New Ray White social platform site: by the people, for the people

by Marketing ON 16 May 2013

Ray White, the most googled real estate company in Australia with over 12 million views annually is again innovating the brand courtesy of its ‘Perfect Match’ social platform.

The idea behind the Ray White Neighbourhood Know How is to provide you with your ultimate suburb based on lifestyle breakdown capabilities; are you trendy, beachy, single or wealthy, family-oriented, professional and fond of safe-and-sound living? This site breaks it down.

Users can also rate, review and rank their community much in the same manner of a tripadvisor.com type set up. And it’s no surprise, because The Ray White Group has signed an Australian partnership with streetadvisor.com to create the social platform.

“This is the ultimate site for property hunters of today,” says Sam White, deputy chairman of the Ray White Group. “Residents can tell the online community precisely what they think of life in Bondi, Bankstown, Brisbane, Ballarat or Ballajura.”

White adds that the new features will give users a sense of community-orientated feel with “Unedited commentary help [ing] you choose your ultimate community based on the experience of others.”

From suburb ratings, reviews, questions and answers, users can now ask or answer questions; agree or disagree with ratings and reviews. In essence, Ray White Neighbourhood Know How is all about making the searching process easier and more streamlined for the people.

“When you’re looking to buy in a new area, you can’t really depend on blurbs on websites and marketing material. It’s much more plausible to hear about a community from the people who live and have lived there,” admits White.

“Ray White StreetAdvisor is driven by residents. It’s content written by locals… for us, it means we can help people find their perfect place to live.”

Two choices: are you Person A or Person B?

by Rebecca Wilson ON 12 February 2013

I am going to give you two choices in business: who you want to be, and who you want to do business with.

You can be a person with a very strong business instinct, who never works a minute unless they are paid for it, who wont go out of their way to help someone unless there is something in it for them. Someone who doesn’t see the point in building a network unless there is something to be gained from every single person they bother with in every single minute.

Or you can be a person who works actively with the community in which they live, knowing that these are the people around those with whom they do business, the people that support them, guide them and influence them. You can contribute a reasonable, but not ridiculous, amount of time to helping your community, using your smarts, experience and business nous to assist those at their time of greatest need.

You have the choice how you build your network and who you do business with.

The first person – lets call them Person A – has a rather narrow network of people who they have done favours for, who ‘owe them something’ and operate on a quid pro quo basis. They operate inside this network and people gradually get to understand the limitations of this person’s approach. They can be very, very successful, and those financially dependent on them are fairly grateful for this.

Person B, in contrast, is always looking for opportunities to help those in their network in the knowledge that giving valuable opportunities to those in your network makes them more successful and builds a stronger mutual trust between you. They care for a couple of important causes, usually ones they can add value to through their capability or network, bringing greater value than others of a different skill base might be able to. The communities they work in recognise this and are grateful. This gratefulness displays itself in many ways, from industry networks to referrals and beyond.

Why am I giving you this choice today?

You have to choose in professional services to be memorable, influential and interesting to your networks, and it sure is made easier by being an active part of your community.

Two years on from the Brisbane floods, I was invited to speak this week to the Alumni of the Queensland College of Law about our experience two years ago building a community with FloodDiscounts.com.au. The team at Niche Studio and Stretch Marketing, along with a team of volunteers, built an online community to help flood victims that were so traumatised by the widespread lack of insurance coverage in the 2011 floods. The community came together very rapidly, all within two weeks, with extraordinary results. When we created Flood Discounts, I subconsciously knew how important it is to do things for the community and had worked with my own communities for many years. But the sense of goodwill created when you demonstrate your propensity to help others on such a scale is terrific.

It brings you back to the big question at the top: do you want to be Person A or Person B? What do you do for the community that sits around your business? And how do you become memorable, influential and interesting?

There are many different ways you can.

Did you know: in each issue of the print edition, Marketing includes the very best opinion articles curated from our huge industry blogging community, as well as exclusive columnists writing on the topics that matter? Becoming a subscriber is only AU$45 for a whole year, delivered straight to your door. Find out more »

The 5 content marketing types to convert prospects into sales

by Marketing ON 18 October 2012

A content marketing strategy should involve five types of content, including trust building, educational, community contributed, curated and conversion content, according to a marketing author.

John Jantsch, author of The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It, describes content marketing as a tool that moves prospects from awareness to conversion, in a blog post summarising his book.

“The creation and distribution of content has become such a significant aspect of effective marketing and community building these days that it requires a high place in the strategy conversation in most every business,” he writes.

“It’s difficult for many business owners and marketers to come up with a big picture view of the role content plays in the process of building trust, being found and acquiring clients.”

Jantsch’s five types of content that are required in a content marketing strategy to move prospects along the different stages of the purchase path are:

Trust building: bridge the gap from general awareness to building trust as a useful and knowledgeable resource (eg. how to articles, reviews, articles),
Educational: once you create awareness and trust a prospect will want to know more about your approach, solutions, story and organisation (eg. ebooks, newsletters, webinars),
Community contributed: get your customers involved in producing the content to nurture loyalty and community (eg. testimonials, guest blog posts, reviews),
Filtered: curate and aggregate content produced by others to filter insights for your audience (eg. curated posts, custom RSS feeds, social media sharing), and
Conversion: provide a call to action or hook to convert prospects to the action of buying (eg. events, case studies, ROI calculators).

In addition, content for a content marketing strategy should be created around the most important keyword phrases for your industry, the essential themes of education in your business, and your company’s core points of differentiation, Jantsch concludes.

Has virtual engagement replaced real-life community?

by Josh Frith ON 6 June 2012

Would you open the front door of your home to a stranger? Would you share your day-to-day life with them, beyond Facebook status updates and tweets, to learn more about culture, language and social interaction?

We are constantly engaging with our connections on social media sites, but how many of us actually make a difference to someone’s life? How many of our friends do we socialise with offline? How do our offline relationships stack up against our online ones?

Has virtual engagement replaced real-life community?

Social scientists claim that, ever since Neolithic times, human brains have been hard-wired to cope with a maximum of approximately 150 friendships at any one time. It’s probably evolved from the ages when we lived in small tribal units, yet this number is still reflected in today’s real-world lives.

But what about virtual relationships?

Research shows 150 is also the optimal amount of ‘inner-circle’ virtual friends. So, whether we are interacting in person or online, the number is the same.

CouchSurfing is a social networking site that builds a bridge between real-and virtual-world connections. The premise is simple: you get in touch with people living in a city to which you’re travelling and arrange to meet up for a coffee, an event, or even to sleep on their couches and share their lives. In the process, you expand your social network, build real-time relationships and make new friends.

The brainchild of San Francisco boy Casey Fenton in 1999, this international travel-oriented network now spans 240 countries and 330 languages, connecting like-minded people around the world. CouchSurfing allows us to respond to diversity with curiosity, appreciation and respect; it’s created a global community.

The difference between CouchSurfing and most other social networks is in its sense of offline engagement and personal fulfilment. Does this suggest a move towards online social communities forming real-life friendships?

Indisputably, virtual engagement has changed the way we communicate on a day to day basis. However, rather than stifling face-to-face interaction it might cultivate tangible relationships in our offline global network.

But not more than 150, of course.

How to build a crowdsourcing community

by Marketing ON 19 March 2010

For years, companies kept their innovation processes hidden, averse to the risk of intellectual property theft and marketplace copycats. But times have changed. The internet, collaboration tools and web 2.0 have shown that we have much to gain through sharing.

I believe that online communities offer a compelling option for companies seeking deeper interaction with customers. By drawing consumers into the centre of the enterprise, these communities provide a pool of knowledge that can be tapped for feedback when building new products, refining existing products, reinventing a business model or rethinking processes.

However, such communities do not succeed automatically. They require extensive planning to encourage participation and genuine engagement. The planning can be challenging because it requires a new way of thinking about customers and our role in the enterprise. In my opinion, development of the community requires definition and coordination of a multitude of factors, including:

Community structure and design
Customer participation
Community and corporate culture
Community management and moderation, and
Future growth and direction.

The crux of the challenge lies in funnelling these factors into a finely honed process that caters to the company’s goals and target customers, and then assembling the organisational and technological structure to support it.

Here are my top five best practices gleaned from communities that are successfully using crowdsourcing, co-creation and other engagement strategies.

1. Have Clear Goals in Mind

A community needs a clear purpose – not only for business justification but also for designing the best platform for the job. Start with a tightly defined scope – such as generating ideas for a specific product – and then design the structure accordingly. Once you have a limited-scope structure in place, be prepared to let the community evolve.

Just as your organisation needs to focus on the community’s goals, you need to make those goals obvious to your customers. A focused community provides a rallying point for members, motivating them to contribute.

2. Motivate Your Members

If you want to encourage an active community, you will need to understand your customers.

In most communities members fall into three categories: power users, participants, and spectators. Find out how the users in each category think, what interests them and why they identify with your brand. It is particularly important to understand the power users because these are the people who will provide a constant stream of content – which in turn will drive other members to become more active.

Consider ways of rewarding users for their input. Internet users often respond to such simple things as recognition, being awarded insider status or the satisfaction of helping others.

3. Use Design Thinking Principles

Design thinking offers a method for solving problems with an emphasis on need identification, visualisation, prototyping, iteration and creativity. Such an approach can foster a culture of innovation by establishing the ground rules, providing a clear and inclusive methodology, and setting the right tone for genuine dialogue. The methodology involves three phases and should be applied as a repeating cycle:

Understand and observe: this is the time to gather information and create empathy within the group. It involves such activities as members posting stories and sharing resources.
Generate and prototype: this phase brings all the options to the table and generates the first working models. Members post, vote for and comment on ideas, making the best concepts rise to the top.
Test and learn: Viable concepts are validated. Members rate the value and workability of new products and features, making incremental fixes.

4. Build a Culture of Openness

Successful communities are built on trust and personal relationships so forget mass marketing and intrusive sales techniques. Instead, try direct engagement. Answer questions candidly. Address negative comments with grace. Bring customers into the loop, establishing direct links between them and product managers.

5. Remain Dedicated to Continuous Improvement 

A good online community is primarily a human experience – one that continues to unfold. You should not view your community as a technology initiative with a defined endpoint. If you want your community to produce an ongoing supply of insights you must commit to a posture of cultivation – paying constant attention to activity levels, strategic alignment with business goals, and return on investment.

There are many ways of ensuring that your organisation stays focused on its community. Two of the most important steps are :

Assign a community manager who will be responsible for overseeing the program from initial design to ongoing member relations, and  
Measure the results as you go. Track the number of concepts that emerge and monitor the success of those concepts in the marketplace.

In the coming years, companies will increasingly look beyond their four walls to drive innovation, working collaboratively with customers, partners, and even competitors to generate ideas. We as customers are clamouring to be heard – we want to get our questions answered, to voice opinions, to contribute. We are already participating in a wide range of conversations online. Now is the time for companies to tap into this energy. The rewards promise to be rich: engaged customers, credibility in the marketplace, and a thriving culture of innovation.

Selleys launches community hub

by Marketing ON 5 August 2009

Selleys has launched a new DIY fix-it community hub targeted at mums.

The campaign, ‘A Simple Fix’, aims to tap into mums fondness for fixing and providing answers to common household breakages said Selleys. The content is geared to provide mums with the knowledge to repair household items and involve their children in the process. Driving the campaign is an integrated TV and print execution.

‘A Simple Fix’ is supported by three celebrity mums, Alyssa-Jane Cook, Tara Dennis and Jean Kittson. The celebrity mums offer their advice on fixing sentimental treasures through online video streams.

“The launch of ‘A Simple Fix’ follows research that reveals Australian mums are eager to fix, yet they lack the skills and confidence to try it. Furthermore, we know that they get a strong sense of self-satisfaction out of repairing precious possessions for themselves and their loved ones – so we wanted to launch an inspirational tool that would help them accomplish this,” said Tim Hicks, marketing manager at Selleys.

The campaign is a major investment for Selleys into the $50 million DIY repair and fix category.

Knowledge management and social transformation

by Marketing ON 30 July 2009

For some time I have been banging on about my frustration with social media tools simply being used for marketing purposes while they also have the ability to help transform the way we do business.

The following is a discussion of how different business disciplines have transformed and how marketers can gain a better understanding of social media marketing practices today from looking at the past.

Knowledge management fundamentals

Some 15 years ago I was involved in the knowledge management (KM) discipline. At the time it was an emerging field and a group of us were involved in putting together the Standards Australia Knowledge Management Framework.

Essentially knowledge management was about the creation, transfer and retention of that knowledge primarily within organisations.

The buzzwords of the time included: co-creation, collaboration, CoP (Communities of Practice) – sound familiar? These are words that we often use today in discussions about social media.

Knowledge management implementation barriers

Many of the discussions that we had years ago about how to get people to share their knowledge came up against two critical barriers.

Technology

In 1994 the best we could do was Lotus Notes, we thought it was innovative at the time. We started experimenting with wikis, more innovative intranets but the tools were certainly lacking. Today we have tools such as Twitter, Blogs, RSS, Mashups, Yammer, Facebook, and a variety of wiki platforms.

Attitudes/culture

Encouraging people to share their knowledge was fundamental to the success of the KM program, yet the culture of sharing – even in an online social sense – wasn’t embedded in our culture. Sure there were a few forums but the idea of social networks, review sites etc. didn’t really exist. Today the culture of sharing, contributing and collaborating is embedded in our psyche. We want to share and expect to have our say.

Enter Enterprise 2.0

In the past three years the term Enterprise 2.0 has been bandied around but what is it?

Harvard professor Andrew McAfee coined the phrase Enterprise 2.0, defining it as:

“The use of emergent social software platforms within companies or between companies and their partner or customers”.

The benefits of Enterprise 2.0 are often named as increasing innovation, productivity and ultimately harnessing the collective intelligence of that organisation – certainly KM was a forerunner to this discipline.

How is this relevant to me as a marketer?

As a marketer you are probably aware of social media tools and how they are currently being used to help engage with consumers today i.e. with companies blogging, being involved in Twitter and using different social media monitoring tools to listen to conversations

Many marketers understand these tools as essentially external facing, yet the philosophy behind the benefits and use of these tools was traditionally internal facing (i.e. knowledge management through to Enterprise 2.0). Understanding the history and transition of the varying disciplines gives you a greater understanding of the multiple benefits of the tools.

For example: on a simple level it is good to look at each of the tools your organisation is using such as Twitter, but is this being used for marketing purposes only? Or is it being used as a CRM tool? Are you systematically gathering consumers’ insights that can be fed back to R&D for product development? In short, are you getting the best ROI from these tools?

Enter social business transformation

Recently the esteemed David Armano, a senior partner at Dachis Corp penned a post about business transformation entitled ‘From Social Media to Social Business Design. Essentially the post discussed a shift in thinking – less about media and more about tapping the benefits of being a social business in a purposeful way.

Joint partner in Dachis Corp, Peter Kim also posted recently ‘Reflections on Social Business.

At the core of their new idea is The Social Business Design Framework which captures ecosystem (community), hivemind (culture), dynamic signal (collaboration), and metafilter (content). It is not too dissimilar to the Standards Australia KM Framework that also highlights culture, tools people etc.

So am I saying that Armanos so called new business idea is simply KM? No. There is a fundamental difference. KM was primarily interested in managing internal knowledge sources within a company. The Armano model includes both internal and external knowledge management tools and applications for a more holistic strategy.

Knowledge management (KM) was often discussed as a form of change theory – a discipline that can revolutionise the way we do business. Today with new technologies and cultures aligned with collaboration Social Business Transformation will be possible and marketers can play their part in the revolution.

What do you need in a community manager?

by Marketing ON 5 June 2009

At Aprils Marketing Now conference in Wellington, a marketing manager for a charity asked how much to invest into an online community platform. Her board had approved NZ$25,000 for development.

Before the panel of experts could answer, another marketer in the crowd said you can do it for free on Ning.com. Or you could pay $25 per month for the ability to put your own ads in.

$25 a month? Thats mind-blowing to most marketers, who are used to having to pay developers thousands of dollars to come up with something they dont understand, but hope works.

It echoes the findings of the 2008 Tribalization of Business survey, which found businesses were spending up to a million dollars on community platforms that were then becoming ghost towns.

It’s not because the concept isn’t valid; it’s that the job has been half done.

Communities, movements, any collection of people for a purpose, happens because someone makes an effort.

So what skills are required? I believe a good community manager is like:

A magazine editor, who pulls together information from various sources and makes it easy-to-consume
An orchestra conductor, who brings the best out of a group of diverse people
A counsellor, who listens to people and helps them solve their own problems
An improv actor, who uses the situation at hand to create a completely new experience with his audience
A parent, making sure that no child is left behind, and that everyone treats each other well
An exploration leader, taking the community down new and exciting paths
A publican, whose job is to provide a convivial environment for conversation and entertainment, with the minimum of distraction
An artist, who knows how to add the X factor that makes content interesting and readable (thanks to Suzanne Kendrick)
A cheerleader, with a lot of positive affirmation and encouragement for people to share stories and pictures (thanks to Jeremy), and
A teacher/facilitator, who identifies possible connections and facilitates the process towards greater understanding (thanks to Tom).

Its a multi-faceted role that can yield excellent long-term results for your business. Yet, like all creative talent, a good community manager will do their best work when they are able to do what comes naturally.

Instead of recruiting skill and trying to enforce values, recruit people who share your brands values, and teach them the skills needed to lead a community using social media.

Not sure what your community should be about? Lets take a step back – what is your business about (except for making money)? What problem are you solving? Find the core, and you will find a community.

Podcast: Joseph Jaffes take on social marketing

by Marketing ON 5 March 2009

In the March Digital Issue of Marketing magazine, we featured a piece on Social Marketing: reawakening a collaborative consciousness, that included some responses from an interview with acclaimed author and thought-leader in new marketing, Joseph Jaffe. The feature touched on online consumer conversations, social media and community, and how as marketers we can make strategic decisions to adapt and innovate in this space.

You can now listen to the full hour-long interview here:

Jaffe also publishes the popular blog, Jaffe Juice and will be in Australia on 8-10 July as the international keynote speaker for this years ADMA forum. More information can be found here: www.admaforum.com .

Consumers moving to communities, says study

by Marketing ON 27 February 2009

A nationwide study has revealed increased consumer engagement with communities and younger, more engaged readership profiles for local community newspapers.

Conducted for News Community Media by research company The Leading Edge, the ‘Engaging Communities’ study shows that consumers across all age groups are moving from an ‘age of self’ to a growing need for a sense of belonging and strong connection to their local community.

It showed local community newspapers are a trusted source for the majority of people, ranking fourth behind doctors, school teachers and next door neighbours, and ahead of banks, metropolitan newspapers and local councils.

The study was conducted across the five main capital cities over five months in 2008. The respondents were randomly selected by Leading Edge from within the distribution areas of News Community Media distribution areas, covering readers and non-readers aged between 18 and 65.

This is reflected in the high levels of community newspaper readership with eight out of 10 readers consuming every or most issue of their community paper.

The study reveals that when it comes to the biggest group of readers, 37% fit the ‘Family Starter’ profile – couples and singles aged between 30 and 49 years of age who may have young children.

This compares to 22% of those coined ‘Empty Nesters’, that is those who are over 55 years of age, singles and couples, independent and no children at home.

An equal amount (22%) of readers are young singles and couples aged 16-34 years and no children and 19% classified as ‘Family Nesters’ (or ‘Me-timers) – mid-life couples and singles who may have older children and teens still living at home.

“Another key finding was that consumers trust their local paper and this extends from editorial to advertising – 96% of readers have taken action after reading an ad in their local paper,” says News Community Media managing director, Mark Elgood.

“The resurgence in seeking engagement with communities has heightened the relevance and influence of community newspapers.”

According to study, 85% believe that their local community is important to them and more than three quarters say they liked to know what is going on in their local community.

While formal community involvement, such as Neighbourhood Watch, is low, the study found an increase in informal involvement. Nine in 10 indicating that shopping in the local area is their way of being involved in their local community, and 88% saying they always try to shop locally.

Other findings include 64% of people look forward to reading their local newspaper, readers spend an average of 26 minutes reading the local newspaper and 87% agreed that their local newspaper will continue to be important into the future.

Seven change-the-rules tips to kick-start your 2009 online efforts

by Marketing ON 20 January 2009

Yes, rules are made for a reason but they’re also there to be broken. If your customer help representative can’t help a customer because of a rule, then this rule needs to be challenged. In todays shifting online world some rules are outdated. Add technology advances and audience sophistication and you realise that it is safer to break some rules, than to play by them.

Treat your online efforts like an investment - Many clients expect quick returns on their marketing dollars. Thats fine when it comes to money spent on advertising, but when youre putting money online your ROI is measured by community, engagement and content. If you start now you might have something very valuable in three years.
Create a community manager position - Is there anyone in your organisation that is responsible for your community? Its not your IT person or your marketing manager. Im talking about someone who knows how to blog, create content, put Google Analytics on and foster a community. Someone like that, even working part-time can start your online investment. (Take a look at DDB new agency position).
Give them the mandate - You can’t have a conversation with your audience if everything you say needs to go through the legal department. Its very hard to explain to a senior board member why flash on the homepage is outdated. Its impossible to manage a blog when someone else is calling every single shot. When the ground rules have been acknowledged let your community manager run with it.
Work live - Today web2 is all about being flexible, responsive and adaptable. If you need two weeks of back and forth emails to approve a new layout, its never going to happen for you. You need to dump the old mock-ups and work live. Youll save time, resources and make sure the fix you wanted actually works.
Use web2 tools - Why not have Skype or IM for working with your suppliers or for sending that cool video? Why not have a Flickr gallery? A YouTube video channel? How about an office Twitter instead of the newsletter? Or using Twitter as a marketing tool?
Challenge the status quo - Why do we have this annoying answering service? why cant we give our customers free cotton bags? what will happen if we send flowers to our customers on their birthdays? When was the last time we asked our customers what they want? – asking why is one of the best qualities for any marketer. Why not ask why more often?
Play and learn - Sir Ken Robinson says that schools kill creativity. No wonder that by the time we reach employment we are dreading change. Make time for play. Google is devoting 20% of employee’s time to research and development. If its good enough for Google, its good enough for me.

In this global economic situation, evolving makes sense. I believe many brands will create a community manager position in the next couple of years. Slow and controlled organisations will start in two years and expect their community to grow immediately. The flexible ones will start now and by 2011 will enjoy a loving relationship. Its time to change some rules.