communities

If you have listened carefully to the opinions of your customers, paid attention to their changing wants and needs, and heard the wider conversations in your field, then you are in a far stronger position than ever before to understand and capitalise on the dynamics of your market niche.

Rituals are personal routines – the time of day I brush my teeth – or more interestingly shared activities – the time of day I sit down and join my family for a meal. In a community sense rituals are universally acknowledged and shared.  These rituals are needed to provide structure, predictability and character to the community to which the individuals feel they belong.

Previously we have exercised ourselves over the meaning of ‘social media’ and the importance of a ‘social media policy’.  With that as background it was clear from a recent talk I gave on ‘Creating an integrated social media strategy’ at the TFM&A show that there were plenty of people looking for answers.

Recently one of the Community Champions in a community I manage came forward to suggest that we link to a controversial video circulating on the internet. She approached the community team in private, in the separate Community Champions area of the discussions, as she was not yet certain that it was appropriate to place the video into the public-facing area.