Comments on: How should brands handle unofficial communities?

By: “Unofficially” speaking . . . « The Keaton Chronicles

“Unofficially” speaking . . . « The Keaton Chronicles — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:51:25 +0000

[...] From a recent post on SmartBlog on Social Media, Jesse Stanchak addresses: How should brands handle unofficial communities? [...]

By: The Framework of Conversations

The Framework of Conversations — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:06:34 +0000

[...] How should brands handle unofficial communities? (smartblogs.com) [...]

By: Ted Rubin

Ted Rubin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:29:22 +0000

Plain and simple… embrace anyone who has the good graces to feature your brand in an advocate environment. Positive or negative feedback should make no difference. Enhance the positive and adjust for the negative. Listen, learn, and adjust accordingly.

By: @johnhaydon

@johnhaydon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:46:06 +0000

Jesse – The Facebook Community page is tipping a long-time marketer's paradigm further on it's head. You elude to this by writing: "try too hard to round all their fans up into a single community". It seems that many brands will ask: "How can we 'move' these people from Community Pages over to our Page?"

The real job of marketers is to watch these Community Pages – and learn. Then respond with wisdom and creativity.
My recent post What Are Facebook “Community” Pages Anyhow?

By: Moyna Srivastava

Moyna Srivastava — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:12:20 +0000

I agree with Stephanie… an unofficial community is created in the honor of the official community and hence punishing them or trying to eliminate them means u are disrespecting either your customers or fans hence one thing than an official page can do in link these unofficial communities to expand there reach and increase there base

By: Stephanie Hackney

Stephanie Hackney — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:36:04 +0000

This topic came up recently during a session at SXSW Interactive. There was a young woman from Disney in the session on Community building and she was concerned about all of the unofficial communities that had sprung up. It appeared as though the powers that be at Disney want to try and "control" these unofficial communities.This was my feedback:

As a Disney fan, I love all things Disney. I have found a wealth of information and have, perhaps, become more of a Disney addict due to the overwhelming number of unofficial places where I can get my "fix."

As a shareholder, I ask why would you want to do anything to alienate your community, the people who love you and care enough about what you offer to spend their time creating and participating in communities that celebrate you?

As a marketing pro, I understand managing your brand. But, policing the communities that have sprung up as a result of their adoration of you is simply bad brand management. Instead, why not engage the community leaders, applaud their efforts and invite them to participate in your sandbox?

By: Storytelling Social Media Marketing PR Technology & Business Curated Stories Apr. 5, 2010

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:07:00 +0000

[...] How should brands handle unofficial communities? Published: April 5, 2010 Source: SmartBlog On Social Media Facebook continues to tweak the way that brands and consumers interact on the network, replacing unofficial fan pages with “community pages,” as noted in the lead story of today’s SmartBr… [...]

By: Roxy

Roxy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:54:51 +0000

I like the idea. I am not a "fan" of trying to weed through the unofficial pages in order to find the official page.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:20:30 +0000

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