our thought leadership, lead that community because now more than ever we need to be a member, not an outsider. If social media has taught us anything, it’s that our customers want to be heard, it’s that they are people, who want a dialogue, and they want us to bring something more than our expertise to the table–we need to bring our willingness to contribute to something bigger than ourselves.
So how do you become a community leader? First, you need to determine where your customers are and how they like to consume content. You can become a community leader inside communities that have been built (Facebook, Twitter, etc), or you can build your own (using a blog, or social network).
I am the community manager at Genius.com and we recently launched the Connected Marketer as a community hub for our customers and prospects, and we successfully integrated that community feel across the entire corporate site. While we have a designated area, “The Connected Marketer Zone” which includes the blog and resources center, we also allow visitors to our corporate site to experience the community with dynamically driven content from the community (blog / resources) on each page.
Our goal was to create an environment where people could learn about marketing automation, get tips about lead nurturing, learn the latest B2B best practices, and interact with us and other marketers discussing new trends and technology.
We went from thought leadership to community leadership and within a few months our traffic doubled and user engagement tripled. Our overall awareness has increased, and our ideas and content are being shared on a regular basis. The key is to focus on your niche, don’t try to be everything, just what you know best. Focus on really getting to know you community members, and work with them to develop new ideas, analyze trends, and share new tools and tips.
What does this mean for a B2B Marketer?
- It means rather than focusing on your product expertise, you focus on educating the community about the things that concern them most.
- It means you listen more than you talk.
- It means you find the experts and leverage their vast knowledge to share with the community.
- It means you provide lessons and educational materials to help them be successful.
- It means you connect with them where ever they are and offer and hand.
10 Tips to becoming a great community leader
- Be part of the community before you start one
- Set the guidelines, rules and expectations, and explain them upfront–community principals
- Stay informed about your platform
- Encourage participation, give opportunities to contribute
- Be positive
- Be the expert, build credibility
- Quality is better than quantity–you want an engaged community
- Set the example–sometimes people don’t want to react, but if you set the example, you may help them feel more comfortable to respond.
- Be approachable and genuine
- Be a servant to the community–you are there to help and facilitate relationships
About The B2Bblogger: Barbra Gago (@barbragago) is the Inbound & Social Marketing Manager for Genius.com. She has done web consulting, event planning, and fashion design, but her driving force is marketing through new media and how the evolution of technology affects the way we communicate. At Genius.com she works relentlessly to craft successful inbound strategies, support and build the Connected Marketer community, and write passionately about the things she learns.
