For a long time now I’ve really been thinking hard about the issues revolving around social media and brands/businesses. It doesn’t matter who you talk to, everyone has an opinion, and quite frankly, they should. But as these discussions continue to evolve and change, there is one key ingredient that keeps coming up.

Communities are the catalyst to social media.

Plainly put, communities, no matter what size, shape, or form they take on, represent the actual catalysts for how social media is played out. I know you may be thinking.. “it is the conversation”, or “it is the free give-aways”, but really, those are all what are stemming from communities. The question that comes to my mind however, is where do brands build, versus when do brands join?

Let’s take a look at ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. Any ways, the premise of the show is centered on good will towards others who may be less fortunate, have gone through a hardship, or whatever else. Basically, Ty Pennington and his team of carpenters and designers come in, tear down your old decrepit house, and build a new one centered and personalized to your specific needs. Great premise, but what does this have to do with community? I say lots.

First, it is important to realize that this team travels every week to the location of their new project. They aren’t  just building an apartment complex and waiting for people to get up and move. They’re actively seeking families or individuals whom they can help.

Secondly, they focus a whole hour on each and every project. Now because they’re on ABC, they do have a little bit of an advantage of spreading their word and distributing their success, but still, one week, one hour, one project.

Finally, the level of personalization, makes the end-all-result, all the more special for the family they are helping. Maybe a little too personalized in some cases as the show takes every detail and every concern the family has, and somehow incorporates that into their projects. When the family returns, they ultimately feel that the house is personalized just for them.. and it is!

Coming back to the main question at hand, Extreme Home Makeover seems to be finding and reaching out to these individuals in order to help. They aren’t building the community, but joining ones that already exist. Even though they are specialized in their services, they understand that as soon as they go about building their own community, the overall impact on the outside individual diminishes. Not good!

So let’s compare this to Twitter!

Back in the day, when brands were experimenting with new approaches to using Twitter, companies would have a Twitter account and broadcast news, updates, and whatever else was associated with the brand. As this theory became a foundation for how many brands used Twitter, a new approach, a more specialized approach, began to evolve. Instead of relying on @NYTimes for your New York Times news, you now have @nytimesbooks, or @nytimesstyle, or @nytimessports… and so on. (There has got to be at least 100 NYTIMES accounts out there now) Essentially, @NYTimes had the idea that by splitting up their sources (Music, Television, Business, etc. etc) they could essentially build the communities where only certain people could be ‘fans’ of certain groups. Doesn’t this seem like that ‘we build it, you come to us’ example I mentioned earlier?

So what is the solution?

Try not to make things overly complicated! Instead of creating complex networks of Twitter accounts that people just have to keep following, go out and search for where your help is needed! If I received a Tweet from someone saying “Hey I see you’re into this, why don’t you check this out” – I would definitely go and check it out. Actually, that just so happened with a new restaurant, Smashburger, in Tempe, AZ. About two weeks ago, I received an email saying I was invited to their Social Media/Blogger’s night… In the end, I had some good free food, got to speak to their VP, and now I’ve got a new place I can eat in Tempe! It was really quite a simple, and quite an enjoyable experience. (Makes me want to write more about restaurants Any ways, when you are waiting for people to come and talk to you, you risk losing a big ‘ol heap of discussions later on. You aren’t the new kid at school anymore! New kids deem themselves successful these days by introducing themselves and explaining why ‘friending’ them would pay off in dividends. (I’m going to make sure my future son or daughter does exactly this).

Peace

Here’s a suggestion, Think of Something NEW to do!

Every day, and I mean every day, I see people on Twitter saying this exact same thing… “Want to Build your brand on Twitter? GO HERE.. to my blog!!! http://www.LINK.com” In other words everyone in social media knows how to build brands on.. social media. Do I doubt them? No, not really, but I really don’t think their idea is the end all supreme idea of brand building. Sure they may have something really really good. Or maybe they have a great system for getting followers quick and then blasting them with gimmicky ‘click here’ tweets. I dunno. But the one thing I do know, is that really successful branding initiatives on Twitter… are never copycats.

Think of it this way… say for example, I own a company. Ryan’s Magnificent French Onion Soup Co. Basically, I sell soup.. in restaurants and grocery stores. Now lets say I have a competitor… Bill’s Best French Onion Soups. Bill sells soup in restaurants and grocery stores too. Now lets say for example, Bill hires Michael, a “social media expert” and comes up with a great social media campaign which has helped him grow tremendously. Michael now says. “Want to build your brand in social media? I’ve done it!”. This is all great and good, but will Ryan really want to follow Michael’s suggestions? Wouldn’t that make Ryan look pretty stupid in the French Onion Soup biz?

Back to the social media thing. Now I could go on and lecture you about how social media, Twitter especially, is all about communication and not about the broadcasting, but I hope you’ve read some of my other posts and have a firm grasp on how I feel about this. In a nutshell, yeah, it is about communication. So what?

I could also explain why creating content or products is so important, but I hope you already understand that without content, you really have nothing to talk about other than yourself in the social networks You know who you are.

So how do you build your brand?

Darned if I know. I don’t know you, your content, or your products. Why should I (I’m not talking about me… I’m talking about people who claim they are ’social media experts’) dictate how you should sound or act on Twitter or even Facebook? I shouldn’t! Heck, maybe you’re selling something that SHOULDN’T be on Facebook or Twitter. I’m not sure what that might be, but who knows?

To make a long story short, if you think about it, there is no set rule for how companies should construct their television commercials, right? There are no set rules for how magazine ads are created right? Your brand is yours, and if you want to start or optimize your branding campaign in social, do it because you know your audience is there. Gimmicks are fine, to a certain point, but don’t come across as a spammer. In this day and age, it’s pretty dang easy to see who and who is not a spamming Spam’ophile.

I know what you might be thinking now.

But what about those brands or people who just suck at Tweeting or Facebooking..? Social will always have its place.. whether its in or out of your brand’s solution is up to you. Are you actually on Facebook? What about DMOZ? How about Yelp? Or maybe a Local Business Listing on Maps. What about Flickr? Or Youtube? Blogsearch? If you’ve hit all of those, then you’re good. (Just kidding) Find your place… and make it your own. It’s about  being different..right?

Peace.