Merritt Colaizzi

Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community

By Merritt Colaizzi on December 16, 2009 | 19 Comments

nifty-fifty-logoAt Gaspedal’s Word of Mouth Supergenius conference in Chicago this morning, Spike Jones outlined a few lessons learned from Brains on Fire’s work with Fiskars — the orange-handled scissors company that has successfully ignited a crafters movement.

Spike’s basic premise: Don’t talk about marketing campaigns (us v them); talk about movements (we’re in this together).

  1. Movements are not a product conversation, they are a passion conversation.  In the case of Fiskars, it’s not about the scissors, it’s about what people DO with the scissors.
  2. Movements begin with the first conversation. As you’re creating products, ask your customers what they think.
  3. Movements have inspirational leadership.  Passion cannot be created but influence can.
  4. Movements should have a barrier of entry.  Skin in the game is important.
  5. Movements empower people with knowledge. Brains on Fire taught “Fiskateers” how NOT to be sales reps, but rather how to be ambassadors, transparent in everything they do. This includes talking and blogging about their own lives.  That’s what hooks people and brings them close to you and your brand.
  6. Movements have powerful identities. We all want to believe in something bigger than ourselves. It’s marketers’ jobs to fill in the blank in customer’s identity statements, “I am a…”
  7. Movements encourage shared responsibility.  Build something like it has to live forever and you’re going to run out of money tomorrow.  This way, you will spend less and less money as the movement grows.
  8. Movements make advocates feel like rock stars.  Listen to people, love on them. To make Fiskateers feel connected with the brand, Fiskars created a limited edition pair of scissors with uniquely colored handles and blades engraved with each Fiskateer’s number.  And the crafter blogs went wild.
  9. Movements live online and offline. 90% of WOM happens offline.  It’s important to get people together offline.  In terms of b-to-c, customers want STUFF.  In b-to-b, business people want KNOWLEDGE, often in the form of best practices.
  10. Movements move the needle.  Measure your WOM success in terms of online mentions, and how much *less* money you’re spending on focus groups, advertising and product development.
  11. Movements fight an injustice.  What is your injustice? What are you or your products fighting against?

Bonus: In closing his whirlwind fans-on-fire session, Spike referenced this seduction of cults whitepaper. Fascinating stuff, all this.  People have been buzzing about this session all day long.


Related posts:

  1. Andy’s Answers: How Fiskars created their amazing fan community
  2. Andy’s Answers: How to create a fan community
  3. Lessons from IBM: Your community can be your copywriter

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Responses

  • Posted by Tweets that mention SmartBlog On Social Media » Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community -- Topsy.com on December 16th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SmartBrief on SocMed and Leyla Farah, Jeff Rago. Jeff Rago said: RT @ldfarah: (smart) RT @SBoSM Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community: http://ow.ly/MMYC [...]

  • Posted by JasonA on December 16th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    I guess it goes without saying that better be passionate about what you do :)
    Thanks for the post!

    J

  • Posted by Michael on December 17th, 2009 at 11:52 am

    Very insightful. And the whitepaper is interesting, though potentially offensive to any marketers who might also be affiliated with what the authors rather arbitrarily define as “cults.” I’m atheist and non-affiliated, but I can’t imagine passing this around my office without ending up in H.R. (And how is it that no traditional Western faiths–or even non-traditional, like Mormonism–escaped being classified as “cults,” when they all exhibit essentially the same characteristics?) I see the point, but the metaphor is clumsily illustrated.

  • Posted by AOM on December 17th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    Wondering why they only have 2,500 fans on FB then?

  • Posted by Cale Johnson on December 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Thanks for this awesome write-up, Merritt!

    It was great meeting up with you at the event and I’m glad to see you were able to take away so many ideas from Spike’s session alone. We know we’re doing something right when the smart folks at SmartBrief are picking up a few new nuggets to think about. :)

    See you at the next one, we hope!

    Best,
    Cale Johnson
    GasPedal | Editor

  • Posted by JCastro on December 17th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

    Very insightful article, great points about the difference between selling a product and building a passionate community around a movement. Building a movement is difficult, you need passionate people running an organization that can effectively reach out to other equally passionate folks.

    But I disagree, to an extent, with the notion that you need a barrier to entry. I think the movement itself is a barrier to entry. Someone who is a vegetarian is not likely to join a hunters’ organization, for example. And in today’s social media connected world sometimes it’s better to leave forums open; both to make it easier for people to share and connect but also to generate good discussion. And should someone make it in who is there to spread negativity this can also help build a movement by bringing its members closer together.

    -Jurgen Castro
    Carton Donofrio Partners

  • Posted by 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community | The Perfect Storm Team on December 18th, 2009 at 12:31 am

    [...] SmartBlog On Social Media » Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community. [...]

  • Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on December 18th, 2009 at 6:36 am

    Glad to see these notes are making their way around — it was a thought-provoking 20 minutes.
    In response to some of your comments: Michael, good point about the cult whitepaper being potentially offensive. It wasn’t a core aspect of Spike’s presentation, he just mentioned it in passing and I thought it worth sharing. Jurgen, I too was surprised at first when the barrier to entry point was made. In the case of the Fiskars movement, Spike was referring to a commitment a few levels deeper than discussion forums: the recruitment of Fiskateer crafters who came together in person to be trained as ambassadors for the company. I’ve found recently that even our most ardent social media maven friends are asking peers for skin in the game — $, information or otherwise — in order to establish their commitment. It goes back to the premise that you’re more likely to show up at something you pay for than something that’s free and where there’s no perceived obligation. Sorry I didn’t take the time to explain that above — was just trying to get to the next session! And, finally, 2500 ardent fans of something as mundane as scissors are nothing to sneeze at in my book.

  • Posted by Jennifer on December 18th, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Great Tips, thanks for sharing.

  • Posted by Spike Jones on December 18th, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Merritt, great write up. And I was going to chime in and answer the questions in the comments, but you totally beat me to it!

    I will touch on the Facebook fans numbers. First of all, that’s for Fiskars in general, not for the Fiskateers, who don’t have any official Facebook page yet. We asked them if they wanted one and they told us that they didn’t at the time. And even when we do start one, it’s not about the numbers at all. We’d rather have 50 deeply involved people in the movement than 50,000 who click on the join button and never come back. It’s not about the numbers and it never will be.

  • Posted by Tweets that mention SmartBlog On Social Media » Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community -- Topsy.com on December 19th, 2009 at 2:41 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jonathan Nelson, Elizabeth Sosnow. Elizabeth Sosnow said: Spike Jones’ 11 Lessons to ignite a fan community via @sbosm http://bit.ly/7E1HZO [...]

  • Posted by Alistair on December 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 am

    This is a superb write up thankyou for sharing this with us, alot seems so obvious and in that way so obviously overlooked…. :)

    thanks.

  • Posted by Merritt Colaizzi on December 22nd, 2009 at 8:49 am

    Our pleasure, Alistair. Happy Holidays, everyone!

  • Posted by WillYammer on December 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 am

    I admit to being a Twitter neophyte but do we need to see ALL of the “This comment was originally posted on Twitter” posts?

  • Posted by Adrian Miller on December 27th, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Thanks for this. I think these are some valuable and valid points; might cause a bit of a re-shift for some of my biz.

  • Posted by Community Building Tips From Spike Jones | Social Media Explorer on January 13th, 2010 at 4:01 am

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  • Posted by Barbara on February 4th, 2010 at 7:27 am

    great blog! keep it up :)

    the write-up is well written. thank you for the enlightenment. now, i think i have to focus on other factors. lately, my time has been eaten up by creating online presence by a website which was set-up by Prova. thanks for sharing your expertise.

  • Posted by 100 recursos para mejorar tu blog | Bloguismo on March 29th, 2010 at 8:03 am

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