We live in unique times. We are increasingly connected to the Internet. That connection is increasing social. That social connectivity is community.
The question becomes are you still trying to gather customers and make sales? Or are you creating a Customer Loyalty Army?
Wired featured Legos’ community strategy back in 2006, but we are still trying to figure it out. Now Jake McKee is telling the back story on how he got Lego to catch the Cluetrain, a 10 year old manifesto about markets as conversations:
The challenge is that communities are hard to build and the formula doesn’t seem consistent. Consider this daunting statement for community builders from MicroPersuasions’ Steve Rubel:
Historically, online communities have perpetually come and go. The Internet Archive amber is littered with fossilized communities that once dominated, much the way the T-Rex roamed during the Mesozoic era. These include former stalwarts such as Angelfire, The Well, TheGlobe.com, GeoCities, Tripod and Friendster.
Just yesterday, Quicken Loans announced Qtopia a second community building offering to their clients (Quizzle.com launched late 2007 Feb 2008). I thought it was clever and innovative. It certainly went beyond the mundane of typical mortgage marketing, reflected in my commentary:
Stepping outside the mundane paradigm of email blasts, online newsletters, and birthday cards Qtopia creates, quite literally, a new world of possibilities for client loyalty and retention.
Others have given the effort less credit. I, naturally being curious about the lead market and where lead generation might head, couldn’t leave it there. I blasted out an email asking the opinion of some of the people I consider the most creative and innovative in the lead generation market. Here are some same replies:
“I don’t like it, I think it is foolishness…What customers have time to do this?”
“I like quizzle. I also like silly putty.”
“You ask the important question on your blog. Would you Qtopia? Personally, I wouldn’t. Why would I? I think it is a good try, but like every other virtual marketing effort, it won’t be around in 6 months.”
The responses were very consistent, but I think they all miss the point tremendously. (Sidebar: I think this is why the lead generation space hasn’t evolved much from the LowerMyBills model). Why? Here is the strategic subtly that is missed:
If you give consumers/customers a blank sheet of paper they take you on a wild goose chase of exotic features and “needs,” but will ultimately accept and use few of them. If you want to build useful user applications and communities give them examples, betas, and corral reefs to build from and feed your innovation.
My only constructive criticism, which ties back to the corral reef paradigm, is that I may have focused my resources on extending existing community platforms like Second Life, Twitter, Facebook. To make it a more fluid part of customers’ lifeflow. However, that being said, I think Quicken Loans is getting it right.
They seem to be following the primary social media themes for success:
- Ask Customers
- Use Trial and Error
- Make a Plan
What do you think? Is Quicken Loans building a Customer Army or playing with Silly Putty?
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