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5 Things to Know to Get Customers to Your Online Community...and Keep Them There Download

Passing the Mic: How ampifying the voice of the consumer can add value to your organization Download

KristiGrigsby said:

In my previous post, I recalled my earlier career in the cellular industry. During those years, I had the privilege of being mentored by an extraordinary CFO who taught me that looking at the surface was never enough. The relevancy in that lesson continues today, into this brave new world of social media.

In the emerging industry that we operate in today, we have to be looking beyond the hyped gadgets & gizmos of Web 2.0, beyond the flashing lights of the latest platforms. While we were in the midst of the cellular boom, the coolest new phone didn’t matter if it couldn’t complete the call. It was about usage, it was about behaviors, and most of all, it was about results. Granted, those cool new phones had much to do with fueling the market demand, and they always will. But the success of the industry came from the roots that were planted far beyond the surface.

So, are there any roots being planted today? And if so, are we looking far enough beneath the surface to take notice?

Rate My Space is a success no matter which way you look at it. As we’ve pitched the story to industry influencers, we’ve come across some surprises along the way. One of those influencers, for example, said, ‘I don’t really see anything here. It looks like an old content management system.’

Honestly, I was taken aback from his response, although I probably shouldn’t have been. In reality, that response is probably indicative of an industry bedazzled by flashing lights – much like the premier of a much anticipated Hollywood movie. The hype, the publicity, the trailers, the spectacular marketing that drives that hefty-priced ticket sale.

But taking a closer look behind the curtain can sometimes leave you wondering what all the hype was about. There are plenty of examples of this in the world of social media. Take Bud.tv – the site that launched in February 2007 amidst a great deal of publicity around the expected millions of visitors. But a few months and about $15 million later, reality checks showed less than 100,000 visitors and a crossroad facing Anheuser-Busch management: scrap the investment or revamp the site.

Or Verizon’s community, which made news this month when they announced they were moving the site to Facebook. While the site has since closed, it was by all accounts a beautiful site. But looking beyond the gorgeous flash design, there was little more than videos ranging from chicken farmers to girls in bikinis – none of which had anything to do with delivering corporate results.

And then there’s HGTV.com’s Rate My Space, an online community that has been so phenomenally successful that it fueled a new television series by the same name. By chance, I had the opportunity to listen to a radio interview (Hollywood Confidential) on Saturday – the day before the show premiered – between Leeza Gibbons and Angelo Surmelis, host of the Rate My Space show.

Granted, I was pulling up to Starbucks’ drive thru on my way to my daughter’s basketball game, so I missed some tidbits in between ordering that hazelnut latte, but some of my favorite takeaway quotes included:

‘amazing community of people giving each other advice…’

‘the show will take some of the spaces that received low ratings from the online community, we’ll bring those to TV and use some of the ideas exchanged by the community to spruce up the spaces. Then we’ll post them back online so viewers can return and re-rate them.’

‘this is phenomenal...it’s unbelievable that nobody has thought of this before.’

An old content management system? Hardly.

When Rate My Space aired June 15, it kicked off not only a new era in social media, but also a new awakening as to the business value that should be expected from enterprise social networks.

Posted: 6/18/2008 2:16:04 PM

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